001Good morning. It's 5:30 and I call the May 1st, 2025 meeting to order. Madam clerk, please call RO. Present. Mr. He's at a scholarship banquet for his uh daughter, I believe. Present. present. Miss Abram present. Mr. Here. Next, I'll move to item 1.3, the approval of the agenda. So move. Second. Motion made by Dr. Williams. Second by Miss Aver. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, please call for vote. Miss Cunningham? Yes. M. Yes. Dr. Williams? Yes. Dr. Silverman? Yes. Miss Walker? Yes. Mr. Yes. Next, we'll move to item 1.4. Moment of silence and pledge of allegiance led by Miss Cunningham. If we could all please stand for the moment of silence. And now the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
002republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cunningham. Next, we'll move to item 2.1, approval of minutes. These are the minutes from the April 24th, 2025 regular meeting. So move second. Second. Motion made by Dr. Williams, second by Dr. Silverman. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion? Hearing none, madam clerk, please call for vote. Miss [Music] next, we'll move to item 3.1, teacher appreciation week, May 5th through the 9th, 2025. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Miss Agnar. Um, and Miss Aver will read a proclamation. Teacher Appreciation Week, May 5th through the 9th, 2025. Whereas teachers of the Danville Public School serve the community of Danville faithfully and dutifully to improve student learning and achievement. And whereas teachers of
003the Danville public schools promote excellence in education, service to children, families, and the community. And whereas efforts by teachers of the Danville public schools develop the community's youth to provide leadership for future generations. And whereas teachers of the Danville public schools make a difference in the lives of students through their professionalism, commitment, and caring. And whereas teachers of the Danville public schools work tirelessly to ignite the flame of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking within each student, fostering a love for learning that lasts a lifetime. And whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, evaluating progress, counseling and coaching students, and performing community service. And whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers in educating the children of this community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Danville public schools proclaims that May 5th through the 9th,
0042025 is teacher appreciation week. And be it further resolved that members of the Danville School Board and school administrative staff appreciate and acknowledge the dedicated service of teachers in the Danville public schools. adopted by the Danville School Board on April 24th, 2025. Taekquin Graves, school board chair, Angela Haristen, superintendent. Good evening, Chair Graves, Vice Chair A, Dr. Harrison, and members of the board. We want to thank you this evening for allowing us to come today. The theme for this year's teacher appreciation week is empowering educators, strengthening resilience, and building sustainability. In these challenging times, teachers have emerged as beacons of resilience, adapting and innovating for their students. There are 12 reasons that I'm going to go over with you today that teachers are crucial for our society. Teachers pass their knowledge to younger generations. Teachers
005help in developing critical thinking skills and they inspire students and parents. Teachers are role models. Teachers connect with their community, forging partnerships to enhance society's well-being. And teachers connect with students. Teachers build confidence in their students. They motivate students to pursue their dreams. And teachers build communities for children's growth. Teachers assist in the holistic development of the child. They teach they develop peace in our society. And teachers demonstrate the importance of education. And I'm proud this evening to say that I am a teacher at heart. And I want to introduce to you some of my esteemed colleagues that joined us this evening for teacher appreciation week. We have Robin Adams from Gibson Elementary, Latasha Cox and Valerie Martin from GLH Johnson, Carrie Agnar and Stephanie Ray from Activate, Robin Brandon from Woodberry. Think I got
006them all. And I want to say that we are here representing all of the teachers in Danville public schools and I want to personally thank them for what they do every single day. We've had the pleasure of doing walkthroughs quite a bit in the last two weeks and it has just been enjoyable and exciting to see what's happening in our classrooms. So, thank you. Thank [Applause] you. And we put a ladies we put an all call out to our more than 100 partners to celebrate our teachers on the marquee. Cookies. They love cookies. Maybe some carrots and fruiters. Fruit trays or something. Take time to say thank you to our teachers across our community. Thank you. [Applause] Next, we'll move to item 3.2, school lunch hero day, May 5th, 2025. And at this time, I'll
007turn it over to our child nutrition uh nutrition services director, uh, Miss Mims, and we'll have a proclamation read by Dr. Silverman. Okay. School lunch hero day proclamation. School lunch hero day. May 5th, 2025. Whereas nutritious meals at school are an essential part of the school day. And whereas the staff of the Danville public schools meals and nutrition department are committed to providing healthful, nutritious meals to the Danville public school children. And whereas the men and women who prepare and serve school meals help nurture our children through their daily interaction and support. And now therefore, be it resolved that Danville Public Schools proclaims May 5th, 2025 is school lunch hero day and expresses its deep appreciation to those these valuable employees and commends their good work on behalf of our children. Adopted by Danville School
008Board on April 24, 2025. Taekquin Graves, school board chair. Angela Hastton, superintendent. Uh, good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Aver, Dr. Harrison, and board members. We are very, um, fortunate to have a great group here tonight to represent our program, uh, diverse group from different schools. Um, and we just have a little brief presentation to share with you about our school lunch heroes. Um, each and every day. Behind every student's school meal, there's a school lunch hero worth recognizing. We ask ourselves the question sometimes, if I could be I have a superpower, what would it be? School lunch hero. The school nutrition program. We provide students with access to a variety of affordable and appealing foods that meet their health and nutrition needs. In our schools, 65 dedicated food service professionals serve approximately 3,000 breakfast
009and 4,500 meals, including lunch and afterchool meals daily. As a service to our school district, our program goals include creating meals and preparing a dining environment that brings our students to the table each day, enhancing menus, exploring culturally relevant menu options, finding opportunities for nutrition education to engage our students and to wear aprons and serve smiles. Who are our heroes? school nutrition managers and and assistants, school nutrition kitchen team members, cooks, service cashiers, our school nutrition maintenance team, and all the people who support school nutrition each and every day. So, here we have um Bonner and central office staff and GW team. Do you all want to say your names real quickly? [Laughter] Go ahead. Miss Jackie Harel OT Barner Wilson OT Barner OT Barner Vanessa Richard manager Sharon Hill Tracy Haley assistant manager at
010GWfield at Scoffield Shenica Scott manager Scoffield Joyce Hammock School Margaret Bass [Music] School Barber office assistant director. Thank you for recognizing the tireless efforts of school nutrition professionals who ensure our students can benefit from a healthy meal each and every day. Mr. We let you come on up and center [Applause] stage. Thank you. We get a picture with you all. No, the bar Round of applause. Next, we'll move item 3.3, school nurse day, May 7th, 2025. At this time, I'll turn it over to Miss Saunders and I'll have a proclamation read by Miss Walker. Proclamation National School Nurse Day, May 7th, 2025. Whereas students are the future and by investing in them today, we are ensuring our world for tomorrow. And whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when
011they are at school. And whereas all students have a right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting. And whereas students today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school. And whereas school nurses serve as a critical role in improving public health and ensuring student academic success. And whereas school nurses acts as a lazy to the school community, families, health care providers on the behalf of children's health by promoting wellness and improving health outcomes for their children. And whereas school nurses understand the link between health and learning and are in a position to make a positive difference for children every day. Now therefore, Danville public schools does hereby proclaim Wednesday, May 7th, 2025th as school nurse day. And it acknowledges the compliment accomplishments of school
012nurses and their efforts of meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of health care in our schools and offer gratitude for school nurses who contribute to our local communities by helping students stay healthy in school and ready to learn. Not just on this National School Nurse Day, but at every opportunity throughout the year. Adopted by the Danville School Board on April 24th, 2025th. Taekcoin Graves, school board chair, Angela Harrison, Superintendent. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Graves, co-chair a Dr. Harrison, and the remaining of the board. I will stand before you as the coordinator of the nurses. And the reason we celebrate nurses is the National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th. And this is Florence Florence Nightingale's birthday. I think it's May 12th. National School
013Nurse Day was established to foster a better understanding of the role of school nurses in the educational setting. Some of the roles of our school nurses, they're professional caregivers. They provide direct care for acute illnesses and injuries for students and staff. They manage chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, cickle cell anemia, which I didn't put there, provide leadership for the provision of health care services as an educated health care expert. They provide screenings and referrals for health conditions and they also promote a healthy school environment. So, I'm going to have Karen Collier who is a nurse at Rise and Galileo to come up for a moment and say something about our nurses. Put this right there. I just wrote a little thing. Okay. So, um, DPS nurses are a team and we care. We
014care for our 5 wait 5,500 plus students, their families and our staff. We are the gentle hands and listening ear. We are a calm and knowledgeable voice even in the face of an emergency. With practice prevention, we keep students safe and protected. We are the record keepers of all immunizations, chronic conditions, medications, allergies, as well as the busy day-to-day health room visits, IEP service documentation, and truency team meetings as requested. We do this all to better the present and future of DPS health and wellness services along with our leader Pam Sounders. DPS kids are our kids. Staff is our family and is a privilege to serve them. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Another round of applause. Next, we'll move to item 4.1. Public may address the board. Do you have any signed up? No, sir. Next,
015we'll move to 5.1. 2526 cores. I'll turn it over to Dr. Ko. Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Aver, members of the board, Dr. Harrison, and community members. I'm pleased to be before you this evening to share the impending updates to our student code of conduct, which we call the code of responsibilities, expectations, and support aka the cores. Uh there are many individuals over the course of the year we get feedback from um students, parents, community members and what have you. But officially our revision team are the individuals listed on the slide u Miss Flores our administrative representative of high school um excuse me from middle school, Miss Flores Bonner Middle School, Mr. Logan um from Woodbury Hills and Miss Dr. Spencer at GW, Mr. Simmons from Activate, Miss Hilton, chief of schools, and Mrs.
016Mclofflin, our director of safety and security. Um, I wanted to just specifically acknowledge them. Throughout the presentation, I'll share major focus areas of the revisions, and you'll see examples of pictures and other items that are included in the updates. As you see, there's a screenshot on the previous screen of um the current draft cover page. Uh the updates include uh the addition of more columns that we we added columns last year to kind of aid in readability. Um we added more columns this year. We updated our pictures and added other images to promote the readability hope hopefully help people to read it so that they understand what our expectations are in our school system and to make it more user friendly for the administrators that have to implement. Uh we've added informational text boxes to
017highlight state and division priorities. You see on the screen um there's information about cell phones which is a big um push this year um from you know with Governor Yncan's order and some of the policies that we've implemented in our schools. Um, we've also tried to highlight and add additional information about our promotion and retention policy when it comes to attendance so that students understand, you know, the the the limit of day the limit to the number of days that they have to miss in school. Um, there's also so that doesn't become a disciplinary issue that the administration has to handle um through the cores. the specific policy guidelines for responding to cell phone violations which is which was at the request of the schools. We've added additional sections highlighting responses to bullying. This is
018on the next slide. Um bullying, fighting, acts of violence against staff members. Um we've pages addressing bullying and fighting are highlighted in yellow. Hopefully the the board has copies of this um um have copy of it at their um station. Administrators requested that we added guidance related to class tardies, unexcused late arrivals to school and unexcused early checkouts from school which are um issues at our lower grades. Um mainly um we've also simplified the response that we have to vaping. Um there was some uh at the request of the schools they wanted a simpler um practice of responding to vaping violations. Uh these are just some other examples of pictures that have appeared and that will appear in this year's cores. As you see there's a highlight text box for the um uh our drug
019education, substance abuse education that we provide here in the district. We know last year we added the information about Narcan and so we wanted to really highlight that and that's just one example of uh the responding to early checkouts and late arrivals to school. And so our next steps will include um we're going to have a public comment period of 30 days and we will request approval from the school board at the first meeting in June. Um are there any questions? Yes, ma'am. Any questions? Yeah, I just have one um good presentation. So, in regards to um the main one you did like key um revisions, I know that the students are able to get a pamphlet at the beginning of the year, correct? Yes, ma'am. So, throughout the year, is it ever a time
020that um maybe it's revisited to some of these key revisions? um any discussion throughout the district maybe like something throughout schools or it's just basically when they get it um at the year is pretty much um uh unofficially most of the schools I will say at the turn of the semester when they usually come back from Christmas break they have a a review of the key rules and procedures because you know they it's been a break and you know their kids and so you try to reiterate um there are some schools that may do things quarterly, but definitely at the midyear point. Um, I would dare say most of the schools do do a revisit of the expectations. They may not give out the cores again, but they do do a revisit. Yes, ma'am. Okay.
021Thank you. Any others? Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item 5.2, update on the 2526 academic calendar. I'll turn it over to Miss McCraw. Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair Ait, Dr. Haristen, and members of the board. I'm here to present to you a new and improved uh academic calendar for school year 2526. You do have a copy of this in your folders if you'd like to look along. Um again, this is new simplified version of our academic calendar. Um there's also um a new spring break time that aligns with uh some of the school districts in the region. Um we changed the um PD and data days to be teacher uh professional days. We have district level professional learning identified. We have extended our makeup days window. As you know, we had
022um several makeup days this year that we had to continue releasing what those days would be due to inclement weather. So, we've listed a longer list on the calendar for next year. Um we've also listed the nineweek grading cycles, when spring so testing will take place and summer learning opportunities. the rationale for these updates. One of our um missions uh even when we were doing this process over a year ago was to align with other school divisions in the area. Um so we've taken a look at our uh spring break and the calendars we pushed out and we decided to try to align with Pennsylvania County. This um benefits our governor school and AET students specifically because they follow the same um governor school and a follow the Pennsylvania county school calendar. So, it just
023makes sense that we all have the same spring break. Um, and we also wanted to simplify the look of the calendar. We really liked how we reworked the academic calendar for this school year, but we thought we could make it even better. So, we did. Um, additionally, we're putting an abundance of information in one place down at the bottom. Um, but what we'll do with this calendar is first thing in the morning, Laney and her team uh will push out the survey linked here in the presentation um to the public. We'll also send it out to um internal stakeholders, so students in grades 6 through 12, all teachers. Uh we'll send a mass email with this survey. Um and again, we'll push it out to the public on on our website, all social media platforms.
024Um and we'll request feedback from May 2nd to May 13th. We will gather that feedback and present it back to you guys on May 15th, uh where we will then request board approval for this updated 2526 calendar. And pending that approval, we'll share out the new calendar once it's approved. And with that, do you guys have any questions for me? Any questions? Just one just so um because you know accordingly, you know, we um do appreciate our stakeholders. How will they be able to access and to know to be able to do this survey? Like what streams platforms will you all use? So we'll put it on the DPS website. We'll put it on Facebook. Um, I normally see the same post on LinkedIn, uh, Instagram if I'm not mistaken, Twitter, or X, I'm sorry,
025X. I'm from the Twitter age. Um, and all of those sites, the the normal platforms that we push out. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other questions? Dr. Just for clarification, um, teacher professional are just teacher work days. Correct. That is correct. Yes, sir. That is correct. And if you'll notice, if I may, I know we're in the questions part, but um there's at least a teacher workday or a professional learning day every month on this calendar, and we think that's really valuable. So, awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item 6.1, personnel recommendations. I'll turn it over to Miss Wimberly. Good evening, Chairman Graves, Vice Chair A, Dr. Haristston, and members of the board. You've been presented with the personnel recommendations for your review, consideration, and approval. I'm happy to answer any
026questions if you have any. Any questions? Any questions? This is an action item. I make a motion that we approve the personal recommendations. Second. Motion made by Miss Walker, second by Miss A. Any discussion? Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, please call for vote. Dr. Williams, yes. Missingham, yes. Miss Walker, yes. Dr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Next, we move to item 6.2, school year 2526, election of professional staff. You've been presented with the 2526 election of professional staff. Happy to answer your questions if you have any. Any questions? Any questions? Hearing none. This is an action item. I'll make a motion that we um for the 2025th 2025 2026 election of professional staff. I second that motion made by Miss Walker, second by Dr. Silverman. Any discussion? Any discussion? Hearing none, madam clerk, please call for
027vote. Dr. Williams, yes. Yes. Yes. Miss, yes. Walker, yes. Mr. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I'll move item 7.1, nomination of candidate for Virginia School Board Association regional chair. Um, Mr. Payne is not here tonight. he is uh assisting his daughter in accepting a scholarship uh this evening. Um so I have the honor and uh privilege to nominate um Mr. Payne for regional chair. Uh Mr. Payne currently serves as regional vice chair uh covering 11 to 16 school districts all over. Um he has been a moderator and a presenter for the VSBA, also an alternate delegate for the Virginia School Board Association, and he has been deemed and completed a number of trainings uh to be deemed a member of excellence uh within the Virginia School Board Association. Um so this process will be
028a a first a vote here um amongst his fellow colleagues. Um once we uh have approved that it will then go to the Virginia School Board Association where they will hold a regional form and then they will select a regional chair and vice chair at that time. So I will be making a motion for Mr. Payne tonight and I will need a second if you deem fit. I'll second. Motion made by Mr. Graves, second by Dr. Silverman. Any discussion on that motion? Any discussion hearing? None. Madam clerk, please call a vote. Miss Ara, yes. Dr. Williams, yes. Dr. Silverman, yes. Miss Cunningham, yes. Miss Walker, yes. Mr. Yes. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item 8.1, board request for information for future agenda items. All right. Well, with that being said, any further business? Any
029further business? We do have a work session immediately following this meeting and if we have no further business being adjourned. Thank you.