School Board Meeting 6/12/2025

001Good test. T test. All right. Hawite County School Board's in session. Madam Clerk, Mr. Collic here. Mr. Cunningham here. Mrs. Perkins here. Mr. Worster here. And Mr. Marsh here. 31 sir. Mr. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the agenda for close session as presented. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, Mr. Collic, yes. Mr. Cunningham, yay. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worster, yes. And Mr. Marsh, yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, I move to add ERIP extension to the agenda and approve the agenda as amended. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, Mr. Collic, yes. Mr. Cunningham, yes. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worster, yes. And Mr. Marsh, yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, I move to go into close session to review the personnel report posted on board docs under personnel

002tab number 18.1 as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Alawite public schools for employment, contract changes, transfers, salary adjustments, supplemental contracts, deletions, supplemental pay, resignations of Olive White County Public Schools employees and to go into close session to discuss and consider the performance, evaluation, and contract of the superintendent as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A1 to discuss a matter involving one religious exemption student that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record contain concerning students as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A2 and to discuss and consider one early admission for a student as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-371 2-3711A2 involving the disclosure of information concerning identifiable students of Alawway County Schools. Mr. Wester, we had a a late add-on. It's too early admissions. That's

003my fault. Can just correct it too. Price one. No, just it's the same. It just the increase from one to two. Correction on the motion for discussion and consideration of two early admission students as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A2 involving the disclosure of information concerning identifiable students of Olive White County Schools. Thank you, sir. Second. Any discussion, Madame Clerk? Mr. Collic, yes. Mr. Cunningham, yes. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worster, yes. And Mr. Marsh, yes. Madam Cler, do we have anyone signed up to speak? Close session? No, sir. Okay. On that, we'll go to close session. Awesome. Ready. Good evening. Alawite County School Board's in session. Mr. Mr. Chair, I move that the closed meeting was conducted in conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section 2.2-3712D of the

004code of Virginia and certified that only public business 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. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Madame clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham. Yes. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Worooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Over to you, sir. Would everyone please stand for a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Worster. Good evening. June 12th. It's also the last day of school. A lot of be a lot of excited

005kids out there. Um we are in Westside Elementary School for our regular monthly schoolboard meeting. Um and we're just going to kick it right off to Alawite achievers. Mrs. Briggs. Come on, ma'am. Sorry. Um, and I think Miss Gats is going to come up to assist me as well. All right. So, 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. The Olive White Achiever section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts. So, just to go through the procedure because we have a lot of folks here tonight. When I call your name, as I'm reading off all these wonderful accolades about you, you'll

006bring up your certificate that you've already received. You'll come see Mrs. Gets and she will have a pin for you. If you're with the group, you're going to stand in front of the table and face the board so they get to see you and celebrate you. After I finish reading the accolades, we're going to have you turn around and go to the backdrop and Mr. David Elliot's going to come up to get a group photo. that's the perfect time for families to hop up and also get a photo as well. And um then that that way everybody can get a picture to take home with them. So we're gonna start. We know tonight is the night before graduation. So intentionally we are getting our high school kids out of here because I think we have

007a few seniors with us tonight. So we are going to start with Windsor High School. The Windsor High School speech team took first place overall for the Tri Rivers region and advanced to super regions held at Lurray High School. The team further advanced to state competition at Salem High School. The team had a successful outing in both competitions. Third place and humorous duo in the super regional went to Connor Walters and Abby Daly. Come on down, Connor. And I believe Mr. Johnson has your certificate, so he'll bring it up when he comes. First place in the region in super regionals in poetry was Trel Duck. I'm not sure if Treml is with us. Second place in pros in the super regional and third place at the state competition, Danielle Rquenna. And first place in serious

008duo at the super regionals and third place at state competition, Pearl Anderson and Journey Johnson. Think Pearl's not here. Thought I saw Pearl. No. And the team is coached by Chris Johnson. So Chris, come on up. Yep, I think Pearl's here. [Applause] Yeah, there's Pearl. and Mr. Johnson. And [Laughter] so congratulations Windsor High on an outstanding season and for doing so well at Super Regionals and State. We'll have you go over to the backdrop. Mr. Elliot will get a photo once again. Any family members? That's a perfect time to come up. Are we good? Okay. Our next honores are from Smithville High School. Six students from Smith, excuse me, Smithfield and Windsor High, pardon me. Six students from Smithfield and Windsor High School represented the state in a national cooking competition after taking first place

009in the Virginia ProStart Invitational. Students include, and please come up when I call your name, Christina Key Towns, Charlene Sanderson, Logan Horton, Aiden Kerr, Alexandria Washburn, Julia Leit, and instructors Scott Horn and Nick Hagen. [Applause] It was Isa White's first time participating in both the state and national event. At the state level, the Virginia Restaurant Lodging and Travel Association Foundation hosted the cookoff at the Hotel Madison and Harrisonburg. There over 100 students handpicked from the best high school culinary career and technical education programs across the state competed to prepare a three course meal in an hour or less using only two butane burners with no running water or electricity. under the watchful eyes of a panel of judges. In addition to the group contest, the Virginia ProStart Invitational included individual competitions um such as napkin

010folding and our own Aiden Kerr won the napkin folding competition with a Christmas tree folding pattern he had been practicing for over a month. So we we have tasted the the work of these students and we know how exceptional they are and what they can do. It's truly their gifts and talents. So, we are delighted to celebrate you here uh here tonight and thank you very much and congratulations. Good job. And we're going to have you go over to the backdrop. So now we can get no and we just recently did a career signing and I know one of our students here, Charlene Sanderson, signed with the Fiddlin Pig in Smithfield. So yeah, so go check out some of Charlene's handiwork. very proud. All right, our next group still from Smithville is from Smithville High

011School. The Kidwin Challenge is a hands-on design competition that engages students in STEM through the lens of wind and solar energy. Student teams design and construct small wind turbines and solar structures that they test and then meet with a panel of industry professional judges to present their design process and demonstrate their contextual knowledge of renewable energy. Teams also engage in a variety of instant challenges to gauge their on the spot teamwork and problem solving skills. Isa of White County School sent an impressive lineup of student teams to the Virginia Kid Win solar challenge state competition held in April at James Madison. Smithville had four wind teams and two solar teams in the state competition. First, the Wizards of Wind placed second in the central region. Team members include Brennan Thompson, Ethan Whit, Logan Taylor, and

012Colin Hicks. [Applause] In the solar category, the Bluebird project team placed second in the eastern region and won the Innovation and Wildlife Habitats Invent VA award. Team members are Will Flee, Adah Montgomery, Vincent Jamie Sawyer, Evelyn Newman, and Jaden Ruffen. [Applause] And the Parker Brothers, which I just love that they call themselves that because they are the Parker Brothers, uh, place third in the Eastern Region with their offthegrid farm. Team members are Kyle and Aiden Parker. They're with us tonight. And three teams from Smithville High earned invitations to the World Kid competition in Phoenix, Arizona, held in May, more than any other school division in Virginia. Team Windstorm was the winner of the online challenge. The team includes Jack Row, Camden Lawrence, and Brody Sering. [Applause] Team Blown Away is the state runnerup and earned

013a $200 cash prize for their high performance turbine and outstanding presentation. Team members include Hayden Williams, Draven Monroe, Jeremiah Pedawa, and Colin Phillips. [Applause] and team Goon Squad are state champions and they were awarded the gold turbine blade trophy along with a $300 cash prize. They also went to Phoenix and came back as world champions. Pretty cool. Yep. World Champions team members are Katie Gallah Horn, Senica Register, Andrew Shipman, Sophie Shipman, and Vincent Simpson. [Applause] And their coaches are Heather Greer, Adam Shipman, and Brianna Fry. We'll get the coaches to come on up. Yep. And was this consecutive wins? Two. All right. Two-time world champions. Pretty That's pretty impressive. That's right. So, we are extremely proud of all of you for your accomplish accomplishments at the state and the world level. And um we look

014to see I know some of you are graduating but we look to see those of you that are not graduating back here next year to let us know uh that third time world champion. No pressure Mr. Shipman. Congratulations. And we're going to have you go over here to the backdrop for a photo. [Applause] Smile. All right. Congratulations, Kidwin. Nice job. Very good. Yep. [Applause] All right, moving on to Carolton Elementary. Every year, the AAA Safety Patrol program recognizes patrollers from across the country through selection into the Safety Patroller Hall of Fame. This year, the Tidewater chose 13 students from the Tidewater area for the Hall of Fame. And two of those students are from our very own Carolton Elementary School. first, and I know he's unable to be here tonight because of baseball, Parker Hopper

015began as a trainee in 2024 and quickly advanced to captain and was ultimately voted lieutenant by his peers, showing recognition from both adults and students for his leadership. Um, he understands the balance between correcting unsafe behavior and offering praise for positive actions and believes kindness, respect, honesty, and fairness are key leadership traits. When a student named Luke was sad on his last day, Parker organized a farewell gesture with the other safety patrollers, showing compassion and initiative. With us, we have Tulsen Leg, and she's back there. I know. Here comes Toulson. So Tulsson submitted a video essay and we had a little bit of a technical difficulty, but we are going to put her video essay online so you guys can see it. But I can tell you that she began her safety patrol career at

016the beginning of her third grade year. She has served two terms, nine-week periods as a safety patroller. She is a well-liked and dependable member of the team. And she demonstrates mutual respect for her fellow safety patrollers and is always eager to help out above and beyond her duty when needed. and her sponsors. The sponsors of the Carolton Safety Patrol are Marie Berkeley and Casey Bryant, who are the counselors there. So, we're going to have them come up [Applause] and I'm gonna have to I'm going to say this. I just found out tonight that I taught Tulsen's mom. Hi, Casey. That was super cool, too. All right, we all good. Okay. Well, we'll have you come over here to the backdrop. We'll get a nice photo. [Applause] I know. All right. And as they're getting pictures,

017Yep. I will let you know that our next groups are going to be Great Computer Challenge. Yeah. Go get a photo. Elementary students recently participated in the senior division of the great, excuse me, the junior and um elementary divisions of the great computer challenge last month. Uh the long-running event is a joint project of who the consortium for interactive instruction and Old Dominion University. It provides a competitive opportunity for students in kindergarten through 12th grade from public and private schools to demonstrate their knowledge of various computer applications and programming skills. We are excited to recognize the teams from Carolton Hardy and Westside Elementary Schools that placed in the competition. We're going to start with Westside. So, first from Westside in the visual programming block coding category, earning honorable mention, we have Noah Price, Henry Browder,

018and Alexandra Bernett. [Applause] The coaches for that group are Jen Nimi and Dr. Erica Nukem. So, we'll have you come up as well. In Desktop Publishing, third place, Annabelle Leang, Emani Stokes, and Tana Miller. [Applause] Student coach for the team was Owen Zwick and coaches are KJ Wimbush and Dr. Erikica Nukem. [Applause] Desktop presentations. First place, Christian Wood, Claire Lenoi, Kylie Steinbergen, student coach Von Moody, and coaches Miss Stephanie Zwick and Dr. Erica Nukem. Dr. Dr. Nukem, should we keep doing going with um Carolton or should we wrap up Westside? Any thoughts? Okay, so congratulations Westside. We're going to have you guys go stand against the backdrop and we'll get a nice Westside group photo and after that we're going to move on to Carolton Elementary. Yay. That that's what I was thinking. Yeah, that

019makes sense. And once again, family members, this is your time for um photo ops. And no one moves until every parent gets their photo. Let's make sure. Wait a minute. I still see a few cameras. Yeah, still a few cameras. Hang on. Smile. Oh, still a few more cameras. Phones. Cameras. All right. Congratulations. Good job, Westside. [Applause] Don't go anywhere, Mr. Wimbush and Dr. Nukem. Y'all stay up here. We'll get Mr. Wimbush and Dr. Nukem to stay up here because they worked with Carolton as well. So, next from Carolton for Desktop Publishing, earning a rating of good, we have Jackson Wilbornne and coaches are Teresa Ober and KJ Wimbush. Yep. Very good. [Applause] In graphic design, earning uh a rating of good, Adelyn Roach, Liam Smith, Joshua Lang. [Applause] Coaches are Janine Sharer, Dr. Erica

020Nukem, and KJ Wimbush. Oh my goodness. And in visual programming block coding earning the rating of good, we have Eve Matter, Isaiah Hicks, and and Oliver Fiser. Coaches Michelle Pilo and KJ Wimbush. Yay. Oh my goodness. Stand right there. All right. Congratulations to our Carolton group. And we're going to have you guys go over here to the backdrop and get a group photo. Nicely done. [Laughter] Oh my gosh. All right. Once again, nobody move until everybody gets their photos. We've got a lot of phones up there. Wait a minute. Let's see. Nope, I still see a few cameras. Okay, congratulations. Nice job, Carolton. All right, and our third school is Hardy Elementary. In desktop presentations earning honorable mention, we have Mason Skinner, Gabriel Williams, and Tommy Anderson. And their coaches are Tiffany Jefferson Kur and

021Carolyn Mitell. Yay. In Desktop Publishing, earning a rating of good, we have Sam Christensen, Bryce Irwin, and Evelyn Raina. Coaches are Angela Thompson and Alicia Reeves. And in block coding, earning a rating of excellent, we have Camden Gray, Harper Wise, and Henry Polar. Coaches are Mallerie Bradley, and Kathy Wood. Congratulations. And in graphic design, earning the highest rating of superior, Ava Castanetta and Ben Mitsell, coached by Heather Stafford. [Applause] All right, so we want to congratulate you guys, Hardy. Nice job. We're going to have you go over here to the backdrop and we'll get a nice group photo. and family members. That's your cue. Are we all done? Everybody get their photos. Very good. Congratulations, Hardy. Have a great summer. Woohoo. All right. Next, we have our fourth quarter ABCD honore. Each quarter, we recognize

022one of our support staff members who's gone above and beyond the call of duty. Anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations. A panel reviews the nominees and selects the quarterly winners. Our 2024 2025 fourth quarter ABCD award winner is Elellanar Kates, instructional assistant at Smithville High School. We're going to have Ellanar come up and we'll have Elellaner stand up here in front and you get to stand there while I read all this wonderful stuff. Uh the the nomination for Ellaner states, "Miss Kates exemplifies outstanding leadership and unwavering dedication as an instructional assistant at Smithville High School, supporting students with special needs in an inclusive classroom setting. She works closely with colleagues to identify needs, solve problems, and achieve shared goals both in and out of the classroom. Known for building meaningful relationships, she

023has become a trusted safe person for many students, offering consistent emotional and academic support. Her innovative contributions have improved the daily operations for teachers, students, and staff alike. Whether assisting students one-on-one, covering classes during meetings, escorting students, or taking on extra duties without hesitation, Mrs. Kates approaches every task with positivity and professionalism. Her compassion, reliability, and genuine joy in helping others shine through in all she does. She goes above and beyond to ensure students understand class content and feel prepared for assessments. A true asset to SHS and the wider community, Mrs. Kates embodies excellence in her role and makes a lasting impact every day. As part of her award, Mrs. Kates is receiving a $50 Amazon gift card thanks to the generous support of our business partner, Delta Graphic. She is also receiving a personalized

024plaque created in the Smithville High School maker space. Congratulations, Miss Kates, and thank you for all you do. We'll have you come over here so we can get a picture. Okay. Next, I have my the new school. So, we're going to just give him a pin. Okay. And as we're wrapping up photos, um, we do have two additional special presentations, but this does conclude achievers. And I just want to thank all the students and family members who came out tonight on the last day of school and the night before graduation. Uh I really did not expect to see as many here uh that I did and we greatly appreciate that. Um and we appreciate you coming out so we can honor your children. So thank you. All right. So next one of the special presentations

025is the introduction of our new schoolboard liaison. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the new student liaison representing Windsor High School and that is Cole Mumford. So Cole's going to come up. [Applause] So you get to meet Cole and we're going to have Cole come stand in front. So Cole is a proud member of the Windsor community community and his dedication to leadership, service, and academic excellent is evident in all he does. He currently serves as the vice president of the class of 2027 at Windsor High School and has maintained honor roal status while taking rigorous coursework including honors English and honors honors world history. Outside the classroom, Cole is active in his church, regularly attending services and youth group activities. He is a committed member of Windsor High School's football team and

026previously competed in track. Cole also works at Bowen's barn and has served as a counselor at 4 camp for the past two years, reflecting his strong work ethic and leadership in youth development. Cole brings to this role a strong set of skills. He's a dependable communicator, a thoughtful problem solver, and a collaborative team player. He has a heart for his school and community and is committed to using this opportunity to represent his peers with integrity and purpose. Please join me in welcoming Cole Mumford as a student liaison for Windsor High School. Congratulations. Thank Hey, Cole. Cole. Cole. Oh, Mr. Marsh is speaking to you. According to Connor, you've got big shoes to fill. Hopefully, he gave you some pointers and we look forward to having you up here. Yes. And Cole, we're going to have

027you go to the backdrop. Mr. Elliot's going to get a photo and we will be putting out a press release introducing Cole to the entire community and you will see him back here in September. [Laughter] He's great. Oh, family photo. Thank you again, Cole. Thank you to the family for being here and we look forward to working with you over the next two years. Okay. So, our next special presentation is the reason why we were introducing Cole because sadly we are saying we'll say goodbye. We're saying see you later to our very own Connor Walters who has been with us for two years. And somebody related to Connor, maybe that lives in his home, maybe that he calls mom, might have sent us a few photos. I'm not telling. But we have a nice little

028collage there. And I know I first met Connor at Carsville. So even today as this adult version, I still picture the the the kid I met at Carsville. Um but we have uh you have been a delight to have on the the board as liaison and we have a couple things we want to do. So we are presenting you with a resolution of appreciation. It is signed by all the board members and it will be part of the minutes. And if you will indulge me, I'd like to read the resolution of appreciation. Whereas Connor W Connor Walters has served with distinction as a student liaison of the school board of Olive White County School during the two 2023 2024 and 2024 2025 school years. And whereas Connor has served with commendation as a student liaison

029to the Olive White County School Board. And whereas Connor has fulfilled his the duties of a student liaison representative with dedication and eminence and brought honor to himself, his family, Windsor High School and the Isle of White County School Board. And whereas during Conor Connor<unk>'s tenure, he studied the issues and came to each meeting prepared to provide input. And whereas Connor has been an energetic and essential part of the White County School Board. And whereas Connor<unk>'s term as the student liaison to the school board of White County ends June 12th, 2025. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Isisle of White County School Board wishes to publicly thank Connor for his service for the past two years, and be it further resolved that the Olive White County School Board extends its best wishes as Connor

030prepares for his future. And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Connor and a copy be spread in the minutes of the Olive White County School Board meeting of June 12th, 2025. In addition, we have a special plaque for you, Connor. I'm just going to read really quick and it says, "I love White County Schools recognizes Connor Connor Walters for dedication and serving as the Windsor High School student liaison to the school board 2023 2025." Um Connor, if you would come down here to accept these two items and we'd like to ask the board to please join us down here for a group photo. And mom and dad, we will certainly have you come up to get a photo as well. We'll do this photo and then we'll get

031a photo of you and the family because I think sis is here, right? Corey's here. If you know Connor, you know, we thought about giving him like um a bottle of hand soap. So he never So regardless of what the conditions are like in college, he is very focused on facilities and I know Dr. Coleman always appreciated him being kept on his toes. Sorry. [Laughter] A that is a Christmas card photo right there. All right, we're gonna swap out. You want mom and dad? Okay, we get the family to join the board members. No. Okay, we'll get the family with Connor. Are we good? Do you want Hey, do you guys have a phone? Do you want David to take a picture? Oh, somebody did it. Oh, okay. All right. Just making sure. Congratulations, Connor.

032Thank you for being here tonight. Family, thanks for coming as well. So, this concludes our special recognitions. Thank you very much. All right, I think that takes us to uh public comments. Do we have anyone? Yes. Okay. 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 than 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 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

033relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting. And we have Miss Dolores Darden. Hi, my name is Dolores Darden. I reside at 16249 Bowling Green Road, Smithfield. Most everybody knows me as DD. So, uh, here I am. Mr. Chairman, board members, and Dr. Kramer. We watch the news and we see see school shootings and students bringing guns to school. And it's sure easy to say that will never happen here in Alawite County. But on Monday, June 8th, at around 7:15 in the morning, reality hit home in Alawite. A student tried to enter Smithfield High School with a loaded gun. Thank goodness the metal detectors were there to alert the teachers that something was wrong. A 24year-old secondyear teacher searched the student's bag and saw the gun. She

034pulled the backpack away from the student as he lunged across the table at her, wrestling her for the bag. Finally, two teachers intervened, pulled the student off the teacher, and detained the student. All the while, this young 24year-old teacher could only think that he was going to take that gun out of that backpack and shoot her. What a way to start your day in your career as a teacher. I know these facts to be true because I am the very proud and thankful grandmother of that young teacher. I know money is always an issue with the board, but I would think that with a a budget of 103.2 2 million. You could find some money to beef up the security systems in our school. Safety of our students and FA faculty should be a high

035priority. And looking at your budget scoring sheet last year, it didn't score very high. Only one of you ranked a four and the scores went down as low as 47. In total, it ranked 29th or it tied for 29th out of one to 39 issues. So, it didn't rank very high. I ask you this, is security really a job for teachers? Shouldn't police or security guards that are trained be hired to do this job? I also see that in your budget that you have a scoring sheet that stipens are offered for extra duties performed by teachers. Why not offer a stipen for teachers who may be more qualified or wish to serve the metal detectors? If teachers are to perform this task, shouldn't they be properly trained to know what to do in cases like

036this and have a plan of action? And why is it that the metal detectors are only used in the morning? They should be in place all day and installed in the middle school as well. I understand that students can enter the middle school and go straight to the high school. So what really good good is our detection system if you can circumvent it and by going through the middle school if the situation Monday had escalated are teachers and faculty trained on what to do? Have they ever received or been offered active shooter training on maybe one of those numerous teacher work days one minute that the school system puts in? Maybe one of those days could put put in for a training for for teachers to be trained in safety and security measures and all

037the staff be included. Gentlemen and ladies, this this this incident was a wake-up call for all of us here in Alawite. Ben Franklin said it best. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. I beg you to please look at your budget, review your priorities again, and put plans in place to improve the safety and security of our schools. We cannot fail this task. We must be prepared to ensure the safety and the ch of our children, our grandchildren, and our staff. Thank you all. Thank you, Miss Nardon. That was it. Okay. All right. Kind of sets a tough tone. Um, you want to take five? I'd like to take five. All right, we're back in session. Student liaison. How about you go first, Miss Cameron? The last day of school for students at

038Smithfield High School occurred today on June 12th. June 12th and 11th along with the 10th were exam days with the 11th and 12th being early dismissals as students were released three hours earlier than usual. Tomorrow, Friday, June 13th, is graduation. The ceremony will occur beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Liberty Live Church. A class of over 300 students will be leaving as they have succeeded to complete their high school coursework and will pursue a wide variety of post-secary options. Earlier in the week, as Miss Darden mentioned, on Monday, June 8th, at Smithfield High School, a student was found to be in possession of a loaded gun. The gun was discovered as a result of the weapons detection system implemented earlier this year. The student was said to have been charged with a class 6 felony, and

039not much besides what Miss Darden provided us with is known beyond this. This is the first instance of a viable threat being discovered by the weapons detection system, and it shows just how important these detection systems are. and without them, we would be left just open to all sorts of threats. Overall, aside from a few incidents, the 2024 to 2025 school year was successful for Smithfield High School. With this being the last meeting and us dismissing for the summer, we look forward to a new 2025 to 2026 season next year. Thanks, Cameron Connor. Alrighty. So, uh, yeah, uh, Windsor, we finished out the year pretty smooth. Um, and then like Cameron mentioned, our graduation is tomorrow at, uh, Windsor is at 2 o'clock at Liberty Live. Um, and then lastly, I want to thank everybody

040for the opportunity. I've written up a little little something. Um, I want to thank the board, Chair Marsh, Dr. Kramer and all all of his staff for allowing me to serve as the Windsor High School student liaison for the past two years. This position has taught me more than I could have ever hoped for, and I will take what I've learned into my future. I feel like my voice was not just listened to, but heard and understood. You all made me feel comfortable enough to share the not so good parts of our school. I want to thank my colleague Cameron for working alongside me this year. Uh, I enjoyed all of our catch-ups between Windsor and Windsor and Smithfield. Um, and lastly, I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Coleman. He had the

041very hard job of listening to listen listening to me every board meeting complain about the bathrooms. But surely enough, to his credit, every time I walk in the bathroom, I have soap, water, and paper towels. So, so thank you. [Applause] Uh, I will definitely miss this position, but I know, but I have no doubt that it is going into good hands. Uh, Cole will be an excellent student liaison. Thank you again for all that you've done. [Music] [Applause] Listen, do you remember a couple two three months back when you asked me to write you a recommendation letter? And I obliged you and at some point in time, couple two, three months ago, I asked you, "What's it like applying for college? What's the process like?" Because I've never done it. I never had to do

042it. And I've got two little kids that are going to have to do it. I'm genuinely interested. Uh, and I'd like to share that information with upand cominging graduates. And you said you were going to put something together for me. Where's it at? In my brain. Here we go. Okay. They have they have an online uh something called College Board. Uh, you pick out your colleges out of a whole big old list. So, you you type in the search bar what colleges you're interested. Uh, and then they get they they have the application form out for you. And so you don't have to mail it directly to the college. You can mail it um or you you can actually just hit sub submit on College Board and the College will get your application and uh

043they'll get like your your personal email information and then you'll be on your way. Okay. FAS is a whole different story though. You get you have to you have to get everything together. I mean everything. But all right, it's pretty easy nowadays. It's been a pleasure. Anybody else want to say anything to Connor? Doc, first uh Cameron, thank you so much for your contributions. You've been just an awesome addition to the board as our student liaison. So looking forward to working with you again next year. And Connor, we have Yes, we have had such a delight. It's been such a delight, I should say, to have you on the board. You've held us to account. You take you've taken your position very seriously. Additionally, I've gotten a chance to know you as a member of

044the superintendent student liaison where you have offered similar contributions and you've held me accountable. So, Dr. Coleman, you're not the only one who has been held to account. Uh going to miss you, Connor. You, I think, exemplify what a student liaison is. You took your job seriously. you were engaged, you wrote us, you texted us or or called us to let us know what the concerns were and I am going to absolutely miss you. So, thank you so much for your contributions and I know you will go on and do very well and you will be a student next year at CNU, correct? Christopher Newport University. What are you studying by the way? Uh, I'm studying kinesiology. Awesome. Very good. So, best wishes to you, young man, and stay in touch with us. Thank you.

045Thank you so much. Go do great things. [Applause] All right. If y'all want to beat it and go get ready for graduation, then by all means or hang out if you want. Okay. That takes us to presentations from the superintendent. 15.1 division literacy plan. Good evening board. My name is Haley Coopright and I'm the elementary literacy coordinator and I'm here to present our bianial division literacy plan to you. Um kind of opening it up for any kind of questions that you have, but also just kind of wanted to tell you that we have updated it to include fourth through 8th grade. So the VLA was implemented this year with K3 and the next year will be including fourth through 8th grade. We had to update our supplemental curriculum. Um, our intervention curriculum and testing are

046the primary biggest notifications of changes. Are you going through it or are you waiting on us? I don't know. Well, I will say um that I love the changes you've been making. and I can tell y'all have worked hard on it and I I appreciate the presentation you're giving us. So, I just wanted to say thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Any other questions or things that comments? I I do have a couple of questions. Um just reading through it on page 11, you made some comments about uh uh how Alawat County prioritizes family engagement in our strategic plan. Um, what are some of your hurdles for family engagement? Yes, ma'am. I would love to get every family as passionate about their child's reading as I am. Um, and really just making sure that they have

047the tools necessary to do to help their child be successful. Um, and I think that families reading is complicated. I just don't they want they have the best intentions of wanting to help their child. They're just not sure what to do. So, one of my biggest goals has been to get put together a literacy website for families that gives them the tools and the resources that they need in order to help their children at home because I feel like that's it's important. So, you have a website or you're putting one together? I have one. I forgot to say that. Okay. Is there anything we can do to help you overcome the hurdles? Family engagement is big, right? It's like getting people to show up to a board meeting. So, okay. Sorry to put you on

048the spot. Yeah, I'm kind of a processor, so may I get back to you? Okay. Okay, that's fine. And then, uh, and and I've already got you've already answered these, but for the for the public, what are some of our community partnerships that support the literacy plan? So, we currently work with the Kuanas Club. They have a kindergarten reading program. It's called Isle Read, and they go into the kindergarten classrooms and they read with kids almost weekly. We have tons of volunteers. It's pretty fabulous. Um we work with the Blackwater Regional Library. Um we work with the DGood Foundation. They help us with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. And then another one that I thought about um in reflecting was the Isa White County um Christian outreach program. They have a program that supplies books

049for all of our preschool students every month. And then the Blackwater Regional Library provides a little pamphlet for families to help support their children with reading at home. Um, so I would love ideas of other communities um, partnerships to have to really engage more and more of the community. Um, so if you have any ideas, I would be happy to take them. Okay. So for the people listening, you're wide open for suggestions. Yes, please. Okay. We also work with the United Way. They have been an amazing partnership with us as well. Right. And then the last question is just your opinions. We're one year into the V Virginia Literacy Act, right? Yes. So, in your opinion, how's it going? Oh, my opinion, I I believe it's going well. I think everyone is really the teachers

050that I've talked to have been so excited that they made it through their first year. There was a lot of changes this year with a new core curriculum. Um, K5 had to implement a brand new curriculum. They were told that they couldn't use some of the things that they've always used in the past. That was really hard. It's a hard change for them to not be able to use something. We had a new assessment. We had student reading plans. We've had a new reading intervention curriculum. Um, and teachers are very proud that they made it. Like, we've all made it. And we all have learned so much this year that we're already excited to teach next year and make the changes that are necessary to continue to really help our students succeed. Good. And I'm

051sure we're all anxious to see the outcomes of the final scores for the year when that Yes. gets solidified. Yes. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you, ma'am. All right. And you all approve the Oh, yeah. This is action item. It is. I need you all to Next up, I'm going to get Dr. Kramer to sign so then I can submit. Mr. Chair, if there's no more questions, I'll make the motion. Yes, sir. Please, Mr. Chair, I move to approve the division literacy plan for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Motion and a second pinning any other discussion. Madame clerk, Mr. Collic, yes. Mr. Cunningham, yay. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worster, yes. And Mr. Marsh, yes. Motion passes. Thank you all. Thank you, dear. We didn't take the resolution. Oh, we didn't. Huh? Can we do it

052at the end? Okay. Good evening, Chair Marsh, Dr. Kramer, board members. I'm Jennifer Kerry, and I'm here to present the title grants for your approval. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, questions, comments from the board. Okay, take action. Mr. Chair, I move to approve, excuse me, the title one, two, three, and four grants for the 2025, 2026 school year. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I will ask the question because you took the time to answer it and and I'm sure that I'm not the only one asking. Um what's the thought process for der determining the values for measuring the improvement for the different measurable objectives? Okay, for the different grants um the process is the same. We use needs assessments. Um we look at data. That's pretty much the primary um tool

053that we use. I meet with coordinators, the director of assessment, Mrs. Loud does an amazing job with quarterly reports. Um and then we meet and track progress and we set goals for the next year. Obviously we want them to be higher than where we are but we want them to be realistic. Um and one of your questions was what if you don't meet the goal? We document that in the grant and then we meet again to determine how are we going to what processes can we put in place? What supports can we give teachers? How can we support them so that we can meet those objectives and continue moving the benchmark and for our students. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Madame clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Worster? Yes. And

054Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you all. Good evening, ma'am. Good evening, Chairman Marsh, Dr. Kramer, board members. Before you this evening, you have updated meal prices for the upcoming school year. Um, you will see a 10 cent increase in both breakfast and lunch for students um next year. And you'll see an increase of about 20 cents for adult meals as well. And as you all know, when you go to the grocery store, groceries are more expensive. Our costs are going up as well. All right. Take action. Yeah. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the student and adult meal price increase for breakfast and lunch as presented. Second. Motion in a second. Any other comments? Madam clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Wooster. Yes. And Mr. from Marsh.

055Miss Mrs. Couch, I've got you up here. How was your first year in in-house food services? I've learned a great deal. Um, I can do everything now from cook a pizza to wash a pan to prepare fruit on the line. I can tell you what a reimburseable meal looks like and we're making great progress. But one of my biggest heroes has been Miss Dairy, who's helped me out so much to learn finance from that side of the house. She's been amazing to work with and help us through that. So, still learning every day, but learning a lot and going to be continuing to have innovative dishes next year, more scratch cooking, less processed food, and we hope to up um have more adults eating um our staff and more students as well. Thank you, Mr.

056Marsh. You voted, right? I did. Okay. All right. Sorry. Okay, that takes us to 154, the uh VHSL membership applications. It's another action item. Okay. Good evening. Um if you have any questions about the VHSL membership, we do it every year. um send in the application for the VHL sports that we are anticipating to have at the high schools in the coming years. M gets I I do have a couple questions. Um comparing the Windsor to this to the Smithfield High VHSL applications. It's uh it caught my attention that Windsor has quite a few less of the programs than Smithfield High. So, what's what's the methodology for figuring out which ones you're going to sponsor, so on and so forth? Yeah, I did talk to Miss Carol. Um, thought I had the answer, but I

057wanted to double check. And it's really based on student interest. You know, can they make a team? Do they have enough kids who are interested in swimming or volleyball or whatever it may be. Um, also another factor that does come into play are do they have the people to sponsor the sport? um the sport, coach the sport, sponsor the club. Um and sometimes that is hard to find people who are willing to do it. But she said most of the time in her case, it's student interest that's driving the activity or the sport. Is there ever an instance when let's just say there's a handful of students in Windsor that want to play field hockey. We don't offer it, but Smithfield does. Is there is there ever ever an instance where you'll send kids down

058the road for that? We've never done that. That's never been asked. Um I mean I don't know. I would have to look into see if that is feasible as far as because you know you would have to leave Windsor, drive to Smithfield. Um I don't know. I I haven't looked into that. It's something that we could explore if that was feasible to get them there. We'd have to transport them there then transport them back to Windsor. I I really I'm just curious just trying to figure out. Yeah, if I can, Mr. Chair, I it's a great question. There's nothing I think that precludes us from doing it. I think the challenge, as Miss Gets is alluding to, is logistical given the proximity and distance between the two schools. That would be the challenge. But I

059have experience where something similar has occurred. So, it could happen. But again, the the task would be getting the students to the other school. Um, and while I'm while I have the mic here, I think one of the challenges of having a smaller school like Windsor, great atmosphere, but the challenge is fielding teams because of the size of the school. So, uh, that's part and parcel of having a very small high school. Sure, that makes sense. And, you know, there's a lot there's a lot of school pride in both schools. I don't know if they would be willing to join a team at the other high school. I didn't even think about it like that. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Somebody willing to make a motion. Mr. Chair,

060I move to approve the VHSL applications for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Worooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh. Yes. Motion passes. Well, there she is. My favorite CFO. Mr. Vary, over to you with the 2026 payroll calendar. Uh, we have presented you with the proposed payroll calendar for this next fiscal year. And the biggest change that I want to point out is that effective July 1, um we will make uh all all employees are eligible to receive a semionthly paycheck um versus instead of monthly, which I I think applies to a couple of our groups. Um as long as the proper time sheets are submitted, approved, and submitted, they will receive a semionthly paycheck.

061So that's outstanding. And that's something that the employees had asked for earlier this year. So, if I may, Mr. Chair, yes. Uh, upon my arrival here, that is something our bus aids in particular have been asking for. Uh, so a credit to you, Mr. Vy, for making that happen. Um, that was, I think, something they were very emphatic about and it's great to see that that will be happening for fiscal 26. Well, it's my payroll specialists that will make it really happen. Well, your team. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, it's an action item. Somebody be willing to make a motion. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the fiscal year 2026 payroll calendar as presented. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madame clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Worster?

062Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. And chair, this is where we'll put um the e-rip ex the e- rip a amend amendment that we made. We added it to the agenda. Oh, that's right. That's right. School board clerk keeping us honest up here. And where did we put that, Mrs. Whitlo? What number is that? It's going to be 15.6. It wasn't on there because we had them in the agenda. Okay. So, it will be 15.6. No. Do you want to talk to it, Mr. Barry? E-RIP. What is it? Yes. So, the E-RIP extension is for one staff member who's participated in our E-RIP program. Um, we approve it for five years. If there's anyone who wants to have an additional year, we ask that you all approve that. We're asking for one additional year

063for one additional staff member to participate in our ERIP program. Um, which would allow her to then turn 65 in this year and be eligible for Medicare. So, it's helping her get to that point because she retired early from us. And for the listening audience, ERIP is extended retirement incentive program. Early retirement in incentive program. Yes. Where we allow them to stay on our health insurance as an employee. Um, and they donate those 25 substitute days in return. Thank you. Anything from the board? Over to you, sir. Mr. Chair, I move to approve an extension of ERIP for one employee for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. We have a motion and two seconds. Any discussion? Madame clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Worster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion

064passes. Moving right along to monthly financials. Yes, sir. Um there's really nothing um out of the ordinary to report, which is always a good thing. Can't believe we're already at the end of May. Um and the one thing that I will point out is that our health insurance continues to trend uh in a much higher level than what we had budgeted. So, just continuing the same thing that I've said for each of the last couple months. Um, through May, the total expenses are about 8.5 million. So, but you were expecting it. Uh, we we didn't, you know, budget, but yes, we've been seeing that trend and it is certainly coming coming true, right? But the plan is to, you know, make some additional contributions to the health insurance fund depending on how our our year

065works out, which um is favorable. Everything's looking like we think it should. Okay. So, I trust you'll keep us up to date and Yes, sir. let us know if anything concerning pops up. Um, for the grant report, the TQP grant that's been uh cancelled, do you have any concerns about getting reimbursed on that? No, sir. We have the funds. Okay. So, it's it's basically done. Got it. And then there was a a uh I'm having a drawing a blank here. There was a charge for Amoresco for $243,000. What What was that for? It's a debt service payment. Um several years ago um uh we implemented some projects that were supposed to be uh cost savings for um for our various utilities. Um maybe Dr. Coleman as Dr. Coleman comes forward. And that actually I think

066not only predates me, it actually just for the record, it predates this board as well, but it's an expense we have to pay. And Dr. Craig, you are 100% correct. There's the 2014 2015 school year and the uh renovations were for Westside and Hardy at the time. So those renovations went at it was it predates myself also. Got it. Yeah. We've we've crossed this road last year, haven't you? Yes, we did. Yeah. Paying debt for something that's gone, sir. We're paying debt for something that no longer exists. Uh, a portion. Yeah, a portion. Yes, sir. What do we got left on that? Do you know top of your head? Um, well, if it was in 14, it's 20 years. Goodness gracious. Do you know the interest rate off the top of your head? No, sir.

067I don't know the interest rate either. We look into that maybe for the coming month. Sure. figure out what it's going to cost us. And it's a it's a fixed schedule already. It's fixed. Yeah. So, the but I can report back to you what it is, but the the schedule is completely fixed. Um the rates did I think they went up slightly in this coming year in 26, but it's already you know the payment repayment plan is already scheduled. And and if you don't know the answer, that's fine. But is there a penalty for paying it off early? No, but I don't know that it's in our interest to, but Okay. I can look at it. Okay. I'm just curious. Anybody else? Financials. Okay. Over to you, sir. This information. All right. Thank you, ma'am.

068That takes us to 16.2. Another information English learner language. That's hard to say. Good evening again. I'm really excited about this. Um it's a little more exciting except I had to f follow your favorite CFO. So um I was I'm here to share a little bit about our English language learners program. Can I click it? So, who are ELELLL students? Um, they're learners whose first language is not English. Typically, they may be recent immigrants um or from multilingual homes and they span all grade levels and academic abilities. Um, just a little bit about our about our EL population in the county. We have about 80 students that are EL, but 60 are receiving services from three EL teachers across the county. Um, we have 15 different languages spoken in the county, and you're going to

069see that in a presentation in a little bit. Um, it's a tough challenge to be an EL student. Think about traveling to another country and being immersed completely in their culture and their language. Um, so some of the language barriers, that's a major concern in our academic setting. um they sometimes have limited resources or family support or the family doesn't speak English as well. So, the struggle to support their student is extremely difficult. Um some of their strengths and opportunities that they bring to us though, it enhances our programs. Um they're very adaptable, they're resilient, and they contribute to our classrooms a lot. We had an EL event um on June 3rd and we had the WHRO literacy van out. So, we celebrated um the year with our ELELS and we had seven students exit.

070So, they have to take a test at the end of the year. It's a WEDA access test and it is pretty tough. I venture to say there's some kids that speak English that would really struggle with it as well. It's a hard test. So, we had seven students exit out which is fantastic. So, we celebrated them at Westside last week. We invite the families. Um we also work on parent family engagement. That was one of our goals in the title three grant was to get more parents involved. Um in the past couple years we've seen the number rise because we've made it kind of informal so it's not as scary coming to the school. We feed them. We have games. We have stations. Um we've last year had the rock climbing wall. So we've seen

071a lot more of our EL families coming out just for the company and making relationships with from one end of the division to the other end of the division. So it was a big success. I think we had about 60 people there, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is for this population. It's a smaller group. And then we just got a few pictures. Um, so we're looking forward to it to do it again. Um, we also partnered with our Smithfield Spanish Honor Society. They helped create the flyers for the parents. Um, and then they come out and they help the stations. They work with the kids. And then we had Kelvin from Windsor High School who was on Dr. Kramer's advisory board. He was our translator for the night and he was amazing.

072Um, Mrs. Goyet did the presentation and then Calvin translated for the parents. So, he did wonderful and I was very excited to ask him would he be back next year because he's just well he's now a junior since school's over. He's going to come back and be our translator again for next year. So, tapping into our resources of our students. So, they did a fantastic job and we have a little video that u Mr. Elliot put together with our students and our EL teachers. I don't know how to put that. So, thank you, Mr. Elliot. This is just my name and I speak Chinese. My name is Assad and I speak. [Music] My name is Pisha and I speak Gujarati. My name is and I speak Thai fr. Hello, my name is Martin and I

073speak English. An a student can look like you and and me. Uh you know they they don't have to look any different. We have a lot of students who were born in the United States and speak very good English. uh and so teachers a lot of times are surprised to learn that they are uh in fact an English learner and then of course we have students of different uh cultures from different parts of the world. Uh you may detect an accent and some may speak in perfect English but if another language is present in the home that also qualifies the students to be screened and possibly placed in the program. The EEL population in Alawite County are tremendous overcomers, but their days are not easy. They are often very humble students. They are often overlooked,

074but they are a very gracious and capable population. It's very common to see quiet behaviors and students shut down or have a difficult time responding. Imagine being in their shoes in a setting that's very different than what they are used to, immersed in a language that is not their primary language. These students often go through culture shock. They are grieving um that they are in a new country and have left extended family behind, all new smells, all new sights, uh foreign language, people that look different than them. Um many are quite scared and at a minimal greatly intimidated. It takes anywhere from four to seven years to master the academic language. So just because our EL students do well communicating with us and their peers, it does not mean they're not struggling in their content

075classes. So not only do we as the English language teachers teach English, we collaborate with the classroom teacher to add support to help the student through modifications and accommodations. I assist them with their assignments. I support their teachers and my favorite part is being their biggest advocate. I love working with their families for whatever it is they may need from filling out documents to answering questions about the community. So although English learners are different, they have a different nationality. They often look different and they sound different, they have more in common with English-speaking students than their differences. These students want to excel. They want to learn. They want to be a part of their peer groups at lunch and at recess. And it's really cool to see the other students come alongside them, teach them

076vocabulary that's um used at recess to play sports, teach them the names of the foods they're eating in the cafeteria, and it has been a great delight to watch our English-speaking students accept and encourage our English learners. I think it's wonderful that we have more and more of these students because students who were born in the United States are exposed to other cultures, uh, traditions, customs, especially if our EL students are willing to share and teachers promote and really appreciate the different cultures as an asset, then it really can enrich everybody's experiences and the view of the world. I think it's important to remember that these students have amazing capabilities and will be excellent contributors to our society and that probability increases with each person around them that supports and believes in their success. Let's

077all try to be those people. [Music] David. So, I invite you, we'll invite you next year. Um, we'll do it definitely at the end of next year to come to join us for our EL night. Um, to come meet these families and students. Do you have any questions? You said there's 15 languages in in this county. We have 15 languages recorded that students speak. So if you have a student checks in at the beginning of the school year and just you don't have someone that speaks that language, what do you got to do? How's that work? So we use chat GPT some Google translate and also the language group to communicate with parents. It's a line that the teachers can call in and get an interpreter on the phone. Um but a lot of times

078we can drop documents in chat GPT or like P school there's a drop-own menu you can select the language. Um Mrs. loud and Shelby Boswell have been great about we've been adding um additional languages in there. So, we're working on that as well, increasing more languages, but the language line um it's the language group. They can call in and immediately get somebody on the phone. Interesting. I just wanted to add because it's often a misconception that when students come here that we have the ESL teacher to actually interpret for them, but that's not actually the case. We don't have teachers that can speak 15 different languages. So, their goal is to help them learn the English language and acclimate to our culture and in our classrooms. So, they don't know necessarily the language that the

079child is speaking. I'm trying to wrap my head around that. Yeah, it's very challenging. It It's a tough job. And we have three teachers currently that manage that case load. It's a pretty big case load. They travel around the county. Um, we'll sit down again in August and look at the case load, where the students are, what level of services they need, and then we'll plan their schedule from that. Three teachers. You say there's 80. Well, 80 students, but some of them are on monitor, so they've either exited or the parents have refused services, but we still keep track to make sure that they don't fall between the cracks. But there are 60 students between those three teachers, but they're all over the place with different levels or different services that they receive. Interesting. Anybody

080else? Thanks. If I'm Yes. Uh, I did have the privilege of attending the English language learner event and I would like to thank Dr. Kerry and our teachers for all of the support they're providing our students. As you stated, uh, these students are excelling in many ways. And one of the young uh, students from this program, Kelvin, is actually a member of my student advisory. at least he was um so doing really really well to the extent that he was able to translate uh that evening but the support you all are providing the students uh is absolutely incredible so thank you and the staff uh also would you speak to the WHRO van uh they were there so what was that connection that evening that was from watching board meetings when you're you have suggested

081that we get them out um so we contacted the literacy van came it's geared primarily more towards K through two, the van that's in the pictures. So, we're going to have them back for our title two or title one nights next year. Um, and they also have a STEM van and there's one other van I'm not familiar. I don't remember that one off the top of my head, but we will be utilizing WHRO for our Title One events. Um, and they offered to come back again for our EL night. So, the kids got to go in, they got to look around, there were resources for the parents, they left with the goodie bag, and then each student left with a book and it was all free. from WHRO. Yes. Um I did ask how they

082received their funding just with the uncertainty and she said majority of their funding for like the books in these programs came from private donors. So she didn't anticipate that being an issue, you know, she wasn't sure, but she said it was predominantly private donors. Cool. Appreciate you uh keeping a press on getting some value out of WHRO. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you all. All right. Field trip report. Good evening again. So, one of our requirements is to provide you an annual report of field trips taken during the school year. So, that is what you have before you, all the trips that have been taken. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. You already answered my questions. Uh, thank you. Um, I had asked for the board. I had asked um for a

083field trip as a as a representative for Windsor District 4. I always watch and kind of compare who's getting who, so to speak. And so you sent me the spreadsheet because I was concerned that maybe there were more field trips at one school than another. Uh and I don't think that's the case at all. It looks very proportionate. Um and I'm assuming you were the one that threw me the numbers. You said there were a total of 76,49 miles traveled. I think Miss um Oh, did you Mr. Fe provided that? That was Mr. Fe. That's that's a lot of driving. That's a lot of driving. Um, it was $195,371 in driver salaries and almost $27,000 in fuel. So, you know, I that's impressive. It's a lot more than I had expected. Yes. And, you know,

084I mean, it's kids and and as you know, as a parent, the kids look forward to field trips and it's an important part of the educational experience. Um, and so it's something we value and definitely want our kids to have. Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. Anybody else? Questions? Thank you. Hey, great. Thank you. Doc Coleman, Ops, sir. Mr. Chair, school board members, operations update. We'll first start off with the Tishla and Vice status. Now, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Carson Vice, uh, president of Tisha and Vice. During our conversation, he informed me that their team is currently reaching 40% completion uh, of the overall project and he anticipates that the work will be fully completed by approximately July 31st. Say that date again. July 31st. He say he he thinks it's going

085to be approximately completed at that time. What you see there is 22% completion but in the last 13 days they managed to gain uh more completion status on that. So it's around the 40% completion date at this time. So on that date you'll see some of the other tasks come off as fully completed. So assuming they get it done July 31st, we could potentially see that for our August board meeting. That is correct. Digested as a board and then uh I know that our friends at the county are going to be chomping it to bits to see this so we can continue that work. So absolutely. As soon as I get it in, I will give that directly to Dr. Kramer and and then we'll go from there. So maybe we can tentative tentatively plan

086for joining up with the county at some point in September to kind of brief those folks. That is correct. Okay. We we'll keep an eye on that target, see if it moves, if you don't mind. Yes, sir. Absolutely. And hopefully it'll be done a little sooner, but at the same time, Sure. in that time frame. Any questions concerning the status? Not so far. Just looking forward to seeing seeing the numbers. I I I will say for for the board, uh we know that the county hired Tishler Bice to do this. They've been working with him for some time. And then uh I'm trying to get in touch with uh uh Mr. Cutler at the Smithfield Town Council. I know he has proposed utilizing TSL vice for a similar study specific to Smithfield. So I I

087think that we're kind of all generally moving in the right direction to kind of get a a handle on uh the county as a whole and the growth and how it's going to impact the schools. So absolutely I think we're moving in the right direction. Just keep the eye on the ball and absolutely. Yeah. The completion of this study will really catapult us forward. Thanks, sir. Next is the fuel report. As you can see, the fuel report kind of mimics last year. There a lot of times you see a a larger differential. This year, you do not see that. Well, this three months, you do not see that differential as you've seen before. All right. Are there any questions concerning the fuel report? So, notice that we burned about 7,500 more gallons of propane this

088year as compared to last. Can you talk to that a little bit? Yes. Uh, you may notice the the cost has decreased over the past two years. Um, however, during the period, we had four of the propane powered buses uh go out of service. As you remember, the engines um blew up in several of them and they were replaced by the diesel buses. So what you'll see is every time one of those propane buses go down, we will replace it with a diesel bus and that in turn will lower the cost of propane. Okay. All right. No questions turning viewer point. All right. Right. This is the Carolton HVAC progress. As you can see uh on the left hand side with A, B, C, D, and E is the layout of Carolton. At this time,

089construction has started in the A area. What you see on the right hand side highlighted in the green are the hot water supply lines. Those hot water supply lines have been replaced, demoed, and replaced. Getting in Carlton early and starting this process. And you know, I'm truly thankful for the teachers and the administration to allow us to go in and work with them during this time and the parents during the pickoff stat during the pickup and drop off status. Well, now we have saved two to three weeks off of the back end of this project. We had a couple of different opportunities and a couple of different alternatives. Either we could have started immediately following school and maybe ran into the beginning of school with difficulties or we could have started early and definitely finished

090before school starts and the principal administration uh felt that we need to go ahead on and move forward and that's what we did. So at this time last day of school being today we are already maybe three weeks ahead of time with the replacement of the hot water supply and return lines. Uh once again, they've already been demolished and removed. On Friday, Mr. John Smith went over to Carlton Elementary School and met with all teachers to let them know where uh their classroom reconstruction exactly what's going to occur in their classes and where they can store some of their items. We do have other conxes um pods so to speak on the bus loop of Carlton Elementary School to in order to ensure that the teachers had a area to stage their uh furniture and

091those items that they chose to move out. So that is the status right now. We will be moving in a clockwise motion here. We're going from A to C, D, E, and section B will be the final area. But I will keep you updated as we move throughout the building. So, you're happy? I'm extremely happy at this time. Good. Good. Lastly, is the one-time expense projects. All of these projects have been approved and uh July one, of course, we're moving forward. I wanted to bring your attention to the school bus replacement. Of course, we've already uh sent the intent letter. The same situation occurred last year, and that's how we got ahead. And uh instead of waiting the 12 to 18 months of wait time for the buses, we actually got them in about 10

092months to 11 months. So, we're doing the same thing this year to hope they get the same results. All of those other expenses will be started on July 1. When do we anticipate having our new weapons detection systems installed in our middle schools? I would have to check on the the delivery dates from those areas. Oh, Mr. Brickley is here. Mr. Yes, sir. Mr. Mr. Brickley, the question was, do we have an estimated date where we now that we've got the funding for the additional weapons detection systems? Can you estimate when we can expect to have those in place at the middle schools? Uh, right now it's only about a twoe lead time on them. So once we can get them ordered, we can have them here and have them in the schools. Of course,

093that's going to open up some some other discussions that we kind of had tonight. So, sure, we've got we've got work to do, but for the sake of the the material, sounds like we could have those by school start. Yes. That's outstanding. Thank you. Anybody else? All right, and that is it. If there's no other questions, no. Thanks, gentlemen. Thank you. Over to you, Doc Kramer. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the sake of time, uh, and because of graduation tomorrow, I have put together a compilation of events that have occurred since the last board meeting. Uh, so I will not endeavor, Mr. chair and members of the board uh to share in detail everything we did or event we attended given the large number of end of the year events. Uh nonetheless we

094can take a look at the slides. I do encourage those watching uh to go to my social media page pages plural for a little more information on these events. So, as you take a look at the slides, some of the events that will that you will see included the following. Uh, the Isle awards, the rookie teacher of the year, support employee of the year, farm to school tour, the student leadership institute graduation, senior of the month banquet, meetings with my student advisory board, parent advisory committee, and employee advisory committee. uh the local PTA child advocate of the year event, our CTE signing day, uh the Isa White County School Student Performance, uh at the quarterly Governor School for the Arts meeting, uh Nathaniel Newman, uh celebration of education for retirees, teachers of the year, and

095support employee of the year. uh Smithfield High School's spring production of The Whiz, uh the English language parent night, uh our Little Sprouts graduation. We had a had the pleasure of attending that this year. And just this week as well, we had the commemorative Air Force Rise Above event. Uh so not in any particular order and we took a little bit of time to scroll through the presentation so that you could see those. But uh those are some of the many events that were held and I had the privilege of attending uh almost all of those uh with the exception of maybe one or two. So uh again if you want to see more details you can follow me on X formerly known as Twitter and I will soon be adding more post on Facebook

096and Instagram as well. So I will let that suffice for uh the activities and the events uh that we attended. So, thank you very much, Mr. Krider. We can actually leave that there. Additionally, um, Mr. Chair, members of the board, as you saw from Deputy Superintendent Coleman's presentation, we will be actively working to improve our schools this summer with a number of summer projects. Uh, and some are listed here, but there are others as well. Uh, in addition, Superintendent Gats will be implementing summer professional development opportunities for our administrators and our educators. uh our summer school in uh programs and other initiatives are also going to be underway shortly. So uh my larger point is there will be lots happening this summer as we prepare for uh fiscal year 26. Also uh I've had a

097number of discussions with staff regarding the pay raises uh step increases and the bonus. I think it's important to mention that we will be conducting the compensation study this summer uh which will help inform our priorities for next the next budget cycle. Uh believe it or not, very shortly we will be having a discussion about budget 2027, right? And we haven't even gotten into 2026 yet, but we soon will be talking about 2027. And I've had uh some discussions with you board members about what that will look like. Um, also it was mentioned a few times this evening. Mr. uh, Brinkley alluded to this. You did as well, Chair Marsh. Um, regarding the incident uh, earlier this week at Smithville High School. Uh, had some discussions today and Dr. Coleman and I are discussing convening

098a larger discussion with county officials about shoring up our safety and uh, security initiatives in the county. Uh so look forward to engaging you members of the board and other elected leaders um around that conversation. So just wanted to mention that as well. Uh as I sort of conclude here, I extend my congratulations to our 2025 graduates from both Smithfield High and Windsor High. Uh as the student liaison mentioned earlier, uh those graduations will be tomorrow. And correct me if I'm wrong, ladies and gentlemen, uh, Smithville High at 9:30 and Windsor High at 2:00 tomorrow. Um, and we look forward to successful celebrations for those deserving students tomorrow. And finally, I wish to thank all of our staff for all that they did this year for our students and our schools. And I wish our

099students and staff and families a very restful, enjoyable, and safe summer. And with that, Mr. Chair, that concludes my superintendent update. Thank you, sir. It's been a busy few weeks, huh? Absolutely. Want to take five? All right, let's take quick five. All [Music] right, we're back. Okay, where'd we leave off here? 18.1 Personnel Report action item. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the personnel report as presented, a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk. Second motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk, Mr. Collic, yes. Mr. Cunningham, yay. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worooster, yes. And Mr. Marsh, yes. Motion passes. Takes us to 18.2. Mr. Chair, I move to grant the exemption from compulsory attendance for student REX2425-08. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madame clerk.

100Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham. Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Worooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. 183. Mr. Chair, I move to uphold the superintendent's recommendation on student matter EA2526-02. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion hearing? None. Madame clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Worster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. 184. Mr. Chair, I move to uphold the superintendent's recommendation on student matter EA2526-03. Second. Motion in the second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam clerk. Mr. Collic. Yes, Mr. Cunningham. Yes, Mrs. Perkins. Yes, Mr. Worster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. That takes us to 19.1 consent agenda. Another action item. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madame clerk. Mr. Collic.

101Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Worooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh. Yes. Motion passes. And that takes us to new business item 20.1. And I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Worster. Mr. Colleague, as Mr. Worster prepares to respond. I ask uh a few of my colleagues from our staff to come up so that they can assist with answering any questions if need be. Yes, sir. Okay. Uh Mr. Brinkley, um Mrs. Briggs and Dr. Coleman. Thank you. Okay, I'm just going to lead off here on this. Um, for quite some time, we've had some discussion back and forth about board member access to uh buildings and facilities within Alawait County Schools. um as far as not having access to all facilities or buildings. Um again, that is what this conversation is about today. So,

102that's going to start it. Um me personally, I think that each and every school board member should have access to each and every building or facility within Alawway County Schools. The reason being, you know, we pay visits to the schools, we check on building status, we're back and forth. But a prime example, um, I've taught numerous students stop the bleed at the JOTC building. I don't have access to that building. A badge won't get me in. I've taught the EKG portion for the patient care techs or technicians. I can't get in that building either. And prime example, I was over there. I had to step out for a quick phone call. Want to go back in. Couldn't get back in. So, I had to sit there and either beat on a door or wait for

103somebody to come in. So, that's where we are now. Um, and I'll turn it over to you guys and let's hear what you've got to say. If if I may start off, uh, Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Chair, uh, to Mr. Worooster, Vice Chair Worooster's um request or his concerns. We do have a policy in place. Um and Mrs. Briggs, I'm going to ask you if you would speak to what our current policy is and then we can have a conversation around the rationale and why I think um that policy should remain in place. uh we can have that conversation but if you would share with us some of the uh specifics in that policy. Yes sir. So we have policy KK called school visitors and uh there's a particular section in that one for board

104members. It states periodically board members may visit schools within the division. The purpose of these visits is to assist in fulfilling their responsibilities and increase understanding of actual educational practices. schoolboard members follow the same procedures applicable to all other visitors when visiting a school. Uh that's the policy. We also have a regulation under board staff communications BG-R. And in that one, it states schoolboard members shall visit schools from time to time in order to observe school operations, instructional activities, and building upkeep. Such visits and meetings should be scheduled in advance through the superintendent. Board members shall meet with the principal or designate in the principal's absence upon entering a school and jointly establish a visitation schedule. The purpose of the visits is to obtain background information for policymaking. Board members shall not advise, direct perform

105supervisory or administrative school operational functions while visiting since no single board member has that authority. The administrative functions relating to the daily operations of the school division is the responsibility of the superintendent of schools. So we do have policy and regulation that directly address visitors um and the procedures that visitors follow. Bless you. I would agree u when you're referring to visitors but however members of the school board um the school board itself as a whole is ultimately responsible for the school division and the success or failure of the school division. Uh I don't see the reason why any type of access would be restricted. Well, if you want you want me to there there'd go, Dr. Coleman. Let me let me try. Let me try. Um I actually So, Mr. Worster, he and I

106talked about this. I don't know if it was last week or week before, and it's come up in in a conversation or two over the last year. I get what you're saying, and I I hear what you're saying. It's certainly an inconvenience uh not being able to swipe into the back door. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Um for me, this isn't so much about whether or not our badges work in the various doors. It's more about complying with policy, not setting a double standard, and then ensuring our schools are safe. Um, policy aside, double standards aside, um, in my opinion, as a, if nothing else, as a professional courtesy as per policy, the superintendent and the administrators deserve at minimum a heads up of a board member's intent to visit. I personally refuse

107to show up to a school unannounced, uh, much to Dr. Coleman and probably Mr. Fe's dissatisfaction. I have shown up at transportation a time or two with about five minutes heads up, but I'm not going to show up unadnonized. I I just think it's uh it's just a professional courtesy. Again, that's my opinion. Um we have policies in place. Um and I don't expect I'm going to change your mind, sir, and that's fine. We may just agree to disagree. I think what bothers me is that I know for a fact that board members sitting up here tonight do not adhere to those policies. Disregarded. Uh that troubles me. Um those policies are written and they reference state code 22.1-253137. That's actually commonly referred to as standard of qual quality 7. And SOQ7 says that you

108should develop a system of two-way communications between employees and local school board and its administrative staff whereby matters of concern can be discussed in an orderly and in a constructive manner. And I think those last words are pretty important. That's orderly and constructive manner. Um there's a few points I'd like to hit on and this this please don't take this the wrong way anybody any of my colleagues sitting up here but it is what it is right so not one of us have been screened to sit at this table not one um every other employee that walks the halls of every one of our schools has been screened background checks uh child abuse registry screenings. And again, I'm not implying in any way, shape, or form that anybody sitting up here has a checkered past.

109I'm not saying that. But I don't know who's going to be sitting up here when I leave or when you leave or when Mr. Collic leaves. Um to sit up on this board and to get elected, we we all know the requirement requires little bit more than a pulse and living within the boundaries of the district. Again, there's no background track. And then I think it's important to talk about FURPA. FURPA is the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. I think FURPA as a board member probably frustrates most of us. It certainly frustrated me because we always want to know the why. An incident happens and we want to know the why. Well, the reason we don't always get the why is because of Furpa. Um if if board members were allowed unsupervised access through

110the schools, you could potentially expose those board members to sensitive student information. That's IEPs, behavior plans, educational records, any sort of thing that might be lying around on desks, bulletin boards, unlocked offices, all these things could potentially violate Furpa. So this stuff keeps us out of trouble. Unpredictable movements within the school buildings. Without a scheduled itinerary or supervision, there's no assurance of where a board member may go inside of a building. And again, I'm not trying to suggest that any of us have ill intent. I'm just saying that we're not screened. And if you're wandering around randomly without anybody's escorting you, you could potentially enter spaces that have confidential documents where conversations are taking place, records room, guidance offices, special ed places, so on and so forth. The risk of observing sensitive student situations. Board

111members could unknowingly walk into a classroom during a medical behavioral or a toileting situation, compromising the dignity and privacy of students, particularly those students with disabilities. As an example, if we were to walk into a room into the schools and walk up on a a student that was being changed or wiped, that could be a serious breach of privacy and violate the ethical standards of care. Staff morale and trust. I think this is big. I alluded to it when I started my little soapbox speech up here. Um, it's a professional courtesy. Unscheduled, unrestricted presence of board members could lead to feelings of surveillance or intimidation among staff. Teachers and other employees could feel that their professional autonomy is being undermined or that they're being monitored without cause and that would undoubtedly have a negative impact

112on morale in the wor workplace culture. Also, just as important, every and I already said this, every other visitor, regardless of their role or their intent, has to establish has to follow the established protocols, which includes signing in, being escorted, and limiting access to designated areas. We're no different. There's not one of us up here that has any sort of jurisdiction or authority inside of a school building on our own. Our power is as a group. Um, for any of us to have free reign to walk around in a school, it sets a double standard. You're telling the parent of any given student that you have to check in and go through all this process, but I'm exempt because I was elected to the school board. And oh, by the way, the only qualification it

113is to get on this school board is to live within the district and have a pulse. And I see a problem with that. So again, I don't expect I'm going to change your mind. And please don't take this as a any even a slight suggestion that there's any ill intent or checkered background or any of that stuff. I'm not worried about you, Mr. Rooster, and I'm certainly not worried about Mr. Coer Collet, Miss Perkins, or Mr. Cunningham. I've I've known each one of you long enough now that if you needed to borrow my car or you needed to sleep on my couch, that offer stands. I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about the next chucklehead that gets up here and sits in his seat. So, for those reasons, I cannot and will not agree

114to modifying full reign to any board member's badge aside what we have today unless we agree to establish some boundaries. And those boundaries have to include some sort of a background check similar to what employees have to go through and all that. I I yield turn it over to whoever wants to speak. I would agree that uh some boundaries would have to be set. But as far as a background check, unless you can show me, you know, elected officials uh that have to have back background checks after they're elected to do the job that they're elected to do, then that's the only part that I would disagree with. But I would definitely agree with having some boundaries because you're absolutely right. We don't want to walk in, you know, I personally don't walk into classrooms.

115If a teacher invites me in, that's different. I don't walk in the classrooms. When I've gone into a a school, I've gone straight to the office, said, "I'm here. I'm just walk walking around. I'm going to the cafeteria or if there's a specific teacher that I'm going to talk to or a coach, let them know, hey, I'm I'm going there. When I leave, I leave." Okay. There's been times I've gone out a back door and not been able to get in and had to walk around the school. I think that's what Mr. Worcester is is, you know, his biggest concern is. uh when him and I have talked and that's a concern that I have um if I go out the back door of a school, can I get back in, you know? Um so

116I I agree with Mr. Worcester uh in theory, but I could put some parameters on that and and I I wouldn't have a problem with that. Um and for checking in with the principal, I got no issues with that because I do it anyway. But to call up and ask permission, uh, it's not happening. Okay. To call up and say, "Hey, I'm on the way over." Sure, I I'll do that. Mr. chair, if I may. Um, everything you mentioned, I will respectfully disagree. As far as, as you put it, a security clearance or background check. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that the following person sitting here right now probably have the best background checks of all. I'm sure you have to have a secret clearance with the government just

117as I do. Uh, Mr. Cunningham, law enforcement, I'm sure you've gone through background checks and the same with you, Mr. Kh. So, I don't think there's anything to be concerned with there. Now, as Mr. Khik stated, you know, I'm not looking at arbitrarily walking into classrooms. And I I fullheartedly believe that if you want to enter a classroom and observe instructional time, that should be scheduled in advance. That is not what I'm discussing here. I'm talking about access to the building itself. Excuse me. I would also argue that if there's a concern about finding personally identifiable information sitting out uh whether it be health related, personal I would say that would be an extreme housekeeping issue and it should not be a concern of walking in and seeing documents sitting out readily available. So I

118will argue that one. Um, I am still saying that we do do need all board members access to the buildings, the CTE buildings, the schools, all the facilities within Alawway County Schools. Okay. Um, I agree with Mr. with uh the chair. I I do not believe we need access to everything or everywhere. And again, it's not this board. We all have clearances of some sort. We all have been vetted for our jobs away from here. It's the future boards that the uh school system is going to have to deal with. And you know how this works. If we approve a policy now, I mean, my time's up in six months. Mr. Collic is going to do another four years. Uh some of you have two more years. I'm not concerned about us. I'm concerned about

119who's coming in. boundaries have to be set. We can't just have it open for any board member to go anywhere he or she wants to go. Um, and I do believe when we select a superintendent, and I'm talking future, I don't know how long Dr. Kramer's going to be here but future superintendent even now with Dr. Kramer we selecting him as a superintendent. Yes. Ultimately we're responsible. We delegate authority to the superintendent to handle things with the staff. I believe whoever he has the right to know when we're coming to the schools. Yeah. Maybe it's 5 10 15 minutes. It's not about saying for him to tell us, "No, we can't go." We should tell him and we should be escorted. I'm serious. I I do believe we should be escorted through that school. Also,

120when we badge in, I'm sure Mr. Brinkley can confirm this. I'm sure uh there's some system that says who has just badged in through whatever door at whatever time. I'm well I'm not even going to talk about rumors but in the past from what I understand there have been school board members that going to the schools doing you know whatever maybe just looking around and then forgetting to lock the door when they leave this is after hours we're human mistakes can be made so I mean now you got an unlocked door you didn't intentionally do But it just happens. We're not perfect. So I I like Mr. Collix said, I believe boundaries need to be set. I do believe the superintendent maybe doesn't have the right to say no, you can't go, but he or

121if eventually get another superintendent and it's a she has the right to know that we're we're coming or we're going to whatever school. the principal who is responsible for that school has the right to know we're coming to the school and why we're coming to the school, not just coming to the school and we're going to check on whatever we want to check on. I don't think that's right, but that's just me. And I believe since we set policy, we can make that decision, but we got to be very careful about what we decide. And we have to think about the future. It's not just now because one of us wants to get access to the school anytime, anywhere. Think about the future. That's all I'm saying. Think about the staff. Think about the students

122of the future. That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Chair. M. Perkins, you have anything to add? So what's next? Superintendent. Yes, sir. If I may, Mr. Chair, a few points. I, as superintendent, and many superintendents, most superintendents are asked to sit on boards in the community to be a part of the community. I have the privilege of being on Riverside Hospital's board. doesn't give me the right to walk through the hospital and to go into emergency rooms or other places. I'm a board member. I also sit on WHRO's board. Doesn't give me the right to go into their broadcast booth or to walk around and have unfettered access. And I respectfully disagree. It's not the board's uh responsibility. You hired the superintendent and staff to run the daily operations of the school division. I

123think a few of you stated this. Uh I think it's a professional courtesy uh to inform our educators of when you're in the building. I'm the superintendent who have the ultimate responsibility. 99 times out of 100, I go through the main office. Unless I'm there for an event and it takes me directly to the field or unless we're conducting a security search or something of that matter, I check in. I think it's respect to the principal and to others. As was stated, we would definitely be allowing access for future board members. Unfettered access. Would you want someone just walking in your child's classroom, in your grandchild's classroom with potentially ill intent? That would be opening up, in my view, a Pandora's box. That would be difficult to close. Your position as a member of the

124board, my position as superintendent. When you are in that building, positionality matters. That would absolutely be intimidating. I think back to when I was a teacher, an assistant principal, a coordinator, a principal. If I had a board member who just walked in whenever they wanted to. Again, not saying that one of you would do that. I have respect for all of you, but you would be changing access for all future board members. And I venture to say we've had concerns in the past. I've worked in places where we've had concerns with board members who had an agenda. So understand it wouldn't just be for you all. You would be changing this indefinitely. So I would respectfully disagree with you Mr. Cunningham and you Mr. Marshall about boundaries and you Mr. Collik. We already have boundaries.

125They're identified in our current policy. So those boundaries are there. There is nothing that we have to hide. If you want to go to a school right now, I assure you that I or a member of this staff will take you wherever you want to go, whenever you'd like to go there. So, having access to our schools, you already have access to our schools. We're just saying we don't want someone just walking in any building, any classroom, anytime they want. I find that to be highly problematic. And I assure you, you would be opening us up to liability issues in the future. not for this board, for future boards. Thank you, sir. Dr. Kramer, I just want to uh respond to that. I 100% agree with you on having a structured access. Obviously, if you

126want to visit a classroom, you're not going to go interrupt the educational process. You're going to schedule that in advance. So if there is no more discussion on this then what I would like to do and I I don't know if I need to put this first part into a motion but we have two policies right now GBD and policy BG both have regulations attached and they are identical policies. If I need to put it into a motion I will. But I would like to pull those policies and send it through the policy review committee for review and revision. Does that need to be in an emotion? I think we agreed when we formed the policy committee that any board member could submit policy for review to the policy committee. Okay. Then right now I

127am submitting those policies for review. Okay. or possibly revision. Do you also I'm sorry to interrupt. Do you also want to include uh policy KK which addresses school visitors? That's when I mentions board members as well. Is it specifically school visitors or does it pertain to board members or additional staff? The title is school visitors and a specific section is titled board members and I read from that definitely. I would submit that they all be included. Okay. Definitely. Um, if I'm not out of line, I'd like to just add a little something that I don't know how much this has come up tonight and and Mr. Brinkley can bring this up too. Uh, you you know, we had a very powerful statement earlier about school safety and security. And I think one of the things

128you're going to find with our school safety and security is being able to track visitors in the building. Um, and right now with what we have in place, we we can because vis visitors badge in or at least go check in at the main office to let people know they're in the building. Um, Mr. Brinkley may be able to speak to that. I know there's something in the school safety audits that the schools fill out that asks about visitor procedures and it may be a little concerning possibility of having people in the building and the building administration not being aware of who's in the building. So, I don't know. Mr. Brinkley, do you want to add anything? Oh, you got it. Okay. Just just that in the uh in the template crisis management plans that

129we're rolling out this year, uh it does leave that access to the buildings, especially at times after hours, weekends, anything like that. It specifically does state that so that's at the sole discretion of the building administrator. Thank you. Yeah, just to address that. Um, I'm not referring to anything after hours at all. That is not my intent. Is there any more discussion on this? Just just satisfy my curiosity. If you know that you have full access and you know per that man's words right there if you wanted to be walked around a school at your discretion. Why do you need a badge to do that? Well, number one, you have the badges because it is a security issue for the schools. That's what allows us to get into the facility. Understood, sir. What I'm asking

130you is if you already have the access and you already have been afforded an escort at your leisure, why do you have to be able to get into the back door? You've already got somebody with you. In other words, the next time you teach a class in the CTE building and decide to step out and have a phone call, Dr. Kramer has already said, "We'll provide you with an escort. We can sit here and go around in circles all night. If there's no more conversation on this and I would like to introduce one more thing. Um, and if this needs to be in a motion, please let me know. But what I would like to do is introduce a directive and it reads, "The Olive White County School Board being ultimately responsible for the school

131division and holding the responsibility for the success or failure of the school division hereby directs the superintendent of Alawait County Schools to provide all of County School Board members immediate and complete badge access to all schools and facilities. ities within the Olive White County Schools Division. Uh, Mrs. Whit, I can give you a copy of that if you'd like. If that's what you desire, sir, then you're going to have to make the motion because I certainly would not agree to that. Is that your motion? Yes, please do. Mr. Chair, I move to introduce a directive which reads as follows. The Alawway County School Board, being ultimately responsible for the school division and holding the responsibility for the success or failure of the school division, hereby directs the superintendent of Oliveway County Schools to provide all

132olive county school board members immediate and complete badge access to all schools and facilities within the Olive Wake County Schools Division. So moved. Second. Anybody want? I'll second it just to have some discussion. Okay, we have a motion in a second. All right. I would support something like this. If we our policy said to do this, as I've said many times before, whether I agree with a policy or not, if it's in policy, that's what we're going with. So I think before we go here, we need to look at the policy. And if we do change the policy to reflect this, then I'd be good with it. But until that policy is changed, I I can't in good conscience do that. Okay? I I since the day I've been on the board, okay, first came

133on the board, I've said we're going to follow policy. I will always follow the policy. So, unless we're going to sit here and change the policy tonight, which our process doesn't allow for that, um I I think we have to table this at a minimum or vote it down. Thank you, sir. You know, here here's my trouble with that, Mr. Worster. When you and I were talking about this, I told you I referenced the two policies that have been discussed tonight. And I told you I was like, "Listen, my my personal protocol and as a pre professional courtesy, I follow those policies and we have policies in place to have us check in with superintendent and administrator." And your response to me was, "Yeah, I don't do that." So that bothers me. That bothers me.

134Um, to Mr. colleague's point, there's no sense in having a policy if you're not going to follow it. And if you folks would recall when we adopted our bylaws, the reason we adopted bylaws is because some of our predecessors operated on that same mindset that the policies were good for you but not for me. And that's how we ended up with a building named after someone that violated policy. That's how we sent someone packing from employment and violated policy and gave that individual an obscene amount of money contradictory to policy. So again, the policy is in place. We have to follow it. Um the motion's on the table. It's been seconded. Any other comments? Please take a vote. Mr. Collic, I'd like to see the policy change. I can't support it until the policy is

135changed. So, no. Mr. Cunningham, no. Mrs. Perkins, yes. Mr. Worster, yes. Mr. Marsh, no. All right, Mr. Chair, going back to the policies, the ones I referenced, just to make sure that we are sending those to the policy review committee. Yes, sir. That was your desire. All right. Just so everybody's aware, it is my intent to revisit this once those policies are reviewed. Thank you, sir. All right, let's move around to the next hurdle. That takes us to 20.2. Um, and I'm hoping Mr. Perkins could help me with this a little bit. This is uh action discussion. It's the school board member association. Excuse me. Legislative review and policy update services. Would you like to start, ma'am, or you want me to? So, when we exited, look, Mrs. Mrs. Briggs is happy. I can tell.

136So when my boss told me to sit back down, so I'm like sorry. When we left the VSBA, one of the things we sacrificed was the policy services. Um, and we talked about that at at length. Um, that's one of the reasons why we stood up a policy committee. Um, long story short, we we I think four of us are members of the SPMA. Um, but they do offer a policy services. Mrs. Perkins and I met with uh a lady by the name of Jill Turan. We had a video call with her 22 May and she gave us a rundown of their policy services and I think long story short, it basically mirrors what VSBA provided. It costs $2,900 a year. Um, so what they do is they review all the legislative updates. They provide

137recommendations and submit it to boards for customization and adoption as they see fit. They also do, I believe she said four times a year, they would review groups of policies for periodic updates. So, as we all know or hope we all know, every policy has to be reviewed every five years. So, they're not necessarily going to follow ours to tell us which ones are up for review. That's still on us and it always has been. But they are going to take packages of clusters of policies and provide recommended changes every five years. And sometimes that's just as simple as changing the date to the date it was reviewed. Um, she also mentioned that if we were to sign the contract for the services that they've already done the work for the legislation that goes into

138effect July 1st, that work's already done. So, we would get all of those recommended policy changes already. They're already done. We'll just get them. Um, and if there were specific policies that we needed assistance with, maybe we wanted to look at one of those we're just talking about for additional fees and we there's a case by case basis. They will review those upon request. So, um, I personally think it's well worth our time and investment for $2,900 to let someone else do the work. Um, I forget what Jill's background was, but she she had an impressive background. It made her, in my opinion, well qualified to do the job. Um, what am I missing, Miss Perkins? Um, I think you covered pretty much all of it. Um, I did another webinar where she was actually

139going over some of the stuff. So we do have access um when she's just given a webinar and um policy by policy explaining what her recommendations are and of course she puts it in red or you know um and answers questions. So we also have one-on-one but also webinars that anybody can join and ask questions. Thanks, ma'am. And and we did hang Mrs. Whitlock hung some stuff up on board docs. There were a couple examples. Uh are there any questions or concerns from the board? I think it makes sense if we get somebody, you know, doing it. We're able to spend that little amount of money to to get it. I think that's great. and then it just comes to the policy committee for review and we're good. So, I've got no issues with that.

140Sir, Mr. Cunningham, I have a question on how long has the has SVMA been around? Not very long. They're fairly new startup. They are on their third year. They're on their third year. Okay. So we were members of another organization which I won't mention and we got out of that organization. I believe they were around for over 20 years. I don't know. Long time. What? Long time. Long time. Yeah. I think over a hundred have over Okay. Sorry. So, so we left one organization that had been around for quite a few years for whatever reason and we want to go with an organization that's been around for two to three years. I don't think that' be wise use of the county's funds. I believe that the new organization SBMA, I'm calling it new, two, three

141years, whatever. I believe we need to look at them a little longer before we make a decision and also not just go straight to SBMA. Look at other options. You know, we don't want to go soul source. I know that's government. I was a logistician. We didn't go soul source. We looked at other organizations to see if they've been around longer. How well have they done with other school systems? So be I mean I can't see going with SBMA to do this until we know that we're going to get a good product out of them. I mean have has anything been looked at or have we looked at what they've done for other schools to see if they review policies? What what I mean are they a quality organization? I don't know. Uh, yes, I'm

142not a member, but I don't know. So, until I think a study is done or something's done to prove that they're worth the money, I don't think we should invest the money, the county's tax money, the citizens tax money in this organization to review our policies because we just don't know. And that's just me. So, I yield. Thank you, sir. Um, I'd venture to say that over the past couple years I've stayed pretty in touch with the SBMA. Um, worked alongside of them. I I lean on them frequently uh for this that and the other. Ask questions. Um, I know that they are closely affiliated with the Secretary of Education, the VOE. uh members of the SBAMA was actually working with the new federal secretary of education last month. Um as far as I'm concerned,

143they've certainly proven themselves. Um I I respect and appreciate the fact that you're concerned about their newness. I think that's valid. Um, at the same time, last year we agreed to set aside, I think it was $10,000 specifically in case we needed to lean on an attorney for policy development. Um, that was school board's line item budget. Uh, we set that aside for that sole purpose. And here we are looking at the uh pretty significant list of legislative updates. Um, so I think for $2,900, which is still significantly less than what we were paying for the VSBA, I don't mind mentioning them, sir. Uh, I think it's good. We'll give it a shot. I'm willing to give it a shot for 2,900 bucks. And if it doesn't work out for the year, I'll be the

144first one to sit up here and say that was a bad decision. And more than anything else, I want to give Mrs. Briggs a little bit of relief because it's my opinion that not all of us has the skill. She certainly does, but not everybody up here certainly has the skill set to draft policy, myself included. Um, so if we've got someone that can do it, that has that skill set, I would move that we adopt the SVMA policy services for one year and revisit it before the contract expires to see how they did. Second. Have a motion in a second. Any other discussion? Mr. Collic? Yes. Mr. Cunningham? No. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Worster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. And Madame Clerk, could you please touch base with uh Mrs. Turan and

145close the close the loop on that with the contract? Yes, ma'am. I'll I'll send it. Okay, moving along here. 20.3 policy FB. Do you want to kick this off, ma'am, or you would want would you like me to? Oh, please, sir. Okay. So, Mr. Worooster and myself, Dr. Kramer, Miss Briggs, Dr. Coleman, Mrs. Gets, I think that was it. We sat down last month, I believe, with uh supervisors Roundtree and Distano uh in a in a initial effort to kind of solidify and capture Alowet County Schools methodology for dealing with student growth uh in direct response to the housing developments that are happening on the other end of the county and it's certainly related to Dr. Coleman's presentation on the Tesla B. So there's a lot of webs on there a lot of legs in

146this web. Um so we had that discussion and there was quite a bit of things we talked about. Um put together some some bulletized items so to speak. Initially we're going to put it in policy and after further discussion with Mrs. Briggs and Dr. Coleman uh I I you didn't see anything on the board docs. I think Mrs. Briggs was spot on when she suggested we put this in a regulation. I think policy FB still needs a little massaging. It's not prepared, but Mrs. Briggs and Dr. Coleman under Dr. Kramer's guides have agreed to take some of those inputs, massage them into the regulation. And the idea being because policy takes so much time, if we can implement standards and and I'll give you a few examples of some of the stuff. Let me pull

147it up here. Be patient with me, please. Where is that? I apologize. There it is. So, some of the items and these stuff that we talked about um like establishing a capacity for schools, what is the capacity that's going to trigger a response for uh additional teachers? So establishing grade levels. So right now we've got elementary schools that to Mrs. Gets his sugarin not all the grade levels line up between schools. So a regulation that says high schools may consist of grades 9 through 12 and middle school perhaps consist of grades 6 through eight yada yada yada. Where do we put preschool? What's Alawite County School's standard or or target goal for like a student toteer ratio for a traditional classroom? Um what is the ratio for sped? We're listening this afternoon to uh English

148learners. Is there a ratio required for that? Uh technology. Does every student get technology? Do we give access to internet? Uh the length of a bus ride. I think Mr. Collik has mentioned that in a meeting in the past. What's too long for a bus ride? Um, athletic programs. I alluded to that when we were looking at our VHSL um, applications. Uh, parking spaces. Does every student in high school or 11th and 12th grade get a parking spot? all these things. If we establish thresholds, when we get to that threshold, it sends a trigger that we can then forward to the planner, the planners in the county and say, "Hey, look, we're reaching capacity. If you continue to bring students in this, that, and the other is going to break the threshold." That's the trigger

149to start looking for improvements, uh, remodels, additional buildings, funding for different teachers, yada yada yada. Um, I could go on and on. I got lots of ideas. Mrs. Briggs and Dr. Coleman have all the wickets. And my ask of the board tonight is to allow her some time to fold this into a regulation. She'll present it to us next month. We'll give her a little guidance, put some inputs into it, and we'll move forward. Everything that you mentioned though it doesn't sound like a regulation as much as it sounds like trying to model to determine um our needs. I think that's what I was trying to say. Maybe I wasn't very Yeah. I I because regulation really ties your hands. modeling is more you're you're assessing the needs as you go with different variables and

150it sounds like that's the angle you're trying to come from probably I you and I might be getting wrapped around axle with semantics the model is a good word perhaps regulation is not the right word but something that that establishes expectations for the county for the planners and for a parent coming in parent wants to enroll in Alawak County schools maybe they're looking to move to Hampton Roads they can say hey over in Alawak County schools their standard is a 24 to1 student teacher ratio their bus rides aren't any longer than x number of minutes okay so you're talking standards there not so much regulations yes sir okay and and again the idea is and this help me if I'm missing something Mr. because you were there. The idea is to establish some standards. Mhm.

151That can potentially trigger a response so that the county can plan accordingly. So, in other words, um if we know that Smithfield Middle School is going to be over 85% capacity, we let them know, hey, based off this proposed development, we're going to hit 85%. If you guys approve this, you need to plan now for adding x number of teachers, x number of classrooms, parking spaces, whatever the case may be. It's it's going to be a complex web complex web, but that's the premise with it. Okay. No, I I understand it. So, there's going to be certain standards that are set. When we surpass those standards, we'll have different variables that we understand could happen. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I think so. I think it also helps to inform your your budgeting and capital improvement where

152you can point to the need for facility changes based on um not being in compliance with those standards. Dr. I understand it. Yeah, words mean things. And when I hear regulations, I'm thinking one way. When I'm hearing hearing standards, I'm thinking something to totally different. Um And also, I just wanted to make sure we pointed out what we're looking for here is something that everyone can agree on and move forward. Uh something that uh Miss Briggs have been working on for years is the capacity worksheet. And she's been working on it and updating updating it. And that work capacity worksheet has become a document that the planning commission is using, the board of supervisors using, and various individuals around the community is using. a lot of individual we haven't came to a conclusion that these

153are the if you want to use the terminology standards that we all agree upon and we're all moving forward with and I believe there's in the community other uh members of different boards they're looking for something more solid um I'm not saying that standards are not solid but we definitely need something moving forward that we all can agree on and I want to use the for example the uh as mentioned the general education 24:1 student ratio that's an idea that we've had for years. It's an idea that we try to work around. But if we had a set, using your terminology, standard of everyone accepts this is what we're doing, then we really can budget off of uh moving forward with renovations and classroom sizes. And I think we've been talking around this for the

154past several years. You know, should we have this many students in this first grade class? No, we can't in this school because it's title one. this school we can you know so I think we've been talking about that so you're just trying to codify get it down in paper so that everybody is saying the same thing sir you nailed it we are moving at the speed of government okay okay I understand that I I have a saying that we're a division of storytellers so in this case we need to put it in black and white absolutely 100% agree with that comments feedback. Anything else? What are we missing? We good. I'm not I'm not sure what you're Yeah. The only thing I'm looking at here is just another thought process behind it. Uh basically, you

155look at as a fluid standard response, which that is everchanging. based on set protocols which would trigger that change. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think again it's a semantics. I think generally we're all on the same bandwidth here. Um and and I based on that verbiage, I believe that's why Mrs. Briggs suggested a regulation because it is pretty fluid and it's easier to just a regulation than a than a policy. Um, but I I think as long as we get something in text that we can sit and chew on and we'll go from there. Uh, and I will say that um I'm I'm really excited that we've got some folks up on the county board of supervisors uh and on this school board and some smart people down here that have been in the

156weeds for some time now. Um it it appears as though the Smithfield Planning Commission and the Smithfield Town Council also has some sincere interest in making this make sense. Um I there's certainly agreement amongst a lot of people that the county growth is coming and it's going to drive some change. Um and so we're trying to come up with a tool to plan rather than react. I think that's the bottom line. So, we'll move forward and look forward to what you come up with, ma'am. We need to vote on the liaison, the resolution. You said we do it at the end. Yes, we we messed up and we didn't vote on Connor's resolution. Um, so I'll I'll make a motion now to adopt on Mr. Connor Walters, school board liaison resolution as presented. Second it.

157I have motion in a second. Mr. Collic. Yes. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Worooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Um, comments. Who's first? I've got quite a few. I'd prefer to go last. Okay. I So, I went to the uh Carsville fifth grade graduation the other day. Phenomenal event. It was great as usual. Uh, Principal Outland did a superb job. The teachers there did a great job. you know, can't say enough about him. Um, also, um, I was really, uh, I don't want to say say impressed, but, Mrs. Darden really brought up some very good points tonight. Uh, when I first came on the board, Mr. Cunningham and I first came on the board, we had a closed meeting on security and we talked in depth about security and then the board at

158that time decided, well, we're not going to move forward with anything. And later there was this board that started moving forward with security. And when you look at where we've started three years ago and where we are today, we've come a long ways, but as Mrs. Darden pointed out, we still have quite a ways to go. Um, I I would say we really need to look at what our gaps are and have a closed meeting um to be briefed on them with the same stakeholders we had in the last meeting. Uh, sheriff's department, emergency services, um, I forget who else was involved, but really let's close them gaps. There are going to be some areas of security that nobody's going to see. you know, the we've got the seven layers of security. Um, some of

159them layers were in action uh as as I understand it uh just from listening to people. They worked and people don't know they exist, which is a good thing. But I but I think we really need to have a meeting uh in the near future before school starts on what the gaps are and how we're going to fix them, how we're going to close them gaps before school starts. So, but I do want to commend everybody that was involved uh in the incident because nobody got hurt and that was very impressive and I am very very glad uh at how it had all turned out and good Dr. Kramer. Good on you, good on your staff. Thank you, sir. I echo that sentiment. Okay. I just got something uh quick. I want to thank uh

160Miss Loveless at uh Smithfield High School. She's the theater arts teacher. Uh she invited me out to the uh May 24th uh opening of the uh play The Whiz. Uh I'm telling you, I I was impressed with uh the students, the actors. It was just I enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh took my wife with me and uh she enjoyed it also. Uh I think well I know some of the other board members attended and uh again I just want to thank her and and thank the uh the students and applaud them because they did a great job. So that's all I have. Thank you. Uh last month I attended the special education advisory committee. That was my first in-person meeting. Uh I give nothing but kudos and accolades to those folks on that

161committee. Uh it was eyeopening. Um I've mentioned it before, my best friend's got a special edged child uh and they're in Chesapeake public schools. This is not a slide on Chesapeake, but I shared with my friend some of the stuff that was discussed here in Isa White with the s the seac. Um, specifically, they're planning on a a a gathering at the onset of school to kind of welcome in all these special needs children. And I sent that to my buddy's wife, April, and she's like, "That's amazing. How come nobody else thinks of that?" So, uh, it it was kind of grounding to see that certainly leading the way in yet another area. So, kudos to those folks. Um, we did the IMTA meeting on the 14th, I believe. Yeah, that's moving right along. And

162then on the 28th, Dr. Kramer and I sat in on the CEP and GSA meeting. Um, lots of great things going on for CEP and GSA. So, over to you, sir. You're up. Okay. Mr. Cunningham stole one of mine, so I'm going to keep that very brief. Um, on May 24th, I was also afforded the opportunity to attend the Whiz at Smithfield High School. Um, I can't go any beyond what Mr. uh Cunningham said, but it was obvious the students were wellprepared and they were ready to put on an enjoyable program. On May 28th, I was honored to attend a celebration of education which honored the 2425 teachers of the year and retirees. The dedication of those teachers within the educational system is insurmountable. I want to congratulate all the retirees and wish them the

163best with their future endeavors. And today I attended the reverse inclusion promotion ceremony at Carolton Elementary. I got to say it was amazing watching the children walk across the stage exhibiting extreme confidence. For me to say this, those children were absolutely cute. Should tell you everything you need to know. You said cute. Cute. Although there were some unexpected technical difficulties in the beginning, Mr. Brennan improvised, adapted, and overcame. So, a great job for Mr. Brennan as well. In addition to that, I would like to give a shout out to some students that I had a direct involvement with as far as their training. Uh, this involves the CNA and PCT students. What I would like to do is list the students and what they have achieved this year. The following students have achieved the certified

164nurse aid certificate, certified EKG technician certificate, patient care technician certificate, and the certified phabbotomy technician certificate. Those students and please if I get your name incorrect, I apologize. Lala Foster, Caitlyn Gail Bishop, Melanie Spainhower, and Gage Kallette. In addition to that, I would like to say that Gage Klette, while going to school, earning these certifications, also attended the EMTB training outside of the school and is a certified EMTB technician right now. So congratulations to those students. Other students that have achieved the certified EKG tech, patient care technician, and certified phabbotomy technician would be Jensen Peters and Olivia Chile. Students who have achieved the certified nurse aid certificate would be Charliss Alers, Rand Kutchen, Autumn Lemus, Zachariah Stevens, Kinley Brady, Abigail Deley, Molly Meyers, Alexis Wiggins, Alani Brown, Caitlyn Hulcom, Brianna Smith, and Holly Williams. Congratulations

165to each of these students for building their future in the medical field. A special thanks goes to the exceptional instructors of these programs, Judy Carter and Jessica Futrell. You have put in countless hours to educate and mold these students to be future medical providers. It was truly an honor for me to be part of teaching the EKG program for these exceptional students. Congratulations to them all. All right. Thanks, Mr. Rouser. Anybody else? All right. Let's call it a night. See you at graduation. Meetings adjourned. [Music]