November 7, 2019 Charlottesville City School Board Meeting

001valens 2019 school board meeting to order and we're going to start with a moment of silence thank you very much and now we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible madam clerk do we have the real okay we have made a few adjustments to the agenda before we approve the agenda I would like somebody to maybe make this motion to make these changes to the agenda so we're going to hear 7.2 local pioneers day special recognition and then the local history curriculum which is now under 11.2 we're going to do before the action items of 10-point Oh anybody have any objection to that changes to the agenda okay all those in favor any opposed great thank you so much at

002this point we have opportunity for a community come and talk at the podium so what do we call that comments from members of the community and you have three minutes we ask you to introduce yourself and state your address and then yeah limit your comments to three minutes there is an opportunity at the end of the meeting as well to make comments the first person on the list is Carl Amano if you want to speak you will have an opportunity after miss Manos speaks it up welcome excuse me and thank you for your service I'm coming here tonight well first my address is 1117 Park Street I'm here tonight sadly to share that in after many years of working within the field of Education as a family advocate many roles Reloaded assistant principal in arlington

003I could go on I've never had mood to make a state complaint and unfortunately it came to my attention and I don't know the tune of information so I'm bringing this to you because I don't know if special education shares with you and something like this occurs my purpose in making the complaint was to have a change in policy and process hopefully in future years for all the children came to my attention last spring that there would be a shortage of psychologists in the district and while that came to me from an individual source I was concerned but figured that there would be appropriate staffing and found out only several months into the school year not being notified by any school personnel that in fact there was still a shortage and that certain students who

004were to be receiving federally protected services by a school psychologist were not receiving that service so whether the error is in a staffing and budgeting you know I know these problems exist but the fact that the district had knowledge of that challenge in the spring and that that was a rectified is a real concern for me especially in a district where even if they aren't federally protected services I would think you wouldn't want a shortage in those kinds of processes for the children thank you thank you miss Vanna are there any other members of the community who would like the opportunity to speak I'd love to hear from my public okay thank you I will move on to the next item on the agenda which is the adoption of the consent agenda are there any

005questions about the consent agenda I would just note that that we were missing the business report that has the percentages this time round and I still think that's an important report about percentages of where we are for any category during the year does that happen can you speak into the microphone I was trying to hello you can move it closer to you it's how its movable so it at least in my I didn't see the the normal report that we get that that has the percentages of category spent towards the end of the year and I think that's a useful report Thanks so can we have that on our next consent agenda can't understand but that's okay neither too much community up there yes okay thank you so much now let's see okay oh yes

006I skipped a bunch of things right you guys let me do that I think all those offend others in favor of the consent agenda anything any opposed right now we're gonna go back to special recognitions because this is so important and a really happy place so I wanted to give dr. Hawkins the floor thank you madam chair it's a great honor and a pleasure to be able to recognize these individuals from our community on October the 23rd 2019 we had a formal celebration at Johnson elementary school acknowledging the work of mr. and mrs. Eugene Williams mr. Eugene Williams and mrs. Loraine Williams and we read a proclamation that had been approved by our City Council at that presentation and so tonight what I'd like to do is present a proclamation to our school board for

007action tonight that mirrors the proclamation from our city council so proclamation honoring Eugene and Lorraine Williams whereas Eugene and Lorraine Williams natives of Charlottesville and Ivy who attended segregated public schools and whereas after graduating from Jefferson High School in Charlottesville Eugene Williams attended Southern University in Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge Louisiana and well as also after graduating from Jefferson High School Lorraine Williams earned a bachelor's degree from Hampton Institute now Health Hampton University and later earned a master's degree from the University of Virginia and whereas Eugene Williams served a tour of duty in the United States Army and whereas Lorraine Williams began a long career as an educator in Charlottesville schools where she taught and influenced hundreds of young people from Charlottesville and Albemarle and whereas in 1953 Eugene Williams began a career

008in the insurance business at Universal Life Insurance Company eventually earning the title of regional vice president and whereas in 1954 Eugene Williams became president of the Charlottesville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was in the forefront of the civil rights movement in Charlottesville for many decades and whereas Eugene Williams and Lorraine Williams formed a committee of parents to desegregate the Charlottesville public schools a committee that was instrumental in desegregating first Venable elementary school and Layne High School in 1959 despite the state's policy of massive resistance and whereas the Williams continued their work for school Dee's aggregation resulting in their own daughter's kill and Cheryl went in a legal battle to attend Johnson elementary school along with two other students in 1962 and whereas through the efforts of Eugene and

009Lorraine Williams widespread integration of Charlottesville City Schools occurred from 1965 through 1966 and whereas Eugene and Lorraine Williams protests that the loss of the working-class neighborhood of vinegar heel which was raised during Charlottesville urban renewal efforts resulting in many African American homes and more than 30 businesses being demolished and whereas Eugene and Lorraine Williams together with his brother Albert and sister-in-law Emma responded to show us Phil's knees by buying and rehabilitating 62 housing units forming dogwood housing to manage and rent the apartments creating attractive and affordable housing in the city and whereas Eugene and Lorraine Williams owned the successful property management company until they sold it in 2007 and whereas Eugene and Lorraine Williams mission has been to erase segregation and help the less fortunate in Charlottesville now therefore be it resolved that we the

010members of the Charlottesville school board join with Charlottesville City Council in expressing respect and gratitude to mr. and mrs. Williams for their unwavering determination as civil rights leaders who work to provide equal opportunity for all people in Charlottesville language on historic marker install at johnson school on October 23rd 2019 this is the language in double-a-c-p rights victory integration of Johnson school 1962 in 1962 Johnson elementary school became the third Charlottesville public school to desegregate due to a lawsuit brought by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People initially to avoid court-ordered desegregation at venable elementary school and laying high school those two schools were closed for five months during 1958 through 1959 as part of massive resistance following a modified school reopening in the spring and an additional n-double-a-cp court

011victory in the fall on september 8 1959 twelve black students began attending attending Venable Elementary in Lane high school however further integration was minimized and the other city schools remained segregated to address this shorris VLEs n-double-a-cp president Eugene Williams and his wife Lorraine herself a teacher in Charlottesville City Schools sued to allow their daughter's transfer from all-black Jefferson Elementary School in to all-white Johnson elementary school fifteen other students and their parents were part of the suit seeking transfers to Venable in Lane appeal to the US Supreme Court Dilek versus Board of School Board of the city of Charlottesville ultimately forced Charlottesville City Schools to stop the discriminatory handling of school transfer requests consequently on October 24 1962 Johnson Elementary was integrated by Carol and Cheryl Williams and by Michael Lewis and Rosalind Whitlock whose request

012to transfer into Johnson were also approved following the court ruling each victory paved the way for greater access to an equal education and the ruling had significant impact across the state and country widespread integration of Charlottesville schools occurred in 1965 through 1966 but the work for true racial equity continues thank you to mr. and mrs. Williams for all of their work and I hereby present this proclamation to the Charlottesville school board thank you mr. and mrs. Williams are not present in our audience today but they are present on social media listening to us yesterday was mr. Williams birthday he turned 92 after kicking up his heels pretty high yesterday he decided that two nights in a row would be a bit much so we just like to say thank you to mr. and mrs. Williams

013for their dedication for all of their work and for opening doors not only here in Charlottesville across the state and across the country madam chair turned it over to you before we call Beth Chuck up for some additional information on mr. and mrs. Williams in setting aside some special recognition ok shall we vote on the proclamation all those in favor all right any opposed proclamation passes and I'm so grateful for mr. and mrs. Williams and their courage and bravery and their daughters for being willing to step behind them it's amazing so thank you so much and miss Chuck thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I do want to give some more defense to so many people in the community who made an event like this possible we of course want to thank the

014Williams fan but we also want to thank people like Ann Rix Carter who did so much local history to really help us as a community realize the import of the integration of our schools we also want to thank Amy Evans our former social studies coordinator who is here tonight she has been sort of knocking at us for a while and hey I we need to commemorate this this is another important chapter in our school history so thanks for doing so much of that work in research Annie I don't believe I see Charlene green here tonight but she on the city half really ushered through so much of this work with the plaque and the planning and the research as well so I really want to say thank you there and then also a mayor Walker

015and Jane Smith in town also independently did a lot of research to make this possible as well so really it's an example of just I think it's a good example of the work that nearly Minton and previously any evidence was doing to really broaden our view of history and we're going to hear that more about that tonight but I think it's just a great example of that so I think nearly is going to speak just a little bit as part of the wonderful commemoration at Johnson school on October 23rd mr. Williams charged the schools with I'm making sure that our own students and no history and I think nearly is going to give us one quick example of a way that we can do that better thank you that I'm on November 21st and you

016introduce your sir I'm new intern coordinator of social studies and world languages for sure it's the City Schools on November 21st all of our teachers K through 12 who teach social studies content will actually be designing a learning experience for all of our students to participate in regarding their culinary Trailblazer day to commemorate the integration of Charlottesville City Schools while simultaneously recognizing that our equity work continues today so we're really excited about Trailblazer daily would be sending out more information about the specific learning opportunities that our students will be engaging in generally thank you for that work and not only will we recognize our Trailblazer raises this year that moving forward in every subsequent year we will have a trailblazer day yes thank you dr. Atkins November 21st this year we might need if if

017we could just kind of play it by ear about when we met schedule the next item because I think there might be waiting for the presenter to come so if we could just move forward with the agenda perhaps in it at the moment when we're ready maybe nearly could give dr. Atkins a signal sounds good I'm miss Tucker you're talking about that local historian history initiative thank you thank you okay we have plenty to get through before then so hopefully that'll be good but just let us know um we're going to go to comments from the board at this point is that where we are great I will start with whispers thank you madam chair I just wanted to share a few things that I've done since the last time we met I think a

018few of us attended the Buford harvest festival which I think was probably the week after we met or a couple days after our last meeting but that was ended up being a beautiful day it's always a wonderful gathering of the community was able to with miss Denise Johnson work side-by-side and serve food to what seemed like hundreds of people lined up and the weather and temperatures actually cooled that day it had been really hot prior to that so that's always a great opportunity Sheree and I are able to attend the preschool preschool steering committee which is always just a very fruitful and robust and exciting opportunity to sit with the people who are kind of a lead with the preschool programs heard a lot of information about goals that they have for this year and

019celebrating some things and accomplishments that they they have really worked on through this last year integrating and choosing a new curriculum for the the three and four year olds looking at the social-emotional Tier one and kindness cookie limit they're rolling out they've been successful in getting in place access for art for all of the pre-k or pre-k and four-year-olds so all of those kids are able to spend some time each week with our art instructors and then also they're working and continuing to work throughout this next year on support to the admin teams in each of the local schools as they're trying to integrate and advance some of the new curriculums and things for the preschool kids one thing that I thought was really neat that they they mentioned is also the partnership that we

020have and on so many different levels throughout our division but with wild rock and now the three yields where it's been expanded to a lot of the three-year-olds to get to experience some of those the times out there and so the kids get to go out and actually experience and be their wild rock and then the wild rock people come back to the schools and follow up and do some actual hands-on learning on the day and it has it just so happened that the next day I was visiting Clark elementary school and was able to actually poke my head in and watch one of the classrooms and not only did I see one of the new literacy programs that they're rolling out which is really they're really focusing on a phonics piece and some of

021the feedback we got in the preschool group was that some of the teachers were a little a little just not wishy-washy but they weren't sure how engaged or how this was going to go over with the kids and I happened to be able to look in one of the classrooms and just looked and watch because the teacher was actually engaged and doing some phonics work with them and you know it's similar to Wilson and it's really learning individual sounds and they I believe they clap do you remember sherry if they were clapping syllables but I mean they integrate some multi-sensory cueing to help these kids learn the different phonics and pieces to actually language and so I was able to watch and then as I walk down the hallway with with principal Eisley the teacher

022was bringing the the four-year-olds out side and on a break to meet with the wild rock people and the teacher turned around and she said it's working I really wasn't sure how this was gonna go but these kids are loving it and it's working and she was talking about this this literacy in this phonics program so it was just really a neat opportunity for me to take something I had heard about the day before and then to see it like in action and then to be able to walk outside and they're better they are with the wild rock folks and I was able to get down on the ground with them and and they were learning about different types of animals and trees and nature and I mean it was just a wonderful opportunity and

023I mean we hear and you hear all of us up here talk about all of these different programs that we get to experience and view but I got to see it in action right there at Clark and and see the excitement and the kids as they were trying to figure out what the little pictures were and the different animals some other things that were really excited that that were happened to be going on and Clark within that day and the day prior was that a group of kindergarteners got to go to UVA to the Freeland museum to look at art and then they were able to come back and actually write stories together to submit to the writers eye contest there were first year engineering students from UVA that brought a project or that they're

024working on and I believe it is tied to one of our Sol standards but they got to bring that game into the school and get some feedback and some hands-on from some of the kids there was some high school students that are enrolled in miss horns public speaking class and they were there in Clark doing some storytelling with the kids and then what else what other wonderful stuff the city school yard gardens bringing chickens to you know they're on on campus and so letting the kids experience that so so many wonderful things that we kind of hear about isolated but they were all going on right there at Clark elementary school that day so that was pretty exciting for me I was also able to visit Walker and Walker elementary upper elementary and walk around

025and spend some time with dr. Hastings so appreciated that visit as well attended with with the rest of the board the K Tech Joint Board meeting I'm always impressed with their presentation with what they are offering putting together for our high school students but Adult Ed and Nicole programs as well and then I'm really excited with Miss Stephanie quarter and just the the vision and the direction and the energy that she's bringing to K Tech so that was very fulfilling and then was at the Johnson elementary tribute and the plaque dedication and so that was a great opportunity to come together with the community and honor the work and the courage of the Williams and so many parents as they supported and made that decision to go forward and and encourage their kids to take

026you know take those steps through integration thank you thank you miss Forrest I I hope mr. Wade I'm happy for you to go and I was hoping that we could talk about the visits maybe after in our second oh no I I just realized that that's probably given some of the visitors that we have I want to make sure that we are respectful so if you guys don't mind we could talk about our visits to schools at the next public opportunity for us to speak is that it reasonable unless I was gonna no no and I just want to be clear that I did ask our student school bird rep if he had anything to say and he's that he says he's fine for now so we'll give him an opportunity later to speak as

027well so mr. Wade I apologize I just want to mention three things that I did over the last month one you submits indicate I mean but this morning I rose and I met with Stephanie to get the schedule and agenda straight for future meetings and we'll have some exciting things planned we want to do to integrate more students into K Tech and so that's some things that we're planning I'm also attended the computer for kids that had like a showcase and several of our students had some really magnificent projects and things that they're working on I was a couple of weeks ago and also was able to present UVA graduate public health class and talking about the interaction of Public Health and in public education and so that was really good to ask great questions

028and so that's that's what I'm would like to talk about right now Thank You mr. Wade miss player so since our last meeting I attended the K Tech presentation from dominion Virginia energy and they presented a check to K Tech for our future gardens and other exciting things that not only our culinary students but the community at large to a bit to participate in although I don't grow things I do cook fresh vegetables so I'm excited I have also attended the city of promise and the pef board meetings that have occurred since our last meeting I am continuing to be encouraged with the city of promise as our residents as well as our students continue to drive and grow and interim director and her staff are doing an excellent job I'd like to ask each

029of you now on behalf of PEF to mark your calendars for Saturday November 16th for our first annual connecting communities 5k Crissy Vic has worked with in the county to make sure that our PSAs get out this is a excellent opportunity for us to bring health and wellness to everyone in CCS and ACS so I'm looking forward to seeing all of us from both school divisions right and only 7:00 a.m. at highway need elementary school or over the 16th thank you doctor yes well first of all I would like to thank the community for the opportunity to serve another term on the school board and I'm very excited about it and along with fellow candidates mr. Bryant and Miss McKeever and our new board member elect Chandra Bryant price and Merce Berger who is somewhere

030out there and I'm very excited to be able to continue the important work that we're doing and some of the big changes that are in the works and that hopefully we will see come to fruition in the next few years so thank you community I'm a big fan of arts education and I just wanted to talk about a couple of things and along those lines I think I've mentioned before I'm now on the Education Committee of the Paramount Theater that Paramount does a lot of education programs so one of my jobs as a committee member is to actually go to the performances and meet the kids and greet them and see you know see what the performances are right so so I've been to three of this past month and I just want to mention

031this one that I thought was just amazing secret agent 23 skidoo artists and band and his his backup group and we had the entire sixth grade of walker school attend this performance at the Paramount and it was just amazing to see the kids up and dancing and rocking and singing and you know it just you know this is sort of a different kind of arts experience but I think it was one that so many of our students could really connect with and they really did and they had a wonderful time and the same group came to Walker I think the day before and did a workshop for about 40 kids helping them I guess do hip hop writing performing and I heard that that was also a huge success so these are the kinds of

032things that our kids are exposed to in the community and I think it just enriches their education so much okay so I also attended my first of the gifted education Advisory Committee formerly the quest committee the quest advisory committee and this committee there's a lot of people on it so this was me an opportunity to orient everybody to the new model and we began to have some conversation about the new model and what some of the challenges or you know to implementing this in every school it's not a small task so I will continue to be part of that and as one of the things that I've taken on for myself to learn more is to visit schools and sit in on these pushin sessions so I've started to do that and I'll be doing

033more of that so I can get a better feel for what this is like I also attended the Johnson school commemoration which was wonderful and mr. Williams so I saw him afterward I just have to share this if he's still watching he'll want me to do this but he said he told me he said you've got to go and measure the size of this plaque and the Venable school plaque and the laying high school plaque and I want to make sure that all these plaques are the same size I have promised him I'm going to get a ruler and go measure I also attended the Buford fall harvest festival and and also that Clark's square they're their Fall Festival and the Belmont buzz by run which is a really fun event and a great great

034spirit in the clerk community and I guess last just to mention that I've been appointed to the federal relations Network Committee for the Virginia School Board Association and so I will I'm just now that I want to run the election I can actually be on the committee so I will be learning more about advocacy and lobbying for our interests and that's it good evening each point WI and a radio station yes they each one of the school board members have an opportunity to be interviewed and it was my turn last Monday in October we never know when you go in what questions they're going to ask you and so whatever prepared remarks you have you just sort of throw them aside so during the interview one of the questions that you ask me I guess

035I suddenly became animated and he said or over-the-air he said you should see him his eyes are glowing and he just went on and on and on and I just really sort of set up and just really got into responding to his particular questions so I enjoyed that and I thank Lisa your turn is coming up so he's really really nice super guy so I've really enjoyed that each year I look forward I look forward to the joint hated meeting with the County Schools and also partaking of the scrumptious meal that the k-tec Corner art students prepared each year they take great pride in doing that and certainly we all enjoy the meal each and every year so shout out to a culinary arts one and to students at K Tech I'm each year this

036sort of start is just one invitation I was interviewed a couple years ago for the see where we can they were doing a story about gentrification especially my neighbor tooth and page street the great journalist on Jordie Yeager said in my living room and interviewed me for about two years I mean not to use about two hours in my living room sorry so about a week or so later friend of mine called and she said guess what you the front cover the see will see the a week less of what and they always stayed here looking up to the skies as though I was I guess only living to two of the heavens but anyway each year dr. Stan Trent at the University Judas encouraged school require his students to read this article and invited

037Jordan to come to his class so they can ask questions they have to have prepared questions so each each year maybe fall and spring semester we invited to do that and that sort of enjoy doing that engaging the students because a lot of them have no idea about the surrounding neighborhoods because we didn't sort of confine themselves to the grounds but it's always very interesting we get lots of interesting questions so shout-out to dr. Trent um this year are manipur to go into the african-american Teaching Fellows annual scholarship banquet being a form of board member I was one of the probably the first board members when their program initially started and I was so happy that the Charlene green was honored I was the recipient of the Education Award so congratulations to miss green and

038finally I cannot tell you how moved I was at the dedication ceremony for mr. and mrs. Williams it took all within my power to get through that song and women Eve my wings and those of y'all who was not standing directly in front of them he just he was just so emotional and that's the God if he keeps crying I mean I make it through the song so I'm shoutout to mrs. mrs. Williams and congratulations on a long well deserved recognition mr. Mickey I went to a number the joint meetings and events that the others have talked about and I echo their comments particularly that regarding the Williams and I also just wanted to congratulate my fellow board members on their reelection jennifer sherry and James and also on lisandro and okay being elected thanks

039that's all thank you mister Rickey I want to also think missed Bryson Morse burger it's gonna be so thank you all look forward to serving with you in the coming year and I was hoping that we could move on to the next item on the agenda and that is the which at this point is a local history curriculum update and this is kind of part of equity discussions around infusing local history into our history curriculum mr. Henderson yes madam chair members of the board dr. Atkins tonight nearly Menten world studies coordinator for salsa city schools and Andrea Douglas executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center will share with you their work on local history and changing the narrative hi miss McNeely welcome back hi hi miss Douglas how are you thanks for

040coming great thank you for coming today dr. Douglass dr. kachur Georgia Hager and I are excited to talk with you this evening about the changing the narrative initiative that we have going on in Charles the city schools K through 12 I'll be providing review of the initiative and then I'll turn it over to dr. Douglas and Geordi Yeager who will experiment on the partnership that we have with the Jefferson School african-american heritage center you could first why are we embarking on this journey to quote/unquote change the narrative as you know governor Murphy has convened a commission on african-american history to ensure that we are telling the full story of history and specifically that we are teaching african-american history truthfully Virginia's profile of a graduate stresses the five C's that every student who graduates from Charlotte's

041the city schools should have by the time they walk out of our schools the work that we're doing to change the narrative is about all of the season especially citizenship because ultimately the hallmark of the quality social studies education is that we we create citizens who understand our past so that they can understand our present and create change in our future positive change for the future some startling things came out of a teaching tolerance report that was released in 2018 and I linked it not only did teach intolerance find that teachers are reluctant to teach about hard topics including slavery they also found that our standards and textbooks present a sanitized and whitewashed version of history but the most startling thing that came out of that report and this this actually really shocked me um

042probably shouldn't have but only 8% of seniors across the United States could correctly identify that the reason that the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union in the run-up to the Civil War was because of slavery so only 8% of high school seniors recognized the way of slavery as leading to secession that's why we're doing this work and of course in this work as is as is the case in all of our work we have a lens of equity and anti racism I'll give you a second to look at this quaint I had the pleasure of visiting Montpelier last month and I went to the mere distinction of color exhibit and I think this quote encapsulate perfectly why we need to change the narrative and it also shows why it's so difficult for us

043to do that the part that stood out to me the most I think our problem as Americans is that we actually hate history what we love is nostalgia okay so what are we doing Virginia the narrative initiative and what is changing the narrative mean by changing that narrative we know teaching history truthfully by centering the experiences of marginalized people whose experiences have been erased from history in the past we want to ensure that all of our students can see themselves in the context of history and we want them to understand history as it relates to both the present and the future we would be design it will be using anti-racist curriculum tools to design student enquiries and other learning experiences and by doing that we're hoping to increase increase both the rigor of our teaching

044and the relevance of what we're learning to all of our students as we work to change the narrative which they're striking a balance and some of this balance comes out of the teaching heart history framework through teaching tolerance we're striving to find a balance between the discussing the traces people have made throughout history to maintain racism and white supremacy and sharing the humanity and agency of people who were oppressed and are still oppressed this is really great this is the group of teachers who have volunteered their time to join the changing the narrative cohort K through 12 we've got 35 people on this list so 35 teachers from across this this division have found this work is necessary and sited about engaging in it as you can see we also have the director of equity

045and inclusion and the list and associate super Internet Gertrude ivory has joined the group and I'm just really excited that I got the Google phone back with people who are interested in joining this covert I was taken away if it's great okay so have been ad in this work we're leaving once a month after school in the N X lobby from 4:30 to 5:30 and at that time we're doing in-house professional learning experiences with members of the local history community as well and one of those members is the Jefferson school African American Heritage Center dr. Douglass and her colleagues as you can see there are other opportunities for our group to engage with Albemarle County Schools reforming the narrative project and we're doing some workshops with other school divisions this summer at the high level

046where is the summer teacher Institute with the Jeff School in June 2020 so we're going to be doing a deep dive into local history as it pertains to changing the narrative in the summer 2020 and we'll have 10 of our teachers in attendance at that Center Institute so how are we doing this work we're actually juxtaposing our professional learning sessions between facing history and facing ourselves we know that we can learn all the history we want but until we do critical exam in the of our own identities biases and core values that work will be for nothing so similar sessions are focused on facing ourselves we actually just had a circle discussion at roof racial hearing and transformation circle facilitated by an imam who came from washington d.c actually to facilitate the experience which is

047really great we're looking at some anti-racist curriculum tools and the white educators in the group including myself are going through a process of unpacking and exploring our identities and the impact of whiteness on how and that we have been teaching on the facing history side we are looking at history from a global national perspective and the highlight of facing history of course is delaying several different engagements with dr. Douglas and the Jefferson Square African American Heritage Center we're going to have three more engagements with them we've done one already on our division ypl Day in September and then we also of course have the teacher Summer Institute with them in the summer so the expected outcomes that we hope to see this year we're really looking at teacher growth and capacity in these areas culturally

048responsive teaching practices and self-reflection around biases clear values and identities we're looking for teacher growth and knowledge of african-american history and complete narratives of history which includes local history and also from a pedagogy perspective we're looking for teacher growth in using rigorous inquiry based models for teaching social cities including the ink design modern and the center once our similar curriculum work is completed what we hope to have is an updated anti-racist inquiry based curricula with performance assessments in grades 3 6 7 and 11 so looking ahead to next year hopefully we'll find some grant opportunities to fund some of this work for next year as teachers implement the ideas the inquiry design model that I referenced we will be establishing student base on data using the video East a tricks that are being required for

049performance tasks we hope to create a second teacher cohort of course we hope to do sustained work with dr. Davis and the Jefferson Square african-american heritage center and we will look to continue to update our curricula at other grade levels so I'm going to turn it over if you would like more information the website is there for changing the narrative insurance for city schools and I'm going to turn it over to Andrea Douglas and Jordi Jaeger who can speak to our partnership and the local history piece of this initiative thank you miss Neely dr. Douglass thank you all for inviting us to speak here I really enjoy coming to to talk about the work that we do at the Heritage Center and to let you all know that we appreciate the partnership that we've had

050with the school board with CCS for a number of years we've been working diligently with you all since 2013 with Annie Evans so this engagement that we're proposing is just a continuation of work that we have been doing with you all for quite some time and I don't want you all to believe this is some new deep dive in and you know this is an aberration my goal here tonight is not actually to do the bulk of the presentation but just to give you a kind of introduction to some of the thinking about why we decided to do this and I'm Jordi is here with me to give you an example and we have several examples already of the work that we have been doing because there are already teachers who are working with us

051in their classrooms and helping us to create the kinds of research that allow us to do the work so this relationship as we are moving through it is not just about us getting you something this really is a synergistic relationship where your students are going to help us create the research that we need to do the work that we are engaged in as a museum public history institution so this is a true partnership as we've designed it the impetus for the work that we decided to do came out of the fact that we were offered of Virginia humanities changing the narrative grant and we originally thought that this plant would be developing teacher resources for teachers five through eighth grade working with Amy Evans but as we began to think about what that would be

052like and began to understand after talking to teachers through PD days if you recall we brought Kevin Levin through sherds Ville twice after the pilgrimage in order to prepare teachers to do an essay contest which by the way resulted in 175 of your 11th grade students participating in an essay contest which was remarkable we didn't think that was going to happen and and we were told there were 175 essays we were floored right so um so that was one of one instance where I began to understand that when you're asking teachers to engage with what you call hard narratives or to engage with things with titles like teaching tolerance there's a kind of unease that is created because these engagements really come from a place where you're asking teachers to do something that maybe they

053have the equipment to do and that we realized is that we could give you as many resources as you want it from us and we claim a certain Authority in so doing so you trust us but in reality you can put a resource from anywhere but if you don't know the context and the use of that resource then it's just that all right the other thing about it is that when we're talking about what is happening with students we also have to understand that your teachers live in this community right and so it's important for them to understand where they live as well and it certainly can happen if we take them on a tour but it also happens when you really give them the information that they need and so I heard of thinking

054through what it means to give resources to someone I came to the conclusion that it was more important for us to teach teachers the history and this is what we do there's nobody in this town that is doing this on a regular basis and so we wanted to claim that authority for ourselves right and we provide exhibition we provide tool but there's a way in which that if you give someone a detailed as detailed as you can get in the week set of tools they are able to take the resources and make some additional decisions and ask answer questions that they may not have been equipped with when they're just getting maybe a snippet of a story so that's the thinking behind this this is really trying to relieve some anxiety and I tell you

055we should still has been engaged in some form of teaching tolerance for the last two years and your teachers still have anxiety right they've gone through those programs and they're still unsure and I think that when we what we produce at the end of the day and we already have evidence of that and the relief of that anxiety through conversation through the PD day that we just finished in September through some other engagements that we've involved in but this process that we're about to undertake is a process that will really that will lead to some interesting inquiry with people who feel much more confident to do that inquiry with people who understand that there is a place where they are participant in that inquiry it's not just us handing them the stuff and then having

056to accept our authority because there's disease on these and that even we did some surveys and we realize that some of your teachers have never been to the Jefferson School but because of the way their days are organized they don't have the opportunity to take the kinds of trips that you're talking about so when we did the surveys and we asked the question how likely would you be to come to a tour we've got a lot of unlikely for a various broad range of reasons all right so a tour isn't going to do it something else I think it's necessary to do and that's what we intend to engage in with opposing teacher training that will begin June 8th through the 15th we're proposing a teacher training will we take advantage of the relationships that

057we already have the work that we do is with Charlottesville alumni that went to the Jefferson School the work that we do is with scholars at the University the work that we do is with other local historic homes and spaces so we have already developed the kinds of relationships that you are working real hard to develop in your own and what teachers are working really hard to do that so why don't we just remove the middleman and we'll just get to business right so that's also what we bring to this table so in this teacher training program we've got someone like Bernadette whatsit who is the co-director of the daughters of Zion who is a an alumni of the Jefferson School whose mother was a teacher in 1964 that integrated in Clarksville who herself went

058through the period of school integration who is part of our project who sits on the Advisory Board some of you sitting here like Leah perlier who is the chair of my board and Wanda the raid who is also on this Advisory Committee there is this direct relationship that we are offering that it will allow us to model and create something that is homegrown that takes into consideration that it's not just about a UVA scholar it values local knowledge it values that your students come from this place and that there are people who they engage with every day like their grandparents here they'll be part of our project so through to 8th through the 15th we have as I said an advisory committee and of these players we are also working through our evaluation our engagement

059prior to the actual teacher training Neely and I have been meeting regularly to help shape that engagement our intent is in February March and May to present a kind of pilot of the kinds of discussions that we will be having in June we're anchoring our conversation around land ownership that anchor allows us to talk about the Freda people African American people in Coatesville and also to talk about contemporary issues we can deal with housing where we deal with land the two driving themes when you think about african-american history in this community is land property and literacy land ownership allows us to very very efficiently address those kinds of things so those are the things that we are creating and plotting so I'm gonna turn this over to dirty so you can see a product and

060how we are moving through and what we're ultimately going to show your teachers how to do themselves okay dr. Douglass thank you so much mr. Yeager everybody is it possible to do the RGS yeah is it possible for me to control it from here as well perfect is that microphone on it is but it is tiny sure and I'm large we have a platform for further what's it but let's talk people to stand and can I control it from here I can't Oh wonderful all right you all hear me is that okay is that better all right hi i'm jordi Yaeger I know many of you for those I don't it's good to be here to see min I went to CHS class of 99 and so let me just say that in 11th grade

061when I was looking at the weeks and weeks of summer school with Miss heartless this is not what I imagined but so don't give up on your kids as it can go places you would never suspect I've been a journalist for about 13 years I spent the bulk of that time in Washington DC covering Congress and the federal government for about eight of those years returned home about six seven years ago and started writing about stories that I felt like were important and that were otherwise falling through the cracks that weren't being told both for local and national outlets NPR to seaville weekly to shell so tomorrow and the more stories that I start to dig into the more I saw recurring themes emerge and a lot of is centered around the idea of race

062so I'm gonna be I don't know how if you can see this on your screen so if you have to turn around but this is an ArcGIS story map that I put together especially for you to kind of walk us through so I apologize for giving you a whiplash going back and forth but this is Eddie Harris he is one of the figures that is interviewed for our african-american oral history project at the Jefferson School he and many others felt like their stories were not being represented in the public view be it in the news or be it in the landscape and in the curriculum at schools and the two things that we would hear most often as a journalist was the people didn't care or that if they did speak up that there will

063be ramifications there would be repercussions either for them or their families right and so we're talking about the disparities that show up at every juncture of life whether that's health outcomes whether it's education whether it's income whether it's in the criminal justice system and so what we decided to do was apply for a Virginia humanities grant and start to begin to tell these stories in in mass so that in their cumulative effect in value you could not deny that these are the realities that were being seen because I grew up with a lot of black friends and a lot of white friends but the stories would often not transpire there is no bridge because people weren't sharing them and they weren't they weren't discussing them in the impersonal settings and as a result we continue

064with disparities in many we go in many areas and that's not just anecdotally right that's just not that's not just what interviews tell us but it's also what the data shows and I know that you've been looking at this deeply both in education and and the familial settings but there's somebody who's looked at it nationally and his name is Roger Chetty he's a socio-economic economist and he's put together something called opportunity Atlas which looks at life outcomes everything from incarceration rates to income levels to whether your parents are going to get divorced and it's looking through census data to look for trends so it can actually predict with some a great deal of reliability that this is what's going to happen if you live in this census tract if you live within this census block

065and the cross I won't go into too much detail around it because it's it's a long longer discussion but the crux of that is that where you live determines what happens to you in life right that one's geographical environment is the predictor of life outcomes so here you have the venable neighborhood highlighted you see the median income for a family met neighborhood is sixty seven thousand dollars if you were to go just one block east you would start to go into tenth and page neighborhood in that neighborhood you have a median income of nineteen thousand dollars how is that possible in our city that that is what the census data represents right that is pretty stark to me and I think to a lot of us in this room and so what we decided to

066do was to look at how we got where we got right where did we end up and and and how did that policy come to shave us because what I think I understood for a long time is that we choose to live where we want to live right that it's it's up to us but that is far from the case and the records show that as well and so after a long intensive process of going on my lunch breaks to the courthouse I would start to pull these deed records that go all the way back to the late 1800s to show the formation of our neighborhoods that we now consider everyday occurrences in Charlottesville but up to that point they were plantations they were very much rural landscapes and so in the 1890s you start

067to see the first subdivided neighborhoods go into Charlottesville and one of the first of those is a neighborhood called Locust Grove which we now know as Martha Jefferson and locust and in that neighborhood the Locust Grove investment company subdivided this vast rural landscape into a hundred and forty parcels those are doing 40 parcels had deed restrictions in them so each one of these deeds I imagine you're familiar with your own deed lays out how much you pay for it who owned it before you what what time of year you sold it or bought it they also lay out things like your home should be no closer to the road than 50 feet right setbacks or different parameters around the stipulations over your home one of those in the 1897 deeds was a restriction that says

068it is also agreed that this land is not at anytime to be sold to or owned by Negroes right this is known as a racial covenant a racial restriction and this is the first I've been able to find in Charlottesville is pretty early nationally it's not unique to us Minneapolis Boston I mean the major cities all st. Louis was known for these every city Portland in Seattle I mean no matter how liberal you get they had these seeds in them this is very early though however so that's that's somewhat unusual and we decided to do with that is to then see what that meant over the longer term so this is 130 properties in 1897 six years later in 1903 you get 51 more parcels added to it again with a clause it is also

069agreed that the land here and conveyed is not at any time to be sold to or owned by Negroes in 1915 you have metalic Hills that gets developed they have a similar sort of clause in their deed and this prevents home ownership of black residents in the city of from 87 properties right Meadowbrook hills of course is in the green buyer school district then 1923 you have five Springs they add seventy six properties that are white or white exclusive these are just a few examples they are all over the place and so these are the major plots these are the subdivisions of course individual homeowners are putting them into their deeds as well you can petition your neighborhood block to get them put in different ways that one can put these in these are just

070the ones by the development company that I was able to pull out of the deed books over the course of a year over lunch and so I started to what's known do what's known as geo referencing them right lining them up with what the today parcels are and what the the yesteryear parcels were and bylaws they really haven't changed much but what you're able to see is this broader landscape that then through ArcGIS were able to map and so you start to see this start to begin to get filled in so we took this proof of concept to the shawl so Area Community Foundation this is dr. Douglas and myself and we we said look I think there's something here that explains how we got where we are and they said absolutely let's do it

071and so they gave us a grant and we started to talk to CCS teachers and students we started talking to folks at UVA City Councilmembers planning commission members people in the tech world people in non-profit housing community and over the last year we've started to pull together the resources to really do a cumulative deep dive into this history and so we've digitized probably about 95,000 150,000 pages of property records for this time period and I'll get into a little bit more what that allows us to do but first I just wanted to kind of highlight a different aspect of this project which is it's looking at infrastructure so as these neighborhoods go in they need things right water lines sewer lines they eventually leave their paved streets their electricity telephone lines but in order to

072get those things you have to petition the city government for them and so we've gone through and scoured the City Council minutes and the Board of Aldermen minutes to look at what are the petitions that are coming in from different residents and what is happening to them who is making them what is their the outcome how much money is being spent on each one and with that I mean there are hundreds and hundreds each year but with that we're able to start to put together a little bit of a map and you also have anecdotal evidence as well so this is from a news clipping in 1917 in the daily progress is anybody will remember Kelly town okay a physio field nuts it's over by Washington Park for eternity Episcopal churches today is is named

073for black family by the net last name of Kelly's it had many of their neighbors it was an all-black community this is their petition to the city government for a water line and if you can see it says the concluding the conclusion reached by the superintendent and myself is it the city speaking is that the line would not prove a paying proposition right this is 1917 at the same time that these white exclusive and restricted neighborhoods are petitioning and anecdotally we're seeing that their petitions are being accepted I don't believe that this is alone you know auntie daily we have evidence of these other historically black neighborhoods making petitions they're not always outright denied sometimes they're delayed by 5 10 20 years but what does that look like when you start to put it into

074perspective and so we've started to catalog these creating massive CSV files massive spreadsheets with that we then attach spatial data that allows us to lay over into maps the same maps that we have racial exclusive covenants on so we know where people are living and we know what's happening and let me tell you our public works department loves this idea because they can't go past probably 1970 in terms of their records so the ability to be able to see this far into the past I think will serve many purposes but one of which is looking at that relationship between infrastructure and home ownership because what happens to your home when you get a water line and a sewer line does it go up or down in value right and what do you do with that

075appreciation and value but maybe take a second line of credit out or sell the home this is how property and wealth are interconnected that this is the number one way additional wealth is created is through property ownership in this country and so we said this is all wonderful but there's an immense amount of data and research that needs to be done and so we turn to folks in Minneapolis who are also doing this there's only three cities in America where one of them that is doing this work and Minneapolis said here is what we used and so this is a program called Zooniverse it's essentially a data entry program that is not cumbersome it passes my mother in terms of the tech threshold and so it is it is easy able to do be done

076from the comfort of your couch your home your office however many minutes you can you can do it as she was five minutes or as many as 50 minutes but we're getting ready on November 18th to unveil it to the public there are thousands and thousands of racially restricted deeds and covenants in these that need simple things entered into that little space on the right that says things like when was this written who is it so bad how much was it so bad and what that then does is it spits out on the back end a CSV file and a spreadsheet that tells us all this information we attach a spatial ID it then gets mapped and then all of these things talk to each other right and so you see property ownership on a

077large citywide scale during these years you see Beck the role of banks the role of lending institutions you see how that is correlated to the racial covenants how that is correlated to infrastructure and all of this is classroom oriented so this is not something that I am taking over this is something I'm setting up so that teachers can then take over so that it's easy and they can just plug in they don't have to do the grunt work of actually facilitating this data collection and then trying to make sense of it will then share the results and and the coral Ettore kind of narratives that come out of that program back with the teachers so that they can see the product of that work this is called the mapping sido project I'll send you more

078information if you're interested you know as we get near that a November 18th launch I presume that this will take you know upwards of close to probably the next year or two we just got the county property records that's another hundred and fifty thousand pages of property records so we'll be engaging with the county as well I think it could be a very good kind of way to bring county and city together as well that this is going to live ultimately not only in classrooms ideally in some sort of journalism form but also within the Heritage Center and so the downstair is when you go in I'm assuming you're been there but there's a space right across from where the elevator is and and it's pictured here there's a huge blank wall and that's where

079we're imagining a touchscreen digital interface that allow you to go through look for your own property to go through and look at these narratives that are starting to emerge so that it's in story form you no matter what level of depth or interaction you want you you have that opportunity but that in itself would not I don't think a story would make because right around the corner there's a large blank wall as well and where we're aiming to do with that space is really tell the story of what african-american life was like and the experience was like during this same period right and so you have the creation in the face of these racial restrictions and covenants you have the creation of legacy neighborhoods like life fill that were built by the Cowles construction company

080as a black run and a construction design architect firm that we don't talk very much about if you can imagine jfl funeral home that was built by mr. Coles so some of the buildings still exist today some of them were bulldozed and vinegar Hill and and that is a very very good opportunity to start telling that story of black construction and architecture that you know just exists around the idea in the myth of Thomas Jefferson up to this point you have vinegar hill which is right next to it the genesis of that neighborhood is revealed in the deeds in the 1870 is originated by a man named John West for whom in in West Haven and West Street it's it's real kind of legacy resident was Thomas Inge and the inche family they of course

081ran Inge's store on the corner of Booker T Washington stayed there are countless narratives that have not been sold john shelton ran the messenger newspaper for many years of black weekly newspaper off the corner on vinegar hill there twenty nine businesses there let's start to tell those stories we're in gospel Hill which was raised to put the new hospital in there are many many black families there that have never had their stories held there's 10th and page mr. Bryant's neighborhood how did that neighborhood come to be and where has it gone since again John West owned a lot of property in that neighborhood for whom West Street is named and he was renting and selling to black families this is how that black owner property ownership came to be and looking then at Rose Hill

082just across Preston Avenue you have the Carver in you have Jackson people you have many many black historic figures that have not had their story duly told so what do all those stories look like in relationship to one another through mapping through these oral histories through deep documents and research you can begin to start to weave together that fabric I think the other thing that's that's really been a pleasure for me is to deliver this directly to kids to students and so last year Zac Bullock to debrief Stalin said I've been seeing some of this work that you've been doing a loved to have my children and my students interact with this so we we designed a day-long walking tour and we walked all the way from City Hall through court square through the parks

083with the statues down through vinegar hill into the Jefferson School where their eyes really lit up however was in the property records room so it was looking up either their property or a property they were very familiar with and being able to trace it back to its origins so so to not only see you know what's contemporary and now but to see how it began and the history there because you know that's something they share with their family with their friends they begin to tell deeper stories about place and in that way we also held a PD day as was mentioned where we got to interact and engage with teachers on a really deep level that I don't think they had received and really frankly we hadn't done so I got to present alongside two

084of my good friends and colleagues Lorenzo Dickerson and nya Bates Lorenzo is a local filmmaker I'm sure you guys are familiar with his work and Naya is the head of the getting word project at Monticello and the head of a descendent agent there and so the combines you begin to start to tell this fuller picture I think we think about city and county is very distinct and distant from one another but the two overlap and are intersect tremendously and just yesterday we got to do a second tour with Zach Bullock's class this is us on the Downtown Mall looking at vinegar Hill as we're about to walk through we added some things there we added a lot of stories that have start to come out so the whole black property ownership along Main Street that

085I don't think is very much talked about you know the Wells Fargo building being one of the first black owned homes and in properties in charlottesville all the way up through court square and acts of resistance I think we think of the blue ridges as you know especially in plantation settings as being rather bucolic a passive but through Chancery records through court records the students began to see that this was one of active resistance these are miniature NAT Turner's and Gabriel's rebellions that are all around us at that time you know there are many other things that we started to go into but I just did want to share real briefly and and then I'll wrap up but some of the feedback that Zach gave us he said thank you for planning an exit and

086executing exceptional walking tour today it was a great day my students were very taken with what they learned the documents he put together were expertly curated and since you weren't able to join us back at CHS for our debrief I wanted to share a couple of takeaways first they particularly struck by the discipline at representation of white history downtown now especially since the population of the area was majority black back then they really they really hung on to the 53.3% statistic from 1860 that's the population of enslaved african-americans during that time it's striking that a majority population can go unrecognized because they are not empowered with regard to what to do with this knowledge a couple students were grateful to know a more complete history of shelter and are looking forward to sharing as they

087can things that they learned with people they know the City Hall eminent domain story was particularly affecting on a policy level students with some knowledge of recent City Council decisions thought that checking special use permits will be a good way to rein in gentrifying development now I definitely didn't know what a special use permit was when I was in twelfth grade so I'm very happy to see that but happy to answer any questions but I'll pass it off again to dr. Douglass thank you I think you all get to see the power of the tool you get to see the power of the idea one other thing that we also work is in preparation for freedom and liberation day we were working with the arts teachers to try and get another engagement that would allow

088students to to think about the ideas of freedom think about the moments of liberation show us filled african-american community lilius itself in 1863 but the Union soldiers come in March 3rd 1865 and so these kinds of things that we are doing are the ways in which we are causing their students to think about your place but are also causing your teachers to think about their place and we want I believe on conceptually speaking that if you are engaged and you own your place then you diminish the notion that there are others the idea of the other becomes less because then you become that you create that ownership of space as well so that is what our overall goal here is and I think it helps you all keep your teachers if they have notions of

089where they live if they can I'm engaging that space in real time Joey just described and that they are also involved in creating the research that gives deeper depth to larger audiences I think it results in a much more engaged community all around so thanks for listening thank you dr. Douglass it's amazing at this time we're happy to answer any questions that you may have so I just wanted to say thank you it is really just I think so on so many levels this is amazing work and I went into specifically as a person who has studied history it's just so important for our high schoolers to understand where they live and our teachers of course too but just the kanpei have this critical thinking around where they live and it's it would have been

090such a gift as a high school or to have that and then to have it so close right you could just walk over there and research more and learn more and just the passion with which dr. Douglass and mr. Vega are doing this is extraordinary and thank you very much and as well as I think you to any Evans who I know was here others hey you know it's all of your passions for this is making this happen and thank you and I know that others now speak so nearly I would just like to say to you Andrea Annie and Joey and Geordi we'll try not to you know call out your mom again thank you assign Geordi like to piggyback on how important it is and how students light up when they are a

091part of the process one of your CHS alums who happens to be related to me helped dr. Douglass and dr. Grimes when they began their work in developing the first book that was written about Charlottesville and the Jefferson School and he had an opportunity to do some editing and he said mom we know these people I'm like yeah oh never mind I know these people and his eyes lit up as he did the research and as he took the interviews that were done in order to write them up and put them in the book and so I think to harken back to what my colleague mr. Mickey says when we have skin in the game we take ownership and when it's ours we protect it and we learn from it and we grow from it

092so we are looking forward to a lot of exciting things to come and I guess one day mr. Yeager will have to come and give us a history lesson we will just toodle on down to Jefferson school when we will be attentive and we will have our history lesson with the proviso that there's some coffee or tea yes I'm just blown away by all of this it's wonderful and I thank you for embarking on this project and this is an example of just a beautiful partnership you know it couldn't be any any better I couldn't imagine it being any better and I had I had a couple questions one being I gather that this is all just the Charlottesville school division I know Albemarle is also doing something and I'm wondering if there's any convergence

093of efforts or are we each doing our parallel projects that's a great so the change in the narrative project is Charlottesville city schools K through 12 Eleanor has a parallel project that they started several years ago called reframing the narrative and the social studies coordinator who is heading a refrain in the narrative along with his reframing the narrative team has actually invited us to several engagements with his teams are actually the lot of opportunities for both school divisions to come together and some of the projects and actually are changing the narrative cohort some members of our change in the narrative cohort attended two events with Albemarle County Schools with Hassan Jeffries who is a prominent civil rights author and scholar and a professor at American University he also helped author the teaching heart history framework

094through teaching tolerance but we were able to come together with Albemarle County Schools teachers and see dr. Geoffrey speak and then talk with each other afterwards so we'll also be coming together with their team over the summer when they work to create the inquiry design matters for c3 teachers it'll be Charlottesville city schools teachers Albemarle County Schools teachers Fairfax County Schools teachers and I think Virginia Beach and maybe some other school divisions present so it really excited to partner with lots of different teachers so we can get different perspectives and collaboration happening wonderful well I had a couple of other questions should I just yeah really quickly I have a question for dr. Douglass one of the things you mentioned was anxiety on the part of teachers in sort of absorbing and shifting and and

095really using this and really incorporating this and I wondering if you could say a little more that what is that anxiety well I think that if you think about the way people come to even african-american history and they're not learning it in high school they're learning it as a consequence of maybe a college course that they have been they have taken and if they have a particular interest in it then they continue in thinking about that but when you think about a social studies generalist a social studies generalist who's a teacher is not deep diving into the history of african-american people but here we are two years post August 12th and you're asking people to do work that they have not been able to to they have not needed to do necessarily before and so

096I think that if you give people the opportunity to engage in a conversation over a period of time your comfort level with information becomes greater your ability to answer certain questions in the classroom become greater the idea that many some of your teachers don't even have lived in shorts but we think do we live in Charlottesville they engage in Charlottesville in a particular way where they don't know the history of shorts well I came across many people who grew up here who don't know the history of Charlottesville and so what we're saying is because we do this work you know basis every day and because we engage with people who live this history on a regular basis I have had teachers ask us often can you help us get an alumni come to talk to

097our class because that's what you need while we're saying these are people with jobs these are people's with lives they're really not exhibitions to bring into your classroom we have created the opportunity just like joy to give you that quick slide of Eddie Harris what we're doing is working on video projects with people so that we can bring those video projects into your classrooms and asking the kinds of questions that your teachers are interested in knowing so I think that that is the kind of discomfort that I'm talking about that we are hoping to provide information that makes it a little bit easier to engage with students thank you very much if there are opportunities that are appropriate for any school board members to sit in or just be involved in any of the meetings

098or activities that you're doing I I for one would really short as I say I mean mr. Reyes I have anyone come in engage this is a new endeavor for us we have thrown our net as far and wide as we can to do this book and so we are always interested in in inviting others to participate with us and get ideas from we know the thinking around how even this project unfolds has come as a series of conversations there are certain things that we understand this program means and we're for sure those teachers to be most successful in that like we've been advised that child care would be something that these teachers can use we have been advised throughout a statement would be something that we should offer and so that is also part

099of our thinking as we structure the program anybody else have any questions or comments okay mr. McKee can your hand mr. Bryant you're right I just want to say to mr. Yeager and dr. Douglass and I had a knee and coordinator nearly what a great rollout when I think back to my class of 1972 at Lane we fought tooth and nail just to get a black history course toy or area to the curriculum and we've come this far by faith and so to learn the local history is so important not only for the teachers of students and just community members as a whole this is a really great outstanding thank you mr. McKee and I was just gonna echo that I'm just overwhelmed by what you're doing that it's simply awesome I I hope and

100it there was some reference to it and I'm sure it's in your mind but that the need to get it baked into the curriculum that it's you know written that this is what happens every year regardless of whether anybody here is is present anymore that this is something that always gets taught is baked in and this year this course this grade level that it's written into the pacing guides and whatnot yeah and I think one of the things that we didn't mention is that certainly there's teacher training that ends in June but it's our intent to stay with these teachers and help through the curriculum writing the next piece of this is how do you incorporate it into your teaching and how do we you do that what kinds of projects think we can create

101for you to help with that curriculum engagement and we see this as a long-term relationship that it's not just ten teachers and we're done and those 10 teachers are now responsible for teaching everybody else this information we see this as an ongoing process that is not linear but on the order hermeneutic even you know so I think that that is our goal it should be in curriculum and as I said Annie and I have been working since 2013 on just that very fact so that's that's the most important thing for us so yeah mr. Waide yes oh it's really fast an added several point I wanted touch on and one is just the education itself you know I grew up in Richmond so I was thinking about all of my schools except for one was

102named after civil war hero and you know at the time I it was the conscious level just wasn't the same as it was then I was just trying to get out and but clearly was frame as I think about it as a War of Northern Aggression and and even though in the 70s when I was going through elementary and middle school it Richmond was a primarily african-american school district and it wasn't just anything that you know at least I was aware of that came up and so I'm glad that we're going to be incorporating this I think is very important and I'm glad I know go walking in your neighborhood sometime James and and I the part that they have at the intersection of 10th and I think West Street I'm about John West and

103I think that's vital but if you're not walking there you don't see it you don't know that history I think it's important that the students know that that one of the reasons that maybe we don't have some of the things that we have is what's that some of the overlays that you did and and not overlay with my plan and background was amazing with the GIS man it's it's that was that's really powerful I mean it's just proof evidence that you can do there and just one other thing that I would like to add I think that information that you were bringing up goes back to the I think I thought so in 1968 and and it's still I mean that discrimination still goes on now when I was in UVA grad school we did

104what we called testing what I was physician there's like a professor here looking for a place to live and they would send a white student with the same kind of background and they were sending me to a very different neighborhood you know to look for apartment and they would for the right and even when I got there it was the application fee was different it was high I mean just I mean and we were being able to come back and have someone to independently look at what we were told and where we were given and this wasn't like you know in the 1900s it was you know a few years ago in the 90s and I was in grad school but earlier saying really makes a difference when you're making your decisions and if you

105don't have anyone there comparing it you just don't know you just like man is that you know bad luck or whatever but it's because of the color your skin and so I think that and I'm sure that still goes on on today I'm out just you know it it still goes on and so I think that this will just help a weight raise their awareness of this issue and I'm glad the we are doing this I'm excited about the teachers were an end you know this whole this beginning this whole process so so thank you all very much it was raid mr. West I just want to express my gratitude heartfelt gratitude for anti ovens and dr. Douglas you for your perseverance and sticking with it and and getting us to where we are now

106miss Minton Geordi thank you so much I'm just very excited and grateful for the partnership for the schools being open and and I look forward to where we're going with this and dr. got Douglas thank you for getting to it you do and any questions or comments I would I would just like to say thank you for this information I was not part of mr. Bullock's class earlier in my high school years but I kind of wished that I was now because I could have learned about this way earlier but thank you great dr. Atkins thank you mr. McKeever just a huge thank you to this entire team Andrea dr. Douglas Geordi all of you really it's just an E thank you for all of the time in the years that you have put into

107thinking about how do we deliver this curriculum not just so it's a lot of activities that's spanned over a period of time but how do we sustain it so that we put it in place so students that come many years after you have been here can have access to this information and I'm just so thrilled that it's being presented in a manner that students want to learn they can touch it they can feel it they can use technology to get it and ask questions and to probe that deep learning that we actually want to have going on Geordi we want you to teach us to not just the students dr. Douglass you see it when you own this face helping the students to know that they can own their space gives them power and that's

108not just with students it's with the adults in our community also when our community has a deeper understanding of how did we get most of our blacks clustered in one area just that knowledge is powerful because you can use that knowledge then to challenge and to move those barriers out of the way and be even more determined to move away from those areas into the areas that were so long black people and black families could not be a part of and Mister way the the the discrimination and the the power struggles still go on today you know in meetings where blacks are part of meetings and have some degree of authority there are the microaggressions that are there there are the intentional attacks that are there or microaggressions that are there and then there's also

109this sense that the blacks in that environment should not respond should just continuously accept it but with this kind of education and recognition I think it empowers everyone to say taking down these barriers we all have a responsibility in it not just some so thank you Jody we want you to go all over the school division teaching this and teaching everyone and clone yourself this is wonderful and and if we can be an ID by speakers superintendent and if there's anything as we're developing our budget to support these efforts on know grant funding does calm and there's lots of philanthropic work that's going on to support this but we'd like to be a part of supporting it also recommending to the board maybe donating my time and all the resources and he will then you

110know support to this project as well he thinks it's a fantastic opportunity kids and a model that he hopes we could record replicate in other communities so you're saying about dr. Aris being a supporter of your efforts thank you it's very difficult for the public to hear you all the way over there so mr. Weiss has one more comment sorry so miss Minton when you were presenting the why so why are we doing this work and and I was just curious because I am always so impressed and with everything you all have to offer but in specifically relating to the governor's Commission and I know dr. Atkins as part of that but I'm curious as to I mean this is just so rich and so dynamic are you guys pulled into that at all or

111connected with any of that able to share or on our Advisory Committee we have patty Evans who's on the Commission we also have Derek Aldridge is on the Commission and my understanding from my last conversation with him is that he is deeply involved in in creating PD opportunities so I really really perspective I mean thinking all of this things through and then heard about the governor's african-american Commission but I see that in thinking about who he wanted to bring to the table we it was sort of serendipitous that we brought an advisory committee that also had the relationships to to Richmond so my sense of our success and our ability to be advised by those people who are on the ground who understand what we're doing Aldridge explained to me that because we're focusing on

112local history that we're doing something somewhat different from what other people are doing which will give us an access to be as practical as can to certain kinds of monies which is interesting but the one thing I think about that we don't that why sure is Phil is so interesting to do this with that this place is a microcosm the histories that we tell here the idea that you have six hundred three people and the shirts will in the 1830s through emancipation that there is a way in which we describe this particular history that is a history that is useful for other places right and so we have an opportunity to dig deep in that and become the kind of model for other spaces venden have many similar histories but you know this places is

113unique for very many reasons and there are many lessons to be learned and there very many lessons to be taught so looking at this this way I'd like dr. Aldridge and dr. Cassandra maybe Alexander our co-chairs dr. Aldridge being on the commission being responsible for professional development and dr. maybe Alexander is working with curriculum so and of course Annie Evans is on the commission also so this kind of work is exactly what the commission had in mind and and I think this would be invaluable to lend to and have a discussion with how does this become a part of that work no no you need a microphone thank you that miss Evans Sean McDonald who teaches her at CHS and Alexis Mason who's instructional coach are also on the subcommittee that's helping create the statewide

114african-american history course so we also have input at the teacher level right that's great thank you all so much your passion is just palpable and appreciate it thank you thank you thanks for staying with us thank you okay so we are going to go to the next item on the agenda and that is 10.1 approval I would let miss Hoover talk about the budget calendar good evening I'm a giver the budget calendar for fiscal year twenty one twenty twenty-one was presented to you last month since that meeting there's only been one edition and the date with the City Council has been determined to be January 28th of 2020 is there any other questions for me so there were questions about the budget calendar should we move to approve that I move we approve the proposed

115budget calendar any further discussion okay and all those in favor aye all those opposed great dr. king hi she's gonna give us policy updates wait I lied okay that's all why you let me do that reading tell everyone is it I mean we're happy to have you though so thank you and we're gonna go to the approve of the equity anti-racism policy with miss Johnson and Miss Chuck I apologize dr. king thank you and while we wait for Miss Johnson to get to the podium I'll just say thanks and give a brief history we had an initial conversation a couple of months ago miss Johnson did excellent work preparing been doing a lot of the lead work on preparing the drafts that we reviewed a month ago we've met with some school board members we

116have spoken with in heard from different members of the community we've heard from different school board members who have had it reviewed by our lawyer we've had some student input I think perhaps Adrian was probably a group that spoke a little bit to review these policies with dr. Aires area so um so that's sort of where we are today the the drafts that we posted a week ago that had some minor wood smithing type changes proposed by the lawyer and then in the last day or so we've had a few more minor changes proposed so I'd like to just review those to make sure we're all on board with the changes that have come in in the last day or so and those two are just very minor wordsmithing site type changes so is that

117the proposed final or the four so the one in the screen right now is the proposed final and those final few word smithing changes are highlighted in yellow I think truly the changes here were just to break out I think formally at red opportunities and opportunity gaps and now it says to eliminate inequities and access to opportunities in to eliminate opportunity gaps and then similarly in the last bullet I I think it may be said implementing this policy , including creating culturally affirming and we broke it out with a semicolon to say this includes just to make the language a little bit smoother miss Torres miss career is interested in asking a question um can I just so mr. McKee have a question so this includes creating I'm always like Emma Boyer so I'm always

118like hey this includes but is not limited to hmm so I get because I worry that that's just gonna become the definition of that that bullet means exactly right mm-hmm and I'm so I just wonder if there's a way that we can so if this I mean does anybody have any issue with including the language including but not limited to so that we can ensure that we understand that these are not the only ways that we can actively train and support our administrators where are you wanting to add that it so this includes this is the last a line of yellow on the page where it says this includes and I think the proposal is is so this includes but is not limited to the word of the worry is that the definition of that

119bullet will become creating culturally affirming and relevant classrooms and schools instead of and and not become more broad actively train and support all administrators teachers and staff and implementing this policy is not limited to those two things that's pretty broad though I mean what I mean that seems quite broad to me I'm not quite sure I mean I don't know I mean I don't have a problem with doing that but I'm not you know it it seems like this would encompass many different things as well yeah we're only limited because it could be something to be not thinking about the man himself okay so by saying this include but not limited to to is something else at another point in time comes up it just falls in yeah it's not just about creating correct I

120just don't the definition of training and supporting to be creating culturally affirming and relevant classrooms at schools which I frankly don't even really understand but relevant classrooms and schools means but I also I just wanted to be more as bad as possible and and not you know cuz the road Smith's MLS would you know I just want to be as bad as possible one that one could make the same argument at the top there where it says working towards equity instead of involves one could say includes but is not limited to the three things below it this is so different before the three bullet points one two three it says working took that towards equity involves and instead of the word involves maybe for the same reason you put includes but is not limited to

121the three bullet points by enlarge and I know it's been said before I think the words on this paper not nearly as important as what we do all right make a good point and that first bullet point under there is a I don't know what hi outcomes are and ensuring high outcomes I don't really know what that means I it says high expectations that's not you're talking about number one under the oh maybe that should be working towards high outcomes whatever that is for all is that achievement outcomes is that what that means mm-hmm okay overall high outcomes in terms of achievement okay success on each student's terms I think generally speaking we've avoided specifying achievement though because we want to acknowledge that those interpersonal growth there's a lot of things beyond let's say an

122SAT score and that could be addressed miss Chuck by what you just said if what mr. Mickey said previously working towards equity whatever he said includes but is not limited to what and that way the high outcomes could include all of the various and sundry things that you talked about without delineating them yeah that's how we could get to that Corrado people feel about ensuring versus working towards high outcomes oh wait a minute mr. Mickey let's just deal with your first line first okay so can I ask the rest of the board if they agree that working towards equity involves but comma what mr. Mickey's language is I'm not a hundred percent sure but isn't this invest but it's not limited to these three trikes the word involves working towards equity includes but is not

123limited to okay yeah okay and so I would support that does anybody else have any I'm fine with that okay and then your second point mr. Mickey is and I just wonder how people feel about ensuring high outcomes versus working towards high outcomes for all participants I just feel like we have to take this personally like that's why I'm so like that's why I like that insuring versus working towards but I hear what you're saying I would prefer to leave it as insuring insuring insuring ensure any comments mr. van Dermot's para Beth explain it again ensuring so I'm afraid I haven't heard all the words there could you again discuss ensuring high outcomes justification for this statement which is something a few minutes ago I just wanted to make sure I think mrs. Puryear had

124said should we do you know it had inquired whether by outcomes we meant academic outcomes and I was just clarifying that in the equity committee's work we have not only been limiting ourselves to academics because across the division we also teach social-emotional learning and we want life readiness Broadway not merely in a classic academic way are you okay with the okay now so is it okay if we include it includes but not limited to under the second yellow portion which is on the one two three four fifth bullet point there so you want to say this includes but not limited to creating culturally affirming yes does anybody else have any thoughts about that I'm fine with it dr. Graf okay great any other questions or comments on this equity policy and anti racism policy I

125hesitate to bring this up because again I don't speak into the mic I hesitate I'll bring this up but it's the the third bullet point that's just a bullet where are you under the Ford administration will see that the measures are taken to into the might ensure that personal characteristics yeah I mean I totally understand what that's trying to say but I was I had a personal characteristic of being lazy and that that can make enough an outcome that should not stop a year and it's a superficial characteristics I don't think so no whatever wants it to be about him everyone thank you we're gonna make a difference but how about how about you being very detailed I think we we all have a it's an interesting appointment because I think that is what our

126teachers are so talented at is engaging students who are have a broad range of personal characteristics and that's what we're asking them to do every day that's fine are there any other comments or suggestions regarding the equity policies one thing are you all okay with a couple little changes we just made I believe Miss Johnson took notes on both instances where we're going to say including but not limited to that doesn't mess anything up as far as you all are down so I have a question about the changes you're saying that it doesn't mess up anything as it relates to the policy but should it not be reviewed by counsel before to make sure that we are you know it's missing we have an intent and we understand what we're saying but because this is

127a document and the caliber of this document do we not feel it should be reviewed again by legal to make certain that our intent is not doing or saying something that ultimately could have a repercussion I think you have two choices before you I think one is that you could be--could if you remove this from action tonight and get a legal review and then you could vote in a month and the other is that you could vote you could vote tonight we could run it by mr. Lacey and if he has additional suggestions then as you do yet say your summer policy review or something like that you could clean up any of that language that he recommends at that time I like that the second one he's got a high hourly rate and I'm

128confident that the two changes we make couldn't have caused any problems but if there was concern about the it did he review this as it is well we have two lawyers suggesting these changes you guys should know something about we have opinions mr. Mickey and I can yeah and the reason I mentioned that is because this is very important and we've worked very hard and diligently on this we've asked everyone in the division to work with us on this and be a part of this and when we roll this out it's got to be right we are being looked at we're under a microscope and if we get out there and it's not right and then then everybody's like oh well look at this and I just think that we I just always prefer to

129err on the side of caution and if our equity people and our Esquires on either side of me don't feel that the word smithing is going to cause any undue contamination from a legal standpoint then we can go forward but I just if it was reviewed by legal once there was a purpose in doing that and it was done intentionally and I would rather us be right then find ourselves in a situation where we have got to go back and do more than we may perceive that has to be done at this point in time what are you proposing I like mr. first idea which was what did that end up being CEO delay votes remove it as an action item run it by the attorney and then bring it back for approval and what

130is anybody waiting for this I mean is there something that's waiting to happen before that we're delaying if we delay it further no I think we've approached it with a certain sense of urgency as but the rest of our equity work but I've want to be prudent in the work as well what's most important is to have a solid equity foundation and so this is part of building that strong you need what's most important splitting that strong equity foundation and so this is part of making sure that what we do is accurate and strong and so whatever it takes to get there is important I either way is fine with me I think it's just a choice of the board we can quickly run it by legal counsel if you if you'd like to pass

131it tonight pending the review of legal counsel would that be okay certainly could do that I could go with that I can go with that I'd like to make that motion then I move that we approve the equity and anti-racism policies pending the review of the bar attorney legal review okay are there any further discussion yeah madam chair thank you and and I had sent out just one of their comments specific to the anti-racism policy and my understanding is we're going to punt that to mr. Lacey to look at but I do feel and I just wanted to share for the record and it happens to fall under the second paragraph of the anti-racism policy about middle of that achieving racial equity requires proactive and continuous work to dismantle systemic oppression within our school division

132is what I had hoped to minimally have added at some point we can continue to discuss that but also just wanted to make a point because I think we have as a board made on several occasions comments that we are very committed to doing what we can to dismantle the oppression and the systemic racism that's embedded within the school and the structures that that we can control here within the schools I had also hoped to just talk about language that recognizes and asking that there's parallel work and that we are recognizing that that needs to occur within the community so in looking forward and hoping that at some point once we get this equity policy and the anti racism policy completed that we can work and continue to work with City Council in the city

133and looking at their equity policy and really bringing this all together so but again I wanted to at least verbalize this tonight so thank you for all of you because I did send that out for people to consider and at least see thank you both for for giving me some feedback and the opportunity to share that tonight and thank you miss Torres for receiving all of our calls to make sure we understood that was fair that was very appreciative okay so I are there any other questions or comments or anything like that I'm Lisa I'll go ahead and call the vote which is all those in favor of the policy as articulated by our motion say i others opposed great thank you guys thank you very much yes thank you so much we appreciate all

134your work dr. Katie I think I'm right now good evening madam chair school board members and dr. happens this evening we're here I have Mitsuko Nazir Clemens Clemens Nazir I've known him for so long but this week I've been getting her name wrong it is Clemens Nazir thank you okay so we have two policies for you tonight for discussion the first one is J HDD with administering medicines to students and the second one is G C in part-time and substitute professional staff employment first with administering medicines to students you may recall a few years back that our General Assembly passed into our schools on still nurses could hold and administer EpiPen dosage when needed so this past July and the General Assembly amended that law to allow for school nurses with training to be able

135to hold at a minister only those reversal a great opioid crisis that's taking place in America but they would be able with that training hold the medication so the first policy that you have is the inclusion or the amendment that's the only change that has happened our school nurses have received from our Virginia Health Department in preparation on the training for the medication for an marcaine and we're just waiting now for your approval on this policy and our procedures our regulations will be the same as it is with our storage and maintaining of our EpiPens the next piece I'm going to just let you know where the changes are and that is moving to the part-time a substitute professional staff employment and then that I have miss Clemens - you I do not know this

136- I usually just call any sicko but I'm trying to be thorough here so also so that all substitute teachers and there's a change in our requirements we were asking for you to approve is changing to having two years of college study to one year and then changing instead of 60 hours semester hours of coursework having 30 hours of coursework so now I'm going to turn it over there is Clemens Nazir this really is an effort to address our national teacher shortage which impacts substitutes and so we are trying to really assess our programs we have a couple things that are in place right now along with this policy we are also looking at where we've already surveyed all of our current subs to gain a better understanding and feedback about their current experiences in

137our schools and looking for ideas to recruit and retain also additionally we have moved up of orientations to two a month instead of the one it is taking some time for background checks and things of that nature to return back not to the fault of the Canada at all but that's just a part of everyone has to go through or clearance and so that's taking some time additionally we would like to consider some compensation strategies as a means to recruit and retain substitute teachers we have increased advertising that's gone out to including in our local counterparts I just received a email as a parent from my son school division in Albemarle who's even seeking substitute teachers so we recognize that this is a problem and a need and then last we will be mentioning our

138need at recruitment fairs and different events in an effort to to bring some more people on board but it is an issue and we greatly appreciate your support you know that's we have any questions on yes mr. McKee do we mean substitute teachers do we advertise that outside educational circles because it seems like you want to hit community members do we do that in the local newspapers or it's indeed it's on NBC 29 I just reached out to the University of Virginia James Madison University as well as VCU to get on their handshake profile which is a profile that or a platform that Career Services offices actually use we've been in touch with Piedmont Virginia Community College and Andre luck and Gigi Davis white so it's definitely out there I'm actually in the audience right

139now asking some Laverne so that is definitely some things and we're considering some other options as well - this just struck me on the sub substitute thing didn't have to do with the change the existing policy to me was a little confusing when I read through it at least it says substitute teachers have and it spells out the new requirements but then when you go down to part-time teachers says part-time teachers an employee working less than 180 days in less than seven hours a week it seems like that needs a better definition because it it's not talking about substitute teachers right we're talking about individuals who are not at a full-time or FTE there might be one I think under the definition that's here the substitute teachers would fall under that and that's not what

140we're trying to say no substitute teachers of part-time is excuse me a temporary teacher and a part-time employee would be an individual who does not work the full you know whether it be if you're a non-exempt employee you know an eight-hour a day or an exempt employee as a teacher or an administrator I get that and believe it I think that the policy is not clear this part-time teacher shall meet the certification requirements of the State Board of Education exactly so that doesn't apply to substitute teachers but if the definition is just anybody working less than 180 days in less than seven hours a week as an employee as a teacher so there are a teacher mr. McKee there are some instances where you have a long term substitute teacher and that individual is required

141to hold or be eligible for an endorsement of teaching endorsed right so I just think that needs some clarification to me I don't maybe I'm wrong but to me that I mean in just the terms yeah are you just like right now if you read down this like I did it's like I see what you're saying I'm teachers okay here's a definition of part-time teachers is that well substitute teachers fit in that definition but we don't mean them too hmm so take a look at I don't know I feel like my brain is starting to hurt the other thing is and one of my personal characteristics that hurt me as a student was I wasn't very good at English and I write run-on sentences but the school nurse that back to the suboxone alloxan change

142he's in that the administrating medicines yes so in the change part if you start at the second sentence that second sentence is too long even for me hmm and it's also I think it's not a complete sentence yes I pulled the language right from the General Assembly I think that might have been the problem and there's a stray quote mark in there anyway somebody who understands English ought to look at that because I think it's over there grammar is there better do you mean it might be helpful for you to provide a oh you don't understand English I forgot that that's right I think is all is trying to say is that the nurses are now allowed to be on the list but if you read through it I think it I think the English

143isn't right but I'll leave that to greater English minds in mine which is most anybody thank you that's really helpful actually because I think it's hard it is a lot of words okay so we're going to is there any sense of urgency to I see those information tonight not action so is that okay that we you make all these kind of clarifications and then come back next month absolutely any other questions or suggestions or comments no I'm really well I'm glad that we are altering and making more flexible the substitute teacher requirements because it is I that's the thing that I heard about the most when I was visiting the schools I know it's a real issue thank you for all what you're doing okay great thanks go thank you okay so we have board

144responses to written reports we have three well two relatively important reports I just want to make sure that everybody has had the opportunity to review them and ask questions to that end because we're in a substitute crisis I actually hate the delay that if passing that would help us hire people in the next month right I ain't willing to forget about my concern and just pass it as is yeah and we can deal with the policy in the summer when we deal with the whole policy in the summer if we can maybe include that on our list of things to do in the future look at that policy more closely and then maybe we can move the the change in the policy of substitute policy today as well as the so we're Lessing miss I

145don't know I agree with mr. Mickey that the substitute teacher thing is more urgent and then in what the nurses one is less urgent and it needs more wordsmithing so are you saying make this an action item tonight just for the substitute teacher can we do this we are allowed to do that so you'd like to make that motion mr. Mickey I'm happy to I mean yes I move for starters that we make it an action item and yes I think it's dead I move we approve the proposed substitute policy amendment second second all those in favor you post thank you do you think it's really urgent and you know thank you for all that you're doing and to the extent that we can provide flexibility that's what we want to be able to do

146thank you for your support yes miss Torres madam chair so I understand that we've got some wordsmithing to do to the naloxone but at the same time by not passing this is it include nurses from administering or treating yes it could be I think that the law is passed unless the law says that we have to adopt it it seems like we have to put them on the list school nurses and any other designated employees on the list what the law says well apparently she just took it right out of is that accurate you just took it right out of the correct well you guys read through that sentence and see what you think so we're in the administering medicines to students policy JH CD on the last page and it says administration of naloxone

147right and that is his concern his concern is the length and the words I don't think it's a sentence okay and it's too long and what I could do I could we word that the underlined portion to match the first page of policy we're at the bottom verse starts with a school board employee and extend because this is the portion of this policy for EpiPens and I can wordsmith to include was stated here however to make a moral line to that the direction is for the same group of group of individuals for depends do we have any I don't understand I don't know that there is an urgency to this I think it's unlikely I would think the legislature probably said it's okay to do this yes trained and I assume we're trained and so

148the legislature said it's okay and we're just trying to match up our policy to the law but the law is the law would be my guess I can't can you all make heads or tails of that sentence no it's it seems like there should be like another verb in there right I mean I'm fine with waiting as long as I know that if a student needs this administered it's not going to interfere with our nurses providing that treatment absolutely so is that the case that's what we're saying the General Assembly passed legislation enabling this and so all were doing is adding the session see what I said all we're doing is adding this yep to at NRC but I think the you know the law says now that this is their you know this is

149now the law across the state so if I needed this naloxone administer the nurse or the designated building official could do it is that as long as I have the training correct so the training has occur with our school nurses yes and if this happens in the school nurse isn't there then what are there any other people who have been trained as of right now no they're within schools we do have two central office staff members who had the training Monday and of course all of our emergency responders are trained yes and so they could do it thankfully I can get trained at a punk rock show yes address your concern yes thank you very much so you are fine with waiting yes I am okay thank you there we go all right thank you

150dr. King and I'm eclipse clarification so country that bring the policy back with the wordsmithing okay thank you thank you and also just with respect to substitute that particular policy to clarify that for the summer okay okay so then we have the written reports including but not limited to the mobility report and the pupil-teacher ratio are there any other questions regarding that okay so we'll move on to comments from members of the community you have three minutes and please come up and state your name and your address and we are happy to receive input from the community does anybody else anybody have a comment coffee right before you hang and then comments from the board I would start this time over on mr. McKee side is that right I toured all the schools and I'm

151always impressed with the energy and professionalism that goes on and our teachers and our staff and in this all the time I tell me mm-hmm thank you mr. bright oh yes yeah we have a microphone dad right an opportunity is a tour tour yes I was a part of the school system forever anyway had a great conversation with dr. Turner at Beaufort and got a chance to do a tour of the building also we stopped for a long period of time and about and schoolyard guard and he's very proud of that and even went as far as saying he would life with his kids to get for working the garden so it was great conversation with him had a great time at Beaufort and I went across town to Greenbrier the principal was sick that

152day I went over but the assistant principal graciously took me on a tour of green bar and we'll wonderful conversation so happy she's working for the Charles City Schools she was great and my final thoughts for tonight I would like to congratulate my fellow board members jennifer insure for being elected to the school board I would like to also give a shout I recognize from Sondra congratulations on an elected school board and we look forward to you joining us in January so again congratulations and finally I would just certainly like to think those for anyone who came out to vote on Tuesday to cast a vote and also most importantly for those people who have to cast their vote for me I do take it's not just about being on the school board it's about

153serving that's that inspires me whenever I'm called to serve that is no greater honor so I thank those persons who entrusted me with their votes to serve ask you to move it forward to a lot of things we have on our agenda coming up in the next few years to ensure that our students our teachers our administrators support staff are invested in making Charles for one of the greatest schools so thank you well I visited with our eleven school buildings so including lugar McGinnis and K Tech I have three more to go so the election sort of happened and interfered with the rest of the visits but and now scheduled them and so I will have visited all of the schools my goal has been to spend some time with the principals of each school

154and get a sense of you know sort of their point of view and you know just their school community their culture you know any challenges that they that they have and I'm so impressed with our principals I must say I think we have an amazing amazing group of very talented and competent principals in our division and I really appreciate the work that's gone into hiring those people I think we can be very proud of the leadership that we have in our schools so and then the other thing I'm trying to do as I mentioned before is to sit in on some of the the push push in gifted services whatever we're calling that I'm gonna sit in on a few and just try to get a better handle on what that looks like and what

155that feels like so the only other thing I'd like to go back to it and I'd like to and that that is though the issue that miss Carla mano mentioned at the beginning of our meeting and that is they lack of psychologists and I guess the lack of adequate psychological services in our division I would like to request some kind of more information about that and what what's going on with that why is that the case I mean as a psychologist I'm you know I'm concerned I think psychologists and the schools are really important so I would like to request that we get more information about this issue and try to understand how we can remedy that I would appreciate that thank you it Springer and she shared last month miss McKeever the chair and

156vice chair have been exceedingly busy over the last several weeks and we will work diligently to get out to the school just kept just dropping them off in the morning account because they're a little bit of emailing teachers about parent-teacher conferences I mean just just gratitude for everybody gratitude for the work the community voting mr. Wade mentioned to me before the meeting started and and I had thought this that I attended I believe the last parent-teacher conferences before my daughter graduates this week and it was I was I don't know that was strange I mean I'm morning I'm so grateful to be on the board and and I know I will be present and continue my work in the school division but it's an odd feeling and what I'm trying to allow to settle in

157at the thought of her not being here in the school division and I am grateful for for all of the supports and our journey through the schools and and all that I've learned and again I'll say it again I mean my my journey and advocacy for her is what led me to want to be sitting up here and doing doing this work and I will continue to do that for all students who are similar to her or aren't because so many of them need that voice and I think we all do bring that we all have our own strengths but I just wanted to share that and and say thank you to everybody yes did you go to your last parent teacher I do it I did it was this uh earlier this week I

158was even though I've been in school a lot of got laughs in hallways luckily Eric was around to serve me around but um we went to see her English and her math teacher and and so she's you know she'll be well prepared for wherever she goes for engineering classes that she hopefully would be taken because of the preparation for the last some 12 years the shelves for city schools have given her so just had a couple of things I wanted to add was I went to walk up on at Burger Moran this first school the Gabby went to and not still have going there that was on the 18th and that was just really fun was a beautiful day and the kids and mr. C is this you really had him pumped up with the

159music and it was just really fun to be there and also just want to add this quickly there's something actually just happen today at work I have a co-worker who has a son at venable elementary school and I think he's in a 4-year program wonderful young young boy and the mom told me they guess what they are going to move my son up to I think kindergarten on the first grade because the teachers have been evaluating him and say that you know he is real enough that we can do for him here and he took some tests and I guess next week or next couple of weeks he's going to either go to kindergarten or the first grade I can't remember which one but the fact is is that I think things like this happens

160all the time we you know just really doesn't happen the teachers they notice stood in there they know their skill set was like you know this young man can a young lady can move on and she was just really happy that this has happened into her son and she said I just I just love inable and she's looking you know for to her other son has already been through it and so I just wanted to add that because I think that this happens more than we know that that the teachers they know each and every one of our students and they value that and they didn't want to waste a whole year on this young man and and moved them up so I just wanted to add that and because sometimes when people know you

161on the school board and they come at you don't know really want to come at you sideways all right and so and so as she talked more and more my chest got bigger and bigger and so but in the wefts wondered shed I don't think the teachers who value that and who valued the students and able to recognize that and move our students forward so that's a really lovely story Thank You mr. ADA I am I don't think I have anything I don't think I have any comments at this moment dr. Atkins thank you Miss McKeever I'd also like to start my comments off by congratulating our board members who have been newly elected or re-elected to the board miss Liu Chandra Bryson thank you so much and we look forward to working with you

162and congratulations on your recently election now selected to be a part of the school board I can assure you it will be an adventure yes and congratulations to mr. McKeever dr. Kraft and mr. Bryant for your reelection on the board and thank you also for all of the work that you have done for our young people and our staff and teachers in the school division as you're walking where I walk around into classrooms is it's this week to see our students and our teachers and the smiles and the laughter that's on faces throughout our school division recently I was in classrooms and two of our students just grinning and and say come let let's do a selfie together and it was just simply fun one of our students on Beijing Lewis and our Abbot program

163and she actually runs a restaurant her mom helped serve books with her the restaurant is in Albemarle County she's one of our students so she and I made a commitment that I'm going to teach her how to make a coconut pie so we'll be working on that very soon but congratulations she's really doing a nice job an entrepreneur very recently we the superintendent's around that the Commonwealth came together for our annual legislative conference to talk about pieces of legislation to move forward and we had the pleasure of having our Secretary of Education RTF Carney was there with us and we also had the National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson he was there also as one of our guest speakers so thank the thanks to both of them and it's when if you've never heard

164Rodney Robinson speak and present you are missing a treat he is a genuinely one of the best teachers I have ever heard talk about how he delivers instruction and how he engages with students so we want to thank him for all of his work and all that he's doing right now to represent the profession we also had a early childhood education policy summit over at the University of Virginia and want to say a big thank you to dr. pianta Bob pianta he has done so much pioneering work in early childhood education and is relentless on continuing to convene committees to talk about policies and how we can get more funding into early childhood and not only cover our four-year-olds but also to cover more three-year-olds and our first lady pam northland was also there again

165thank you to mr. mrs. Williams Apple being trailblazers in the desegregation of Johnson elementary school and many other schools as we sit across the Commonwealth and the nation thank you also to his daughters for their bravery it was so nice hearing not only his daughters speak but also to hear the other two students who were involved talk about at that time they and even to today they really did not it didn't dawn on them how much of a trailblazer they had been with the acts and the activities that were going on and none of this could we do without Charlene green in any evidence they have been so instrumental oftentimes Charlene is working behind the scenes she's gathering information putting together information to make sure just the right touch is at it when we move

166an initiative like this forward for the public to take a party and so thank you so much to Charlene for everything that she did to bring this to fruition she worked on it for quite a long time with the mayor and with any Evans to make this happen also thank you to our bus drivers our bus drivers are some of the most important people in our school division they engage our students the other first adults to engage our students in the mornings they our students get on the bus with them and and our best drivers helped to determine what kind of day our students will have they had the power to either give them that boost that they need to get the chin up or to give them those words of encouragement to keep the

167chin up so thank you for to all of our bus drivers we celebrated best driver Appreciation Week with a breakfast and gifts for our bus drivers and we just thank all of them for taking the time to come to Charlottesville high school to enjoy the breakfast what a great group of people and thank you to any Evans and a whole host of others who were a part of our October 28th the first convening of the Commission on african-american history education also thank you to dr. Aldridge and Newberry and Alexander for all of the work that they're doing in Co chairing the Commission and all of the speakers that were there Leah Walker from the State Department of Education and we also invite the community and the public to join us at our next meeting that

168if you'd like to have comments or be a part of what's going on with the Commission I do welcome you and encourage you to be a part of that I did have an opportunity to meet with of the racial equity Leadership Network they are doing quite a bit of work with us helping to be a part of the thought partners that are working with us as we engage in this important work around equity we're learning from other school divisions in Mississippi Texas North Carolina a host of other school divisions about their equity work and approaches that they are using and the racial equity Leadership Network is helping us to organize our thoughts and our work around equity so we thank them for all that they're doing for us to our young people our students whether

169you are in preschool or a 12th grader each each day that you spend in school is a day that you're preparing for tomorrow so to our young people some days when you get up and you come to school you feel like you're full of energy and you can accomplish anything there are also those days that you come to school and that's the last place that you may want to be do know that we are always here for you we are here to serve you to help to guide you regardless of what may have happened before you got to school of what may happen when you leave school we are part of of your support system so to our young people don't ever hesitate to reach out to an adult to get help to get encouragement

170because it is our goal to watch each of our students succeed to watch each of our students to achieve their very best and for our black and brown students don't ever let anyone tell you because of what your zip code is or where you live that you cannot achieve you can achieve at high levels and we are all here to help you and every other student in our school division achieve so thanks for all you do and keep working very hard thank you Miss McKeever think about dragons dr. King of is there any wrap-up I wanted to add the addition to our June policy updates GCE and then also get solutions to the school psychologist shortage T thank you that's great I'd like to answer one part of your question dr. Kraft about our armed

171school psychologists we had this year several retirements we've been very fortunate that our school psychologists have been a part of our school system for a number of years and that's really a blessing to be able to have that however the downside of that is when they stay with us and they've been with us for a long time they have a tendency sometimes we can have two or three retire at one time and this year what we found is that we had several who retired at the same time and the the poll as with classroom teachers for school psychologists as the shallow pool right now so we have advertised they have a very shallow pool and have not been able to attract and and hire enough to replace the ones who have retired we also work

172with different agencies to do contract services so all of those are options for us and we'll give you an update on where we are how many staff psychologists we have and how many are on contract services for us that would be great okay so our next upcoming news we're having a meeting with our legislators and legislature select on November 12th at 5:30 in the k-tec auditorium that is open to the public and we'll be talking about the issues that the show has a school board they are important to us in front of the General Assembly and then on December 5th with any meeting again here's a regular monthly meeting at five o'clock on December 5th we are most of us I think are going to the Virginia School Board Association conference in which is a

173week before Thanksgiving as just an FYI - so we should have a right to talk about learning from there so hearing your objection we stated George thank you