School Board Meeting 1/15/2025

001We're good. >> The meeting of the Isaw County School Board is hereby called to order. Today is Thursday, January 15, 2026. This meeting is being held at Westside Elementary School, 800 West Main Street, Smithfield, Virginia. Alawite County Public Schools is preparing students for college, career, and life. And the clerk shall take the roll call. >> Mr. Worooster >> here. >> Mr. Marsh >> here. >> Mrs. Perkins >> here. >> Mr. Ford >> here. >> And Mr. Collic >> here. Next we have the approval of the agenda or amendments for closed session. Somebody would show Mr. forward where that is on that paper in front of them. >> I move to approve the agenda for close session as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Clerk will take

002the vote. >> Mr. Worster? >> Yes. >> Mr. Marsh? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perkins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ford. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic. >> Yes. Next, we have the approval of the agenda or amendments for open session. >> I move to approve the agenda for open session as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, the clerk will take the vote. >> Mr. Worster, >> yes. >> Mr. Marsh, >> yes. >> Mrs. M. Perkins. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ford. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic. >> Yes. >> And next we have the motion to go into closed session. [clears throat] >> I move to go into close session to review the personnel report posted on board board docs under personnel tab number 18.1 is

003authorized by VA code 2- 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 for purpose of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Isle of White Public Schools for employment, contract changes, transfers, salary adjustments, supplemental contracts, deletions, supplemental pay, resignations of Isle of White County Public Schools employees and to consider the appointment and contract of central office employees as authorized by VA code 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 and to consult with legal counsel regarding the same issue as authorized by VA code 2.2-3711A88 and to consult with legal counsel regarding legal issues surrounding schoolboard governance as authorized by VA code 2.2-3711A88. >> Second. >> We have a motion to second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, the clerk will take the vote. >> Mr. Worster, >> yes. >> Mr. Marsh, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Ford, >> yes. >> And Mr. Collic,

004>> yes. And Mrs. Whitlow, has anyone registered to speak in close session? >> No, sir. >> Okay, then the board will enter close session at this time. Yes, I can hear you. Fine. Okay. All right. I will mute now. I'll go ahead and Okay. All right. Yes. Yes, I can see it. I thought you were doing it by district. >> I thought you were doing it by district. Did you just give The meeting of the Isawite County School Board is hereby reconvened in open session. We'll have the certification of the resolution of compliance. I move that the closed session I move that the closed meeting was conducted in conformity [snorts] with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section 2.2-3712D of the code of Virginia and certified that only public

005business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed or considered. Second. >> We've got a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. The clerk will take the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Worster, >> yes. >> Mr. Marsh, >> yes. >> Mr. Ford, >> yes. >> And Mr. Collic, >> yes. Okay, >> next the vice chair will lead us in a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. 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 liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone and welcome to the

006first meeting of the Alawite County School Board of 2026. First, I'd like to welcome Mr. Jared Ford representing District Three and our vice chair to the board. Jared and I have chatted a little bit since the election and I believe he's going to serve our county very well. And without any further ado, I guess Miss Briggs is up with the olive white achievers. Good evening board. Um, as we get ready to recognize a few achievers tonight, as we started doing a couple months ago, we are going to have our board members come down on the floor and stand in front of the backdrop. Our achievers that come up will shake your hand. Uh, then we'll get uh the board and the honores in a photo from Mr. Elliot. It's going to be very few because

007those are all the tracks that aren't here. Okay. Okay. So, as you're getting a position, um, let me start off by reminding folks that the vision for Olive White County Schools is to create a learning environment that will enable every child to discover his or her unique gifts and talents. And the is of White Achievers, uh, section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts. Now, we're going to start with Smithville High School's cross country team, but I have to tell you, many of those students on the cross country team are participating in indoor track. Um, and uh, anyway, they have a meet tonight. So, I think we have one young man here [laughter] who will come up when I call

008his name, but we do want to recognize them because they had a a very outstanding season. So, the fall 2025 Smithville cross country team had another historic season this school year, culminating in a trip to the class 4 state meet for both the entire boys and girls varsity teams. This is a repeat performance of 2024, which was the first time both teams had ever qualified in the same season. The Packers boys team won in inseason trophies at three major invitationals and in postseason were runner up at the Bay Rivers District Championship and then for the second year in a row were runner up at the region 4A championship meet held at Windsor Castle Park on a chilly rainy day. The top three teams at regionals move on to state uh the state meet. All district

009members were Caleb Greer, Logan Greer, Lucas Cair, and Zachary Kennedy. All region boys were Caleb Greer, Logan Greer, and Lucas. And Smithville High School's full team of varsity boys who made the trip to compete in Manasses at the 2025 state meet include Caleb Greer who was selected all state Logan Greer, Lucas Cair, Zachary Kennedy, Rowan Black, Cooper West, Nate Miller, Brennan Thompson, Noah Owens, Nick Baker, Owen Cooa, and Maximo Duffy. Maximo. Um, the boys cross country team was led by senior captains and Cooa and Maximo Duffy. So, come on up, Maxima. Yay. [applause] And Miss Gets has a pin for you and you go ahead. And so he is he is representing both boys and girls tonight. Yep. And Mr. Elliot, I don't think Let me just ask, do I have any um girls cross

010country honores here tonight? Do you see anybody, Miss Gats? Okay. So, Mr. Mr. Elliot, let's go ahead and do a picture of Maximo so he doesn't have to stand here through that all the names. And actually, I will just keep on going while you're taking the picture. But the Lady Packers cross country runners qualified for the state meet for the third year in a row, which is also unprecedented in Smithville High. The team took home inseason awards at two invitationals and comfortably captured third at district championship and region championships. All district congratulations, Maximo. Um, all district lady packer runners were Juliana Jones and Ellie Fetch. All region Smithville girls were also Juliana and Ellie. And the entire team who qualified to compete in the state tournament was Ellie, Juliana, Addison Sanders, Ella Clove, Emma Hatimer,

011Evelyn Porter, Rachel Morgan, Yasmine Fan, Grace Dodson, Ava Clove, Ashlin White, and team manager Kylie Instrom. The fall team's excellent girls performance was led by senior leadership group of Emma Hatimer, Rachel Morgan, Ava Clove, Yasmine Fan, and Grace Dodson. And it should be noted that Emma Grace and Yasmine are three-year state qualifiers for cross country, which is very impressive. Uh the cross country both cross country teams were led by head coach Steve Shepard and assistant coaches Eric Bergie and Laura Instrom. Congrats to the Packers cross country team. Thank you. All right. [applause] Okay, moving along. We're going to recognize our seniors of the month for January. And we are going to start with Windsor High School. The senior of the month for January from Windsor High School is Jeremy King. And I know we have

012Jeremy with us tonight. And while he's coming up and shaking hands, let me read all of this wonderful um information about Jeremy. [applause] Yep. Right. Jeremy, we're going to have you come this way first. So Jeremy King distinguishes himself through a strong balance of academic responsibility, authentic leadership, and character. He approaches his coursework with consistency and maturity, particularly excelling in history and language based classes. In science courses, Jeremy has taken on leadership roles such as serving as lab captain, where he ensured every group member had a meaningful role and felt included. His respectful demeanor, confidence, and commitment to teamwork are evident in both academic and collaborative settings. Beyond the classroom, Jeremy is a trusted leader as a multi-year varsity captain in both football and soccer. He leads by example rather than ego, creating positive, supportive

013environments where teammates feel valued and motivated. Whether organizing class groups, distributing responsibility fairly, or setting high standards on the field, Jeremy consistently demonstrates accountability, initiative, and a genuine concern for the success of others. His ability to balance academics, athletics, and leadership makes him especially deserving of recognition. Quote, I have had the absolute privilege of knowing Jeremy since the first grade when he was a student in my class during my first year of teaching. Jeremy is intelligent, athletic, talented, and a friend to all. He also has the most genuine heart and is incredibly kind and humble. He has always been respectful, grateful, polite, and is the definition of a hard worker. He faces challenges with strength and perseverance. I am beyond proud of you, Jeremy. I know you will continue to succeed in all that you

014pursue. And that's from Mrs. Aaron Gimmo, English language teacher. So after graduation, Jeremy plans to study business or accounting at Christopher Newport University where he also hopesi to continue his football career. So congratulations, Jeremy. And we'll get Mr. Elliot to get a group photo. [applause] Congratulations once again, Jeremy. >> Oh, did you get one, Miss? >> No. You good? >> Oh, okay. All right. All right. And our senior of the month for January from Smithville High School is Reagan Breznahan. We see Reagan. Hey, Reagan. Reagan Brezahan has been a consistent academic standout throughout her time at Windsor High School, continually challenging herself through advanced placement and dual enrollment coursework. Uh oops, excuse me, Smithville High School. Yep. She approaches even apologize. She approaches even the most demanding subjects with discipline, persistence, intellectual curiosity, pushing herself

015to master material that stretches her abilities. Her work strong work ethic and love of learning are evident in both subjects she naturally excels in and those that require extra determination and focus. Beyond the classroom, Reagan has made a lasting impact through her leadership on the debate team. She has been instrumental in running the public forum division, earning two consecutive state tournament births while also serving as division captain. In this role, Reagan has focused on developing new team members, routinely providing guidance, feedback, and encouragement. Her willingness to prioritize mentoring, often stepping back from competition to support younger debaters, has strengthened the entire program and allow coaches to support other divisions more effectively. Quote, Reagan has also thrown herself into a leadership role with the National Honor Society. National Honor Society Secretary, according to Miss Whitaker, and

016Miss Washington, is the most demanding position as the secretary has to keep track of member hours. Reagan has also been instrumental in planning and expanding National Honors Society activities. And that comes from school counselor Lana Booth. Reagan plans to pursue a major in classical studies and is applying to a joint program that will allow her to study at both William and Mary and St. Andrews University in Scotland. So, congratulations, Reagan. And we'll have Mr. Elliot take a photo. And I apologize I didn't say this earlier, but if you have family members or anybody in the the audience and you would like a photo, please please come up. This is the time to come up and get that photo. Do you want to come up further? You come on. It's okay. >> We're used to this.

017>> Yeah. You good? Okay. Congratulations. Very good. All right. And we have one more recognition tonight. This is our ABCD award. And each quarter, we recognize one of our support staff members who has gone above and beyond the call of duty. Anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations. A panel reviews the nominees and selects um the quarterly winners. Our 2025 2026 second quarter ABCD award winner is Nash How with our fleet services team. [applause] And the nomination for Mr. How states, "Mr. How is a top contributor who has maintained the highest production rate among all Fleet Services staff members for the last three years. His hard work and dedication at Fleet Services has ensured that every trip is successful, every child is safe, and every IWCS vehicle is at the highest state of

018readiness as possible. He also serves as the departmental safety advocate and ensures that employees meet and exceed OSHA work standards. Over the last three years, it has been my privilege, it has been a privilege to work with Nash. He is an absolute workforce multiplier. Mr. Hal is leading the fleet services department with the highest production rate of all technicians and his diagnostic approach is analytical and accurate which results in Alawite County school vehicles returning to the road faster than ever. Mr. Mr. How takes time out of his day to assist others in understanding difficult theories and procedures and also promote safety in the workplace. As part of his award, Nash is receiving a $50 Visa gift card thanks to the generous support of our partner, the Women's Club of Smithfield, and he is also receiving

019a personalized plaque created in the Smithville High School maker space. Congratulations, Nash. And we'll have Mr. Elliot come get a picture. And once again, if we've got any family or friends that want to come up and get a photo, now's the time. Are we good? Good. And I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen you with your hat off, Nash. [laughter] It would have been fine to have worn it up here. Um, and that, ladies and gentlemen and board members, that's going to conclude our achievers for tonight. Thanks to everyone who came out uh to be recognized and or to support those Okay. So, next we have I ion instruction. [music] Got a beast in his belly. So hard to control cuz they're taking too much hits. It go blow blow. Now light

020[music] stand back. Watch him explode. She's got a lion in the heart, a fire in his soul. He's got a beast in his belly that's so hard to control. Cuz [music] they've taken too much hits. Now light watching. [music] When you've been fighting for it all your life, you've been struggling to make things right. So [music] you all you've been working every day and night super. [music] >> Good evening school board members, Dr. Kramer and the I love white community. We here are the head of houses at Westside. Tonight our presentation is about leaving a legacy. Westside in the beginning. Westside is nearly 100 years old. It became a black school in 1924. Was renamed Westside all white training school in 1928. It later became Westside High School in 1960. It currently became Westside Elementary

021School in 2005. A teacher's reflection and legacy. In this section, we interview teachers who have been here since or around the time when Westside Elementary School was opened in 2005. Miss Adcock believes that her greatest impact is helping students improve and enjoy reading. She also feels that her biggest lesson that she has learned from working here at Westside is how good and dedicated a staff can be with little resources. Mr. Bailey says that the biggest change that has happened since he started working here has been the building itself. The greatest lesson he has learned at Westside is to take everything with a grain of salt. Hi, I I interviewed Miss Chapman. Miss Chapman has been at Westside for over 20 years. She has faced challenges like the old building and improvements like students receiving computers.

022She has The biggest lesson Miss Chapman has learned is every child is unique and learns differently. Mr. Johnson says that his biggest impact is creating a positive experience for students and the biggest lesson he has learned is the importance of leaving a legacy. Miss Purle says while education is still the same, learning is harder due to crowded classrooms and limited resources. She also says that technology went from no student computers to widespread access. How have we grown? [clears throat] Today, Westside encourages their students to do their best and leave a legacy both in and out of the classroom. At Westside, leaving a legacy stands for L leadership, Empathy, Growth. A accountability, Courage, and Y, your impact. Westside is truly an amazing school full of young leaders. A life well-lived decline over time. Hi. Well, I

023have noticed his classrooms are outdated and small. It's hard to move about when everybody has their backpack, lunchbox, and needs supplies. There's nowhere to put anything but the floor. This creates a hazard for all. Because there are more students in Westside Elementary, hallways are often crowded and unpassable. One problem that I noticed is the AC in some rooms are malfunctioning, making the rooms too hot or too cold. This makes everyone sick. You'll never know how to dress. Westside has several layout issues. Without even stepping into the building, you'll find that the playground has rotting wood, broken equipment, and unsafe equipment that has already harmed many students. A part of the playground near the back is even open to the public and wild animals, which is a safety hazard to many. Because we have so many

024students, we grade levels cannot possibly eat lunch at the same time. This means some students eat brunch and others eat late lunch. We can tell after all these problems, it's not that we want a new school. It's a need. The legacy of a great school. The future is ours. It's time to move forward. As we have just seen, Westside is an extraordinary school full of wonder and legacy. But to make Westside really the best side, we can encourage the next generation of Eagles to take flight and action to change the world. We can be responsible and be role models. But let's remember that with hard work, dedication, and teamwork, all things are possible. The legacy of a great school. Moving from Carolton to Westside was nerve-wracking, but I pushed through and made my fourth grade

025year amazing. Then legacy and westside expectations came into play, shaping me to a wonderful student. I made an impact by being in clubs like Beta, a young man of excellence, and head of house. and I am happy to stand in front of the school board and what the Eagles throw out of their cage. >> Good evening. I am going to be telling you my experience coming from Hardy to Westside with just one year at Hardy. Initially, Westside with students disrespect due to the liacy policy in place. Therefore, programs like Legacy Ladder and Legacy Loot has been implemented making Westside a great school to be at. I came from Carton, but when I first joined Westside, I was scared. But when I met all these amazing people, teachers, administration, and the principal, I just knew this

026school year will be a blast. But not only did I want to have amazing experience here at Westside, I also wanted the new kids and adults to have the same experience as me, but even better. Hello. I'll be sharing with you coming from Churchland to Westside. It wasn't the best at first, but thanks to the warm and welcoming students and staff, I warmed up quickly. My impact is that I live the Westside legacy every day, helping others and doing good things even when no one is watching. Westside has many inviting clubs for students. I myself am part of the Young Men of Excellence, which is a club that helps the community and does fundraisers for the school. Moving from Chesapeake to Smithfield was difficult, especially leaving my best friend behind. But teachers like Miss McGrath

027at Hardy helped me pull through. Starting at Westsiders hockey, too, as I was separated from friends by the house system, but dedicated teachers like Miss Ingress and Mrs. Ferguson helped me excel. I in straight A's and joined beta and now I'm in YME and a head of house. I wanted to make a legacy at Westside, but I feel Westside made a legacy in me. >> How will you leave your legacy? You can be responsible. You can be remembered and you can too. Leave your legacy. Leave a mark, not just a memory. >> We have left you a Westside challenge coin. We challenge you to leave a legacy. Thank you. >> Do you have any questions? >> Mr. Chair, I I do have a question. I have a question. Thanks for the coin, by the way.

028I have a question for two students. Um, and I apologize, young man, if I butcher your name. Necandreas and Jada. So, both of you came from Carsville to Westside. [clears throat] >> So, here's the question. Carolton to Westside. I'm gonna put you on the spot. Who's doing a better job, Mr. Brennan or Mr. Johnson? [laughter] >> You don't have to answer it. >> They're both great. >> They're both outstanding. [clears throat] >> That's right. I yield, Mr. Chair. >> Kids, this was a great presentation. Um, and I just want to remind you Westside is a great school. Not because of the building we're in, but because of the students and the faculty. Yes, we can use a much better building. And I will guarantee you this board is working on that today. Okay? We are

029trying our best to get a newer building at some point. It probably won't happen while you're going to Westside, but it's going to be a legacy that you leave behind. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> What are you waiting for? [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] You wait [music] to be bra [music] sent a message used their minds to come up is the artistic everything about it was just phenomenal. Yes. >> And they sent the message. >> Yeah. >> Okay. [laughter] We'll give everybody a minute. >> [clears throat and snorts] >> Miss Whitler, did we have anyone sign up to speak tonight? >> Yes, sir. >> In accordance to policy BDDH-E, presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board. No person will be recognized to speak more

030than once. Citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation. Delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two. Persons speaking are asked to be specific, state the issue issues for the board's consideration, and attach a copy of your prepared remarks. If you have prepared remarks, they should be given to the board clerk. Please do not approach the board members. Any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting. First, we have Mr. Uzel. >> [clears throat] [clears throat] >> Good evening board members. Happy new year to all. Uh I want to welcome uh my new uh district person, Miss Ford, and uh look forward to working with you as well as all the rest of you as

031well. I want to thank Mr. Cunningham. He's my here, but I want to thank him and somebody gave him a message that I really appreciate and concerned that he served on the board and like y'all always do, do the best you can and what you got. So, I want to thank him for representing district three as well. I want to thank the staff. Uh I had some list of concerns about some staff and we met some of us met in December. So I still got quite a few more to to go to uh and talk with about some concerns. Um, the departments I would like to speak to now will be special ed, security, and buildings and grounds. Those the last I think it's the last three that I have I need to speak with

032uh as soon as I can as soon as possible. This another topic I would like to visit each school and see how the daily operations are being handled. Uh I don't know who I need to see as a contact person or what I need to do that. I always wanted to do that but I never got a chance to do it to visit each school and just see what their daily routines are. uh just of concerns and voice to being concerned about that. Not saying anything is being done wrong. It's just something I want to just see what the daily operations of the school for each school do be going on. Uh and I would like a list of all the principles, assistant principal for each school as [clears throat] well as well as each

033board members. I need your contact number and everything just to have my records. I'm starting off something little different this year. I need some some contact numbers so that I can contact each one of you or all of you at one point or another so that I can thing move things a little easier for for all of us. Um [clears throat] and I thank you for your time. That's all I got for you starting off at 2026. That was the only speaker, Mr. Clark. >> Thank you, Mr. Ozel. [laughter] >> Hey, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Mr. Ozel, all those contact informations are on our website and [clears throat] if you send me an email, I'll give you a list, sir. >> Doesn't have a computer. right [clears throat] >> let me say this why >>

034we got to realize that some people does not have that type of type of access to because of their finances We have to look beyond that. Go back to what you think people would need such as paper and pencil if they need it. Don't think everybody has that technology stuff cuz they don't. And if they do, they might can't pay for it. And some areas in this county does not have it still. And I'm one of them. So when you say stuff like that, I got to go either to the library or come somewhere to get one, get the information that I needed. So if we all can take that into consideration on whatever we do then you we would serve the best of all people not just some all people cuz all people don't

035have everything but just go my dad always say go to the lease if the lease got it you automatically much is already taken care of. I thank you for your time. >> If I may Mr. Chair we will make certain that Mr. Ozel gets the information he's requesting. Okay, next we'll have the reports from the student liaison. Uh Cameron, >> good afternoon school board. This is our first meeting back after the lengthy winter break. Since we last saw each other, not much has happened at Smithfield High School. This month, there's going to be a lot of testing going on with final exams and SOS. Today and tomorrow, the 15th and the 16th are so days. So only students who need to take those SOS went to school today and will do so tomorrow. for upper

036classmen and students in general who didn't need to take SOS. The day was classified as an asynchronous day. Uh next week on Monday, January 19th, students will be out of school again for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Uh and then the week after that on Monday, January 26th and Tuesday, January 27th, students will take their final exams. Uh on the 26th, the students will with exams in their first and third blocks will show up. And then on the 27th, students who have exams in their second and fourth blocks will go to school. As with the so days, if you do not have those exams, you do not need to come in. Uh like the year before, students who've accumulated more than five absences, five or more absences in a class, we'll have to take the

037exam for that class or if your grade is below the threshold. And outside of the testing and the exams and the SOS, not much has been going on at Smithfield, it's been very smooth. It's been a a good start to the new year for us. So that's all I have to share. >> That is good. Thank you, Cole. >> Good evening. New Mr. Chair. Um, let me get to my tab. Um, good evening, Mr. Chair, Dr. Kramer, school board members, listeners here and at home. Tonight, I want to start off with recognizing a horrible reality that Dukes had to come to when they stepped in the castle just the day before winter break. An outstanding Duke, wonderful community member, and an overall amazing person named Mr. Shiloh Williams, passed away on the evening of December

03818th, 2025. Mr. Williams, our cafeteria manager, was far more than his title entailed. He was a perfect embodiment of what it means to be a Duke. He cared dearly for the students here at Windsor and loved being a part of the amazing culture we have created. I truly can't put into words the disbelief we all felt hearing the tragic news that we had lost such a genuine person. Not many people can say they hadn't shared a smile and laugh with Mr. Williams. He had a true heart and made a deep connection with many of our Duke students and faculty. Shiloh Williams will never be forgotten at Windsor and I would love to announce to the board that I am working on acquiring a plaque to put in the lunchroom to honor such an amazing man

039who had a lasting impact on the castle. Even through all of this difficulty, students were able to attend our winter pep rally on Friday, the day before winter break that included a moment of silence for Mr. Williams. We send our deepest condolences to his family and I want to let them know as long as I'm at the castle, his name will never be forgotten. Okay, that's the that's the deepest of the stuff I have to talk about tonight. Um, winter break entailed of a way of sickness throughout our entire community and that was not too fun for most people. Um, I want to thank Dr. Kramer and the board for the newest member of our Duke family, our new SSO. Thank you. Thank you guys for putting our safety as your number one priority and

040answering the call for urgency as we feel safe where no one should feel the contrary. I am proud to announce that in the 2024 2025 school performance and support framework released by the Virginia Department of Education, Windsor was classified as distinguished and exceeded the state's expectations for achievement, growth, readiness, and graduation rate. Windsor is first in our region for 3E readiness, sec readiness, sorry, and second in the region for overall framework score and number 19th overall for overall education and performance in the entire state. Hearing this should only motivate our Dukes to excel higher in the next report. Congratulations to our students and staff for working diligently and achieving this prestigious award for our school. Come out this Saturday to watch the theater show and support our amazing work. Our basketball team has a jersey

041themed game on the 16th. Come out and wear your favorite jersey or sportsware. Uh, a little short congratulations to our assistant principal, Dr. H. Hotchkus, for achieving her doctorate this past December as that is a nod to our newest distinguished standing in the state. Okay. All right. Here we go. I have some inquiries about the timeline regarding our vestibule. Uh, in September, Mr. Coleman or Dr. Coleman, who I've noticed isn't here today, start stated we were reviewing our potential options for potential solutions. Uh, do we have an update on a viable plan as we're the only school in the district without one? Um, I also have cons some concerns with the junior lot. Um, is it possible if we could have an additional security camera placed in the junior lot because we currently do not

042have one. Um, during that during the day, it's not monitored by anyone, just in the mornings by a staff member. Um the parking spaces are not clearly marked as well which leads to confusion throughout the students. Um just some concerns I have um heard not just from the students and myself but stu but staff and Duke parents as well. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you both for your reports. Uh and I want to thank you both for everything you've been doing for the board and I'm looking forward to working closely with you over the next year. And I want to remind you anytime at all, reach out to your board members or reach out to me and Cole. I'm both for you. So, um, but again, I think you guys, you're both doing a very

043good job. And please keep it up and you can stay or leave whatever you want. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Next, we're going to go into presentations from the superintendent staff and we'll start with the Smithfield High School band project. [clears throat] And just for the record as Mr. approaches the deis uh Dr. Coleman is actually hopefully he'll be here at some point if uh he's able to get out of the board of supervisors presentation in time. So just wanted to stay for the record he is not absent. He's uh serving double duty this evening. >> Good evening. Um I'm here to present the bids that we received for the Smithfield High School band uh relocation. Uh we received five bids. The lowest bid was received from GC Commercial in the amount of

044$1,30,000 and that is uh who we recommend that you award the contract to >> Mr. V. Is that the best value as well? it on a construction invitation to bid, you must take the lowest bid. >> You must Okay. >> Unless there's some reason um like for instance, if the vendor was previously debarred in the state of Virginia from um bidding on on government projects or if we previously found them to be unresponsive. So >> yes, sir, we we have to take that as the lowest bit. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Marsh. >> Mr. V, refresh my memory. Is is the bid is that under or above what we budgeted for? >> Good question, sir. Uh, the total budget was 1.4 million. Of that, 242,000 was for the architects and engineering and

045um so 1,30 will leave a balance of 128,000. >> Okay. >> Excellent. So, >> in case there are change orders. >> Sure. Okay, >> thank you. I yield. [clears throat] >> I move to approve the notice to proceed with the uh GC Commercial, Inc. for Smithfield High School uh band room project IFB number 26-03 in the amount of $1,ion30,000. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion, >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Marsh, >> not discussion, but perhaps a comment for the listening audience, just as a reminder, this was uh and Mr. [clears throat] Ver can keep us straight here. This was funded in large part via profers compliments of the county. Correct. >> Partial, not not a large part. I think about 250,000. >> Got it. I yield. Thank you.

046>> Okay, the clerk can take the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Worster? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Marsh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ford. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic. >> Yes. >> 15.2. Real reallocation of a position. >> Good evening. Um, we are requesting the board uh take action to approve the reallocation um of funds from two and a half bus driver positions to fund an administrative associate 2 for our transportation department. Happy to answer any questions that you might have about that. >> Anyone have any questions? >> I've got a couple of questions for our listening audience. Um, one, the 2.5 bus driver positions, are those currently unfilled positions that will not impact transportation? >> Yes, those positions are currently unfilled and have been unfilled for at least the last two

047years. >> Okay. [snorts] The second question I have again for the listening audience, could you please explain what an administrative associate 2 is for transportation? So, an administrative associate too is um well, administrative associates for our school division are front office um they they answer the telephone. They um handle administrative duties of running an office. Um they take concerns um from parents um and then make sure that those get to the right locations. Um specifically at transportation, the role also includes uh some facilitating of movement um of vehicles. Uh and Mr. if you can speak to that a little bit. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, uh really what this position is going to do, it's going to uh pull some uh duties away from our fleet services manager. It's going to pull some duties away from

048our fleet service department. Um and within the transportation office, we currently have one administrative associate, too. She does all of the payroll, financial, and all of the the phone calls, the tracking, and so forth. Um so this will greatly allow us to kind of um redistribute some tasks so that um we're not overburing b overburdening one or two people within the department. >> That's all I have. Thank you. >> Okay, >> Mr. Chair. >> Anything else? Yes, >> Mr. F, correct me if I'm wrong. You've already got someone as a temp service filling this role. So if you you could speak that a little bit for the board in the audience. >> Yeah, that is correct. So um so we brought in a temp uh late 2024. Um so this individual has been with us

049for about a year and really what it is um we're just trying to look to see if this is feasible, see if this is something we want to do because as Mullivan mentioned, this is a sacrifice of several bus driver positions even if they are vacant. Um so really we want to make sure this does not impact our overall operation as we said that it does not. um and the data that we've collected in the time that um we've had this extra assistance, it's been very very positive. Um and really too kind of go along with the position, we're looking for um a position that's going to be very dynamic. Like Miss Sullivan said, there's a lot that happens in transportation that does not happen at a desk answering a phone. Um we're talking about

050like we have to go pick up bus parts up in Petersburg a couple times a week. we have to move and relocate vehicles very quickly. Um so certainly there is a variety of tasks and it really kind of like I said takes off the plate of some of our uh our staff right now. So um the data we've collected this will be very helpful. >> Mr. Chair, if I may. >> Yes sir. >> And if I can ask you to speak to this as well, Mr. F. This is going to allow us to be more responsive to parents and community members as it pertains to transportation. >> Correct. >> Yeah, absolutely. And what we knew from the very get-go um within my first year or so into the department, we were being um bombarded with

051phone calls, emails, all sorts of requests and so forth. And like I said, the data we've collected, this has made significant strides. Um and I can tell you uh probably the school board can uh comment on that as well. You y'all are hearing probably less from parents now about transportation concerns than you would before. And really what was happening um we weren't able to keep up with the volume of requests because um you know it it was really me and it was one person answering the phone. My technicians are trying to run the department. Um so we've made great strides in that area and that's a direct result of this position that we're looking at. >> Uh for the record, could you um speak to the cost difference between the temp service and hiring a

052full-time employee? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, the temp service, so we, uh, we pay for the, uh, services for an individual to come. Of course, the agency gets a cut right off the top. I don't want to dabble in the financial aspect of that. Um, I mean, I I know what we pay for that because we track our funds and so forth. Um, but really, when we're looking at this position, we need to make sure that it is across the board with other administrative associate twos throughout the school division. Um, but we ran the numbers. Um, Mr. Davari took a look at it and we could see that um this would be sacrificing up to 2.5 bus driver positions. Um and the important thing to mention as well, we're not incurring any extra cost. We

053have these positions, they are approved, the funds are there, we're just shifting them, so to speak. >> And I don't have the exact numbers of the difference between continuing with the temp agency versus reallocating for ourselves, but I do know that the temp agency was more expensive than what it would cost for us to hire this person on ourselves. and we can get you the specific numbers if you do want them. >> Thank you. Yes. Okay. >> There any other questions? If not, I'd welcome a motion. >> Uh I motion to move the approve to move to approve the reoc reallocation of funds from 2.5 bus driver positions to fund an full-time administrative associate to for transportation. Second. We have a motion, a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, the clerk will take

054the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Worster? >> Yes. >> Mr. Marsh? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ford? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic? >> Yes. Thank you, >> sir. Okay. Next, a topic that's near and dear to all of our hearts, the compensation study. >> [clears throat] >> Why Mr. Coupe writers getting that um uh up and working for us. Um the compensation study, you know, we started it in late summer and truly it's been under a a really compressed time frame. So we we're really thankful for um the consultant for doing what what they have been able to do. Uh the classification um study on the administrative and support staff is taking a little bit longer for us to work through, but we wanted to bring um what I believe is probably

055what you think is one of the most important pieces, which is uh the teacher pay. So we have with us um Dr. Russell Campbell. He's a senior vice president with management advisory group um out of Spartansburg, South Carolina. And he's going to take you through a presentation and explain uh the recommendations on the the teacher pay scale. [clears throat] >> Dr. >> Yes, I can hear you. Good evening. And if like to say hello to the board chair and the other board members uh of the school division. Uh as Laura said, we've been working on this project since late summer and we've uh finished the teacher portion of the project. Still work to come on the administrative uh clinician and support schedule. But I'd like to give you an overview uh this evening of the

056results of the uh teacher review uh looking at uh the approach and methodology that we use to come up with the recommendations. Some insight on where you currently are with respect to uh [clears throat] teacher pay uh within the region and where you'd be if you fund the recommendations as we uh presented them. Just a little bit of my background. I'm a retired Air Force officer, uh former HR director and city administrator. I've also been an adjunct professor uh in higher [clears throat] education. I've conducted about 315 uh compensation classation studies around the country uh many of them uh in the state of Virginia. I'm going to share my screen with you here so I can go through a PowerPoint presentation. Can everyone see the report cover? >> Yes. >> All right. A little bit

057about the company uh Management Advisory Group. We've been in business for about 25 years. We worked in 40 of the 50 states. We are a public sector management consulting firm, meaning that all our clients are either uh school districts, municipal or county governments, or some type of uh governmental entity such as utilities or public safety. Uh we've conducted over 600 studies uh in our 25 years of existence, including a number of studies in the state of Virginia. Some of the school divisions we've worked for in Virginia, Chesapeake Public Schools, Portsman's public schools, Pquassan County Public Schools, Rowan Oak County Public Schools, Bedford County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Lowden County Public Schools, Norolk Public Schools, and Virginia Beach Public Schools are some of the clients among others that we work for uh in the

058state. this particular project in terms of uh scope relating to the teacher portion of the study. Uh at the time of the study, there were 447 field uh teacher positions within the division. Uh we were tasked with looking at the current uh pay and classification schedule and salary administration guidelines and make recommendations to achieve a sound and competitive pay structure and a philosophy for the division. We've reviewed uh the current uh paid salary schedules to understand current challenges with respect to recruiting and retaining employees. We've had a number of conversations with human resources and finance regarding some of the challenges with recruitment and retention. We also wanted to identify a consistent and competitive market position that the division can strive to maintain in terms of placement in the labor market. We also reviewed and analyzed

059data from several other school divisions uh within the area which I'll share with you shortly. And then we use that information to recommend appropriate salary uh ranges for the proposed teacher schedule uh based on uh the survey results and the different uh divisions that we uh gathered data from. uh looking at internal relationships to ensure there was equity and fairness among the uh teacher pay schedule and repair a new schedule based upon the results and best practices. We also look to identify compression issues and equity issues within the current uh salary structure including uh any leadership positions and recommend solutions to address those issues uh that we've communicated in the report uh as part of the implementation process and we're developing a compensation philosophy to be used by human resources in determining salary placement going

060forward uh for employees on the teacher schedule. and we provided cost implications for the recommendate recommendations that we provided uh in the report to start the project. Uh we spent time uh discussing uh the challenges as I said uh with HR and finance. Then we identified the peer uh divisions that we wanted to collect data from in the region. So we prepared a detailed uh survey instrument that went out to the different uh [clears throat] divisions requesting information on their salary schedules. That information was used to develop uh the proposed schedule and to analyze uh preliminary results and recommendations. And then tonight we're prepared to present uh the uh final uh recommendations as it relates to the teacher schedule. The school divisions that we reviewed as a part of this project were Chesapeake, Franklin City

061Schools, Glaster County, Hampton City Schools, Newport New Schools, North Public Schools, Pquatan Schools, Williamsburg James City County Schools, Horseman's public schools, Sulk Public Schools, Southampton County Public Schools, Virginia Beach public schools, and York County Public Schools. Based on an assessment of current market data, the outer county school district teacher pay schedule ranks below the 60th percentile among the peer group surveyed. In order to strengthen the applicant pools to attract higher quality teaching candidates, IWCS needs to be at the 70th percentile, which would rank it just under the third uh rank in terms of step value among the peers that we survey, which is consistent with what's in your strategic plan. In front of me is a teacher comparison chart based on a bachelor degree teacher. Uh currently uh at the zero step a bachelor degree

062teacher earns about $52,520 per year. The market average is 54,755. So the dev deviation from the market is 4.25%. In other words, at step zero for a bachelor degree teacher, you're 4.25% behind the market. And then you'll see the current starting salaries for the other uh divisions that we uh compared you with. Uh you'll notice in red is where uh the comparison shows negative uh market deviation. In other words, you're behind uh at the different step intervals as it relates to the other peer uh divisions that we uh compared you with. Our proposed teacher schedule would move step zero up to $58,000 per year, which would put you about 5.6% ahead of the market. Uh you'll see that would put you ahead of several of the peer organizations that we have. uh here in the

063chart the teacher pair schedule in terms of the intervals in between steps for steps 0 through 15 there is a 1.5% uh increase in differential for steps 16 through 29 that interval differential is 1.25% 25% and then for steps 30 through 35 the [clears throat] differential between the steps is 1.5%. Current payroll for teachers without uh benefits is about 29.1 million based on the proposed schedule that we've developed for the teacher schedule. Uh [clears throat] it includes one additional step for the current teachers. The cost to implement that would be 4.2 2 million which would increase teacher payroll from the 29.1 up to 33.3 million which reflects a 14.7% increase. Now this cost does not include fringe benefits which would need to be tacked on. This would place uh the division roughly at the 75th

064percentile uh if uh the recommendations are fully uh implemented uh by the division. That in summary is is the information that we wanted to share. I believe uh you've seen portions of the report where those charts are included uh as well as the uh data from the other districts or divisions that we looked at. We're currently uh about 75% complete uh with the uh uh administrators, clinician and support schedule which we should have within the next two weeks. Uh we'll do the same thing. We'll provide uh recommendations with respect to the uh new uh proposed schedule for those groups of employees uh as well as the uh costs associated with implementing uh the recommendations. At this time, I can entertain any questions that you may have. Any questions? >> I'll be out of time. >>

065Okay. Who wants to start? >> Uh, good [clears throat] evening. Um, what would be the uh cost to our budget to to push us to, let's say, the 80th and 90th percentile? >> We're probably uh looking at uh at least a little over a million dollars to move you to the uh the 80th percentile. We think at the 70th percentile you'll be able to compete effectively with all the districts in the region even some of the larger districts because as you know uh compensation is just one factor that applicants will look at when they decide to come uh and teach for a particular uh school division or district. And so at the 70th percentile, it gives you or positions you along with the benefits package to be very competitive uh in the region. >> Thank

066you for that. Um and uh the the follow-up question to that, what what were the factors that went into uh comparing our our competitors um and in the conversation >> for the teachers? it was strictly based on market data uh lining you up with the market whereas with the uh administrators uh clinicians and support staff uh it's a combination of market and looking at internal relationships in terms of ranking the positions uh teacher uh pay is directly indexed to the uh regional market and that's an approach that's consistent with other uh firms that are in this line of work to make sure that uh uh you're uh able able uh to uh compete within the market uh that you pull uh your your labor from. >> Uh was that were those figures uh composed or

067um did did those figures um be brought about with the projections for Isle of White County? Uh future projections any future developments within our um within our our our county? We believe in terms of future projections uh the uh pay schedule would be indexed uh to the uh consumer price index. Um it would not need to be uh adjusted uh at least for another two years uh if it's implemented fully. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Chair, if I may, >> please. Um, in the process of creating the uh, compensation study, were any of the other localities that Olive White County was compared to, um, was any of their, um, locality revenue or operating budget taken into consideration when comparing that to Alawway County? >> No sir. Uh we started out looking at the

068districts based on geographic proximity because those individuals that reside within Alawite County uh certainly can commute uh and gain employment with some of the other districts without having to physically relocate because they are close. And then we extended out uh uh beyond the immediate area uh looking at those districts uh based on historical uh data where you've lost uh teachers to over over the past few years. We did not take in consideration uh budget revenues or tax rates and when we came up with the recommendations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else, Mr. Marsh? Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh appreciate you dialing in tonight, sir. Jason Marsh here. Got a few questions here. Um, on slide 13 there's a note that says fringe benefits are not included. And I get that and

069that's that's something that we've kind of discussed up here on the board before, right? So the compensation is is the total package. And I realize that every school division's got their own unique fringe benefits, but what should we be looking at with respect to French benefits as a positive attribute of working at Alawway County Schools? over >> with respect to uh benefits. Uh the greatest challenge right now is certainly uh health care and the portion of premiums that the employees must pay um a as [clears throat] part of uh gaining healthcare coverage. uh health care cost uh continue to exceed the rate of inflation around the country and certainly uh the health care market is in a bit of a flux now um based on uh uh a lack of funding for the affordable care

070act which provides healthcare coverage uh for some of the employees in the districts uh both teaching and non-eing. And so health care continues to be one of the benefits that you must watch closely with respect to uh uh cost passed on to the employee for coverage. There's also a big push uh in the labor market across all uh uh industries [clears throat] uh to look at ways to uh enhance the work life balance experience uh within the uh organization. looking at things like additional uh time off uh improved professional development opportunities um as well as employee recognition programs as part of that effort. >> Thank you, sir. There's no doubt that healthc care cost is a moving target as of late. >> [clears throat] >> Um, I don't know if you guys looked at this

071or not. Perhaps this is a question for our HR, but over the past couple two, three years, I know we've gained some teachers from neighboring divisions and we've undoubtedly lost some from neighboring divisions. Would you be willing to take a stab in the dark at who's our biggest competitor when it comes to teachers? [clears throat] I mean, I think definitely geographically Suffach, um, because it is the, you know, for the majority of our county, it's very easy just to drive across that line. Hampton as well. Um, we pull a lot of teachers have in the past from Hampton as well. Um, and but it's a lot of them are living in Hampton and coming across uh to here. However, it's just as easy for them to stay on that side of the bridge, especially with

072the really horrible traffic now coming across the bridge. Um, and so I would say like those just being the closest to us. Um, and then of course I would say the ones where we've gained the most teachers from have been from Southampton um county um as well. >> And that makes sense if you look at the chart. So >> right down the road in Suffach it looks like roughly up and down the scale >> they're paying somewhere between four to five maybe $6,000 a year and then Southampton County >> looks like we've got them beat so that makes sense. >> Yeah. And I mean we've offered many jobs to those who work in Suffach currently and so they're interested because they've applied. Um however when we make the offer and tell them what we we

073have to give in terms of compensation um and their benefits uh like for example in Suffach I at least in this past year if you were just an employee on your health insurance you didn't have any premiums. Um so Suffach paid for your health insurance full and they were making about you know anywhere from $6 to $7,000 more off the top. Um, so as much as they may want to come, uh, they just couldn't make that work for their family and themselves from compensation standpoint. >> Makes sense. [sighs] >> And I'm not sure who to ask this question. It's I mean, it's a subjective question, but [clears throat] we'll use SuffK and Hampton as a good example, right? So that's roughly depending on where you live in the county, that could be 15 minute to

07445 minute plus drive. you know, what's what's the threshold? What's the dollar amount that's a threshold to keep a teacher here? I I think we would all argue, perhaps naively, I don't know, but I think Al White has great schools and I think it's a much better environment to SuffK or Hampton. But what's that threshold? What's that dollar amount that's going to either keep or draw a teacher over here? I don't know. But I think that should be the target for this board. I I I would go a step further and say that 4.2 2 million is a heavy lift for Alawite County. That's a heavy lift. Um last year we had a surplus in the budget somewhere in the ballpark of about $2 million. Much of [clears throat] that was unfilled positions. So I

075think moving forward we have to look at that. But you know, Mr. Ford brings up a valid point. What what's it take to get us to 80%. I don't I don't know. That's a lot. 4.2 2 million is is a heavy lift if we're just looking at 400 and some odd employees and we haven't looked at the whole picture yet. So, I'd allow you to respond before I yield. >> Um I believe on that slide that he mentioned about the cost of French benefits. Um, from your standpoint or from Isisle of White County Schools standpoint, there are several fringe benefits that we provide that are based on a percentage of someone's pay. For instance, VRS. >> Um, and then you also have we they get group life coverage through VRS. They get uh retirey >>

076um health insurance credit. Um, so there are a bunch of those and those total about 20 to 25%. So you would need to tack that on too to get the full cost to implement this. It has nothing to do with health insurance because the health insurance isn't about a percentage of pay. >> So in other words, just to get the recommendation, if we had a blank check, >> 4.2 million isn't the number. It's 4.2 2 million plus 25%. >> Yes, sir. >> That's important to understand. >> Yeah, Dr. Grammer, >> Mr. Chair, if I may respond to Mr. Marsh's question, it certainly is a heavy lift, sir. There's no question about that. We're looking at approximately 15% just on this alone. I think we need to engage the county certainly, and I'm sure you all

077agree there. Um, Mr. Vy and I will be meeting with the county administrator uh Robertson and their finance uh head early next week to begin these discussions about uh what we can in fact afford. I think we need to be honest, candid, and have adult conversations about what we're able to afford. Uh so we will begin those conversations, but I totally agree with you. Uh the the need is there and I think we all agree there that we need to compensate our staff comparably uh and fairly. Uh but we also need to have a conversation about what we can in fact afford. Uh so I want wanted to state for the record that those conversations are beginning. >> And Mr. Chair, I've got one more and then I'll yield. Sir, >> um on the on

078the slide the uh let's see this is slide 10. the compar the teacher comparison proposed >> was the in was the increased recommendation or the increased proposal was it an a consistent increase across the scale or were there groups of it that were >> updated plus or minus a percent if that makes sense. Well, it the way we built it uh was similar to what you have now where from steps 0 to 15 on the scale the differential between the steps is 1 and a.5%. At step 16 through 29 the differential between steps was 1.25 and then at 30 through 35 the differential went back up to 1 and a half%. So it [clears throat] was not a straight linear percentage. In other words, you targeted groups of the scale to bring us up to

079a steady competitive level. >> Yep. >> We specifically are at steps zero through 15. We're targeting uh teachers with uh um who are new uh and [clears throat] have uh experience up to the 15 year point who may be interested in in making uh a transition or a change. And then at 16 and 29, >> [clears throat] >> um, we adjusted down just based on, uh, experience in looking at, uh, other school divisions, uh, in Virginia and elsewhere that, uh, compensation tends to not be a major uh, concern for those at 16 to 29. they're fairly locked into retirement where they are. But there's also a need to attract uh older experienced teachers to serve as mentors and coaches for for less experienced teachers. And so at the 30 to 35 year mark where teachers

080are considering retiring, we moved it back up to 1 and a half%. in hopes of trying to target some of those uh teachers [clears throat] that may be retiring from one division but are still are interested in teaching in some capacity. >> And that's pretty similar to what our scale looked like prior um in terms of how the progression went. It wasn't equal across the board. Um, and we find in Isis of White County, we are we are trying to attract really that um or that we attract more of that kind of like five to 15 year uh once people have moved away from wherever they went to college and are coming to kind of settle down and into and to start a family. And so that's u matches up with our recruitment um trends

081as well. >> It seems to me that this I'll call it space, but the the percentage between each step is pretty much the same as we have right now. It's very close. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That's all I got, sir. I >> um so like Mr. Marsh said and Dr. Kramer said, this is a very heavy lift. Okay. You know, basically we're we're talking over $4.5 million when it really come down to it. It's nothing we can afford today. Um but what I'd like to find out is we do have a number of positions that have not been filled uh for two years. I'd like to take a look at those positions, find out how much money we have there that we can at least start the process of getting uh our teachers raises that

082we need to give them, you know, so we don't have people in two months saying, "Well, I'm I'm walking out the door." You know, if we make an effort and we make a start, I think that would be a good thing. Um, so my question is, and I know you don't have the answer tonight, Mr. very is what can we afford? >> Does that make sense? >> And that's exactly what we'll be doing over the next couple weeks. Okay. >> In formulating um Dr. Kramer's budget. >> Yeah. Because I think it's important that with our within our budget with what we have today, we >> try to do a little bit of work because we are going to have to go to the county, but we want to be able to show, hey, this is

083what we were able to do within our current budget, but we can't we can't sustain this. we need your help. Um, so I'd really like to be able to to show them something like that. >> Yeah, this might require a two to threeyear implementation period. >> Sure. Mr. Chair, if I may, Mr. Ferry, would you speak to the Cal tool just a bit? Perhaps you were going to do that in your in your next presentation, but since we're having the conversation, uh, there are going to be some obligations from the state in terms of uh, bonuses. So I would suggest uh that we as I've said to you uh in an email and you and I have discussed this uh prior uh I think we need to see what responsibilities and obligations uh the state

084will be asking of local uh districts and and counties uh before we can uh look at what we can do midyear. Uh I think we all agree certainly I I appreciate you looking at that but again I think we need to uh reconcile what those expectations are going to be uh from the state to the local. >> Oh absolutely Dr. Kramer. Um, but I think it needs to be part of a whole conversation, all of it together, you know, probably in its own session, not in a business meeting, but a special session just to go over all of that because that's going to be somewhat timeconuming. >> Absolutely. I think as Mr. very stated over the next few [clears throat] weeks. That's exactly what we'll be doing and we'll be having offline conversations and certainly

085public uh meetings as well discussing that very um uh those very matters. >> Yeah. The big the big thing I just don't want to lose an opportunity and lose teachers that you know and we're getting close to that time where teachers are going to be deciding where they're working next year. to to your point, sir. Uh just this week, I've had no less than four teachers walk up to me, grab me by the elbow, and go, "Are you guys talking about the comp study?" So, I guarantee you tonight we have a larger audience than normal. They want to know what we're talking about. So, um >> Yep. I've had emails to Okay, >> Mr. Chair, if I may add to this, um I know we're not making any decisions tonight. It's way off as far

086as decision- making. But one thing I would like to see when it comes to doing a comparison, um, you can't compare Olive White County to localities like Chesapeake or Newport News or Williamsburg, Virginia Beach in terms of revenue sources. There there's just no comparison there. Um, I'm not saying this is not warranted. I don't blame anybody for wanting increased pay and I would love to do it, but the bottom line is what we've got to look at is what can we actually afford. That's the biggest issue that I'm seeing. Um, it also came to my attention, um, and I was Dr. Coleman's not here yet, so I'm going to pass it on to you. Um, it came to my attention that in 2006, um, MGT of America did a comparison or a comparison study such

087as this, but it was based on like-sized populations. I sent an email. I CCD you, Dr. Kramer. Um, actually, Miss Briggs, you might be able, you probably the best one to talk to about this. Um, I would like to get a copy of that and also for every board member to to view as well. I know that 2006 is totally different from 2026, but it might give people a better under understanding or a better likeness in comparing like-sized populations. That's that's what I'm looking at. Um, that's pretty much what I've got at this point. Um, if you could get that out to the board members, that would be great. All right. Thanks. I appreciate it. That's all I've got. >> Okay. You might also want to take into consideration the local composite index. Um, and

088that goes ahead and measures a locality's capability, you know, of of meeting its its obligations. um which it is referenced in the budget document and you know all of our surrounding localities with the exception of um Williamsburg um and we're really not that far behind from Virginia Beach um you know we're all relatively close so um I think that might be a a better comparison because it's determining the locality's ability to pay versus just straight population or take that into account as well. >> It wasn't necessarily just population, but revenue source, ability to pay. That's what I was looking at. Um, having the ability to pay, you know, one thing I don't want to do is increase taxes on everybody. I know that's not our job, but we've got to take that in into consideration

089as well when it comes to budgeting for things like this. Um, you know, we've got elderly populations in the county and they're on a fixed income. >> Do we want to tax them out of their homes? I do not. Yeah, I do think and I think that's kind of the point Miss Dary was trying to make in that I think there's a misconception that because we're smaller, we are less likely to be able to afford the [snorts] composite index takes all of that into consideration and then says despite this factor of size um this is what your county can afford based on its size and based on its revenue and Isle of White is actually very competitive in that regard. guard despite the conception that it may not be. [clears throat] So if you that's

090why even though they may be larger they're actually very respective in the ability to afford that because your local composite index takes into account your assessed value um the income um the gross income in the the county as well as sales tax. So, and as of last year, I think it's still the same for this upcoming year, but um we have the fourth highest um local composite index, meaning we do have a there based on those factors, we do have a a very good ability to pay, >> but currently we're ranked 11 out of 15 school divisions in our teacher pay. John, >> Miss Ferguson, >> is that the ability to pay for the school or for all of the accounting expenses as a whole? >> This is how the state determines um how much

091you know basic aid and so forth they're going to give you. So based on your local composite index, the locality must come up with the difference. So it's it's the county as a whole, but it's is a tool for determining schools finances. >> So a lot of it's dependent on upon how the county is allocating the resources. >> Correct. >> Okay. Because every county has the choices those choices to make. >> And Mr. Barry, the tax rate is not included in the composite index, is it? >> No, sir. >> Okay. I didn't think so. That has a big bearing on it as well. these other areas that pay a lot more, they also have higher taxes than we do. Any other comments, questions, [snorts] ladies? Thank you. >> And as uh the gentleman leaves, he

092will be back as uh Dr. Campbell stated when they have the full report. Uh so we will be reaching back out to you whether it's the February meeting adding that to it or special called meeting uh for the full report. >> That'd be great. >> Thank you, Dr. Campbell. >> Okay, Mr. D, you're up again with the monthly financial reports. >> Yes, sir. Um, so as of December 31st, um, the finances, uh, we're still in good shape. Um, on the just a couple things to point out because there's nothing out of the ordinary, but with regard to the health fund, um, through December 31st, we still have more deposits, more money going in that is coming out. So, that's a positive. on the grant funds. Um I just wanted to uh make comment that a

093couple of the title grants, title one and four I think um we have not been able to request reimbursements because VDOE is behind on getting those grants allocated within the Omega system. So I know Dr. Kramer has reached out, I have, and certainly our coordinator has. Um but uh the money is there. It's just been a delay in getting them in their certain object code areas so that we can actually request reimbursement. So we're certainly ready to do so the minute we get them there. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Mr. Marsh. >> Ma'am, is there anything you need from the board? Do we need to bang a drum at the VOE? [clears throat] >> Would it do any good? I we welcome that, but uh I'm not sure that's going to help make a difference.

094I think we will continue to be uh diligent and continue to reach out. Uh I think this is universal. It's not just us. It's across the state. Uh in fact, we've been told that. Um so, it's a matter of us just continuing to reach out uh to enlist their support and in getting the dollars uh allocated to our division. >> Understood. Thank you. I yield. The other thing I'd like to comment is that the RFP for uh health insurance was issued today. >> So it's on our our website. It's also posted on EVA. Uh responses are due back February 13th. So as I think we mentioned earlier, Dr. Kramer's budget will be based on our current um situation, but then of course we would come to you with changes as we get those proposals and

095evaluate them. >> I'm I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. RFP for what? >> Health insurance. >> Oh, excellent. >> For employee um group health [clears throat] insurance, dental and vision. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. You just deleted a bunch of my questions. And the other item is the annual audit. Um you might have have noticed uh we haven't had our auditor um come and present to you and that's because it was delayed um at the county side uh due to their finance director leaving and I guess several positions within their finance department. So they're hoping to have the audit complete middle February. So I would think then they would come um to your March meeting. I certainly have no concerns on the school side. >> Okay. >> Are there any questions that I can

096answer for you? >> I'll go ahead and take one that Mr. Marsh has done in the past. And uh on the topic of buying water, um what are we still buying water for? uh central office. The water isn't potable there. I don't believe >> it's not portable. Okay. >> I believe so. >> Mr. Chair, I I spoke with this at length on numerous occasions with >> Dr. Coleman, and I'll be glad to backfill you offline, but the short of it is >> they've cut their budget for water down exponentially. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Good to go. Um, and I'm the bad guy in that. Just I own it. >> Okay. Does anybody else have any questions? [snorts] >> Okay. >> So, we will go on. >> Thank you. >> To the operations update. Thank you,

097Mr. >> And as stated earlier, I think Mr. Worster stated, Dr. Coleman hasn't been able to make it back. So, we're going to ask a couple of individuals. uh his very capable uh team members here are going to help us and so we can all speak to different aspects of the operations update. So gentlemen all right good evening uh chairman chairman colleague board members Dr. Kramer uh as mentioned Dr. Coleman is not available so he asked me to fill in as well as Mr. Fike to speak on some of the topics that I'm not familiar with and I also believe Miss Gats is going to be coming up and joining on for the last slide. Uh so the first slide here that he has is the school construction assistance program. This is SCAP and this

098is a school construction assistance program is a competitive state funded capital grant administered by the Commonwealth of Virginia to support new construction replacement, renovation and major system upgrades for public school facilities. So in December of 2025, IWC IWCS received approximately 14 million in SCAP grant awards. Uh so this was a s significant success for the division. Uh and as you can see on the same slide, the projects that were proposed on that grant are the Smithfield High School band room renovation expansion, Windsor High School HVAC system replacement, and the Westside Elementary School replacement. And before you move on, I think this is critically uh important to the building of NE next west side. We heard the students earlier. So we're talking $14 million which is approximately 20% of what the projected uh cost would be.

099Uh and we are one of the few divisions in this region and I think there are only probably a little more than a dozen [snorts] dozen and a half who received uh funding through this grant. So this is huge and I think um Mr. Very can correct me. I think we received the third largest um allocation in the entire state. So this is huge for our community. $14 million for this project from the state that will not come from local county coffers. So huge for for our division. Um so thank you for for mentioning that. Am I correct, Mrs. Davi? We are still waiting on additional information from the state. Mr. Vari and I had a chance to speak with uh a representative from the Virginia Department of Education and they will be sending additional

100information pertaining to this in terms of uh when we will need to begin using this and how we can use these dollars etc. Uh but again, this is huge for our county to receive that much money uh from the state for the Westside uh school replacement project. So I guess I was right. Mr. Barry went back to her seat. So thank you. And >> she said you were correct with the that we were the third largest award. >> Very good. >> All right. So moving on to the next slide. The one that I that I do know the most about uh is the new school security officers and the weapon detection rollout update. Uh so on January 5th, which was a division PD day, uh we actually brought in our six new uh contract school

101security officers. Uh and just as a reminder, that is one additional at Smithfield High School, one additional at Windsor High School, >> and then two additional at both middle schools. Uh so they brought in they were familiarized with the buildings. They were given their school assignments. Uh and we've been been rolling with it since all of the principles have come up with different roles and responsibilities that suit the building needs uh for where they are to be at what times, what areas they want them checking out. Um and they have really proven so far, granted we're two weeks in, uh but they've proven so far to really become a part of the become a part of the school family and they're fitting in. They're engaging with students. Uh so I've been I've been pleasantly pleasantly

102surprised with the with the outcome of that. Um so that's that's that's rolling along very well. Uh in relation to the weapons detection roll out before you move on uh we have the pictures of them. Can we >> next slide? >> Oh, next slide. And if I may, I I think you're absolutely spot on. Uh Mr. Brinkley, I had a chance to meet most of them. I think one of the gentlemen happened to be out one of the days I went to meet them all. A very impressive group. I am very pleased with the quality of individuals we have. Uh I would encourage your board members as you're out and about uh to stop by and introduce yourself uh to them, get a chance to meet them. Uh and it was pleased to hear Mr.

103Mumford uh student liaison actually mentioned uh their person at Windsor High School. But uh very pleased and I thank you members of the board uh for allowing us to engage in this contract. uh but all of the positions are filled and they are in their uh in their positions at the respective schools. So I think that's huge uh for our secondary schools. >> And and just as a a little more background, a little more information, we did have several meetings with the uh the top guard leaders uh and met with the the potential SSOs over over break and interviewed them uh and actually had to narrow it down. They they started with eight candidates. Uh we we narrowed it down to the six. Um so like I said, we've been pleasantly surprised. In fact, a

104couple of them uh the one at Windsor High School, Mr. Lockmeer, they they refer to him as Lockach. Uh so he's got he already has a nickname. And then the one of the gentlemen at Georgie Tyler Middle School, Mr. Tasinari, uh nobody seems to be able to say that, so they just call him Mr. T. [laughter] >> That's outstanding. But uh going back to the weapons detection roll out uh as you know the detectors that have been ordered they've we do have those in the warehouse. So we've been working with a projected rollout date of the first week of February. So when we come back at the start of the second semester we're going to have these units in place for the students to get familiar with walk through uh get familiar with before we

105actually go live with them and turning them on and and operating them. Um, I did speak with middle school principles today and letters to parents will be going out this week and we're working also to update the video that we used previously to fit the middle school needs and we'll be we'll be pushing that out ahead of that date as well. That proved to be to to be very effective as we rolled out at Smithfield High School. So, that's something that we're going to continue on into the rolling it out at the middle schools. >> Mr. Chairman. >> Sir, I I'm going to ask of Dr. Kramer and >> this fine young lad up here. Um I've said it before, I'll say it again. As as a dad that pulls up to the elementary school,

106it brings me a great deal of peace and comfort when I see a deputy sheriff with a patrol car parked in front of the school. >> It also brings me a great deal of peace and comfort knowing that we've got extra eyes and ears walking around that are qualified to fill those roles. Um that said, I think moving forward if you can find means to capture some sort of metrics other than it feels good, it looks good. How are we bringing positive improvements? So this everything comes at a cost, right? So now that we've got these fine folks on board, how specifically are they improving and what are we getting out of it? That's what I'd like to capture in in the months forward. >> Please. We'll do. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> All

107right. And moving on to next steps for the fleet services project. I'm going to turn everything over to Mr. Fe so that he can speak to this. >> So, as you can see, um, of course, uh, we're moving forward with the, uh, planning for the new fleet services building. Uh, so we've had series of meetings. Uh, we've been involved in this, um, all the way through the fall. Um, so it hasn't necessarily been a topic at recent meetings. So, we wanted to make sure uh the board and Dr. Kramer were in the know [clears throat] with the time frame. So, as you can see there, um we're looking at uh 65% uh cost estimation by the end of January in just several weeks. Um upwards of 95% by late February. Um and then before the

108end of March, March 19th, there you can see that we're looking at um 100%. Uh so, we're moving right through uh the planning phase with this project. things are going very well and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the timeline. >> Any questions? >> Comments? >> Mr. Chair, not a question, a comment, and I do appreciate you bringing this back up on the attention. Um, this was our top CIP, was it not year before last? >> Yeah. >> So, there's obviously been a lot of conversations about Westside and Smithfield and yada yada yada. So, we cannot lose sight of this. This has been a project that's been kicked down the road for years and years and years. >> Yes. So, let's let's keep this on the radar if you would, please.

109And thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Thank you. >> And uh you can see some other upcoming projects. So, we'll kind of summarize those. So, I'll speak to the transportation piece on the right hand side there. Um so, I am so happy to report to you we um of course you know we are ordering five buses a year. So, our most recent order, we ordered five buses in May 2025. Three of those buses have arrived already. I know the slide says two buses arrived. Uh the third bus rolled in on Monday. Um so, three of the five buses are here and the other two buses should be here in the month of February. Um so, that is huge um huge news obviously. Um and then also another project down at the annex. Um

110over winter break, we completed the driveway, the apron. um from Poor House Road into our facility there um needed an upgrade. So we uh reached out to a vendor. We had that work performed um and uh it was a success. It's working quite well. >> Mr. Jeff, if I may ask a question of Mr. Fe. So over the past couple of years, remember we had huge concerns with the lack of uh functional transportation. Many of our buses were breaking down and we didn't have enough in the fleet. So I think it was it uh three years ago or two years ago we received three I think that year and then last year five >> and then another three. So we're in pretty good shape >> or not we >> so you look at the uh

111the big picture. So we still are running a lot of the same old buses that I sat here two years ago and told you guys about. We're still running a lot of those. Some of them have actually removed themselves from service because they aren't going to run anymore and we've auctioned them off. So, um, absolutely, we are making strides about getting these new buses in. Excuse me. [clears throat] Um, I guess the important, uh, point, I know Dr. Coleman talks about this. Um, every time this comes up, we need to keep our foot to the pedal. Five buses, five buses, five buses, five buses. Um, literally you look at the data, we're going to have to do five buses a year for at least the next decade until we can fully claim that we're going

112to be caught up. >> Thank you for that. >> And listed up here are just some of the other projects that were that were completed over winter break. Uh, we we did come in and and and work quite a few of those days. Uh, as I mentioned, we had the interviews with the potential SSOs and the getting them on boarded and having them ready for the first day that we came back. But in addition, we had restroom upgrades at Westside Elementary School, roof repairs here at Westside, uh, cafeteria lighting replaced at Carolton Elementary, uh, and the full transition of the IT department. They have now completely moved into the new location at, uh, the new building. So, all of that is completely moved. uh ADA bleacher sidewalk poured and the final permit was received. Uh

113playground drainage improvements completed at Windsor Elementary School, the 2026 2027 divisionwide immunization plan in development. Uh and then Mr. Fe already spoke to the buses and things at transportation, carpets cleaned at Hardy Elementary School, baseball and softball fields prepared and ready for them to be begin conditioning and then full restoration completed following the Carolton sprinkler pipe incident. And moving into this side slide, I believe Mrs. Gets is going to come up. She's going to have more information on this than I am. >> Good evening. Uh so special education and operations, this is a joint project between the two departments. Um and it is a it's in progress. It's not completely uh done yet, but what we were able to do is take um a driver's education classroom and two special education classrooms at Smithville High

114School and totally reconfigured the space because there were three large spaces. And with those spaces, we now have a um transition and job coaching lab. We have three instructional classrooms. And then we have a therapy room that we've able been able to reconfigure. Um, so again, it is being used. It's not completely done yet. Um, but we're very excited to have these new spaces that, um, can be utilized at Smithville High School. Um, and just for your information, um, it was used, we were able to use, um, funds from CEP. So when you pay into CEP, they do set aside money um, that can be used by divisions that house CE programs. So, because Smithville High School houses a CEP program, we are lab able to request that money from CEP to use to um

115upgrade facilities. And so, that's what we we were able to do. So, it was about $63,000 that we were able to uh receive from CEP to use to make these upgrades. >> Thank you for mentioning that, Mr. Gatsson. And board members, as you will remember, we actually sent the board memo and we sought your approval prior to doing that. And uh at our ces meeting that was approved by that joint board uh to allow us to do that. So thank you for mentioning the mentioning the funding source. >> Mr. Chair, >> sir, Miss Gats, um how many if any students from neighboring divisions in CEP do we bring in? I don't have that off the top of my head, but we absolutely do have students from neighboring divisions because CESUP is a regional program. So,

116I don't know how many I can get that information for you. >> I just want to make sure it's it's it's at least one. >> Yes. >> Got it. Thank you. I yield. >> Any other questions, comments? Thank you. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Fe and Mr. Brinkley and always Mrs. Gats. Yeah. >> Are we going to take a fivem minute recess? We are back in session. Okay. Next, we have uh the proposed 2026 to 2027 school calendar. >> [clears throat] >> So, I'm going to clarify and say this is a proposed draft because this is a heads up of what we're anticipating putting out uh to the community, employees, students, parents to survey them for comments. So, what you're seeing tonight is probably pretty close to what's going to go on

117that survey. We just like to give you a heads up that it's going out to you know, to the community. What we typically do is we have the survey open. We ask them for input, feedback. Then in February, we bring you an actual proposed calendar for first read just for information purposes. And then in March, we come back uh and ask for your approval on the final calendar. At that point, we'll have a few more things finalized on here, such as when each quarter ends, when report cards are going to go home, interim reports, homecoming, but for now, really the dates off um the holidays and such are kind of the key things. I do want to make a just point out a few things. We will be starting later in the fall, >> uh

118because Labor Day comes in um on Monday the 7th. So, the first day of school will not be till Tuesday the 8th. And um the other thing that just to make you aware of, one of the things we're proposing is changing the last day of school. Um school's going to go a little bit later >> next calendar year. Likewise, to match how it starts. >> But Saturday, June 19th, is a federal holiday, Junth. So, we know it's going to be observed Friday the 18th. What we've typically done is our graduations are on that Friday after the last day of school. >> Our concern is that that's a federal holiday. That may make it challenging um for folks. Uh so the proposal right now is we would end school on Wednesday the 16th. We would hold

119graduations on Thursday the 17th. And we'll see what we what kind of feedback we get about that. But it's just making you aware if you were wondering why it looks a little different. So, but we'll bring all that I'll bring all that feedback to you back to the board in February and ultimately you guys get to make that decision as to what we're going to do. Do you have any questions about what we're proposing here? I mean, it's just once again just preliminary to let you know what's going out there on the survey. It just uh seems to me that the spring break is quite a bit early. Uh >> yes, sir. >> Next year, >> Easter Sunday is Sunday, March 28th. >> So, typically when Easter comes early, the break follows Easter. So, that's

120Yes, sir. It is It is early because of when Easter falls. We still do our spring breaks right now based on Easter. >> Okay. Um the m I believe the school divisions on the south side of Hampton Roads still base their spring break on Easter where the divisions on the peninsula have all aligned their spring break to just be the first full week in April. >> So based on that I imagine you're going to see the southside school divisions just doing what we're doing and having it at the end of March. >> Okay. Well that's when I look forward to uh seeing what the parents say. >> Absolutely. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Kramer. The floor is yours. >> Thank you, chairman. Or as Mr. Munford said,

121new chairman, Mr. Collic. And let's start with acknowledging our Isle award recipients. Uh so for the Award recipients for December for the Inspire Award, the recipient was the Western Tidewater Community Service Board and you see us there uh top left and we are dressed in our wonderful holiday regalia uh because we were doing something else which I'll speak to in a moment. Uh but a huge thank you to Western Tidewater for all they all that they do for our students and our community. Uh for the succeed award, the recipient was Katrina Addison, cafeteria manager at George Georgie Tyler Middle School. Uh and for the empower, I'm sorry, for the lead award, the recipient was Dr. Jennifer Kerry, our coordinator of federal grants and other initiatives uh and other uh programs she leads as well. And

122for the empower award, the recipient was uh Miss Alicia Johnson, one of our talented social workers uh there bottom right. Uh so again, congratulations to all of our Isle Award recipients for all that they do for our students and for our community and a round of applause to all of them for all that they do. Okay, next uh Smithfield par uh the Christmas parade. I was invited uh by Chief How and thank you Chief How for allowing me uh to accompany you and thank you to the Smithfield Police Department for allowing me to ride along with the chief in the Smithfield Christmas parade on December 13th and our schools were well well represented in that parade as well. Uh next, the Smithfield High Corollers at the at St. Luke's pleasure to attend the 2025 holiday

123concert series by the Smithfield High Corollers in the Carol by Candlelight performance. The student performers were truly outstanding. Thank you, Smithfield High Corollers and Smithfield High director uh Miss Katie West uh for putting on that production and representing our division and our community so well. Next, the candy cane delivery. One of our very popular annual traditions took place on December 18th with staff from the Isa White County Schools Administration Office. Visiting our elementary schools to spread a little holiday cheer. Uh these visits highlighted by smiles, festive greetings, and a simple candy cane provided a wonderful opportunity to connect uh with our youngest learners at all of our elementary schools. And our staff, you all do a great job of dressing up and everybody engages. I think you had a chance, Mr. Collik. I think I

124barely missed you, but I think you had a chance to see some of this at least at one of our schools as well. So, that was a great day for our community and for our elementary schools. Next, uh, sounds of the season. Over the break, uh, Carolton Elementary's Cardinal Coral and Hardy Elementary's first grade chorus were featured on WTKR News 3 and WG&T The Spot North 27 as part of the Sounds of the Season series. Both performances are available for viewing on the IWCS YouTube page. Congratulations to both Carolton and Hardy Elementary Schools for representing our county so very well. Next, the Smithfield Little Theater Winter Wonderes. Oh, look at this. The Smithfield Little Theater presented the Winter Wonder holiday production. Members of the Isa White staff and I had the privilege of attending the

125production, one of the productions to support our multi-talented board clerk, the one and only Ms. Jessica Whitlo. Yes. As she starred in the performance and I might add that she was truly outstanding. And I say that I'm biased, but I'm also objective. You were awesome. Uh, Mrs. Whitlo, congratulations on a great performance. And this was just one of the nights. In fact, I think we had another group of colleagues and staff members who attended on another one of the Fridays. And unfortunately, I don't have those photos, but uh lots of folk uh who support you and love you and came out to uh to see you and to encourage you, but great job for representing not only our division but the community. Uh Mrs. Whit, does anyone want to say something? I see >> nobody

126can. >> Go ahead. Uh uh Mr. Marsh, what do you have to say, sir? >> I'm sorry I didn't make your show. Yeah, >> I'm sorry. >> There will be others, I assure you. Correct, Mrs. Whitlow? >> Yes. >> All right. Next, we have the Smithfield High uh engineering digital ship challenge. Smithfield High School engineering three and four students recently participated in the 2026 digital ship challenge midyear event at Oldminion University's Virginia Digital Maritime Center. During the event, students presented their sub initial submersible prototypes and received valuable feedback from maritime industry mentors and partners, gaining realworld insight into engineering design and innovation. Students also took part in Maritime Connect when they explored maritime career pathways in the Hampton Roads region, connected with industry professionals, and learn more about local workforce opportunities. Smithfield engineering students will

127return to the Virginia Digital Maritime Center in April to present their final uh submersibles and compete alongside teams from seven regional school divisions. So awesome job and we will be cheering you on engineering digital ship challenge students. Next we have the Chamber of Commerce visits the lab land lab. Thank you to the Iowa White County Chamber of Commerce for visiting our agricultural land lab on January 13th and hosting your board meeting on site. We appreciate the opportunity to showcase our facilities, our programs, and sharing learning in action. as Mr. Brittle and our agriculture students led a tour of the farm and animals. Thank you, Mr. Brittle, Mr. Judkins, and our talented land lab students. And next, and this actually just occurred today, a child nutrition audit. A huge congratulations to the Child Nutrition Department for

128a phenomenal audit review. And that's a quote from the Virginia Department of Education audit reviewer. The review the reviewer was affusive in her commendations of the program and the significant improvements made by our school division and the child nutrition team. Thank you, Mrs. Couch, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Barbie, and all of our cafeteria managers and staff. And if I may, I would like to read verbatim from the actual audit finding which we will be uh getting to you board members. The auditor stated that it was a phenomenal review, quote, and she further stated in the report itself, under the leadership of a passionate director, the program is solid. The best part of the integration of the agriculture program and highlighting foods that the students help to cultivate themselves. The division really exemplifies many best practices and

129sets a high standard for other programs across the state. This is literally taken from an audit and you rarely hear those kinds of commendations in an audit report and again we will this literally just occurred today uh with the auditor uh from the Virginia Department of Education. Absolutely. And next we have the IWCS reflections. Uh over the break, copies of reflections county school's annual report were mailed to families produced uh by our communications department. Reflections highlights the growth, achievements, and memorable moments from the past school year. Uh, and I think all of you have received a copy. And here's a copy. Beautiful, uh, edition. Great job, uh, Mrs. Briggs and Mr. Elliot. And we're very proud, uh, of the work that you've done to really capture, I think, the essence of what our school division

130means and what we represent for this entire community. Uh, so absolutely, another round of applause. Thank you [applause] for what you do. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. That concludes my update and happy new year to everyone and welcome Mr. Ford. We're also looking forward to working with you. Thank you Dr. Kramer. Next we'll go into action on the close session items. We're going to start with the personnel report. [clears throat] >> It's number 18. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the personnel report as presented, a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk. >> Second. >> I have a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? >> There is no discussion. The clerk will take the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Worster, >> yes. >> Mr. Marsh, >>

131yes. >> Mr. Ford, >> yes. >> And Mr. Collic, >> yes. And next we have the consent agenda. >> Mr. Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented. >> Second. >> I have a motion and second. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none, the clerk will conduct the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Worster, >> yes. >> Mr. Marsh, >> yes. >> Mr. Ford, >> yes. >> And Mr. Collic, >> yes. And I'm going to take just a minute here and thank some people for some donations to our schools. Um to child nutrition, uh Kurri, Dr. Pepper donated some carts, paper, freezer, refrigerators, desk, chair, storage carts, and snap frames. Alawite County Schools uh received school and office supplies from Smithfield Library. Carolton Elementary School received $250 for

132the reading program from the Women's Club of Smithfield. Thank you to everyone who donated. Next, we have action on new business, the policies for first read. If there are any questions, Miss Briggs will be up to answer them. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. [sighs] I did have a couple questions and Mrs. Briggs has already I think it was Mrs. Briggs that answered it, but I asked her to give me a little background on the policy changes because this one caught my attention. specifically the bit about uh rates of pay exempt versus non-exempt. And so I was hoping she'd be willing to say that out loud for the board in the audience. >> Um absolutely. And I believe you're referencing uh GCJA. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Work schedules, emergency response, and sheltering. Um let me look at

133my notes here. Uh so if you if you don't mind, I'm just going to read what I have written. But previously, when schools were utilized as emergency shelters, typically during severe weather, building principles and assistant principles were required to provide on-site coverage. This often required administrators to commute in hazardous conditions using their personal vehicles and uh if you would like to know more about it, you can ask Miss Sullivan as she was there during a hurricane, couple hurricanes. So, under the updated policy, which had not been updated in several years, county emergency services now manages shelter coverage in coordination with school administration. Uh, this change ensures we continue to support the county's needs through collaboration uh with emergency services while protecting our staff. To prioritize employee safety, only IWCS staff with districtisssued vehicles will be

134called upon to support the county during these events. And um categories that might be included in that maybe uh transportation, mechanics, uh because sometimes the county is looking at us, they're using our vehicles, they may need to transport people to shelters. Um maybe things related to HVAC issues or child nutrition. But the key thing is we're not asking our principles, assistant principles to drive in during a hurricane or a a blizzard. not that we've get them lately to man an emergency shelter when they themselves are going to be put at danger to get in. Um there is a note about pay. Non-exempt employees are essentially your hourly employees and they would be compensated at basically time and a half 150% of their regularly regular hourly rate if they're working during emergency school closures. And exempt

135employees are your salaried and they're paid their standard hourly rate for every hour beyond 40 hours. But a point to note is that pay is reimbursed from the county. That's not what we're not paying them. That is from the county. They uh we keep a time sheet for anybody that's called in and that's something that due to an emergency situation the county reimbures us. I know that was a little lengthy, but that's >> thanks for the clarity on that. That's a lot, but I >> it's a lot. >> It helped to understand what was going on there. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Any other questions on the first read? Hearing none, we'll go to 20.2 policies for second read. We only have one. This did come back up in uh I want to say August,

136September perhaps. And we're bringing it back as it was originally written should should the board um agree to adopt this before that occurs. I do want to ask that there is a minor amendment included with that motion in in the section that's underlined the third paragraph. It says each school that has an athletic emergency action plan or cardiac emergency response plan ensures that designated personnel including school nurses, athletic trainers and coaches are properly trained in first aid cardopulmonary resuscitation CPR and the use of automated external defibrillators, AEDs. For clarification purposes, I'm requesting or recommending we add the word athletic in front of coaches. And the reason is we do have many positions that are considered coaches but are instructional of nature. >> Reading coaches, instructional coaches, um we have some coaches that do clubs. >>

137Uh they may be considered coaches, but the intent of this, as you can see, was referencing athletic. So, I just would like that noted if the board elects to approve this tonight with the addition of the word athletic before coaches. >> Good to go. >> Mr. Chair, if I may. >> Yes, Mr. Wester. Uh please correct me if I'm wrong, but policy EBBA was one of the ones that came before the uh policy review committee and I believe that we had added instead of saying properly trained in first aid CPR properly s [snorts] or certified in first aid CPR and use of AED. Am I incorrect on that? >> That was supposed to go back to the policy committee for review and then nothing ever came from that. I think it was November. So >>

138yeah, because I was under the impression that was pretty much finalized at that point. >> It's not been approved by second read. Uh I believe in November. >> That's correct. Mr. Brewster, that was um >> the last time it brought up and we all went back and forth over that really that one word. It was certified versus trained. And when we when we tabled it that night, the understanding was it would go back to committee would revisit it and look at a plan. Nothing ever came to fruition. So for the agenda prep, I asked the clerk and Mrs. Whit, Mrs. um Riggs to put it back up. >> Okay. So I mean, you can say it's one word, but there's a huge difference between properly trained and certified. I I still would like to see

139that in there as certified. >> So, and then if I may, I I understand what you're saying, but there's a lot of consequences to adding that word certified. So, it would be my recommendation to the board to approve it as is with the addition of that one word, athletic coach, and then revisit it and figure out a way to get more people certified to get what you want. So I I agree with what you want in premise. What I don't agree with is approving it and not being able to meet the policy that we've approved. So again, my recommendation is to approve it tonight as is because it was up for review and we're if we don't approve it, we're out of compliance with code because code changed July 1st. So we're now in January.

140So approve it tonight. Get the policy in compliance with code. Move forward. And Mr. Rooster, if you would then work with staff and figure out a way to get your certifications implemented so that we can achieve that. Perhaps it's a phased approach. I I don't know, but I know if we approve it the way you proposed it in October, November, we can't meet it as soon as we approve it. >> And I think Miss Briggs uh mentioned something to that effect in November that as soon as we pass it, we would definitely be out of compliance. So I would have to agree with this Marsh that you know for now properly trained and once we have the people that are certified then we can change the policy if we want. Mr. Chair, I'll be happy

141to uh go ahead and approve it tonight. Um I do want to add that it is very easily to become certified in CPR and persons in these positions right now should currently be certified. That's my opinion. >> Okay. Mr. Chair, I would move to approve policy EBBA as presented to include Mrs. Briggs recommendation to add the word athletic in front of coaches. >> Period. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none, the clerk will take the vote. >> Mrs. Perkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Worster. >> Yes. >> Mr. Marsh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ford. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic. >> Yes. >> Okay. That brings us to board member comments, reports, and information. So, we'll go ahead and start with Miss Perkins. >> I have nothing.

142>> Okay. Mr. Worcester? >> I have nothing. >> Mr. Marsh? >> Nothing to answer. >> And Mr. Ford? >> And no comments. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I want to thank each of you for giving me your trust and confidence in my abilities to chair this board over the next year. Um, and for anybody that lives in the Carsville district, um, if you're watching, um, one Saturday every month, I'm going to be at JB's giving out coffee and talking to folks if you want to stop by. No appointment needed. And if nobody has anything else, we will adjourn.