001February 8th meeting of order. Madam clerk, please call roll. >> Dr. Williams, >> present. >> Mr. Payne, >> here. >> Miss Walker, >> present. >> Miss Mclofflin, >> present. >> Miss Cunningham, >> here. >> Miss A >> here. >> Mr. Graves, >> here. Next, we'll move to item 1.3, the approval of the agenda. >> Yes, Mr. Chair. I'd like to approve the agenda as presented. >> I second the motion. >> Motion made by Mr. Payne, second by Dr. Williams to approve the agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, please call role. >> Miss Cunningham? >> Yes. >> Mr. Payne? >> Yes. >> Miss Aver? >> Yes. >> Dr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Mclofflin? >> Yes. >> Miss Walker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Graves? >> Yes. Next, we'll have a moment of silence
002and pledge of allegiance. If we all stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item 2.1, approval of the minutes. These are the minutes from December the 11th, 2025 regular meeting. >> Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the minutes as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by Dr. Williams, second by Miss Cunningham to approve the minutes as presented. Any discussion? Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, madam clerk, please call ro. >> Dr. Williams. >> Yes. >> Miss Cunningham. >> Yes. >> Mr. Payne, >> yes. >> Miss Walker, >> yes. >> Miss Mclofflin, >> yes. >> Miss Avery, >> yes. >> Mr. Grace, >> yes. Next, we'll move the recognitions.
003Item 3.1, Virginia School Principles Appreciation Week, January 11th through the 17th, 2026. At this time, I'll ask Miss Hilton to come forward, and I'll turn it over to Dr. Williams. Proclamation Virginia School Principles Appre appreciation week January 11th through 7 the 17th 2026. Whereas school principles work cooperatively to direct, develop and inspire all members of the school staff and student body to communicate effectively with parents to engage them in the learning process. And whereas principles serve as educational leaders managing policies, regulations, and procedures necessary to ensure a safe and effective learning environment for all students in Virginia's public and private schools. Whereas principles and teachers are entrusted with the opportunity and responsibility of guiding, directing, nurturing, mentoring, and imparting knowledge to our children while they're at school. And whereas principles work collaboratively with teachers, staff,
004students, parents, and the community at large to proactively prepare students to be self-reliant and productive citizens. And whereas Virginia school principles appreciation week is an opportunity to recognize the hard work of Virginia school principles and to recognize the importance of school leaders in ensuring that every child has access to a quality education. Now therefore, the Danville School Board does hereby recognize the week of January 11th through 17th, 2026 as school principles appreciation week and offers its sincerest gratitude and appreciation to the remarkable principles of Dam Public School sign chair and Dr. Angela Harrison, our superintendent. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Cunningham, school board members, and Dr. Harrison. January 12th through the 16th is principal appreciation week, a time to celebrate and recognize our outstanding principles. Our principles, as you know,
005are forwardthinking, datadriven, but most importantly, they are student centered leaders. It is truly an honor to work alongside these dedicated and passionate principles of Danville Public Schools. They consistently demonstrate genuine care for their staff, their students, and families, and their leadership is truly making a lasting impact on our school communities. This evening, I have with us three proud principles of Danville Public Schools representing the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Miss Mildred Richardson of Woodbury Elementary School, Miss Latona Simmons of Westwood Middle School, and Mr. Crestell of GW High School. So, we welcome them to represent all of our proud principles here at Danville Public Schools. We look forward to celebrating them this upcoming week. Our senior leadership team has lots of things planned every day uh to celebrate them for the upcoming week. And
006we hope you will uh make sure that you check in at the schools next week and also thank them for all they do for our students. So, at this time, I think we're going to get a picture. >> [clears throat] [applause] >> Next, we'll move to item 4.1. Public may address the board. Do we have any signed up this? >> No, sir. >> Next, we'll move to item 5.1, VSBA annual student school board representatives workshop. And at this time, I'll call our student board representatives forward. Good evening. My name is Sophia Lee. I'm the student representative at Gallo Magnet High School. >> Good evening. My name is Kun Patel. I'm the alternate student representative for Galileo. >> Good evening. I am Kaylee O'Brien and I'm the student representative for George Washington High School. So on
007November 19th, we went to um Williamsburg for our the for the conference where we learned basically the role as student representative as what like different things that we can do and different modern ways of how to tackle our jobs. So one of the first things that we went over at the workshop was policy development. They showed us basically how policies affect our our day-to-day life as students and our job as student representatives of how to make policies that are effective and beneficial for the students. So, first we went over what policies are. They showed us that policies are formal written statements that guide our decisions and actions. They don't highlight the procedures, the how-to. They're basically just the the guiding goals and values that DPS holds in order to create a better environment for students.
008Um, next we went over why policies matter. They set the framework for how schools operate. They ensure fairness, consistency, and accountability. They reflect community values and legal requirements. They're very important and in creating positive school environments. Next, we went over the steps of how to create a policy. First, we identified a need a need or a problem. We research and draft the policy and we seek input, especially us as student representatives. It's important for us to seek complete input from the whole student body and staffs and community. Next, we went over review for legal compliance, board discussion and revision, formal adoption, and implementation evaluation. And we can't have policies that aren't effective. And our role as student representatives for creating effective policies is finding the student voice asking how policies affect students day-to-day life. Policies
009aren't effective if they don't create meaningful change. So we have to suggest equitable solutions and identify unintended impacts. Then we went over the key concepts of making that are effective policies. They're clear, consistent, purposeful, purposeful, enforceable, and reviewed. And we went over how to what to avoid vague wording, ignoring input. In our case, it's getting the whole student body represented perspective, and making sure we don't make feelood policies without implementation plans. Finally, we went over uh a quote that they gave us was policies are the bridge between vision and practice. We can't have policies that that basically show we have to have policies that show our vision and how it connects to the practice of DPS. Thank you. >> Okay. So, um at the VSBA conference, we also had like a mock session on public
010comment and what it does for our school. So public comment is a formal opportunity during the board meeting where people can address the board about relevant issues uh concerning the school district. Um these comments can be in person or written from letters or emails and it's not a back and forth conversation. Uh they the speakers present their views and then they step away. Uh there are a few rules applied in this communication mechanism. Um the speakers are given about two to three minutes to present their concerns and they usually sign up ahead of meetings. But what I've noticed is that we have I think it was just topic four. We have something on our agenda every meeting that is titled public comments that gives a opportunities for the public to speak to the board. And
011uh these comments must address a district-wide concern rather than like a personal matter. Um they need to be civil and respectful. So any profanity, personal attacks or slanders will often result in them being cut off. So um from my time here on the board last year, I've actually seen I think two public comments. One of them was issues about employee taxes and another was naming a school facility after a coach that had recently passed. So typically from what I've heard at the conference um a lot of times the public people that comes up here to speak, they just step away like uh feeling unheard. But um I've noticed that our board does a really good job acknowledging that um our community members are being heard by giving feedbacks after they finished uh speaking. And I
012think that's really important uh building trust uh between the board and the community even if um actions are not taken immediately. So yeah, thank you Next, we also learned about how AI could be used for representatives. They told us that it can be used properly and not properly too. Like a an example of improper use of AI would be students using it for their assignments. But there was also one student who talked about how they could use AI to edit their essay papers and grade it so that they could review it rather than doing it on their own. So, some of the pros that we talked about were like providing evidence to prove their points and creating practice problems for students to use and study with rather than just doing their homework for them. Other
013times, it can be used by teachers to create lesson plans and also keep consistency so they can continually update their plans instead of having to make new ones every single time. But there were also cons that we talked about including bias with AI because as the AI learns who you are, it can change its answers to kind of gear it towards who you are instead of just giving you the information straight up. So it also depends on where it pulls information from because it could pull sources that are biased. It's also a threat to critical thinking with students because they're not thinking for themselves. They're using AI to think for them. And then it will also cause issues later on in their education because instead of actually learning the material, they're using AI to kind
014of do the work for them, which is making them miss steps. And since they missed steps and skills in their education, they won't be able to build on it further and they can't grow. And so the main problem that we discussed was that the issue wasn't AI, but really how we were using it. And so schools should have boundaries and AI policies implemented in our systems to make it better. And then also there were key roles of student representatives. So the code of Virginia says the student representative shall serve in a non- voting advisory capacity and shall be appointed under such circumstances. So the advisory role is providing student pers perspective and non- voting members would be no abil no ability to vote or establish official decisions and then we have a participation in discussion
015in as in attending open meetings and participating in discussion and then our importance of representation is our representative part with our schools our cities and districts our policies and then also student voice. So, student opinions and how we feel in our schools. And then there's also opportunities including leadership, recognition, information, and exploration. >> Any questions? Any questions? Dr. Williams, >> thank you all so much for that. >> Seems like you learned quite a bit and really enjoyed the session. >> Question on the last slide. Student voice. What can we do to support you all to make sure that student voice voices heard? >> I guess just giving us an opportunity to present our ideas to you guys, what you guys do do from letting us be present in the school board and letting us talk
016to you guys because it's our job as representing our our fellow students and getting like what we need to what we need and meeting us halfway which I think we do do a great job of doing. cell phone. So, thank you. [laughter] >> Any other questions, comments? I think they deserve a round of applause. That's awesome. [applause] >> Thank you so much. We appreciate you guys. >> Awesome job. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll move to item 6.1, approval of the school year 2627 and 2728 academic calendars. At this time, I'll turn it over to Miss McGraw. >> Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Cunningham, Dr. Haristen, and esteem esteemed board members. I am here uh to present to you for the final time the 26 27 and 2728 academic calendars. You do have copies
017of them in your folders. Um, just as a reminder, the current calendar template you may or may not be looking at was uh developed by the Danville Public Schools calendar committee and approved by the board. The priorities of these calendars um as established by the board at that time were honoring Veterans Day as a holiday. um maintaining a three-day Thanksgiving break, two weeks uh for the winter holiday, um a full week of spring break around the Easter holiday, a balanced school year with 90 days each semester to make that 180day total, and then starting in August and ending in May before Memorial Day, which both calendars that you're looking at do meet all of those um expectations. Uh we did collect stakeholder feedback this year. uh it turned into a larger window than originally intended,
018which is great. It gave more people an opportunity to respond. We had about 180 or so responses uh for this survey. It was shared out with families, um students in grades 5 through 12, teachers, administrators, school-based staff, district office. Uh it was sent out over social media. It was on the website, um and then sent via email to DPS um staff and students. Um, looking at some of that calendar feedback, you can see the breakdown of feedback and the majority of that came from teachers, which is great. Uh, what did you like most about the proposed calendar? Uh, was the ending date? People are very happy to be ending the school year in May. Um, a large majority of people are happy to be ending the school year in May before Memorial Day. Um, and
019with that, what did you not like as much about these proposed calendars? People didn't like the early start date. However, to have an early end date, we have to have an early start date. So, um the data matches which we we like. Um and then interestingly enough, what did we dislike? Uh there the response was no change there. They were happy with those calendars. Like nothing to add. Um how important um is it to you that spring break align with neighboring counties? Uh we're a little divided about this, but the majority do say that it's important um that we align spring break with neighboring counties. And um what's really important is that DPS is ahead of the curve with our calendars. While um some schools do have 2627 out and approved at this time, most
020of them do not have 2728. So um the last I checked, we were aligned with neighboring counties for 2627 and then we will already have our approved calendar for 2728 for people to follow. But because we stick to that Easter holiday, I anticipate that we will all stay um in a a similar range. Uh you guys have seen this um but the notable components for 2627 the start of year work days openhouse and PD are strategically arranged to maximize teacher time uh teacher prep time that is. We do have a full family conference day each semester. The school year does indeed end before Memorial Day and you can see the established graduation dates and times and you will see the exact same thing on the 2728 uh proposed calendar. Uh we will uh bring the
0212829 can you believe that calendar for um review towards the end of this year. uh we'll reconvene that calendar committee of stakeholders and um work on those templates and work to stay a couple of years out on those academic calendars. >> Do you guys have any questions for me? >> Any questions? Miss Walker, >> thank you for your presentation. I didn't have a question, but um just wanted to make a comment. I can remember when I first got on the board um that first year um a lot of the community had questions and concerns in regard to our calendar and just wanted to thank you and your committee because you never realize how much work it takes in order to try to formulate a calendar and just to see the work that you all put
022in it because like I said when I first started and then the fact now how um you all understood it was imperative to have stakeholders in the process. So, um it's just not a piece of paper when I was sitting here. It's just amazing the work that you all have put in trying to make this um calendar um to be accessible to not only for the students but also for our community. So, thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Any other questions, comments? Thank you. And I think this is an action item. >> Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the calendars as presented. >> Second, sir. Motion made by Miss Mclofflin, second by Mr. Payne to approve the 26 27 and 2728 calendar. Any discussion? Any discussion hearing? None. Madam clerk, please call for a
023vote. >> Miss Aver. >> Yes. >> Mr. Payne, >> yes. >> Dr. Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Walker, >> yes. >> Miss Mclofflin, >> yes. >> Miss Cunningham, >> yes. >> Mr. Graves, >> yes. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item 7.1, personnel recommendations. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Miss Wimberly. Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Cunningham, Dr. Harrison, and members of the board. You've been presented with the personnel um recommendations for your review, consideration, and approval. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time. >> Any questions? Any questions? This is an action item. >> Yes, Mr. Chair. I'd like to make a motion to approve as presented. >> Second. Motion made by Mr. Payne, second by Miss Aett to approve the personnel recommendations presented. Any
024discussion? Any discussion >> hearing? None. Madam clerk, please call for a vote. >> Dr. Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Cunningham, >> yes. >> Mr. Payne, >> yes. >> Miss Walker, >> yes. >> Miss Mclofflin, >> yes. >> Miss Aver, >> yes. >> Mr. Graves, >> yes. Thank you. >> Next, we'll move to item 8.1, board request for information for future agenda items. Miss W. Dr. Harrison, just a reminder that um I know you had said that the communities and schools were doing some restructuring, but I would like to get a report. Um >> Miss Smith resigned longer. Her last day was >> also um I had asked about and I'm sure it's coming an update as far as our academic um review like a update from last semester. I had mentioned that I think November.
025And then of course um I had requested the disciplinary um report for the district and um that would include um transportation services. >> Thank you so much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Um I would like to request um regarding the special education department, the teachers, um how many are still involved in the master's program at a how many have completed it? How many have taken the practice? And who we are waiting for to be accredited? I'm sorry, licensed. Any others? Any others? >> Any others? If you would like to repeat what has already been stated, Dr. Harrison as far as information. >> So CI work on the admin push the button um on the administrative interns. We have a presentation on lure which includes many of the um topics you mentioned Miss Mclofflin and
026that's scheduled for next board meeting but we'll if you email the questions we'll make sure it's included specifically um that was I forget who asked I think it was Walker asked for that and then we also um will give you our um what we'll do we have a district-wide data day and we'll present that data to you all the same week, same presentation we do for the district. Okay? But the grades finalized last evening I believe and uh we really it takes about a week or so for us to pull all that together with benchmarks. So we will present that um as soon as that is ready. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I guess you'll have [clears throat] >> Thank you. Well, no close tonight. So, any further business? Any further business? Hear and none.
027It is Mr. Payne's birthday. So, if we could just wish him a happy birthday. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And with that being said, it is not six o'clock yet, so meeting a journ. Thank you.