001e I call the March 6 2025 meeting of order Madam clerk please call for RO Dr Willam pres Mr here M Walker Dr pres here here here next we'll move to item 1.3 approval of the agenda a motion I so Move Motion made by Dr William second by Mr Payne any discussion on the motion hearing n Madam clerk please call for a vote Miss Cunningham yes Mr P yes m a yes will yes yes yes yes at this time we'll have a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance lab by Dr Silverman stand sign give thanks for all our blessings now let's The Pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all
002thank you next we'll move to item 2.1 approval of the minutes these are the minutes from the February 27th 2025 regular school board meeting motion to approve second second motion made by Mr Payne second by Miss Cunningham any discussion on the motion Hear n Madam clerk please call for vote Yes Mr yes Dr Willams yes Walker yesh yes yes yes next we'll move to item 3.1 consent items developmental disabilities Awareness Month March 2025 this is an action item motion approved a second motion made by Mr Payne second by Dr Williams any discussion on the motion any discussion hearing none Madam clerk please call for vote Dr William yes M yes Mr yes M Walker yes Dr yes yes yes next I move to item 4.1 recognition of the dville public school school bookkeepers at this
003time I'll turn over to Dr Harriston thank you chair Grace and members of the board um this evening I bring before you recognition of our bookkeepers um they did not run a 5k they did not compete in the science competition um in fact um we're recognizing them for doing such a great job in their day-to-day work which is something that we sometimes fail to do um each year our activity funds are reviewed by Browns Edwards certified public accountants and you will hear a presentation uh from them this evening and as we've gone through our school activities accounts which is a huge part of our financial um picture we've noticed over the years that our findings were were significant in 2122 there were 20 findings uh 22 23 10 findings and so as they have worked
004collect itively and they do work as a team um and and they wear a lot of hats not just managing funds but ensuring that we had here to board policies with internal controls they go beyond finances our bookkeepers wear many many hats they greet visitors the answer phones manage attendants and even serveice backup to the school nurses their dedication is remarkable and as I look out you know to some of the bookkeepers I see here I'm telling you they're all always always always Pleasant and always willing to help and do more than ask and so this year we had actually 12 schools with zero findings which is amazing it's amazing to go entire year an entire year and have a a an audit with zero findings and then we had a total of four but
005they were things that um that just could not be helped that we certainly understand and so as we look back at their remarkable dedication um we often times it's it's not bookkeeper month we don't have a we should we should probably have a bookkeeper month that month we recognize our bookkeepers but more than that they take care of our children and our finances and so we wanted to bring them forward this evening just to say thank you thank you thank you for all that they do so I'm going to present them with a certificate and uh and everyone should if you could come up we've got some that are not here but I'm telling you to have zero findings it it's just that is remarkable that is remarkable to be error free so we're going
006to start with Shannon p is Shannon I didn't see her okay uh we have um uh Eva Perry Perry [Applause] here like to take a picture so you wa right here okay all right and Ana White where's Miss White I'm G to get her she left the district office and went over to Galileo and she's probably still there working actually ebony Moore Tony [Applause] James Kelly [Applause] escara um Denise Robinson [Applause] uh Karen [Applause] pritchet uh Deborah [Applause] Carter car is at GW she's got a big big job thank you so much uh Joan Neighbors [Applause] let you um harn [Applause] Samuel and Lisa hod okay she's not here and Karen Wallace okay so I can say that miss tumer is here and D roia is here D roia Robinson they provide support um for
007these ladies we don't have any men in the group what's Rong what's going on here you all come on up as well and can we get a picture with the school board thank you so [Applause] much she was at part Forest Hills and just a remarkable individual so um we'll let Mr Grace maybe hold that one okay e Round of Applause next we'll move to item 4.2 Social Work month March 2025 I'll ask Miss deah Harris to come and I'll turn it over to Dr Silverman for Proclamation whereas the role of social workers School social workers is integral to the development and well-being of students providing critical support in both academic and social environments and whereas so School social workers help create safe healthy and supportive learning environments that Foster Student Success ensuring every student
008every child has access to the tool tools and resources necessary to thrive emotionally socially and academically and whereas the theme for social School social worker week 2025 unite to ignite emphasizes the power of collaboration in the collective effort to inspire and Empower students families and school communities and whereas School social workers advocate for students mental health well-being and Equity working to bridge gaps reduce barriers and provide guidance to students and families in navigating challenges both in and outside of school and whereas the dedicated Professionals of the school's Social Work field play an essential role in fostering positive relationships supporting inclusive environments and guiding students through the complexities of growing up in today's world and whereas the school board of Danville Public Schools recognizes and values the cont contributions of school social workers to the academic
009achievement emotional resilience and overall success of students therefore be it resolved that the school board of Danville Public Schools does hereby proclaim the week of March 2nd through 8th 2025 as school social worker week and encourages all students staff and community members to acknowledge and celebrate the invaluable work of school social workers let us unite to ignite the future of success equity and opportunity for every student in our schools son taquan Graves School Board chair Angela Harrison superintendent thank you chairman Graves board members superintendent Harriston it is my honor to stand here um for the national social worker week which is celebrated annually during the first full week in March to recognize the V the vital role that school social workers play in supporting students families and Educators as stated before the 2025 theme is
010unite to ignite which highlights the power of collaboration and sparking positive change in schools and in communities social workers play a critical role in addressing social emotional and academic challenges ensuring that students have the resources they need to succeed not only in school but also in life by working together they help ignite potential Foster resilience and they create a brighter future for all of our students and I'm going to have Sheree Walker who is our coordinator for student Support Services give you a little bit more information about the role of the school school social worker so pretty much just like Miss Harris said I would just kind of go over a few of the roles that we do play as the part of school social workers um to begin with we'll just review some of
011the attendance monitoring strategies um what we do is meet weekly as a round table and we discuss any student with three or plus more absences not only do we do that but we also bring Community Partners to the table as well in regards to resources um their suggestions and things like that also we conduct School visits we assist families during meetings to ensure their concerns are being addressed appropriately we develop modify and review attendance plans to take a step further we also conduct what you call monthly and quarterly attendance audits to ensure compliance and continuous growth in our schools we conduct home visit small groups and service case managers for any Trent students which means a child in need of services some additional support that we do is provide crisis of intervention we work closely
012with our mental health Le AG on Miss um provide services to our M vento students and then two work closely with the transportation to help facilitate the second chance transportation and then overse the transition stop and we would just like to take a moment to recognize our our school social workers with their certificate of appreciation we have Jeffrey Williams do all Chandra grasty michella glass Shere [Applause] Walker let's give them another round of applause next we'll move to item 4.3 youth art month March 2025 this time I'll ask Miss White Henderson come for and I'll turn it over to Dr Williams for the proclamation Dil Public Schools Proclamation youth art month your art your voice whereas youth art education benefits all elementary middle and secondary students and whereas through ART education students develop a deeper
013understanding of Multicultural values and whereas art education helps students develop lifelong skills including motor skills language development attentiveness visual learning and decision making and whereas art education interrelates student learning and art production art history critique and Aesthetics and whereas youth art month provides a platform to recognize and celebrate the artistic achievements of our young people showcasing their talents and contributions to our communities and whereas during youth art month we recognize the contributions made by Art educat Educators across the Commonwealth in the development and learning of Virginia students now therefore be it resolved that Dam Public School excuse me Danville School Board recognizes March 2025 as youth AR in our schools and Community signed this 27th day of February 2025 tawon Gray's chair Angela Harrison superintendent thank you good evening chairperson Vice chair board members and
014Dr Harriston in celebration of Youth art month um youth art month was instituted in 1961 and is AAL initiative designed to emphasize the value of art education for all children and to encourage the support for Quality school art programs youth art month is intended to recognize all the skills that students develop by practicing the Arts including creativity communication and problem solving this year's art theme is healing through color the benefits and I'll just go over a couple of these of Youth art month it exists to recognize art education as a viable factor in creating Global Citizens it also encourages the commitment to Arts by students Community organizations and individuals everywhere and also increasing Community understanding and interest in art and art education through the involvement in art exhibits workshops and creative Ventures some are listed
015one of which um is right upstairs in the central office lobby it will be there through the 31st of March Forest Hills will host an art showcase at Danville Public Library on March 11th activate we'll have youth art month in schools a display on March 27th Galileo is hosting tonight the complete works of William Shakespeare um as well as tomorrow at OT boner um Virtual Academy will have an art show March 20th at Glennwood um we have other events that will um occur um after after March throughout through May and those are listed as well please look at your calendars um and Publications for those dates thank you next we'll move to item 4.4 music and our schools month March 2025 at this time I'll ask Mr P come forward I'll turn it over to
016Miss Cunningham for [Music] Proclamation Danville Public Schools Proclamation music in our schools month music lasts a lifetime whereas the study of music is basic to the complete education provides a Competitive Edge for a successful educational reform engages students in individual and group activity develops creativity problem solving and critical and evaluative skills and whereas music education helps students acquire skills in production and performance of music as well as an understanding of history and culture and whereas the National Association for music education is concerned with maintaining and improving school music programs for all students regardless of their socioeconomic status or their abilities therefore be it hereby resolved that Danville Public Schools commends student musicians for their concern for and efforts to enhance the quality of music education and be it further resolved that the school that the
017Danville School Board hereby proclaims the month of March 2025 as music in our schools month and endorses the observance as an opportunity to support the purposes and practices of music education and encourages teachers students and all citizens to participate signed this 27th day of February 2025 taan Graves chair Dr Angela Harriston superintendent good evening members of the board Dr Harriston uh employees of Danville public schools and all in attendance tonight I am Grant P the music teacher at Grove Park in Northside preschools I'm here on behalf of Mr regginald pervis the director of Fine Arts instructional support for music he is unable to attend this the uh tonight's meeting because he is serving the Virginia music educators Association as an adjudicator for a district band assessment near Charlottesville this weekend I joined tonight here with
018some of my fellow music colleagues uh we have Sage AB Abate at Gibson Elementary Cameron Walker the band director at boner middle school and Mr Cody kesling the band director at George Washington High School and also this year serving as Coral director at George Washington High School music in our schools month is celebrated in March to recognize the impact music education has on our students it is also a time to appreciate our music educators who work hard to provide opportunities for our students to express their creativity it is a vital part of the rounded education that is offered to every d public school student preschool through 12th grade the music educators have been very busy all year long preparing our students to perform in music concerts and programs within our schools and out in the
019community most recently the middle school and high school orchestras and bands held their pre-assessment concerts Dr Harriston thank you so much for being in in attendance at the band concert Tuesday night and for the kind words regarding their performances with the assistance of Dr Harriston the orchestras were able to perform yesterday when schools were closed at the district 6 concert assessment in Lynchburg where the Middle School received an excellent rating and the George Washington High School received a superior [Applause] rating as we continue through March the bands and choirs will tra will be traveling to perform in their concert assessment and there will be programs held featuring the elementary students I encourage you to attend as many concerts and programs as you can to support the excellent work of our DPS students and teachers a
020calendar of events has been shared with the District administration listing the remaining concerts through the end of the school year on behalf of Mr pvis and the entire music faculty of Danville Public Schools we want to thank you for your continued support of music education in Danville Public Schools and before you come up I want to thank each of you all as as a school board you know often times when budgets get tight and academics is you know the reading and and Mathematics is that top of mind um music and art they they're they're reduced and you all have supported that in the budget every single year that I've been here and that you've been on the board so know that that's important to so many of our students when you see them perform you
021can see that passion and that that um it just lifts our children up so thank you all so much for your continued support of the Arts and if you all feel like taking a couple of pictures we'd like to have you come forward with these young men and you did an excellent your kids at Gibson I think we were there last week that your your children were amazing um just great thank you so much all right speak come on up e e e next we move to item 5.1 public hearing on the 2025 2026 proposed budget at this time the public hearing is open have anyone signed up no sir at this time public hearing is closed next we'll move to item 6.1 public May address the board anyone signed up okay next we'll move
022to item 7.1 fiscal year 2324 Financial audit review at this time I'll turn it over to miss Fox good evening well good evening my name is Haley Fox and I am a manager at Brown Edwards and I oversee the school's fiscal audit of 2024 uh first I would like to thank Andrea and her staff uh they've dealt with countless questions from us prodding poking invoices you name it they have answered that call and without their help we would not have been able to complete the audit so kudos to them and their staff um I would like to thank you board tonight for allowing me to speak and present on the audit tonight um so tonight I'll briefly um talk about what all is included in your audit sometimes we just give our opinion then run
023on out but um I think it's important to talk about what all is included what all we tested and looked at in our conclusions so first I'll start with the financial statement audit so this is where we provide an independent opinion on your financial statements and that if they present fa as a whole this includes your statement of net position your balance sheet items your statement of activities and your income statement items and I won't go in detail um about most of the figures unless you have specific questions the numbers are about eight months old so it's a little not null but if you have any specific questions I'd be more than happy to go over any specific um number or line item on your statements um so I'll quickly kind of go over the
024financial report in front of you it is a the hefer one um every year they get bulkier and bulkier standards keep coming out and adding on 10 extra pages um so sometimes it can be a little uh too much to just dive into it without kind of knowing what you're looking at and um I'm not going to go over any specific numbers I just kind of or page numbers I do want to just kind of walk you through the gist of what is in this financial report so um towards the beginning of the report you will find our independent auditor report and I am happy to say that the schools did receive an unmodified clean audit opinion of fiscal year 2024 so give yourself a pat on the back for that and then behind our
025the our independent auditor report is the actual statements so like I said this is going to include your balance sheet your income statement as well as um general fund statements governmental funds and then a budget to actual statement as well and again I'm not going to go over much of the numbers unless anyone has a specific question on any of the statements all right so behind the statements are the notes to the financials and it is important to look at these when you're going through the statements these give you a clear picture of what happened and help um discuss the amounts how we are management derived to them and just some more information so if you get a little fuzzy it's important to read the footnotes with the statements as well read them in Tandem
026and the these are about 40 pages and again I don't expect those to get any shorter over the years but they have H tons of great information in them so behind the footnotes is the required supplementary information this is required information to be in your financial statements these address the pension liability as well as the uh other post employment benefit liability so these help break out what how do we derive to those figures how did the actuary get those numbers and other information related to those two liabilities so those are um great if you're trying to find out more about the pension or the opep as I'm the other post-employment benefit and then towards the back of the financial report we um there's a a report from us the independent our auditor report on internal
027control over financial reporting and compliance so along with just auditing your numbers and making sure the amounts are accurate we also look at the school's internal control and make sure that policies and procedures are designed mind and operating effectively in order to prevent or detect and correct any sort of misstatements um we did have one material weakness for the schools for 2024 it was related to audit adjustments um so as part of our audit there were some adjustments that need to be made to make the um numbers correct um we suggested to management to implement procedures just to ensure that transactions are appropriately accounted for and reflected um and talking with Andre and our team they've already put in policies and procedures in place to fix this going forward and to add on to that
028as well um I know there was a period of um not having all the finance staff there there's a little bit of turnover in the finance office and that did also um impact this with audit adjustments and I also will tack on that the schools normally don't have that many findings and uh this is the only finding that we have this year so that's impressive itself we didn't have any other audit findings and of the this is a number but of the 100 amounts of clients we audit government clients generally every year there's at least one or two audit adjustments we help management with because we look at that adjustment 100 times with 100 clients they look at it one time at year end so um there is normally one or two we normally help
029out that's that's pretty normal anyways and then behind that we also have to report any of the prior audit findings and give us status update on where they stand from the prior fiscal year and the prior year for fiscal year 2023 we had uh there's a finding about the unclaimed property report which was not filed on time when we reviewed that and I'm happy to say that this condition no longer exists it was uh filed on time for fiscal year 2024 so that is all the financial report before I dive into the other reports are there any questions I can answer Mr yes yes how many adjustments first of all thank you for your report how many adjustments did we have I believe it was five and at least two of them were um interrelated
030and uh moving forward Mr gra if possible can we keep these before they presented yes yes we can more than happy get those to thank yeah um so along with the financial statement audit we also do a little bit of other testing so the auditor of Public Accounts of Virginia also requires us to do some extra testing out of the scope of the normal audit and these include looking at the uh budget statements um making sure the budget uh processes are in place as well as looking at the conflict of ENT statements that are due every year and the annual school report um that's due to the state making sure we can reconcile back to the financial statements and that it was filed on time and I'm happy to report of the um this testing
031we had no finding everything was clean and worked out great um we also perform Virginia retirement testing so this is where we look at census data that is reported to BRS um because in the long run this Census Data helps create the pension liability and the oped liability so you want to make sure you have good senses staa going in there to get a good clean liability figure and I'm happy to report of the census dat we test we had no findings either those were good as well and the last major portion of your audit is deals with the single audit of federal funds um so this is where we make sure that the federal funds are spent in accordance with the grant agreements as well as if there's any other um reports that have
032to be filed with state agencies making sure they're filed on time filed correctly that sort of thing for the school systems we tested the education stabilization funds as well as the Corona virus state and local fiscal recovery funds and and I'm happy to report through our testing we had no findings on those federal funds either and along with financial report we provide two other letters to the board um I'll start with the comments on internal controls and suggestions so this is um where we address to the board outside of the audit report any comments and suggestions we think that the school board or School Division can make um an improvements on internal controls and other matters as well and the only comment suggestion we had this year again was with the audit adjustments but like
033I said Andrea and her staff have already put in a process in place to make sure that um the audit adjustments and um reconciliations are done before the audit starts and then just like the audit report we have to report any prior year comments we've had from past audits so for fiscal year 23 we did have one comment in regards to um the Virginia retirement system there were a few um entries that were reported to vrs were not entered correctly but I'm happy to say that we did not have any findings this year for that so that common is no longer applicable as well so definitely going in the right direction if we find something it seems like the next year is automatically corrected and behind our comments and suggestions we include accounting and other
034matters so these are going to need be new standards that are applicable for the upcoming year uh not all of these are going to be related to the schools or applicable for the schools but we like to list them out for management and the board to just kind of be aware of any new standards that are coming up and make sure you're aware of them and the last letter we also provided to you all is a required communication we um have to give to you all um in this letter we talk about um some of the more sensitive estimates that affect the school's financial statements I'm not going to list all that we have in this letter but um just a name one the useful lives of capital assets that's an estimate made by management
035um so it it's U more of a sensitive estimate affecting the numbers not meaning that it's incorrect it's just an estimate and in this letter we also talk about any difficulties or disagreements with management throughout the audit process and I'm happy to say we had none they were pleasant this year and made the a um and to go along with the audit findings or the um audit adjustments on the second page of this letter we do list out the um Corrections that had to be made so they're here um to help you understand what kind of audit adjustments we had to be that had to be made and my staff and Andrea staff have already sat down and discussed each in detail so they're we they've been discussed with management as well and lastly behind
036our letter is um we call it a representation letter from management to us and the whole gist of this letter is just saying that management they have taken um responsibility for the audit and they provided us everything that we've asked for for the audit and that is all that I have to present this evening do I have any questions I can answer any questions any questions just one just just for clarity do you all are they external and internal audits external okay all right any others any others thank you thank you next we'll move to item 8.1 instructional material at this time alternative miss prony good evening chairman Graves Vice chair Miss AIT superintendent Dr harston and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to present an overview of our instructional materials and
037their alignment with student achieve a m goals together we're going to take a quick Journey Through the Strategic approach we have taken to ensure that all content areas are supported with high quality instructional materials that enhance student learning and success looking at our strategic alignment our mission in Danville Public Schools is to raise student achievement close achievement gaps and Empower students to take ownership of their learning one of the key ways we accomplish this this is by ensuring that our instruction materials are rigorous aligned with standards and support effective teaching practices let's review the instructional material adoption process the Virginia Department of Education administers the textbook review process for the Board of Education and makes recommendations on approval to the board next a Statewide review committees made up of teachers division level content specialists and
038subject matter experts compare submitted materials with relevant content in the SOS and report on the correlation between the reviewed items and the standards of learning finally the videoe will post a list of approved textbooks with prices on their website the instructional materials adoption process here in DPS prioritizes the voices of our Educators our parents and community members at the Vision level we form subject specific review committees that include the curriculum and instruction team our school leaders teachers parents students and content experts collect recommendations from vendors and Publishers provide items for review and our committee members use a set um evaluation criteria to review those instructional materials during the review process we ensure a comp comprehensive and a transparent evaluation of instructional materials to select the best resources for our students the committee members are given
039access to textbooks and supplementary materials for multiple Publishers these materials undergo a thorough evaluation based on the following criteria we want to ensure that they are aligned with the Virginia's standards of learning that they meet State academic requirements they have instructional quality evaluate how how well the materials support engagement differentiation and deeper learning as well as cultural relevance and equity for a direct diverse perspectives that are represented to all students digital integration and usability assessing the availability of online resources accessibility features and ease for use for our teachers and our students the committee members will then use a rubric brace scoring system to provide a data driven recom recommendations for adoption feedback from stakeholders are reviewed and considered and once the committee finalizes its recommendation the proposed instructional materials are presented for adoption during a
040regular school board meeting and the school board meeting serves as a public hearing where community members parents and Educators have the opportunity to review the recommended materials ask questions provide feedback and understand how the resources aligned with the district learning goals once the instructional materials are adopted we develop and Implement professional learning plan to support the teachers in effectively using these resources upon your approval we will coordinate the ordering inventory and distribution to ensure that all schools have what they need before implementation now would like to formally introduce you to our DPS instructional materials with the passing of the Virginia literacy act literacy materials must meet high quality standard we here in Danville public schools have taken the Bold step to ensure that all content areas are supported with rigorous research-based materials the approved resources
041categories are as follow we have our core which is our primary resources used to deliver the foundational curriculum across all subjects our supplemental is additional resources designed to enhance and enrich The Core Curriculum intervention is specialized resources designed to address learning gaps and our homework is for students for independent practice outside of classroom hours we will now take a look at some of our elementary core resources we have them for our elementary our middle and our high school and if you notice any asteris they will denote that it is a digital component a digital platform or it is a teacher resource and many of these you will see repeated throughout the grade bands as well just to highlight a few we have our hmh into reading which is our comprehensive reading program for literacy and
042it provides reading instruction integrated phonics vocabulary fluency comprehension and writing as well as we have due the math which is implemented the school year for grades k6 on math fluency for number Concepts and oper ations in addition multiplication division and subtraction next we have our supplementary resources examples such as newella to use with Ela and history and social science instruction as well as progress learning which is a comprehensive State aligned instructional resource we have additional resources as well for supplementary for elementary and then moving on to our intervention resources for elementary these provide differentiated materials that scaffold learning reinforce Core Concepts and offer targeted interventions to meet the diverse needs of our students and then we also have some other intervention resources there now let's travel on to our Middle School core again you will
043see some similarities in a few of these resources from elementary for literacy we have my perspectives math we have vision science stem Scopes and for history we have five ponds press and mcra Hill supplemental resources for Middle School we have here and I will say that prisms has quickly become one of the students favorites because it gives spatial learning platform that allows students to engage deeply with Core math and science Concepts using VR technology so anytime that you see students in the building with those headsets on they are using those prisms and what is great about that is that it makes the learning more interactive more meaningful and engaging then we also have some other supplemental resources here and then our intervention resources for Middle School are listed here again to address those learning gaps
044now our high school core resources we have into literature Invision math discover education which is a platform um that has ready to use activities we have our supplemental resources listed here and then we also have our intervention resources for high school as well for homework our students have access to I Exel a comprehensive learning platform for all grade levels to support students with practice and we also have additional approved resources in our supplement mental core and intervention that have curated practice moving on to our instructional material access all students and parents have access to materials through our single sign on Portal and if Mr Cheney would please click it if you go back and click that picture please who is that beautiful young lady right there so if you go down to our single sign
045on I'm sorry you have to log in of course so students will use their credentials to log in and then on this platform you will see all of the ones that we talked about here um it has it on a district on a digital level for them please if you don't mind so they can see there's a question if you could answer while they're signing in about hard copies versus digital and so if a parent and and the digital um book is the same it as cost the same there's an equal cost there's no discount for being digital um but if a parent wanted a hard copy can you explain how they might go about doing that getting that hard copy the students are able to bring books home if they wanted to so um
046they have their books that they use within um core classroom instruction as well as they can take books home for homework and things of that nature if they need it to so we have it both ways and then this is also a convenience um if they needed it like on the go um things of that nature so but there's a class set it's not a CL class set so they would need to work with the teacher on that yes ma'am okay what what grade level is that for which one for the books all everyone has a book so every grade level yes MH our students have hard copy books K12 I'm sorry just one more question so there are no more consumables they're just class we do have consumables as well yes sir but all
047have their own personal classroom set copies yes M so they get to take those books home at the end of the school year the consumable ones and then we have a rebound for them in the upcoming school year yes ma'am so I just want to clarify if a parent ask a teacher for a book then they should be able to be given a book a textbook yes if depending on if we have enough resources yes okay so here you can see the different um digital resources that we have that align as well with our hard copy and um supplemental materials here and then on the next slide Mr Cheney this right here is our Clara platform which provides um students with online access also in in another place okay our professional learning and instruction for
048instructional materials we provide job embedded instruction um professional learning for teachers to maximize the impact of instructional materials this includes an ongoing process throughout the school year we have introductory workshops to familiarize Educators with instructional materials so that they will understand their purpose their structure and key features we have advanced workshops to support maximizing the impact of these resources coures we have professional learning communities where we have collaborative planning of the lessons using the instructional materials and our instructional coaches provide personalized support and model best practices for our teachers and through classroom walkthroughs we monitor Fidelity of the use of those instructional materials we believe that great instructional materials have the power to transform ordinary lessons to extraordinary learning experience at the heart of every great lesson is a powerful learning experience and the right
049instruction materials make that possible when we equip our Educators with high quality instructional resources we are not just delivering content we are igniting curiosity deepening understanding and we are shaping the future of our students our commitment is unwavering every student in every classroom deserves access to the best tools to unlock their potential one lesson at at a time thank you do you have any further questions any questions Dr Williams first thank you so much Miss pry um just one quick question what does the process look like to make sure or selecting the resources that are most aligned to our decks I know that's like a homegrown curriculum so what does that process look like um through the Virginia literacy act um and Boe we have a list of curated um high quality instruction materials that
050we use so everything that we already had in dville public schools I'm proud to say was already in alignment of the Virginia act and those high quality instruction materials from vdoe perfect thank you yes any other question any others any others thank you thank you next next we'll move to item 8.2 School discipline report Al turn it over Miss Harris and Dr KO good evening again chairperson Graves board members and superintendent Harriston Dr and I would like to give you an update on our school discipline report first we'll start with our strategic alignment which goes with Goal five culture and climate objective a and objective b objective a improve the quality of the learning environment student Behavior well-being and overall safety objective b to create and maintain a welcoming including an equitable School climate that
051promotes learning so at this time we're going to look at a comparison of discipline so we're looking at the discipline um from August 23 to February 24 to August 24 to February 25 and so you can see um the year before last year we had 3,882 referrals and this year we have today 3,162 referrals that's a decrease of $720 which is very significant our discipline hearings have gone down uh last year we had 242 at this time this year we have 163 which is a decrease of 78 our ISS last year we had2 this year we have 836 which is a decrease of 176 our out of school suspension we had 943 this year we have a decrease we have 814 which is a decrease of 129 in our expulsions last year we had nine
052this year we have five which is a decrease of four also looking um at our males um we had a decrease of 588 which is significant our females there was a decrease of 259 um black students there was a decrease of 1,251 which I think that deserves a round of applause so this just shows we're moving in the right direction um with our white students there was a decrease of 20 for our Multicultural there was a slight increase of five and so we're looking at that um one of the things we're looking at that is with our EC students there was an increase of 113 and so we're going to be looking at those discipline referrals with our EC students and we're going to address them by focusing on um expanding our professional development for
053our EC staff our teachers and the PA professional we're going to be working with them on effective um strategies for classroom management um de deescalation techniques and inclusive practices and next week uh Mrs mentor and uh myself Mrs Mentor she is the director for EC we are going to a conference and they're focusing on positive behavior and effective Behavior strategies so we're we we'll be attending that on a grant um next week and we'll be coming back and we'll be providing our EC teachers and staff with um different strategies that we have learned from this conference so next we're looking at elementary we're looking at discipline referrals and so we rank them the top five discipline referrals and so if you just kind of look at it um we had B sc14 which was fighting
054and no injury we had 475 last year this year we have3 which is a decrease of 372 if we looked at just comparing some of them I won't compare them all looking at the refusal comply with staff respon um request last year we had 381 this year we have 198 which is a decrease of 183 and our BSC 17 which is M minor altercation no injury last year we had 303 this year we have 125 it's a decrease of 178 and bap1 interfering with the learning with the Lear learning last year we had 253 today we have 73 so that was a quite significant when we look at our Middle School we can see they were um ranked again from the top down from 1 to five and so just comparing the some of them
055that were the same as last year so we had the bsc3 that was refused um to comply with Staff last year we had 376 this year we have 198 which is a increase of a 178 we had rb8 which was um profanity and vulgar language we had last year we had um 284 this year we have 57 so our our students are learning we only had 57 which is a decrease of 227 and we also we had BSC 17 which is minor altercation last year we had 50 158 this year we have 51 which is a decrease of 107 looking at our high school um if we look at bap1 which is intering with the learning um we had last year we had 153 um this year we have 73 which is a increase of
05680 when we look at BSC 5 um tobacco use and tobacco products um last year we had 78 this year we have 41 if you look at BS O3 refusal to comply with staff request last year we had 363 this year we did have an increase we had 554 which was an increase of 191 but when we looked at it most of that occurred towards the beginning of the school year but now it's kind of leveled out and so what we've done is so now we have a behavior special that is assigned to um GW and that behavior specialist um stays at that school so he's working with that staff um on those on those concerns and now I'm going to turn it over to Dr KO because you may say well how did they
057get those scores so we're going to tell you about some prevention strategies and intervention strategies that we put in place that reflects those scores good evening l ladies and gentlemen I just wanted to at this time take a moment to share some of the prevention strategies and some of the intervention strategies that we're using um through our student services department to kind of support the decreases in disciplinary um issues our district has committed to a program called responsive classrooms with professional learning um platform framework which assists teachers with classroom management techniques promotion strategies and prevention strategies of misbehavior um we've invested heavily in that training and have worked really hard to um get out into the schools to make sure that that it's supported and that teachers have the um materials and supports that they
058need our Behavior Support team uh Works um very well together and across departments um to address the social emotional learning needs of our students uh they've engaged in some training ing themselves this year to learn some new strategies and inventions as you see on the slide uh those are just a handful of the many things that they do on a day-to-day basis um working with small groups um checking in and checking out with students um on a daily basis uh uh implementing deescalation techniques and working with students to resolve their conflicts in different ways whether it be peer mediation um and peer conflict resolution strategies and they go in to classrooms and they model tier one strategies those classroom management strategies for teachers as needed uh we do have a this was mentioned earlier a
059mental health liaison this year and she's been instrumental in helping to um uh kind of monitor the mental health agencies that are servicing our schools and so each school has been assigned two different agencies that they can work with and through um to address the mental health needs of students and providing uh in school therapeutic day treatment counseling and other additional supports we're continuing with our alternative to suspension program this year uh when students in middle and high school are suspended for two through 10 days out of school for lower level infractions they are um encouraged to opt into this program uh their parents are contacted and so this far so far this year we've been able to serve as 90 students and reclaim 157 days of instruction that would have been um uh contributed
060to our chronic absenteeism in addition to students not being in school and learning the things they need to learn our dep Department collaborates with uh multiple departments office of exceptional children children we collaborate with um uh technology we collaborate with Community Partners on looking at attendance on a weekly basis bi-weekly depending on you know the month and some other activities that may be going on but in those meetings we look at each student that has a certain number of absences and we try to work across all of the Departments and across um public the uh public agencies and the school system to make sure that students are getting the things that they need to be successful in school to come to school on time to be in school every day and many of the reasons
061why kids are not in school often relate back to behavior and so we kind of we kind of connect the dots with some of the mental health agencies Public Health agencies to make sure that those needs are being addressed as well and there's not becoming an impediment to students being in school we have continued um and we've ramped up and kind of uh We've made it more um more of a solid framework and process for students transitioning back from the alternative school to their regular school so we have meetings uh with them and their parents uh Dr hariston actually takes the time to meet with uh these students as well and their parents they kind of um set expectations for when they return back to school and when they uh um sign a behavior agreement
062that they're adhering to the behavior agreement and they know what the repercussions are if the behavior agreement is violated and we also meet with students who are transitioning back from some challenges they may have had in the community and they're transitioning back from uh detention facilities uh mental health facilities and things of that nature and so those meetings have been um helpful in helping those students have a smoother experience when they do return to their regular school setting does anyone have any questions of me and Miss Harris I think we have the students who transition back working um communities and schools right ma'am the students who transition back are assigned to the communities and schools the uh yes ma'am they're assigned to communities and Schools they're also assigned to a uh social worker or Behavior
063Support intervention they check in with them periodically once they return um and we did have another slide I I apologize moving forward the next steps uh we are providing additional support and training around our Virginia tier systems of support this summer uh we have a district leadership team that is overseeing that facilitating that and going through the training themselves this year when they will trickle down to the schools beginning this summer we also have begun the process of updating our cores which is our student code of conduct the the cores uh includes strategies interventions and procedures that help promote positive behavior and prevent um any types of uh negative behavior and so we have a small committee that is working on updating that currently and as I mentioned earlier we have responsive classrooms training that
064we're going to continue with and offer some additional opportunities for staff to um participate in this summer now does anybody have any questions of me and Miss Harris any questions more of a statement um oh sorry go ahead Dr Silman the Improvement is remarkable do you have any can you say anything about what you think is the main reason or main reasons for the improvements that we have seen a a big a big thing that I thought about is just that we're getting better at working together as a team across departments and working with our community agencies um a lot of times you work in silos and you don't always know what another group is doing or how another group can support our young people but when we all come together at the same table
065it kind of reduces redundancy and we're much more efficient and effective in the work that we do and I'd like to say that often times over the years learned that part of the challenge uh is engaging instruction for children and understanding how children learn I think responsive classrooms deescalation training understanding our children mental health support have all helped um and our teachers our teachers have really uh embraced the concept that these are our children and in order for them to learn at high levels we we must adjust and help them grow in discipline just like we teach reading and writing we need to teach appropriate behavior so over the last three years our teachers have um been involved in is it a week a week of responsive classroom training which which helps them better understand
066children so less confrontation yes let's and and getting kids motivated you know to engage I think that has a lot to do with it um when you um I was at Bonner the other day and the children you know middle school children like to run and scream and hit H each other they were walking alongside each other having a conversation you know that because you're there it's very different but it's because teachers and I just have to thank them they have embraced the concept that these are our children and we need them in school so I think part of that is um is um The Adjustment there as well and I would also like to say Dr KO and Miss Harris um I mean this is this is phenomenal but I just want to highlight
067the high school discipline referrals um to look at comparatively to 23 24 and 2425 2425 had absolutely no violent you know I mean no violent infractions to be the top five so that's amazing within itself and I think Dr um Silverman asked a question about what what causes this and I I simply think is being clear on expectations I mean going into buildings I mean it's clear what they expect this is what they expect and then when you look at the 554 um referrals as far as refusal to comply I mean that's that's set in expectations you don't want to follow our rules this is the consequence and either they're going to get on the you know the bus or they're not um so I do appreciate these numbers and I think uh Charles um
068I think these are some good numbers that we can report out of thank you um one last question if I may uh Miss Walker mentioned this and I want to bring it up do you think our using Yonder pouches and reducing the uh cell phone use has has contributed to the reduction in behavioral problems I do yeah that social media I'm telling you not having to oh my gosh that makes a huge I don't know let's ask ask us to do that you [Laughter] think you think not having to get on your cell phone and go back and for to yeah I think it reduces like the amount of like negative feedback students give to each other so I would say some lack of cell phones does help bring less fights and one of the
069things of our responsive classroom it teaches the teachers have a build relationships with the students and um and so I think that's a positive teachers build relationships with the students the teachers know the students the students know the teacher and and when you know somebody that you're you know you're going to behave in their class you're going to do what you need to do so I think that's a vital uh part also just that building relationship piece that we get from that responsive class i' like Mr I'd like to add on to Mr Grace I like what you just said man because if you look at George Washington High School Mr crestle he's out there in the hallway yes he's building relationships with not just one set of students but he's all up and down
070and he's talking to them like he's on that level and I think that's where a lot of the growth has come from is meeting them on their level being able to talk to them being able to reach them so this is great also Mr uh Jackson is here from Johnson and um he was one of the ones that was over there with Johnson there was a lot of different things and you walk in Johnson it's like we at the funeral and that's that's a good thing so uh I think that that relationship build put expectation I think good well if it's loud there we got a problem thank you appreciate it thank you thank [Applause] you next we'll move to item 9.1 Personnel recommendations at this time I'll turn it over to miss mly good
071evening chairman Graves Vice chair aett school board members Dr Harrison you've been presented with the Personnel recommendations for your review consideration and approval I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any any questions any questions this is an action item so Move Motion made by Miss a second by Mr Payne any discussion hearing Madam clerk please call for a vote Dr Williams yes Miss Cunningham yes Mr Penny yes Dr yes m a yes M Walker yes Mr yes thank you next we'll move item 9.2 approval of recommendation director Finance I'll turn it over to Dr Harris thank you Mr Grace and members of the board I have this evening with us Vanita MC Williams if you'll stand please uh Miss McWilliams you she's no stranger to us um and we've uh certainly um want
072to bring her forward with a great level of excitement to get some support there but uh Miss MC Williams has been uh she's has a Bachelor of Science and accounting a master's and business and NBA from Western Governor's University she worked for ups and UPS Freight and Richmond and Myra LMA I believe Mira Loma California for 11 years before being promoted to senior Financial supervisor at UPS uh for seven years uh she then arrived here in Dam we were so excited to have her join us as our senior accountant uh she has served since 2023 and uh this evening I'd like to recommend Vanita McWilliams for the position of Director of Finance thank you Dr your approval this is an action item I so Move Motion made by Dr Williams second by Mr Payne any
073discussion hearing none Madam clerk please call for vote Mr P yes m a yes Dr Willam yes Dr yes missh yes M Walker yes yes great yes let's give a round of applause next we move to item 10.1 board request for information for future agenda items yes Mr CRA I I asked last meeting for a report update on um 12th grade graduation status we've added that do you have the date you want to give Mr pay the date for that the 20th 20 March 20th sir M any others any others we have a work session following this meeting and if we have no further business any further business have none meeting journ thank you