School Board Meeting 10/12/23

001does she come in and out no no she no no no no yes cognitive mental state can all right the meeting of the Alaway County School Board is hereby called to order today is Thursday October 12th 2023 this meeting is being held at Westside Elementary School 800 West Main Street Smithfield Virginia The All White County Schools is preparing students for college career and life the clerk will take the roll call Mr Cunningham present Mr wster present Mrs tons present Mr Marsh here and Mr colic present next we'll have the approval of theend agenda or amendments for the closed session Mr chair I move to approve the agenda for closed session as presented second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none the clerk will take the vote I miss

002very well and now we have the motion to go into Clos session Mr chair I move to go into Clos session to review the Personnel report and addendum posted on board docs under Personnel tab number 18.1 as authorized by Virginia code 22- A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of alaw public schools for employment contract changes transfers salary adjustments supplemental contracts deletions supplemental pay resignations of alaw County Public Schools Employees second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none the clerk will take the vote okay Mrs Whitlow has anyone registered to speak a Clos session no sir okay the board will ENT to close session at this time for this meeting of the alaw County School Board is hereby reconvened in Open Session Mr chair I move

003that the closed session meeting was conducted in in Conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section 2.2 3712 D of the code of Virginia and certify 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 we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion a clerk will take the vote okay next we have the approval of the agenda or amendments for Open Session Mr chair I move to add one attachment travel authorization form to agenda item 21.2 professional leave and travel second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion okay

004the clerk will take the vote second Mr roer Mr rooster do second yeah he did okay should okay next we'll have the moment of silence and Mr chair yes Mr Wester Mr chair I'd like to make motion to amend the agenda to include discussion on the early identification ation system the Eis student survey second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there's no discussion the clerk will take the vote I'm going to take a verbal on this one Mr Cunningham yay Mr wster yay Mrs tines y Mr Marsh yay and Mr Collin yay we put that okay I'll put it on action on new business okay so it's going to be 20.4 okay P I've got a question for you so we we voted on the Amendments now we go

005and vote on the main motion is that correct or was that covered in the first vote you already vote on the the approval of the agenda with an amendment with and the amendment was made on top after and a second amendment was made after that yeah let's let's vote on an amended agenda again okay so we so the record clear yeah I see a motion okay so if we can get a motion on the approval of the amended agenda made that we voted on the amendments it does get confusing Mr chair I move to approve the amended agenda as discussed to include item 20.4 and the previously approved item 8.1 which was the attachment professional leave and Trav okay a second okay so we have a motion and a second is there any discussion no

006discussion the clerk will take the vote Mr Cunningham yay Mr wster yay Mrs T yay Mr Marsh yay and Mr colck yay next we'll have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance led by the Vice chair everybody would ple please rise remove your hats thank you now we'll do the pledge I pledge allegiance to 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 and I'd like to welcome everyone to this evening's meeting I see a lot of faces I haven't seen in quite a while so welcome um we've got a busy meeting so and I really don't have many remarks prepared one thing I did want to mention is next month's meeting uh

007of the school board will be on November 8th correct no Wednesday November 8th uh that way we don't keep our employees here on the 9th while they're getting ready to go out for a holiday weekend they'll be able to start their holiday weekend off soon and now we're going to go ahead and start the meeting off with uh Mrs Briggs to present the Ala white achievers good evening 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 and before we get started I just want to acknowledge that you people may see

008a lot of pink uh on on folks tonight we had our pink out day today for uh breast cancer awareness month so we certainly appreciate everybody that participated in wearing pink today thank you so we are starting back up with our seniors of the month the senior of the month program recognizes seniors who have made a significant contribution or outstanding achievement in either their school or Community the seniors of the month are recognized by the board and in addition the seniors will participate in an end-of-year banquet where they will honor an educator who has impacted Ed their life seniors will also be awarded a $500 scholarship to the postsecondary Schooler program they will attend to further their education and we are going to start with our winds are High Senior of the month and that

009is Jada brittle and Jada if you'll come up Miss GS has a plaque and a pen for you and Jada's going to stand in front while I read her accolades Jada is a driving force in anything she takes on Jada has varied her schedule and has dipped her toes in both the CTE and academic offerings at Windsor high school she's been taking dual enrollment courses as well as Building Trades for the last few years aside from her classes she is involved in many extracurricular activities at school she's a member of the SGA Scholastic Bowl team Beta Club serves as senior class secretary and was selected for the E of white Chamber of Commerce student Leadership Academy in the community Jada volunteers with diamond in the rough horse rescue was selected as an American Legion auxiliary

010Virginia girl State Delegate and spends countless hours assisting with food pantries beautification projects and construction projects in her sophomore year of high school she contacted a local engineering firm and secured a paid internship for the summer she did such a good job that they asked her to come back this past summer Jada has many hobbies and skills that she uses to earn extra income she taught herself how to make jewelry started her own business and has been selling her jewelry online for the last three years she also makes t-shirts does carpentry draws Paints the list goes on she puts her full effort into everything she attempts and is met with success she's been a major player in helping to organize fun new events for the senior class as well as carrying on Traditions such as

011planning the first senior Sunrise Breakfast decorating the homecoming float and securing many donated prizes for the upcoming senior Bingo fundraiser quote she is a serious student who also knows how to find joy in her studies she doesn't know a stranger she always wears a smile and greets everyone that she encounters as if they were already friends I love having her as part of the Scholastic Bowl team not only for her big brain but also for her Generous Heart and that's from Miss dad mcmanaway scholastic bowl coach Jada plans on majoring in architecture and hopes to attend Virginia Tech in the fall her not so immediate future plans include owning her own Architecture Firm and we congratulate Jada for being October senior of the month we're going to have you go stand over there and Mr

012Elliot's going to get a photo and if there any family members that want to hop up and get a photo too or want to be in the photo dad wants to join her yeah so you may recognize the last name as um her dad Mr Jason brittle is our agriculture teacher out at the land lab thank you again congratulations our senior of the month for October from Smithville High School is Kendall Glover Kendall is AE is the president of the student Council Association an officer in the National Honor Society a member of operation smile and a member of the Beta Club she volunteers with Toys for Tots and supports projects to feed the community and programs for youth Kendall goes above and beyond as a role model for the underclassman at Smith oh high she

013will volunteer to help anyone at any time during the summer and at the start of the school year Kendall organized her classmates to decorate teacher doors serve the teachers breakfast and create and display posters to welcome new teachers Kendall was a mentor for new students and freshmen during open house she also organized multiple student groups to plan homecoming events the first pepper Alle and Spirit Week quote Kendall is a young woman of Integrity who is destined to accomplish great things Kendall Glover leads by example and possesses the rare ability to elevate the performance of everyone around her Kendall demonstrates Grace Under Pressure with quiet dignity Beyond her years and that comes from Mrs Karen Washington English teacher Kendall plans to attend the University of South Carolina and major in Psychology and minor in business congratulations

014Kendall we're g to have you go over [Applause] there Mom and Dad you can come closer and come on right up here there you go very good congratulations again [Applause] Kendall also starting back up this year we have our ABCD award each quarter we recognize one of our support staff members who has gone above and beyond the Call of Duty anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations a panel reviews the nominees and selects the quarterly winners our 2023 2024 first quarter ABCD Award winner is Mr Chris Brown administrative associate at Smithville High School come on up Mr Brown the nomination for Mr Brown from Leanne Poland stated the following Mr Brown is the first person to be seen when someone enters Smithville High School his positive presence sets the tone For Those whom

015he interacts with both in person and on the phone when parents arrive to pick up their children early he's the positive and respectful voice teachers hear at the other end of the phone line although his job duties do not include anything directly related to the classroom he has recently gone above and beyond the college Duty we all know the first week of school can be very hectic for everyone one day last week I gave up my lunch break while I waited for my turn at the copying Machine by the time it was my turn The copier had run out of toner and I had run out of time the bell rang and I needed to get back down to my classroom I was ready to have a meltdown and he read it all over my

016face before I broke down in tears he immediately approached me asked me what was wrong and what I needed when I told him he St stepped in to help me without hesitation he sent me to class and took care of the toner issue and made the photo copies I needed for my students what a beautiful random act of kindness it is with great honor I'd like to nominate Mr Brown for the ABCD above and beyond the Call of Duty recognition as part of his award Mr Brown is receiving a $50 Visa gift card thanks to the generous support of the Smithfield Women's Club he is also receiving a personalized plaque created in the Smithville High School maker space congratulations Mr Brown we're going to have you stand over there thank you again Mr Brown [Applause]

017congratulations local farmer Sean Carr of car Farms recently directed a $5,000 bare fund America's Farmers grow communities donation to the land lab of olive White County Schools the land lab will use the funds to renovate a greenhouse for use at the land lab the America's Farmers grow communities program a bare fund program partners with Farmers to provide grants to local nonprofits and schools to help their communities uh through the program Farmers enroll for the TS to direct a $5,000 donation to a local eligible nonprofit organization or School of their choice tonight we'd like to recognize farmer Sean Carr our farm man manager Daniel Judkins and agriculture teacher Jason brittle Miss car would have been with us but they blew a hydraulic line on the Picker and they have to get that fixed so they can

018finish harvesting peanuts am I right on that Daniel there we go yeah peanuts pay the bills so we know it's a priority all right all right um and this is the ceremonial uh check that that was presented but but a real one is uh on on the way and they've been very good about that in the past so now while these two fine gentlemen are up here we're not done there's another honor for our land lab I'm ask Miss GS to hand you gentlemen these two certificates and pens and we also have an award here uh recently I love white County Schools was recognized with an excellence in Workforce Readiness award through the Virginia school boards Association or vsba at the vsba conference on education enrichment the awards program was created in 2018 by the

019vsba task force on Workforce Readiness to highlight exemplary programs in Virginia's public schools and focused on preparing the state's future Workforce ICS was announced as the first place winner in school divisions with student populations between 5,1 and 10 ,000 students the division's entry ICS agricultural land lab cultivating the next generation of farmers highlighted the agriculture land lab which provides students in agriculture an authentic experience on the elements of plant and animal science classes offered at the land lab are double blocked halfday courses and made available to students at both Windsor and smithl high as part of the award application I WCS noted the land lab is not an ordinary agriculture program it is the only one in the Hampton Roads region and only one of several in Virginia the key element that sets it apart

020from other agriculture programs is its authenticity creating meaning meaningful relevant work as an integral component through the throughout the curriculum excuse me students actively engage in running and maintaining a working farm for three hours of their school day five days a week with guidance from an agriculture teacher and a farm manager students continue to shape the program as they develop fresh new ideas and innovative ways to increase productivity and create a successful operation for years to come and we want to congratulate our gentleman here and we also have a plaque from vsba so miss G will I don't know who's got a spare hand we got more Awards than hands but we'll have you stand over here at the backdrop Mr Elliot will get a photo and we congratulate you for all your hard work

021and for all the recognition that you so well [Applause] deserve very nice and while we're getting our photos here uh still with vsba the vsba provides Academy certificates for board members who have earned an award of recognition or hire and at your seats we have um some of our board members have received certificates and pins receiving an award of achievement and a bronze pin for 24 credits per year Dr Theo Kramer Crystal Briggs and Jessica Whitlow the award of Honor a gold pin with 66 credits in two years Mr Michael Cunningham and the award of Distinction a starfish pin for 84 credits in two years Mr John kollock and Miss Denise tines members who received the award of Distinction are invited to a special luncheon at the vsba annual convention and this is going to

022conclude our Achievers I want to congratulate all of our honores once again and thank all the family members that came out tonight to support [Applause] them okay next we will have I on instruction from Hardy Elementary School get this for you guys let's get this on test yep there we go good evening we at third graders from Hardy Elementary School my name is Jared my name is Morgan my name is Sarah my name my name is Landon my name is Timothy my name is Natalie my name is Mason we are third graders in Miss M's third grade class and we and we will be presenting our class Preamble and the process we used to create it we are excited to be here with you today during during this process we covered a lot of different

023WS when we were learning about the US Constitution and creating our class Preamble our learning started when we talked about Constitution Day we studied the Preamble and discussed how would set the framework for our rules our new country wanted to follow we started talking about the type of class we wanted to learn in we decided to create a preamble to set the expectations we talked about different words that created a positive learning environment we use Google forms to vote on the words to describe our classroom environment we then took the words that won and put them on big sticky notes so we could talk about them collaboratively the words that would best make up our desired classroom experience we decided we want a peaceful collaborative and intelligent learning classroom we would like to share our

024our class Preamble with you we the students in room g232 in order to maintain a more peaceful classroom encourage listening and learning protect our hearty Community respect each other and our teacher preserve knowledge to orain andish classroom rules G2 3 2 thank you so much for having us do you have any questions for [Applause] [Music] [Applause] us Mr chair may I say something to them before they leave um the third grade class from Hardy Elementary School I would like to say something before you take your picture and all of the adults in the audience they taught us a lesson this evening and we always heard those things sometime you can what we learned from the U mouth of babes they're just third graders and what they taught us this evening the most important words that

025I sentence or statement that they made was respecting others and if you don't learn anything else tonight from what they said please remember that respect others thank you and I just love to see the young people come out and teach us lessons thank you very much [Applause] okay now you can go take your pictures I love respecting others yeah okay next we will have requests to speak in accordance to policy bdh - 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

026the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board Clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting um first we have Courtney Landis Voli boin good evening VY boin 28359 Walters House Highway cwell District Five first I'd like to clarify that I favor candidates being represented by a political party and have no problem with it but several times I've heard board member times criticize chairman Kik from up there because he ran under a republican Banner when he ran for Schoolboard within the past few months wellin the actually the past few weeks I'd like to read something um from the alaw Democratic Committee website please

027join us as we celebrate our candidates for 2023 they had a picture of all the Democratic candidates running under their Banner a picture of the one running for Senate House of delegates Board of Supervisors School Board which included a picture of Miss Denise tin Miss Denise 's also had her signs in the Democratic committee tent at the Ala White County Fair so maybe someone could teach someone a lesson on hypocrisy honest people like chairman KCK don't have a problem with people knowing what he thinks and I think politics in the school system went out a long time ago when the Democrats and Governor Northern flooded the school system with liberal socialist socialist and Marxist ideology so now politics is in it until we can get that out of it chairman KCK is honest about what

028he believes in he ran under the Republican Party Banner uh Miss Times Obviously is not she's tried to hide it but in her case I don't blame her thank you Steve Edwards hell hello I'm Steve Edwards Bethany Church roading what used to be the Hardy District now of course I'm concerned about all of our students but tonight the only thing I'm going to be speaking about is a particular concern with the teenage boys that are in our school system kid boys that are growing up with cultural challenges ranging from social media abuse bullying video game addiction internet pornography and boys that often only they see their daddies every other weekend and see their grandfathers two or three times a year I urge this board as you consider all the policies you're looking at to look

029back at past policies and past practices that'll encourage those boys to best become men of character men of courage and Men of Integrity when I was a student here at Smithfield High School old Farmer in the community Jack Hall called me up one Saturday morning and said he wanted me to take a ride with him and we went out in the country and he showed me a field and he said now Mansion was built here in the early 1700s and the plantation owner that built it insisted on a perfect home and he found a knole under the steps and he called for the enslaved man that built those steps and he had him beaten to death and Jack said and Stephen I know you love history and I'm telling you this because when you hear

030people talk about ad glorious ancestors you got to remember Steve we descend from him too he brought me out there because he wanted me as a teenage boy to grow up to be a man and a man doesn't hide from the truth a man has courage to confront truth man didn't spread false statements and a man does not pretend to believe statements that aren't true an remik was my high school history teacher she went home at night and she cut out political commentaries and editorials from The Washington Post the New York Times Wall Street Journal newspapers no kid around here ever got to see and brought them into me in the morning because she wanted me to be a man that was not afraid to look at other points of view she wanted me to

031be a man that wasn't afraid to have my intellect challenged in 1978 just 12 years after Virginia's unconstitutional system that required people to be charged a fee to vote a poll tax in 1978 a registrar's office here still kept very very limited part-time hours one minute and they would not allow they would not come to the high school to register students Charles England was vice chair vice president vice principal then he said Steve we have buses and he put High School seniors on buses and carried them to the courthouse to register to vote from our integrated schools here because he was a man he had courage he had integrity and when we look back at the policies in these earlier years we need to develop policies that teach teenage boys to become honest men courageous

032men Men of Integrity and we can't do that when we have policies that will chill a teacher's desire to spread information over controversial topics and we most certainly cannot do that if we're going to have a policy that prect pretends that we don't have systematic racism in this country time we we need to replace those policies that encourage moral weakness with policies that encourage moral strength thank [Applause] you Laura Fletcher good evening Mr chairman members of the board Dr Kramer my name is Laura Fletcher and I reside at 14470 Great Spring Road in Smithfield my conscience compels me to warn that by accepting these model policies for the treatment of transgender students every school system in the Commonwealth is now one a party to the abuse of children and too vulnerable to continuous and financially

033devastating lawfare for decades the issue of gender dysphoria was recognized as a mental health issue only recently has gender dysphoria been recognized as an alternate reality despite the change in approach I asked the school board to apply higher level thinking and thousands of years of unquestioned fact to acknowledge that sex and gender are the same and are based on obvious physical characteristics and DNA Yan's policy in deferring to parental rights allows parents to change the sex of their child and to demand accommodation from the school system I suggest that based on the Supreme Court decision in rouon versus routon which required a parental fitness test in deciding custody cases parents pushing for a change in the sexual identity of their children should be challenged under that same legal test this is abuse and the schools

034should stand in the Gap and challenge in court if necessary I did not go to law school but I am aware of the militant left's determined stance to crush the opposition standing for truth especially now as it relates to sex gender and conscience in light of this I feel there is a significant breach in the protections attorney general General Miis is so confident this model policy provides consider the recent repeal of Virginia Statute 2.2 3903 which protected employees from discrimination based based on sex it allowed the employee to seek damages but limited the amount awarded by employers this statute was replaced by the Virginia values act which has removed essentially all protections for the employer and places all the power in the hands of disgruntled lgbtq employees Under The Guiding policies of yunan model policy

035section c it states each student's individual needs should be taken into consider consideration that divisions should develop policies that account for these needs schools should attempt to accommodate students with distinctive needs this is ridiculously broad dangerous and highly subjective language it leaves us vulnerable to lawsuits and victimized by the Virginia values act what constitutes a need what are the limits to accommodation how are we how are you to interpret that in conclusion question the motive of parents in pushing for gender change fall back on precedent and the parental fitness test challenge this model policy the Virginia values Act is is Achilles heel delay the vote refuse this policy demand greater protections send it back to Richmond thank you Heidi Schwartz good evening Heidi Schwarz ssor um last month the speaker brought up the topic of

036um Democratic uh Joe Kennedy slicing up the front of his daughter's brain in 1941 to BR Mr Brown's knowledge Joe Kennedy was never arrested or reprimanded for doing this he was exercising his right as a parent just as we see today parents exercising their rights to slice off the breast and penises of their children making a permanent decision for their young child today it makes you wonder in 82 years will parents be be speaking about how barbaric parents were for allowing doctors to cut off breast and penises of their children where's the guidance I mean when my kids were in their early teens they wanted Beyblades and Pokemon tattoos but my husband and I said no and guess what that phase passed children go through phases so let's talk about why children are children there

037are thousands of studies that guides insurance and companies to set their age limits in pricing and there are many reasons why males Vehicles insurance doesn't decline until they're 25 a child can't purchase their own car insurance policy bank account or loan until they're over 18 because they can't sign a legal contract what happens if they get a speeding ticket prior to the age of 18 guess what who goes to court with them in The 8 Hour driving improvement class with them you beta their parent they get in trouble at school who does a school contct their parent there's so many more examples to show why a CH child does not share the same rights as their parents parents are their guidance this isn't about a student wishing to shorten their their robbert name to to

038Bob or Rob this isn't about a student's rights it's a child gains their rights as they become an independent Soul adult that's well over the age of 18 sometimes there are stages and not all children progress at the same level so for those beta males out there that don't live in everyone's home and they don't get to decide what rights a parent no longer has over their child when they're in school and if a parent decides with their child together that they wish within that school policy that they can and may be able to use someone else's bathroom I don't agree with it but that's up for a child and a parent together with the school to decide this is about a law that's being put into place and as a school board this is

039your job you can't expect not to follow the law and then expect the students of I White County to follow the rules and the policies that you put in place Mr Cunningham I watched you work with the students of the the JROTC during the stop the bleed and I got to know you just a little bit outside of here and I respected you for that Mr kic Mr Marsh and Mr Cunningham minute all of you have served our country in the military and I thank you for that and when you did that just like my father my husband and my son you held up your hand and you took an oath probably a few times within your career then you became veterans and your oath to your country is something you keep for a lifetime

040part of that oath is I will support and defend the Constitution supporting the Constitution is supporting the laws set in place regardless of your political views or your personal opinions I anticipate I know two of you how you will vote tonight on that policy Mr Cunningham I'm wondering what your vote will be tonight thank you Teresa W wagger wager sorry wagger sorry hello all my name is Teresa wagger I live at 215 Keswick place um it's always interesting getting to hear the people before you to hear what they're having to say so um I am a former homeschool parent and over 25 years ago we chose to homeschool our children one of the long list of reasons and there was a long list why we we chose that was our concern for the rights of

041parents in the public school system today both of our children have successfully graduated from Virginia universities gotten jobs and thankfully they do not live in our basement but our concern for the rights of parents par in our public school system has dramatically increased as a taxpayer and local business owner today I am here to support the adoption of these 2023 model policies by our school board these policies do reflect the fundamental rights from our Constitution and um the US Constitution and the Virginia Constitution and the first three guiding principles from the the 2023 model policies um are schools shall respect all students parents have the right to make decisions with respect to their children and schools Shall Serve the need of all the students while respecting and serving the students our schools also must protect

042the most vulnerable I just want all girls to know that they can go to a bathroom go to where they have to change clothes for gym class and be safe from Attack that that's just so scary to me I can't even imagine our schools need to be focused on the basics of learning reading writing and Mathematics in the early years and rhetoric critical thinking skills as well as vocational training in high school and not on social engineering the final guiding principle of the 2023 model policies is schools shall partner with parents this principle is so valuable what a great opportunity for our school communities to work together to help our young learn learn prosper and prepare for their adult contributions to our society but our schools must be reminded again parents are the senior partner

043in this relationship thank you for your consideration and supporting the model policies Caitlyn MCN good evening I would like to address the Republican majority on the school board's incessant use of the unoriginal GOP rallying cry that is parental rights sure parents should have rights in schools they have always had rights in schools it wasn't until the gop's masterful plan to infiltrate and Destroy public schools by organizing extreme terrorist organizations like moms for Liberty to host classes for Citizens Across the Nation teaching them just how to do so you can literally Google this folks it's all right there for you in plain sight in July our own house representative Jin kiggins was posing alongside these moms for Liberty on Facebook showing her support for the unamerican her un their unamerican extremism whose policies is Jin kiggins

044a cheerleader for that would be Governor Glenn yunan his Myriad of disturbing plans to ruin our state with his extreme agenda such as committing $1.4 million on a TV ad to further promote Banning abortion when 70% of Virginia feel that abortion should be legal and the current hateful disaster at hand his anti-trans school policy he's been foaming at the mouth to implement to quote our friend Mr de I must I must ask really instead of your ridiculous and tired parental rights Trope why don't you just tell us what you really mean when you cast your V vote in support of the governor's policies you don't respect trans children or trans people trans people it is easier for you to hide them to pretend they don't exist but they have always existed and they always will

045I will continue to empower them and I hope that one day our school boards will be filled with loving people who respect others school board members that care about all of our children not just the ones their cherry-picked scripture tells them to I came here today to make sure that my support for the trans children and the people in this community is known I want my daughter to be able to Google my name one day and see that I was on the right side of of History standing up for the true meaning of freedom in this country and while I'm here I hope every single person in this room and those who are watching online pull out their phones and read about the gop's project 2025 I want to repeat that project 2025 read his

046mining sources as you can I want you to all to understand what is at stake when we go to the polls in 2024 and to the veterans in this room if you plan to support the Republican ticket I hope you realize that democracy and our constitution will be destroyed you will be handing your vote to a traitorous dictator and I hope this thought keeps you up at night every night until election day thanks herb de herb gr District Five where's Eric when I need him board chair colck members Dr Kramer 16.1 on the finance report the check register for September and 16.6 on the Strategic plan and a possible way to ACW an additional $887,000 for the fiscal year 23 deficit is something I want to talk about on that check register is a payment

047to William and Mary for $29,000 plus dollar for staff development for novice teachers well the head of the ICS instructional department and according to the organizational chart supervises instructional Coes that are in every school you know that collectively they're paid hundreds of thousands of dollars combined annually to provide staff development to new teachers Why Pay William and Mary almost 30,000 more for two years in a row Deputy superintendent instruction has helped overspend the instructional budget something that's likely never happened in the history of ICS maybe probably not the state of Virginia to remember we didn't have an aligned curriculum and had to spend $65,000 extra to buy Hampton City Schools a couple years ago see on the agenda item 166 that you're speaking on the Strategic plan this evening something that Dr Thornton you didn't

048bring to the school board or the public by one November of 21 it was in violation of law in my opinion that's mandated by Virginia code 22 decimal 1 253 136 I believe was done on purpose for the two of you in order to keep the public and the board from knowing that Thornton had failed to meet the CTE initiatives which would have prevented the times board from naming the CTE building after him the all states a report shall be presented to the public by one November of each odn numbered year in the extent to which the OBS of the division wide comprehensive plan have been met during the previous two school years in my opinion the failure of GS and Thornton is not providing this mandate is Strat Plan update for the school board

049in the public by one November of 21 was because wanted to keep it the secret because thoron wanted that CTE building named after him in a strategic plan that had priority for the division will focus on multiple strategies for for students to successfully complete a variety of graduation and career paths initiatives a in a 2021 school year instructional staff will create a unique schedule for students enrolled as T programs it will alternate weekly and staff will create a unique schedule and between a full week of CTE courses and a full week of core courses had the board members in the public knew known that the Ted priorities were not met in a strategic plan who would have voted to name that building after him after all is this why they kept it a secret I

050attended the 17th August soups meeting heard Dr Thornton address the soups fraud involves the false representation of facts whether by intentional withholding important information or providing soft statements to another party for the specific purpose of gaining something that may not have been provided without deception listening to him made me think did he and others commit fraud when it pertained to the naming of the CT school facility after him it was certainly a violation of several policies these actions by him and chair times then and not telling other board members about the aforementioned policies really uh led to an overpayment of 80 some thousand and each one of you Mary colic and wer had something to say about that well with legal advice from the Schoolboard attorney members I am suggesting you correct the policy violation

051by resending that vote of 8 September 22 that named a CTE voting after Thornton as you did and this night you do the right thing again correct another error and vote to resend that 10 marks 22 vote where he got $91,000 when he should have got $ 3525 so guess what folks there's your $887,000 you can get back by declaring a recess tonight Mr chairman go in there and talk about it get some advice from him come back and vote to take that $887,000 back and put it towards the deficit thank you very much Miss times there will be a place for you at the school board candidate Forum on the 24th and if you aren't there there'll be a big blank space thank you very much Moren Province Kristen Emer good evening my name

052is Kristen Emerich I live in District 5 I'm a parent who has spent many years as a scout leader a coach and an active School volunteer as you all know one of the roles of education is the opportunity to teach each student how to have a voice have any of you sat down and spoken with any specific students these model policies will affect have any of you asked them what the con consequences in their life outside of school would be if they were outed by the school before they were ready have you ever seen a child scared and crying because they worry their grandparents and siblings may never speak to them again because they're transgender have you ever heard the quiver in their voice when they talk about telling their friends do you understand the

053lifelong consequences of a family that may disown ostracize or abuse use them it is the responsibility of a school to report to parents behaviors that are detrimental to their students learning environment fighting bullying smoking drugs cheating these are all things parents should know about but asking to be called a different name hurts no one by contrast that alienated and broken student who is already struggling how do you think that they will feel about their deepest secret being shared with the world how would you feel the goal of our schools should be to provide the world with students who are curious confident and focused on their continuing education and contributions to the world into which they are matriculating misgendering by not respecting a person's identity makes that much less likely proper pronoun use and preferred name

054use is suicide prevention according to the National Institute of Health during a sixth month study among transgender youth it was shown that 86% had contemplated suicide 56% had attempted it these stats scare me and they should scare you too so for the supporters of this policy are you comfortable with an aisle of White County student being part of the statistic should one of our students become part of that 50 56% excuse me by a show of hands who would like to be held accountable for student suicide anybody pronouns and preferred names are just words words can be hurtful if misused but it can also be very validating when used correctly students can be so mean toward each other this we all know but now imagine that that behavior is now backed by the adults in

055the school either by choice or Force this policy will remove the ability for supportive adults to console advise and respect these kids instead of blanket policy change we should focus on giving these students the resources and support they need like a counselor who can help guide them one minute how do we think these students will feel about children or I'm sorry about learning from adults who have betrayed their trust on such an intimate and personal level do we think they're going to be a productive student also think about the example this shows to other students that it's okay to disrespect their peers as opponents of this policy we are not asking for anything detrimental to any student we are simply asking our teachers and Educators to respect these marginal personized students privacy by giving them

056the space and inclusive environment in which to make their own choice about this very personal decision I urge you to understand what this policy will do to these students talk to them kids need guidance yes but they are still human and deserve the same respect and support as any other I'd like to finish with a quote from the American poet and retired Pastor Steve Garnes holes appropriate for an October meeting Halloween is a day when we get it right strangers come to us beautiful ugly odd or scary and we accept them all without question compliment them and give them good things why don't we live like that I hope you will take the time to process my words with the care and understanding that went into crafting them and vote no for the sake of

057our students one of the effective students could have been someone you loved thank you Miss Province I think you had stepped out Marine Province thank you I apologize for being late um good evening my name is Moren Province and I'm the parent of two Smithfield High School graduates and a current sophomore at the school many decades ago before I had children of my own I worked as an instructional Aid in a special needs classroom there may be no better place to witness on a daily basis that good teaching is an art form and that an Effective Teacher figures out how to personally connect with each individual student to decipher their strengths and weaknesses in order to help them reach their full potential as a parent of children in I White County Schools I spent a

058considerable amount of time volunteering at Carolton and Westside whether as a class mom or in various PTA leadership roles as well as just being a PTA worker be I helped run Book Fairs and box stops collections Pizza Bingo nights and field days and my all-time favorite monitoring the lunchroom during teacher appreciation week so teachers could enjoy a few days of respit from lunch in the cafeteria I spent a lot of time in my kids' classrooms too over the years for holiday parties and field trips and special projects right up until about sixth grade when my kids subtly let me know usually by audibly sighing or rolling their eyes that my presence was no longer desired in their school especially if that meant close proximity to them or their classmates if you are or were a

059parent of twin and teenagers I don't need to explain this developmental phase to you if your kids are still young enough to be delighted when you show up at school enjoy it while it lasts the point I'm trying to make is that no matter how well you get along with your children there comes a point when they start to put up barriers when they need to begin cutting the cord in in order to grow into themselves this transition is a challenging one for parents and for children I always want to be there for my kids to be the person they know they can talk to about anything and everything but as much as I want that I also understand that there are some topics they may not be ready to discuss with me and I

060try to respect that all I know is if my child is uncomfortable discussing important matters with me but theyve found a trusted adult at school who's willing to listen to them to provide guidance and support at a vulnerable time then all I can say is thank goodness thank goodness that someone is able to recognize my child's strength and weaknesses that someone is there ready to help them reach their full potential thank goodness someone is looking out for the best interests of my child there's a lot of talk these days about parents rights within the school system it's a pretty hot topic around the state and the country and an ongoing matter of VI debates for school boards far and wide I don't envy you the job you have I know it's impossible to please everyone

061and that the arguments and the ranker become Amplified thanks to the wonderful institution that is social media in a perfect world all children would feel comfortable discussing anything at all with their parents but I'm afraid this is far from a perfect world in the Crusade to Champion parents rights I fear we may be losing sight of the heart of the matter and that is and always will be what's best for the children in our care I'm asking that you as board members show a willingness for restraint in the matter of the governor's policies for transcend gender students I urge you to consider postponing any final decision until the impact of these policies can be more accurately assessed I believe it would be a wonderful thing if we a collective we of parents teachers administrators board

062members and the public at large would take the time to educate ourselves about the issues facing transg transgender children both in schools and in society at large I recommend the book trans children in today's schools by Aiden key is a wonderful resource for a very in-depth discussion of the challenges and opportunities our school system faces today with respect to transgender children let's be the grown-ups in the room and model a position of Tolerance and respect for all the children served by our schools thank you Elizabeth Gibson hello I'm Elizabeth Gibson I'm a voter in a of white um I don't have kids I'm here because I was a kid um one of my problems with the 2023 model policies is that instead of being designed for transgender children they are designed by and for people

063who wish transgender children didn't exist people who wish transgender was a fad conspiracy or confusion policies should not be based on wishful thinking but real life the reality is that transgender people have always been here and always will from ancient times to present day among countless people groups all across every continent some societies have inflicted even more more violent suppression tactics upon trans people than those currently in fashion among the far right yet even in those harsh environments trans people have always remained persisted and profoundly enriched their families and communities by that survival if that sounds like I'm skating over the terrifying dangers trans people pose to our society I invite you to ask yourself have I ever been willing to absorb even one piece of information about trans people from anyone who has an

064ounce of respect for them is all my knowledge about this topic pared from hostile sources very far removed from trans people themselves do I know anyone who treats trans people as humans to live in community with rather than as cartoon villains to do self-righteous battle with these are empty policies they contribute nothing in the real world and we do not need them their goal is to score political points by mentioning constitutional freedoms and parents' rights as if heroic work is being done to defend these things against attack trans kids going to school do not threaten constitutional freedoms or parental rights trans kids don't need us to keep posturing about an nonissue they need us to improve anti-discrimination protections they need us to speak to them with respect they need us to stop wasting time and

065money dragging useless partisan politics through schools they aren't problems they are human beings in the end we may fail them in all these ways that our society has failed trans children for so long and they will still climb to their feet and live fully and brilliantly and shine on everyone lucky enough to be in their lives trans kids to the contrary of all you might have heard in your life so far you are not doing something wrong by existing you are doing something Wonderful by existing thank you Candace Vander break good evening I'm Candace FY break from Windsor District I wanted to thank you for giving up your time to serve and listen to the community which is much different than the previous board that we had this time last year the new policies you

066are voting on tonight ensure that beliefs and rights are protected for students and parents these policies state that the school should to notify parents when the students are engaging in counseling are involved in a bullying incident or have mental health questions when dealing with genter identity we also know starting this year parents will also be notified if their child will have any sexual content Tangled within their curriculum despite Miss tin's voting against it all of these can be directly related to mental health triggers from past life experiences depression and more the physical mental and emotional well-being of every child is undoubt ably the business of the parent at the end of the day the parents entrust their children to the government public school however it is the job and it is the right of every

067parent to guide teach and protect their youth we talk of Rights we all have rights or so we think that we do we have what rights and freedoms Uncle Sam gives us for living in this great country we have rights in the set parameters of rules in which we run our day-to-day activities we have the rights that the school School Board gives us like when Miss tin used her right as Schoolboard chair and denied hi and I the ability to during our KB hearings to show a PowerPoint of sex videos on K through 12th grade school issued devices to protect the public not my kid she was worried about it was just the public or when tin used her right and voted to move public comments to the end of the school board meetings as

068she so graciously gave us the right to voice our concerns at 9:00 p.m. or later and Miss putting our kids to bed or when she used her right as chair to reject meeting with the Board of Supervisors to talk about the school system's budget my child has rights too as many rights as I give them for living in my house usually one rights ends when they infringe upon their own or others Safety and Security in 2022 a study released 349 Educators were arrested on adolescent sex crimes in 2021 Lowden County had two female students sexually assaulted by a transgender mail in the restroom several months ago it was brought up at a school War meeting one teacher from our own School lost his license due to allegations relations with a student sexual assault happens I

069hope that tonight you will move forward in adopting more policy changes that will help take precautions to protect our children and give parents more control over the environment and exposure they received in the school setting voting to give parents their rights back and take control of guiding their children's Life Choices through lines of open communication and safe parameters to create a thriving learning environment I need to know that the school will notify me of any and all incidents involving my child's mental physical and emotional health a study released last month States suppression reached an all-time high for Americans in 2023 we have to be all on the same page for our kids that includes abiding by the rules and wishes of the parents and giving the power back to us through communication and hard conversations

070these are common sense policies that still give room to build Bridges and accommodate the religious political and parental beliefs of All Families it just starts by creating an open line of communication and protecting the values of all religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds thank you Renee dial good evening everybody I'm glad Candace Vander break bought up being arrested for things that are people doing sexually with teachers when we actually have somebody that on the board Mr Worster you have a criminal background is that right you were arrested and charged for violating not a protection order against your ex-wife and during our candidate debate you read off a piece of paper about your experience that it was a misunderstanding so I'm actually glad she brought that up because you're right you shouldn't even be around kids nor

071should you be on the board but going to I I digress let me get back to what I was originally going to say I have seen The Good the Bad and the Ugly in this Community surely I have I can say that the bad resides within the few loud individuals some that you've heard from tonight that continue to spread hate fear racism division political and personal agendas in this community on November 7th is the day that we can all make a positive change for the community and that is getting rid of Worster and Marshall on the board Worster has not honored his commitment to the county to represent all of the children as some people mention today he's only for the few his Focus was to undermine public education push the personal agendas of a

072select few again some that spoke this evening I like the smirk that's on your face this evening too but I'm not bothered how Heidi was bothered by me laughing because I could really care less about that that facial expression of be honest he wrote voted and passed policy I INB that most of the county opposed almost 30 people spoke at that board meeting yet y'all still passed it and probably only five people wanted it and almost the 25 people didn't want it but yet you guys approved it you are not concerned about all of the students you're only concerned about with some of the few on this side only what they want wer are really not interested in anything that you are pre-written I know Herb's writing some of your stuff as well so you

073can't even intellectually give me anything you don't represent me you don't represent my family you don't represent the brown and black people of this community as well that policy INB there's no systemic racis I know that came straight from you Marsh I know that did the policies that you guys are putting in place are not really helping the students at all they are to restrict the teachers again restrict teachers from teaching putting teachers and parents against one another removing books that provide accurate history you claiming you're citing CRT that was your whole big thing about CRT that doesn't even exist in the school system right now matter of fact you admitted that it wasn't even being taught under wooster's watch schools are not safer you have allowed the Board of Supervisors to Dei to deny

074funding for school security officers that would have added an extra layer of security for our children the incompetence is a poor example to our children and reciting pre-written opinions along again with your criminal background that you have is not what ala White County needs at all citizens should know that the back to basic slogan that groups like Mom for Liberties used and other cant like brandy Perkins I like how a lot of people keep attacking since I only have a minute um Denise tines false narratives lying you didn't remove anything that was sexually explicit you guys were searching on search engines you removed search engines and apps you didn't remove any sexually explicit material and again if I had to make that vote again I would vote exactly the way I did because lies again

075once again I'm so tired ala white can be so much better than what it is but if we can get out there and vote because the majority actually is on the right side of History unfortunately these three right here are on the wrong side of history and come November 7th you best believe we're going to make that change goodbye Jennifer boyin good evening board I am not one that agrees with the state making laws that dictate local policies and schools but a Democrat legislature came up with Virginia code 2.2-mm Governor signed the bill into law they were sure they would win the following election and passed it with the purpose of shoving their woke Marxist liberal policies down the throat of every child in the state regardless of their parents' wishes one problem because of

076this and the other hundreds of bad bad laws they passed they lost the election but we still must obey the laws they enacted including this one which gives the setting Governor the power to dictate model policies to the schools the state attorney general has stated this law must be followed and that his office will stand behind any parent that sues to force it to be obeyed it is Virginia law not a suggestion or recommendation you cannot teach children that they must obey laws and rules even if they do not agree with them and then break the law yourself if you do not adopt these model policies you can be sure that you will be sued just as the City of Virginia Beach was I for one do not want taxpayer dollars spent on defending an

077obviously illegal action I do not see where you have any choice but to adopt these policies according to Virginia law thank you Shelly Perry I'm shy Perry I live at 13458 Melissa Drive I actually can't really to speak on the budget but um I would like to ask a few questions out the board I'm going to give you a scenario and I would like for you to think before you open your mouth at any point in time because I know you can't answer me but I'm GNA ask you anyway I'm a consumer I own a business everybody wants a raise I said okay you get your raise we're going to do this I put in for my budget somebody whoever they were made a clerical era in my budget so as I'm paying out my

078budget I owe Millions thousands of dollars I don't know where the money's coming from I got nobody else to back me to get it from I can't go back until the people they don't get their raise or can I I am held [Music] responsible for that mistake every one of you on that board is should be held responsible for the misconception misrepresentation of your budget I don't know about the new thing now seems like y'all don't teach much in school anymore cuz I know for a fact when I was in school and you did reports you proof R not only did you proofread your material because you might have said something to the fact the sky is blue and that might be what you meant but what you wrote is the sky is not blue

079but you didn't see that when you proof read so so you gave it to somebody else to proof read whoever made that mistake did not a y'all didn't look at it and catch it you went ahead and spent the budget but now you want people like me and everybody behind you to up our money to help for something you did wrong where is the accountability I'm accountable for anything that I overspend if I go and write a check and there's no money in that bank account for that check and that company wants to come after me they can go and take me to court I can actually go to jail if it's big enough why don't we do that to y'all why shouldn't we all get together as Citizens take out a lawsuit let all

080y'all get let you know what it feels like it's a mistake Maybe maybe it was hidden maybe it's going to one of y'all's Pockets I don't know I'm just told it was a mistake it's a mistake somebody needs to be accountable for so please think before you do anything and proof read and don't come back to your citizens and say we need more money you need to go back to the you need to go back and figure out where you can cut your budget at to come up for your own downfall thank you that's it chair okay next we'll have the reports from the student aison uh Samantha Conor from Smithfield High School first so we have a pretty exciting upcoming week for us our homecoming is next week um so we'll have I believe

081bonfire on Thursday Powderpuff on Wednesday homecoming game Friday and then dance on Saturday so that's really exciting um this Friday we're having our pink out game in support of breast cancer awareness um so that's also exciting uh National Honor Society is having a food drive that starts on November 2nd so just for everyone just so yall know and then our field hockey team is very excited um they have their senior night next Monday so that's exciting for all of them but that's it thank you and Conor yes sir uh first off we want to thank Dr Kramer for coming out to um to the Windsor beta and sharing his knowledge on leadership we all learned a lot um our volleyball team is continuing to do very well this season um districts are coming up and

082we're very hopeful for that our vhsl theater uh is hosting the districts or the Regionals on November 4th uh and so we're preparing for that that getting excited lastly uh we have a home game Friday um not sure who against but we do have a home game Friday great thank you both very much and next we will go on to presentations by the superintendent staff the water tower easement Mr chairman school board members the water tower easement what you have for you in front of you is 15.1 and this is easement um that's granting say motion to give the Grant and convey the until Alaway County a non-exclusive Perpetual utility easement as shown on the tax exhibit entitled public utility easements granted to Al of White County for Hardy elementary school so to put it

083as in layman's terms um at this time on the Hardy grounds what we're doing is giving an easement to the water tower back to the county so they can actually go to the water tower and um and fix anything that's necessary just provide the preventive maintenance that's needed so this is the school board giving the uh easement back to the county for the water tower thanks Dr Coleman you know I like the layman's terms so for the for the the listening audience just want to be clear that water tower the brand new one on the Hardy is that a school water tower no it's not the school water tower the water tower that's on the Hardy grounds actually belongs to the county right so that's what I just wanted to make sure everybody that's watching

084understands that that's that's the County's water tower that's not alte County School's water tower yes it's County's water tower thanks Doc you so this is going to be an action item to once again give the easement for roadway to the water tower back to the county sounds good Mr chair I move to give Grant and convey unto Olive White County a non-exclusive perpetual ual utility easement as shown on the attached exhibit entitled public utility easements Grant to Olive White County Hardy elementary school second he we have a motion as second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote very good thank you next we'll go on to the budget calendar good evening chair Vice chair Dr Kramer and to all board members before you is the 2425 budget development calendar that

085we have composed this calendar is the public calendar um with tenative dates as of today um we know that the board itself doesn't come out with their dates for next year until January so this is a tentative calendar um the dates here that are listed on this calendar is for the public there will be other items that will be added later on as we work through the budget season we will be getting together with the board as well as the community and staff members and so there will be interdepartmental um meetings that will be um held as well that is not included in this public calendar so I just want to just relay that information um I know that we also should be having a joint meeting with the uh Board of Supervisors um that's

086going to of course uh require correlation um to get that date schedule which is why it's not listed here on this um calendar but that will happen um once that negotiation comes together so if you would approve this budget development calendar um then we can go ahead and give this um public size for you Mr chair Mr T I would like to make a motion to approve the fiscal year 20242 budget calendar as presented by Miss Harris second okay so we have a motion and a second is there any discussion okay you go first Miss Harris yes so as you continue to get your feet firmly planted in the saddle as as the Chief Financial Officer do you envision anything different this coming budget cycle as compared to last repeat that again do you envision

087anything different this coming Vision cycle this this upcoming budget cycle as compared to last year's um we're looking to well one of the things that we're doing is we're adding in the um Community survey um this survey will be um compiled by the finance department as well as input from um our board and the superintendent as well as our leadership team add to a couple of um questions we may ask the community to get their input as to things that they believe may be of interest in this upcoming budget season um we want to ensure that they um are a part of this uh cycle um we want to add it in we added this in an addition to the public hearing where those that may not attend a public hearing they can at least

088still be able to comment and add their input into the budget um so that's going to be new a second thing that we're working on is we have contracted with a vendor to um digitize our budget book what this would mean is that our budget book Moving forwards would be um located online um on our County School County um I want say County but our school website as well there'll be a separate link and it will have um way more detailed information than we probably had in a long time um but this way the public and anyone else any other the constituents will be able to access our budget um moving forward um that are we will have some training going forward and we will hopefully be able to do a presentation um in the

089next couple of months just to kind of show you what it's going to look like um it's going to be very vibrant colorful but we want to make sure that we're a little bit more transparent because I know that that is the um that is one of the most uh goals that we're working on being more transparent in this budget cycle so we are digitizing our budget um and that's going to be another new item um that we have implemented in this season thank you Miss Harris there's two big items there that for me I think are very important and the first you mentioned was that you're going to give the school board a a say so in the survey that we send out to the community I think that's important and I don't know

090that that happened last cycle I don't recall and then the online budget book I think that's outstanding so open the books up let the people see let the P taxpayers see what we're working on look at the numbers and afford the public an opportunity to ask questions so yes that's two big positive changes from where I'm sitting so thank you I youi chair okay anyone else and if I may add uh to your question Vice chair Marsh we are actually starting this process earlier than we did last year um so I think that's going to help and that is soliciting input from the survey from the community certainly but also from uh my colleagues at central office our principes and seeking their input their recommendations but also hearing from from you our board uh as

091well so I think that that will all uh enhance this process moving forward uh certainly again relative to last year I I we certainly will be making some improvements M Harris I do have a question so uh January 8th is when we're going to launch the online community survey tentatively I think that works fine on January 11th is when a school board members budget input is due so that's when we have to provide our input you know me personally and I'm not speaking for anyone else um I would like to see what the community says I would like the results of the survey before I provide my input so I'm just wondering if we uh change that date slightly I I don't know if we pull the um survey back to a little bit earlier

092or if we push the school board member budget input push that out a little bit I don't know but that's something I'd like to look at I understand this is tentative I understand we may have a couple different members in January so this might really uh be changed um but I'd like you to look at that okay um and I do have a few other things um you may have a copy of it I don't remember if I sent you uh a copy I sent it to Dr Kramer uh some things that I feel again it's just me personally I feel is more a logical order to do some things in um so you know when when we vote on this um please if if you would you know remember you know kind of keep

093all this in the back of your head so that as we move forward and we make changes um we can we can react because I want to get the best budget we can okay I want to do it as transparent as possible and so the community can see exactly what we're doing from day one so and I look forward to working with you Dr Kramer on the process if I may say Mr chair we certainly will make adjustments as appropriate and as requested by the board so yes I will certainly ask that we vote this evening absolutely um and approve this but again we will make changes as as deem appropriate any more questions or comments okay go for it yeah we're ready yeah yeah okay and it passed unanimously next we have consideration to

094increase the grant fund appropriation and that's an action item M haris yes before you is a grant um increase request in reference to receiving additional funding for the title three part A Consortium allocation these are funds that are um allocated for um those uh who are learning English as well as any immigrant students we may have so we receive additional increase in comparison to what we initially appropriated for fy2 24 in the amount of $668 47 cents secondly we also received um from over Healthcare Foundation the streaming pre curriculum Grant um this is in the amount of $1,750 this is for our our prek students and part of that um Grant is also to help support our pekk I believe I want to call it coordinator um in that position as well and so if

095we the board would approve um the increase of $1,430 47 towards the grant fund um we would appreciate it Mr chair I move to approve the increase to the grant fund as presented second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote and that pass unanimously as well next we have the monthly Financial reports yes before you we have the monthly Financial reports for the month of September that consist of our check register as well as facility usage the income that we have received um if you would be so kind to approve the reports that are before you and this is information does anybody have any questions yeah Miss Harris yes thank you um I got a few I'd like to Rattle off here

096just because I like to nitpick the financials um on the financial summary page two in the construction fund we have $4,250 encumbered um what does that entail um that was for some funds there was a part of a project for Westside um a couple of I think last year if I'm not mistaken um I believe there was a conversation initially for Westside middle um there are still some funds there was left over $4,250 so that's for any work that's still being conducted or will be conducted for Westside okay and so for the listening audience that construction fund uh at the front of the budget consists of $250,000 earlier this year we spent a little over $100,000 on a new water well for Windsor Elementary um and now we've got 4250 incumbered so we we still

097have some money left in our construction fund that is correct thank you ma'am yes you're welcome on page two again in the textbook fund we've got a textbook replacement and a textbook Replacement Service could you explain that um that I don't I don't remember off top of my head I know the replacement is when we replacing actual techbook textbooks um the line um as far as that line may be inaccurate um as far as just that title but The Replacements you have your new adoptions and then you have your Replacements um if when you're renewing the inventory so those are normally the two categories so I would have to double check to that second replacement line um that you're referring to okay well maybe we can touch Bas on that later please okay um all

098right in the check register let's see here $5,600 for the treasurer of Virginia what was that just says purchased Services that's the virtual Virginia software okay for enrollment got it um on that same check register there's a charge from Bank of America for $ 72450 there's no item description now I know that is Smithfield Middle School um but I don't have that information in front of me but I can get that for you okay um there's a few other odds and ends and I'll touch base with you one of the things I want to hit on is is for this month's track register we've got 53,9 $ 53,723 4 purchased via Bank of America charge card so if you could explain mostly for the listening audience how many charge card holders does ala County Schools

099have Andor purchasers and what's our internal process to make sure that everything we're buying with either Amazon or Bank of America is done above board within budget what's that process look like and I don't need a whole lot of detail I just kind of a broad overview for the folks that are listening all right I'll try to be as broad as possible um with regards to Amazon um Amazon is utilized a lot of times to purchase instructional needs um it's a quick efficient way of purchasing items um we as far as the holders or users we have one per Department as well as one per school um when a person when a school location wants to make an item purchase first thing they have to do is actually submit a purchase order they have to

100do an incumbrance or requisition rather into munus in which it goes through the approval train from the initiator up into the approver which may be the Principal or department head and then ultimately to finance once the once we approve the purchase order or approve the purchase then they're able to go on Amazon to make the purchase in order for um me as a CFO to approve these transactions which I do approve them all as a final approver I asked that they have to provide the shopping cart so they let it they show me exact ly what they're paying for I make sure that the amount on the requisition that they've entered also matches what they have in a shopping cart if it does not I will send it back called rejected to get them to

101to provide the information that I need to in order to approve so that's how that works with Amazon same thing with Banker America um they have to actually come to come through the workflow approval from their Department up until Finance to um secure the funds and cover the funds through a purchase order and once we give them final approv with then they're able to spend um utilize rather their Bank of America card we only still have um one card per department or per um school the only ones that may have additional cards is finance of course and instruction because they're bigger bigger area thank you very much ma'am you're welcome and since I have you here front and center and you are our CFO and we're talking about transactions can you give us a little

102bit again for the for the listening audience what's the plan with respect to our upcoming annual audit all right so um the last week of this month of October our UDS will be um beginning their fieldwork which they will be um coming on site if not working hybrid as well to gather documentation that the finance department will have to supply them they will begin to review all of our transactions our purchasing procedures um ensuring that we um followed all the laws and rules and regulations in with regards to auditing as well as accounting um as well as looking at the budget aspect and so between the end of this month probably up until the beginning of December hopefully the end of November rather um they will be doing their um their processing of the audit

103they with in the process of the audit what they do is e we Supply them all of our data and information um they have questions my responsibility our responsibility and the finance departments to answer their questions and to provide further detail if they need if they need that information they're responsible to ensure that we have um abided by our rules ordinances regulations as well as ensuring that um that we are um fiscally responsible and that we there is no fraud and things of that sort so they have ethics that they must follow by the um the Society of American I think it's the American Society of certified public accountants and so they have a governing agency as well and so for every audit they have to report back as well as to what they have

104found and what they're doing to stay on the up and up and so Within These next month or so we'll be working heavily with our Auditors to get the 2223 audit um finalized um we're looking to have them to do a presentation hopefully in December in our December Schoolboard meeting where they can be able to provide to the school board their findings if they have any or or um any suggestions or recommendations that they may have at that time they have already completed the Student Activity fund which is where you they um audit all the schools so that has already been completed um I believe in the past here we had it where we bring that information to the board I think this month but I'm used to putting them together so in December they'll

105be speaking on behalf of the Student Activity fund as well as the main School Board audit all at once thank you m Harris and listen I know since your first day here you've had your feet in the fire working working yourself to death so I appreciate everything you're doing and you continue to do so thank you and I yield Mr chair anyone else have any questions comments okay Miss Harris I do have one question and it's on on the deficit how are we capturing and displaying how we're reducing that deficit repeat that again Mr how will we capture in the reduction in the deficit taking it basically from 438,000 to zero how how are we doing that and displaying it so the public can see so we're looking at multiple options in order to reduce

106and eliminate the deficit um throughout this this fiscal year so one of the things we're looking at of course would be vacancies and savings that we may save from from positions that have not been filled um we will also we are also continuing to monitor the budget and so there if there are areas where we can cut um we're looking into that or processes that we can streamline we're looking into that as well um there are multiple things that we're doing right now as we're reviewing they are the budget is being reviewed on a monthly basis um to see where our savings are and so as we get that information we will be providing it to um the finance committee so that they can stay AB breast as to where we are okay thank you

107else okay okay I guess we're done we'll go on to uh Support Services then all right thank you thank you Miss Harris good evening chairman KCK Dr Kramer members of the board uh in front of you you should have the uh fuel report for the month of September and in addition to the fuel report I also wanted to just update the board on a couple of outstanding uh operations related items just to make sure everybody um is aware of the a lot of moving pieces right now uh first up we've got the uh Windsor Elementary School well so we've had some uh recent developments there all positive the health department has approved the new well for usage based off the testing from the 48h hour uh draw down so we just heard from um our

108contractor today with that update that was very good news he's working with vdh on that matter uh that means that we're allowed to hook up the well so the pump now just needs to be switched out to the new well um connected and wired into the new system and we're looking to get that done over the course of the next uh two weeks so things are are progressing moving forward there and all of the testing that's coming back is is looking good uh land lab fire alarm I know that that's been something that has been talked about a lot recently we're still moving along with that we're we're doing a couple different things so the uh Johnson Controls which is the company that we contract out with for our fire systems they are working with

109their Engineers as well as sergeant Brinkley um and the Fire Marshall to say hey is this even possible for us is it going to be up to code for us to switch out Those sensors um and change them to heat sensors that's a conversation that's ongoing we have not gotten the green light just yet so we really don't know what that all would entail what the cost would be because we haven't gotten the green light for us to even Explore that op option however in the meantime we've come up with sort of a it's a it's a solution it's not great but it's it's working it's working better and that is that we've got ABM out there and they are blowing the dust out of those um sensors regularly so what that's preventing is it's

110preventing a lot of the kick up um you know to where the the sensors go off because they think it's smoke if we can clean those things out regularly it reduces those false alarms greatly it's not a perfect solution but for right now that's what we're doing and and it does seem to be working but we'll continue to keep the board updated with any um updates on that situation as well uh Smithfield Middle School jym floor we know that there was um some concern there with the work that was done we put a lot of money into getting that gym floor redone we wanted to make sure it was done right and hold the people accountable who are coming in to do that work they did just come in here recently and finish up some

111it was some work it wasn't the the the bulk of it but it was some trim baseboards that were loose on the overall it was a minor part of the project but if we're going to put that much money in we want it done right so we did have um that company come in fix it at no additional charge and everything is is um everything we got what we paid for for that gym floor now uh Smithfield Middle School bathrooms that's been where we really been hitting heavy um here recently we've been working with a contracted uh plumbing company to come in they've been hit it in the seventh grade first then the eighth grade next over the last two weeks they've been in all of those bathrooms done a lot of work there's only

112one toilet right now um it's a um it's inoperable due to a control stop that needs to be replaced so they're working on getting that part in but they were able to get um a lot of work done in the seventh and eighth grade wings now they're moving on to the gymnasium in Smithville Middle School which has some additional Plumbing work this is all Plumbing work that accumulated over the course of the past few years so um a lot of work to be done there but they're moving on to the gymnasium next then they're on to Smithfield High School School they've already been in there to scope out the work they know exactly what needs to be done after Smithville middle they go to Smithville High School we're getting a lot of work done on

113the Windsor end as well but a lot of what we found there was more um lower level we didn't need a master plumber we didn't need to pay a bunch of money some of our general maintenance guys they've got enough working knowledge and that kind of thing that they've been able to go in and fix a lot of those as well so that was good news we're not having to you know break the bank on on those items we were able to work with our general Workforce and get those repaired as well uh so that's all the updates I had I know that Sergeant Brinkley wanted to provide updates on the vestibules and the night loocks as well but I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have about um the items I've

114discussed or anything else thanks sir and it sounds like we're moving in the right direction on all this stuff one you missed the Smithfield High School band room there was a big was an issue last year when it was hot because of the HVAC yada y y did anyone ever get up there and clean out the return in the ceiling of the Smithfield fild Band Room the return has dust in it so I did get an update on that today so it's it's not the filter itself they went up there and they checked the rooftop units and the filters and everything there was looking good but they did see that the dust is there on the return vent um and it still needs to be dusted off they tried to get up there to do

115it um but they couldn't reach it right so we're going to have to get something piece of equipment up there to get up there and and wipe it down but I did speak to them today about making sure that got done copy thank you sir Sir Mr chair I've just got one question as far as the the middle school goes and the gymnasium floor the entrance way to the boys locker room that was Bo up has that been rectified I'll have to check in on the Boeing up because my my understanding of the baseboard and the trim that was coming up was that it was right around the corner there as you were coming into the entrance so any Boe to me that sounds like it might be a separate issue that I'd have to

116check into because that's not um what I was looking into with performance that sounds like it maybe something else hopefully not additional water damage but something I'll certainly look into yeah the the flooring when I was there actually looking at it the floor is actually bowed on the entryway to the boys locker room um and if you stand on it you can actually spring up and down okay I'll I'll definitely get an update for you on that Mr wer thank you thank you Mr Christensen I he Mr Brinkley you you had something you want to share yes sir I was just going to share an update on the the vestibules project and the best update that you can have is right out here uh Westside and carsville uh have both been I don't want to

117say completed the construction has been completed we still have to go back and do some wiring we're working with it on getting some badge readers um so what you see out here is not the finished product uh as as I met with with with Mr KCK yesterday out at carsville to kind of go through and walk through some of the some of the steps that we've taken some of the some of the proposals that we have for that uh it will include another badge reader uh and buzzer going into the office and then it will also include another badge reader and buzzer coming into the school uh so well what this will do is it OB will force parents visitors anyone else into the office to to state their reason for being here uh and

118we've we've tried to we met Tuesday uh Tuesday or Wednesday Wednesday WN um with with Mr C Rider Dr Coleman myself and the contractor so that we can make sure we were all all on the same page and that that ultimately spawned our meeting out at carsville um but everybody that I've talked to so far is is very happy with them I think they're they're they're very aesthetically pleasing uh when when you come in it's not a not a big bold major difference to the front entrance way of the school uh and one thing to keep in mind is obviously we're trying to we're trying to do these in the most cost cost efficient way that we can and obviously moving forward if we want to go back and add other layers we're designing them

119where we can go back and add in more layers at a later time if we need to uh but so far we do have the installation of carsville and here at West that has been the construction has been completed uh all of which has been being completed over the weekends uh so it's not interfering with the school day while students are are here at school uh and then on to the night loocks uh I know that's been a been a Hot Topic they are in the process of being all of the storage boxes being installed Windsor Elementary School and carsville Elementary School were completed today and then we'll be moving moving throughout the county installing those and getting those in place as as quickly and and as as efficiently as we can great thank you

120and I appreciate the conversation yesterday I think that uh helped a lot and I think we're definitely uh going to reduce the risk in both of these two schools uh from what I've seen so far so thank you for your work Mr chair I just got a quick question please Mr Wester with the U vegetables going into the schools do you see any issues with any of the schools where the vegetables there would be an issue with structural integrity uh no that we we're working with the contractor and with with the majority of these being utilized as storefront material uh that's where we have had to adjust uh where we where we place these walls obviously some schools like Smithfield High School for example we have to drop it back far enough that we can

121actually go up and tie into the tie into the ceiling and have something to tie that wall into uh because one of the things that I spoke with the contractor about uh is the constant opening and closing of these doors if they're not tied end at the top over time they are going to give and they're going to warp and they're going to fail so that's why that's why we've had to adjust where we're installing a lot of the a lot of the walls for the vestibules okay so you don't foresee any problems with that in any of the schools no great thank you all right and Mr chairman I wanted to make sure that uh we pinpointed the work order system um months ago you asked for the work order system and that information

122be given at this time it's still in preliminary phases um due to the fact AB has just come on but it's around about approximately 350 work orders right now and they're working through it at maybe what 200 what I would like to do is uh get one more month and next month I'll be able to give you the work order system the way that you requested earlier and ensuring that you have those work orders that have been uh delayed for three weeks or more and at the same time making sure that you can see and the public and also the staff and the principles know that the operations department is working through those work orders efficient and effectively great thank you right more questions okay thank you gentlemen next is uh special education advisory committee

123good evening chair colle members of the board and Dr Kramer I have the um special education advisory committee meeting schedule for this year up for information and um here for any questions if you have any I will note that our first meeting is this month and we will be um talking about dyslexia um as our main topic and we also will have a presentation on secondary transition okay well Mrs TI is checking that we'll go on to um child find dates all right um we have child find dates scheduled for the fall and for the spring they're at both ends of the County uh first set will be this November and then uh in the spring we we will have these events in the month of March again this is for information and I'm happy

124to answer any questions any questions no okay thanks fish thank you okay next is the teacher pupil ratio report Mr gets you going be available thank you good good evening chairman and cic members of the board Dr Kramer uh tonight I'm sharing with you the teacher pupil ratio report this is a report that is required um to be delivered to the public annually to notify the public of our um pupil teacher pupil ratios so let me get started uh so in the first slide as you can see this is enrollment um for all of our schools and we compared it to last year's enrollment um just something to notice is the enr at Carolton which as you know we rezoned um some students to attend Hardy and as you can see that definitely has helped

125with um providing uh additional space at Carolton um and and obviously Hardy has the room in that brand new beautiful school um our enrollment um for each year at the September 30th Mark um just so that you can see the history and where we are this year in comparison to last year um I know one of the questions was about what was the number that we used um for budgeting purposes um it was 5430 um and why this is not this is not ADM yet because ADM is measured over a period of time this is enrollment membership as of September 30th so right now we're looking looking good okay looking at Kinder kindergarten comparisons at each of the schools and again you'll notice some some dips this year um at uh Carolton as we've already

126talked about but then look at the huge increase at um Hardy this is one of the things that we do have to report on it's actual ratio and total ratio the total ratio is a little misleading because it use you use all the teachers including PE music art and so forth into the numbers which is not really realistic when you're talking about class sizes so I like to give the actual ratio to look at what are the actual core teachers classroom sizes look like um and as you can see we're sitting pretty well we'd like to be um in the low 20s upper teens in elementary school if we can so we're looking pretty good here class sizes at Carolton so this is each class obviously not the teacher's name but each class at that

127school and what that size looks like carsville same thing each class size um at carsville uh you'll notice this year year was um an odd year for us um and we were only um were down to one kindergarten classroom there um typically we have enough for two classrooms um and this is just going to be one of those strange groups that going to travel through carsville that right now only needs one teacher Hardy Elementary and as you can see again we have added classes there Windsor Elementary and Westside yes ma'am sorry Miss gets um this chart I know is updated but this ref it reflects the new class that you have kindergarten class that we have added at Hardy yes ma'am okay so originally it was five now it's six correct okay and so when

128we were at five we hit the Max and then we went over and so that once we hit 25 in classes in kindergarten we have to add an additional teacher and that's what happened you anticipate going to number seven this year no I do not all no I think we're in I think we're going to be in good shape okay yep yes ma'am um Westside um I did want to point out sixth grade that's a little higher than we would like to see um so that that's a group that honestly L it it wouldn't hurt to have another teacher there do we have to absolutely not we're we're fine we're not um violating any regulation or anything um but the numbers are a little high um all right let's look at secondary schools um and

129again these are includes all teachers these are the ratios um so nice and low when you consider if you're looking at all staff members compared to the students at gtms here are the class sizes for English Math Science and History low 20s these are excellent the resource class sizes PE is a little large not uncommon to have 30 35 in PE classes but the others are very small nice and low Smithville middle these are a little little higher um this is something for us to look at and continue to monitor 25 is is getting a little a little on the high side we really wouldn't want to be any larger than that resource class sizes are looking good and Smithville High School uh one of the concerns English that might be something that we need

130to look at next year to address um and art classes even though we added art teacher we still have very high numbers in art and then you move to Windsor where and you look in comparison the class sizes are considerably smaller and they typically do run smaller in Windsor and looking good there any questions that I can answer for any of these any big concerns that are jumping out of you um just a couple of class sizes that seem to be a little bit large um so we may need to look at monitoring and possibly adding additional teachers so we'll keep that in mind and keep monitoring to see if we need to add it to the budget for next year okay thank you oh I'm sorry go ahead Miss T um um just in

131the community sometimes and I be listening to other uh local government meetings and uh citizens always comeing to uh they're always saying not all of them but a few of them that have made the comment that we are overcrowded in our schools our classrooms and things like this and I I look at this this is normal and I listen to what they have to say I said no uh because I know we have so many what we call deaths MH and that's what you all go by they're available so that's how we know whether or not we're overcrowded so would you like to elaborate on that just so the um people would know the public would know that we are not overcrowded yeah and I think sometimes that perception can come because these are average

132class sizes so if you take our high schools for example some classes could be 30 in a classroom some of our AP classes dual enrollment there might be 30 students in those classes um but that's not every single class at the school and so we have to look at the averages we try to balance out but you know scheduling can be challenging when you're trying to get kids the classes they need to graduate and so sometimes s it's not a perfect even amount in every class but I would say when you look at the averages we're looking pretty good are there a couple of places that we could add teachers to decrease class sizes yes I think we could okay all right all righty thank you but actually I understood what you said about that

133I was just asking a question for instance if we have 50 students show up tomorrow across the district to enroll in school we will have room for them but I understand there's a possibility we may have to add staff but we cannot turn them away because we do not have the room oh we absolutely cannot turn them away if they live here they're we're taken but my question for you we do have the room if they should show up what you gave us today is as far as our staffing which we understand that if more students come in then we have to add more staff yes we would have to add more staff and depending on on how many students and where we may have to get real creative on classrooms like Westside for example

134right there's not another classroom but that's understandable this because there is a feeder school right absolutely okay all right thank you you're welcome okay thank you next we'll go to the Strategic Plan update I'm going to bring miss Lynn Briggs up here to join me okay good evening Miss gets and I are delighted to update you on our 2022 2027 strategic plan and just to oh sure y y just to give a little history on the Strategic plan uh this was created uh over the course of several years and it represents uh represents extensive stakeholder engagement we had a steering ing committee that met several times fall and spring of 2021 2022 and the steering committee kind of came up with the broad areas they believe the plan should focus on and from that we

135did some work groups that got down more into the nitty-gritty with what the goals and strategies should look like um and then we held Community forums we had online surveys and we had a public hearing and that led us to the plan we have in place today we have four and I know you can't read this but it's just to show that's the document we have four broad areas academic Excellence family engagement organizational Effectiveness and efficiency and Recruitment and Retention um the plan was approved at the June 9th 2022 school board meeting and um as you can see and as I stated each of those large goals has objectives and each objective has multiple strategies so now what we have been focusing on at this time is to operationalize it to actually make sure we

136are putting in place ways that um we can measure those objectives so we have current committees that are working to generate key performance indicators or kpis and each committee is co-chaired by uh a member of um central office our executive team so for example academic Excellence the co the co-chairs are Dr Marsha kale and Dr Tracy Stith Johnson family engagement the co-chairs are Colleen loud and Trish Magner organizational Effectiveness and efficiency Dr Chris Coleman and Eric C Rider Recruitment and Retention Laura Sullivan and Lissa Harris and miss getts and I are serving as facilitators okay as um Miss Briggs stated um our current plan is we are operationalizing the plan and so we are creating kpis key performance indicators um in order to tell us are we being successful at each of these objectives um

137so when you look at the objective you can't it's you can't really measure that as it is so you have to develop these key performance indicators to put that in quantifiable terms to determine are we being successful which is what we are currently doing so the kpis this is just an example of where they'll live so to speak this is where you'll be able to find the kpis in the Strategic plan for each strategy each objective I'm sorry these are some examples that we are working on currently so this isn't the final product but these are things that we're currently working on so for an example um annually increase the number of students with disabilities graduating with a standard or Advanced diploma by blank percentage points so we're taking what is the current reality that

138we have and then what do we think we can increase that by over the next two three four years and so forth and so we'll be adding those measurements um in the next two months um another one is by blank date provides students the opportunity to earn an Associates degree of General Studies while in high school so these are things that we want to be able to achieve during our strategic plan and these are examples of the measures that we're going to put in place so moving to family engagement Again by whatever date increase the number of parents indicating they agree there are opportunities to engage with their child's school by blank percentage and and what you're going to see is we're going to be doing some things to determine what is our Baseline and

139then what do we think we can increase it by by um by such and such date so these are again things that we're currently working on to develop um for Recruitment and Retention an example by 2025 increase the amount of employee referrals by 10% and again these are just examples and they're draft yes they're drafts and then organizational effic Effectiveness and efficiency got a little Tongue Tied there uh by blank date the maintenance grounds and custodial per school will be comparable to the regional average based on student population level building average square footage so forth so again we are what is our Baseline and then by what date do we think we can make incremental gains our future work um finalize our kpis and and that's what we're involved in now we will then need

140to work on refining our strategies identifying resources and best practice practices develop our tactics because those are going to be the things that we're going to do to actually achieve the strategies and then probably most importantly and I know that this is the one that Dr Kramer is really interested in is what is our plan for monitoring it so who's going to be responsible what's the plan and how are we going to communicate communicate progress to you all and to the public for our achievement on those goals and this is all in progress we hope this school year this will be all completed and by the end we'll be able to say here's how we're monitoring yeah and one of the things we see doing is you know as we're working on budgets you're aligning

141what you're putting in your budget with your strategic plan what those goals are and what we need to accomplish so um as as one of our speakers stated earlier tonight um School divisions are required to report to the public accomplishments and achievements on their strategic plan prior to November 1st of every odd-numbered year this is an odd-numbered year tonight is prior to November 1st so we are meeting that requirement tonight and there's just so many things that have been accomplished um I know you would love for me to read every single bullet that's on these next several slides but we're not but we're not um but we thought it best to just put everything up there and and Ed this is not even everything but these are these are accomplishments since the Strategic plan was

142put in place even without our kpis these are things that have been accomplished that go towards meeting the objectives that are already in the plan so by putting them as part of this presentation which is available online because it's part of the agenda we now have put out there publicly what we have accomplished towards a strategic plan now we welcome any questions on these multitude of bullets as you so miss GBS can just kind of scroll through SC through we have several slides on academic Excellence then we skip to family engagement Recruitment and Retention and we wrap up with organizational Effectiveness and efficiency so we certainly welcome any questions you may have about the work so far and the work that's coming thanks ladies not so much a question but I want to give you

143an opportunity to toot your own horn so to speak one of the things that I think you breezed over and Dr Kramer mentioned it to me several months ago was the the hope to have a program in place where students could graduate high school with an AA in General Studies I think that's phenomenal um for the listening audience who other what other school in the region is doing that today and I I don't expect specifics but how far off are we from that to making that a reality are you talking about the associates degree yes it was on slide three or four it was really so we're still the first thing we have the there the classes that will transfer to any college any classes that we can take at the high school that will

144then transfer to any four-year College that's like the first step and so once you get those down then we can kind of grow into the associates degree we're not at the associates degree ree plan yet um and our barrier is having the teachers qualified to teach those courses it is a goal and I'm going tell you right now Dr kale has made it her mission to make this happen and so she's been working very hard to get the teachers to actually what is it the UC UC I always get the I always get it wrong it's a UCF is cert the certificate unifor certificate of there he goes uniform certificate of Graduate Studies and that will TR those classes so how many are we going to offer do you remember the the passport is the

145first seven courses and if we are able to offer the full passport or students participate and take all courses required on the passport or the ucgs they are guaranteed transfer one for one to any state supported school so whereas they used to be able to give you elective credit and you still had to do it all over again if you are doing through vccs and you meet that requirement they are guaranteed transfer you have to have all of the courses so we um do have them all available right now at Smithfield High School and we are two courses shy at Windsor High School awesome but keep in mind one of the things that has to happen is that the teachers have to be able to our teachers have to be able to be endorsed through

146Camp to teach it and in order to do that you have to have 18 credit hours and and a master's degree so 18 so let's say if it's a math course you have to have 18 credit graduate hours in mathematics and a master's degree so our barrier to achieving this is that not all of our teachers have this now we do have some grant opportunities that we're working with our teachers we can help um supplement the cost for them to go back to school to get those 18 credit hours so we are working hard to make this happen and that's Camp Community College just for yes Community College good thank you very much you're welcome you're welcome any other questions oh Mr camam yes uh looking at accomplishments uh academic Excellence objective three I'm looking

147at the fifth bullet down it says created and launch new CTE application process uh I know last year Dr kale you were talking about putting that together um how many applications came in and how many uh students were told uh no because they didn't uh didn't meet the requirements or whatever turn it on is it on yes so we received just about a little over 500 applications total um applications are only for level one seat so bear in mind that means that in any set of courses once you are accepted you are guaranteed a seat in the next level until you complete the program so long as you're still here if you graduate obviously we don't let you come back for that um but we had about 160 I don't have the numbers right in

148front of me but I about 160 total open seats for level one across all sections so that means that the other over 300 were not able to get in this year do know that many of those students were also eighth graders and nth graders and so they'll have another opportunity in the spring to apply again um and to be considered for that okay all right uh I know a lot of students uh were interested in CTE I've spoken to a number of them and I had one parent actually contact me because uh his son couldn't get into one of the CTE classes so yeah I'm concerned about uh I know there's not enough room in all the classes to get everybody in uh and we should have an application process because some of the kids

149just they they think they want to be in the class but really they shouldn't be in there and once they get in sometimes they they want to quit because they think they thought it was going to be one way and it ends up being something different but uh at at least we're addressing that so thank you mhm okay okay thank you ladies we can go on to the next subject which is the mckin vento training that's mine too yep um so this is really just information for you all to be aware um so we have an opportunity to um participate in a mckenny vento training on November 4th in Newport News it's being offered to um a variety of school divisions in this area um so we're looking to send um some of our folks

150to uh the all day training on a Saturday um with Grant funds we do have McKenna vento Grant funds we would like to pay these people um right now we're looking at approximately four individuals to attend but like I said it's all day long on a Saturday and so we do have Grant funds we would like to pay them so next month you will likely see on the Personnel report those people's names with this stiped amount for their payment so really tonight I'm just letting you know that this is an opportunity that we're um delighted to actually have some of our employees um participate in uh there's a lot of rules around mckenny vento um and that is for our homeless um population um it is federal requirements and like I said lots of rules

151surrounding mcken vento students um and so if we can better educate ourselves it really does help everyone um and again there'll be Grant funds to pay these people any questions thank you okay thank you okay Dr krer thank you Mr chair so for the superintendent's update quite a bit occurring here I'm not sure if the PowerPoint is loaded but I'm going to jump in there we are thank you Mr C Rider always on time sir so I had the pleasure uh to attend the Isle of White County Fair with the number of our staff on Friday 7 September uh 15th uh the fair is always a great event for our schools and our community as you see students and staff attended the fair as well both High School bands performed our first graders were taken

152to the fair on field trips to enjoy fun and learning and our agriculture land lab students were an active part of the fair as they always are so great event for our schools and our community as Connor mentioned earlier um The Windsor High Beta Club invited me to speak so thank you wsor high Beta Club students for the invitation to speak I had the opportunity to speak on the importance of leadership and character at the Windor High Beta Club weekly meeting and I extend a special thanks to Mrs Davis the sponsor of the Beta Club and to principal Carol uh for the invitation a great group of young people um who were asking great questions the Westside Elementary instructional visit so thank you Westside Elementary students and staff for allowing us to visit your school

153and classes uh not picture Mrs CID and Mrs Rogers uh joined me and uh we visited multiple classes uh to observe teaching and learning and I would like to note that along with our instructional leaders uh we will be visiting all of our schools to observe our classes are teaching and learning that teaching and learning that is occurring uh to certainly make recommendations to our our teachers and to the administrators as well uh the couple of wonderful things in the community the Smithfield High golf team and to the right there you see the uh wnor High golf team but I was invited to attend the Smithfield High golf team celebration at the Cypress Creek Club course um thank you to students uh who invited me along with ad Duan golf coaches and parents and a

154special thank you uh to board member Cunningham who's an active golf parent and uh gave me a special invitation and congratulations to the Smithfield High golf team for receiving the class for region a golf runner up award and for advancing to the state finals and you see this uh good-looking group of uh young people here and the trophy there in the middle uh but also I extend the congratulations to the Windsor High golf team for becoming back-to-back District Champs so uh congratulations to both golf teams at both of our high schools and I'm sure Mr Cunningham will say a bit more during the uh board members update as well our monthly leadership meeting formerly known as our principal's meeting uh so in our monthly leadership meetings we have professional development opportunities for our principes assistant

155principles and our central office leaders this year the meetings are being held in schools as a result we are visiting classrooms and the visiting teams consisting of our principles our assistant principles and central office colleagues are making making suggestions to our administrators as we all are learning together and learning from one another uh thanks to Smithville High Schools student staff and administrators for hosting the September leadership professional development meetings uh for administrators and central office staff on September 26 and 28th um and as you see there while visiting the classrooms we observed outstanding teaching and learning thank you principal cuffy and staff at Smithfield High for hosting the September meeting uh and some of us we broke in the teams some of us were fortunate enough to visit the culinary class and they provided uh

156some wonderful treats for us so it was a great great day at the high school and we were extremely impressed with uh what we saw certainly uh made recommendations to the school and again we will be doing that in all of our schools this year so that's something I'm excited about and I think our our schools and and uh leaders were excited about as well um I had the pleasure of attending the wnor High School homecoming um event uh I uh I think that was uh Friday September 29th uh the game was extremely well attended in fact it was a long line uh to get into the game uh we had numerous community members and families there to support the students and staff and as you see uh our students engaged in all the festivities

157throughout the week uh a great event um and looking forward to attending I think Samantha mentioned this in her uh student liaison update uh I will be attending with staff uh the Smithfield High School homecoming next week uh Friday October 12th uh 20th pardon um we had a visit from uh one of the local counties because of our awesome agricultural land lab we often have visitors from around the state who reach out requesting to visit our wonderful land lab Farm facility and as you see here our most recent visitors were from uh poton County in Virginia uh thank you Mr Judkins Mr brittle and Dr kale for representing our School Division uh so we're always showing off our amazing uh Career Technical education facilities and I I think our land lab is uh Second To

158None and is one of the few I ventured to say not only in the State uh probably uh in the Southeast Atlantic states it's an amazing um program and and uh opportunity for our students and if you haven't seen it we welcome our community members uh ing out to us so that you can see what we're doing as well our National Night Out celebrations and yes I said celebrations plural because we had two wonderful events on the same night at approximately the same time one event was hosted by smithfields police department and the other was hosted by the ISA White County Sheriff's Department uh the National Night Out event is an annual community building campaign that promotes uh police Community Partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie uh both events were well attended uh by our communities and

159one was in the Ben's Grant Community and the other was at the the lutter sports complex again uh the community came out in full uh and it was great to have our law enforcement Community with our schools and our larger Community uh to celebrate and support one another great event well attended again uh and the final event uh that I will uh mention this evening is crunch herd around the Commonwealth and yes to English teachers it's not crunch around the Commonwealth crunch around the Commonwealth and crunch around the com around the Commonwealth is a special event to increase uh the awareness of Virginia Farm to school programs uh We've hosted this wonderful event at our agricultureal land lab and we had numerous Community Partners uh starting with our very own board members Cher kic was

160there Vice chair Marsh and board member tin were all in attendance at this event we also had uh Board of Supervisors chair mccardy there and numerous Community Partners uh there to support this event as you see there in the middle and we are we're also thankful to have a visit from the Virginia Department of Education officials uh special thank you to chief of staff at uh the Virginia Department of Education Dr Jeremy Ry and the school nutrition programs coordinator from the state Mrs Andrea naner uh who came down from Richmond for a visit uh and they also again par ipated in the crunch herd around the Commonwealth I'm a little biased uh I think you would all agree with me that our favorite group was this good-look group of young people in the middle our

161wsor elementary students who came over and provided their support so um thank you uh Mr chair I know it it's a little bit lengthy but lots of great things occurring and I just wanted to highlight some of the major events uh that occurred so thank you very much great thank you Dr Kramer and we are going to go into the action on close session items Mr chair I move to approve the Personnel report and addendum as presented a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote okay that's passed we will go on to the next action on Old business to consent agenda Mr chair I I move to approve the consent agenda

162as attached and presented second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote and while we're waiting for the results I'd like to just thank a few people for donation that they have made over the last month uh to the school system to Carolton Elementary William M cage Library trust $500 for the school library the George Tyler Middle School Kurig Dr Pepper provid school supplies and ala white Christian Outreach $200 for students Smithfield High received liour mining equipment from Newport News a marble saw and new community Temple COG C uh $500 uh Smithfield Middle School the American leion Auxiliary Department of Virginia donated school supplies and W Windsor Elementary Schools received school and office supplies from safco so again I want to thank all

163these organizations and people for donating uh to our schools and the vote is unanimous we will go on to action on new business so we have have policies for first read any questions or comments okay so I apologize deep in thought over here Mrs Briggs on policy jcf student wellness uh there's a blurb in there that says implementation procedures including measuring and making available to the public at least once every three years and assessment of the implementation of the policy so on and so forth could you please please explain when this last occurred and where it's available June 2021 and it's an attachment on the Schoolboard agenda a presentation was done at that time by Miss Cheryl Elliot who was our executive director of Human Resources thank you ma'am yes sir I you anyone else

164have any questions okay we'll go into policies for second read Mr chair I move to approve the policies for second read as presented second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion yes Mrs time CH yes I have this discussion on model policies um I've I feel that uh if we which we have included this particular one that came down from State we have a policy in place for our students I don't think it's broken I don't think there's anything wrong with it just like they say this is the model is not mandated that we have to uh use this as our policy I don't see anything wrong with what we've already have in place and if if there were some concerns about it I think we would have had p parents

165as well as students and other citizens here to discuss it like we had tonight with this policy the those that were for and those that were against but we haven't had anything um concerning that policy to come before us and I'm I'm always one of those we've always had uh things in place for parents as well as students if they're if they had an issue about any policy that we have in place that they could uh we it's always open they could come to us especially within the last year or two they could come to us and they could always go to the admin in their buildings and and discuss these things and up until this point I don't know if you all have had any concerns but nobody has come to us I don't

166I haven't had any of the superintendents to say that there was some issues with it so I'm just thinking we could keep the policy we have because it's not broken uh if if they were consistent with what VOD uh vdoe put out a couple months ago I would agree with you but they're not and the law says we have to adopt policies that are consistent with the modelto policies so that's that's where we are we've got we've got to follow the law okay Mr Cunningham the the question I have uh and I believe this is a legal issue uh so I'll ask our attorney um is this Virginia law that we have to follow uh and I'm looking at uh policy Jo and the model policy which I believe came straight down from uh from

167the governor's office is that the law in Virginia saying that the school board has to follow it Mr Cunningham if it's a legal question for the board I suggest that we go convene in close session so I can provide my legal advice so we don't wait attorney clein privilege that being said Mr chair um I have two recommendations I recommend we table the policy jail and also the model policy uh and go to close session at a later date unless you want to do it tonight and uh get the get legal advice from uh from our Council so I mean this is this is a matter where I don't want the board to get sued uh either way rather we do it or not yeah um the model policy that's there is there for reference

168okay that's not there we're not adopting that um pack would would you be ready tonight to give us advice on this I'm sure it is other school systems that have had questions okay um I think we should probably go into a close session for a few minutes and discuss it um would that would that suffice okay I get a motion Mr chair I move to go into a brief close session to seek legal advice second hold on make sure Le to seek legal advice on on policy Virginia Department of Education model policies do you mind have I write it up for you because I want to make sure we have all the components let me do that real quick yeah um we also use this D the restroom breaks guys use the time your quick

169[Music] rest basically you read that motion to go CL session to receive legal advice on the adoption of model policies to VA code 22.1 22.35 all right Mr chair I move to go into close session to receive legal advice on the adoption of model policies pursuant to Virginia code 22.1 23.3 AS permitted by Virginia code 2.2 37118 second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote Mr Cunningham yay Mr woer yay Mrs tin yay Mr Marsh yay and Mr collick yay the board is now the Ala White County school board is hereby reconvened an open session is there any further discussion s oh we have to certify to close session that's right thank you sir Mr chair I moved I move that the

170closed session was conducted in Conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section 2.2 3712 D of the code of Virginia and certify that only Public public business manners matchs 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 or heard discussed or considered second we have a motion and a second is during discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote Mr ham Nate Mr wster yay Mrs tin nay Mr Marsh yay and Mr colck yay we were voting on the resolution saying we only discussed matters legally allowed to be discussed second not yet not yet he's saying go repeat what said I I I can change my vote to yay

171on this yay okay it's unanimous thank you okay now the the original motion is back on the table um policies for second read is there any further discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote and it passes 3-2 next is bylaws for second read Mr chair I move to approve the bylaws as presented second we have motion and second is there any discussion hearing none the clerk will take the vote yeah and the bylaws pass next is 20.4 Mr wer thank you Mr chair the policy or not I'm sorry not policy but the survey that's getting ready to come out uh the early identification system student survey I've had a lot of parents contact me pertaining to this survey and I've got a timeline timeline of events I just want to go through quickly

172and just explain where I'm coming from on this issue uh both as a board member and as a parent I was unaware of the survey until contacted by another parent with concerns uh and Miss get we' we've spoken an email about this uh maybe this will just help where I'm coming from after going back through my emails the first notification I received was on September 29th 23 via the Smithfield High School weekly announcements email listed in this email second from the bottom was the Smithfield High School newsletter with a link which would not open I had to actually copy the link paste into to a separate browser in order to open that once I opened the newsletter I had to scroll roughly about halfway through to see the actual Eis notification um that makes it

173difficult for parents to find this when when they're being notified in the required 30-day time frame since then I've been contacted by several other parents in regards to the survey that were unaware of its existence within the 30-day notific ation period the specific type of survey um like such as the E dealing with mental health is governed by policy job Virginia code 22.1 79.3 and Virginia code 32.1 73.8 all of which require the school board provide a 30-day parental notification to the best of my knowledge uh this board was never notified of the survey PRI prior to anything being initiated so in conclusion uh Miss get you did send me the survey questionnaire uh I have no issue with the survey itself I do have however feel that the parental notification system has been a

174complete failure in this instance under the current notification if a parent had missed the newsletter or was unable to open the link not be able to respond their child would automatically be enrolled in the survey without their knowledge using the current optout method holding true to supporting fundamental rights of parents to be informed in Char to be informed and in charge of their children's education I feel the initial notification should have been a direct mail to parents requesting the parents permission for their child to participate versus the opt out method based on these facts I recommend placing a hold on the current early identification system survey until all board members can review the survey following board approval of the survey send a direct survey notification to parents with the survey questions attached for parental review

175and require parental permission to enroll their child into the survey this direct notification will begin the 30-day required notification time period I yield Mr getch would you like to respond yes sure thank you m get man just clarification would you explain what that survey is yes please thank you so back in August on at the August board meeting so that was August 10th I shared with you all about Isle cares and part of that was to do the um a universal screener for mental health a wellness screener um at that time I did not have the dates I just said that we were going to be doing it when I didn't get concern or objection my team and I we moved forward with it um thinking we had shared with the board what our plans

176were why we were going to do it um and and didn't get an objection it wasn't an action item it was just information only so we move forward with planning for it um the principes did elect to use the notification to go through their newsletters um the one from September 15th um I got it from Smithville High School it's like you said Mr wster it is in the email it is in the newsletter it was not a separate but it did go out on September 15th giving the 30 days notice from when the survey would start which would be October 16th so we followed that we followed the policy as the policy is written the policy policy says 30 days notice um it doesn't say how it says 30 days notice I take your point

177though the policy also says that we have to give an opportunity for parents to review the questions which we did um and we have had Parents reach out and say we would like to see the questions and we sent them to them the policy also says you have to have an opt out process which we also did do I think we have right now I asked ear today about a 100 parents were right who have opted their children out no problem I do feel like we have followed the policy I think what I'm hearing from you Mr Worster is you would like additional measures put on put in place that's up to you I I just I do want to be very clear I do feel like that we did follow the policy we met

178what the policy says I think you are are asking for additional measures Mr chair if I may please uh Miss GS I don't believe I'm asking for any additional measures um it would be a simple thing just to send a direct email to parents you could attach the questionnaire or survey to that email along with a parental permission slip the direct email did go out when I when you emailed me whatever that was this weekend I did ask the schools to send a direct email that did go out this weekend I think it went out Monday from Smithfield High School um and the email went out as well so she did a call and an email on Monday um you're right we did not do a permission slip we again we followed the policy says

179an opt out so we did not do a permission in and our experi our previous experiences with opt in it's a disaster um parents even the parents par s don't object they rarely will opt in um it has not proven to be successful at all I think if we were to go that route we would probably just withdraw from doing it Al together because parents tend to not opt in um and that goes with almost anything that we do they just tend to not do that um so I don't know how successful that would be if it would be worth worth our while to do an opt-in process um but again if that's what the board is saying I just want to be clear that I do think we followed our policy to do the

180opt out that's what policy says that's what we did do again if I may okay um as far as following the policy yes I agree you you were following the policy however the method of doing so may not have reached parents within the allotted time frame mhm so therefore they have not received that 30-day notification as required that that's my whole point here versus you know a newsletter versus a direct email direct contact UM and me personally I would like to see the parental permission versus the opt out because if they don't receive it they may not know anything about the questionnaire or survey regardless of which type it is and without any knowledge their child would automatically be enrolled that's correct I've got a major problem with that and I will say that with

181other surveys for example um DCJS we do a school climate survey that's required by vooe every year it I follow the exact same process that we do for for that as well it's a it's the same thing it's an opt out process again if that's not the process the board wants us to use okay we just I'm following what we've typically done i y Mrs T yes uh Mrs skets I understand exactly where you're coming from because when you're dealing with students and well in this case the parents and you send these um questionnaire Ser surveys home for their opinion whether they want to opt out or opt in if if it's opt in chances are just like you said you're not going to get them back lot of the parents even if they say

182yeah I want my child to do it they're still not going to do it they're gonna forget oh I forgot about it so it's just the part the parents like we have for everything even even classroom instructions if there is going to be something taught in your child's class and you do not want that child your child in that class during that time you have the right to opt your child out during that time so what she's saying with the survey they gave the parents the same option Mr wer I have one question for you how many parents contact you about the situation that they did not receive the information from the schools was it just one or lots of them no I've had roughly six parents contact me so far and they were all

183from the same school or grade level no okay so it's just six it was six parents six that contacted me I have no idea how many people are even aware of the survey and Mrs GS you said you uh you checked today with the school offices and it's about 10 and something probably the 60 he had iscl I did I I reached out to the schools they have had very few parents complain very few um in fact it might have been gosh less than five parents that have sent them a complaint they said they had about total it's about a hundred I'm not I don't have the exact but it's around a hundred students or parents who have opted their students out okay so that's about the same we pretty much and again let me

184I I just want to be this this the whole point of the survey is principles have shared repeatedly the the mental health issues that students are dealing with that they are dealing with that's preventing kids from learning this is just a measure that we were looking at to get a pulse on are there students to need additional help do we have Trends in our school one of the questions is about bullying do we have Trends in our school that show that we have a problem with something like I'm just using this as an example like bullying it would tell us that and then that would tell us as a division we need to do something to address bullying so the point behind it comes purely from a place of goodness and wanting to help our

185students please understand that I would say and and and also it it it really look looking at school safety I mean I I think this will help us with school climate School SCA safety and all of those things however if it's not something that is supported we just won't do it Mrs yes don't get me wrong here you know again I have no issue with the survey itself and everything that you just stated is absolutely correct it can be very beneficial I'm just looking at the implementation that's all Mr Marsh um I think what we have here is a a lack of clear expectations uh probably on both sides of the fence really um the policy reads Schoolboard shall provide RIS written guidance blah blah blah within 30 days there are several policies today that

186exist there's a handful of them that we've already approved this year that say something along the lines of the school board shall the school board will so on and so forth but there's an implication that that Authority is delegated down some of those policies not all of them some of those policies specifically identify to whom that Authority is delegated others like this one it's a little murky mhm um I I don't have an issue with the survey I don't think anyone really has an issue with the survey itself it's it's it's the method of notification uh I would agree that sending it out is a link on the bottom of electronic newsletter I think we could do a little better um I missed it between my wife and I getting a newsletter for two kids

187from a principal and three different teachers you know we we still missed it um be that as if it may I I think the solution moving forward is to take a look at the policy itself so if if the expectations aren't clear it's this board's duty to set policies so let's clarify a little bit and we can we can work on that at a future date um as to whether or not it's an opt in or an opt out you know I I think that's a discussion to be had when we work on policy for a future date not necessarily tonight so I'll just leave it at that yeah Mr sorry miss guat you stated that you sent the U you asked the principals to send it out again that was including the policy separate

188from the um they sent it out after Mr roer contacted me about his concern I had them send it out separately um so that it went just a it wasn't mixed in with the newsletter they actually thought that the newsletter and let me be clear they thought that that was the best method the principal's thought putting it in their newsletter was the best method I understand I hear you and I acknowledge that maybe that wasn't the best method so we did have them send it out separately um that happened this week though to all the parents yes all right so what date was that sent out you I thought you said maybe Monday um I believe it was Monday Tuesday okay so why don't we just give the parents another opportunity 30 days from that

189day and is it something that you know a timeline where it must be done yeah I would have to check on that we may miss our opportunity to participate which we may just have to withdraw because we're we're in a timeline like they're waiting on us because we're a late division going to school so we're they we're actually at the end of the time frame to do this so we may um have to withdraw from doing it this year okay another another suggestion I will I will have to ask I have not asked that question but I just want if we do that we may have to W withdraw this year it doesn't preclude us from doing it again perhaps in the future but we would have to withdraw I think I understand what you're

190saying so why don't uh since the principal sent it out again Monday and today is Thursday if they have not heard anything for many parents and they all got it again for the some of them for the second time all of them for the second time but some of just didn't see it the first time if you don't hear anything um from parents tomorrow end of the school day that's major other than what we've already discussed tonight out to opt out because we do have procedures or policy in place for parents to opt out and if they still If the parents I they they can still use the opt out because I feel that um just like you said we were one of the the school districts of the state that started school late this

191year we sent surveys out last year Mrs uh brick sent them out to the parents we only got a few back and this is why those few people chose to date their child was going to come back those that didn't fill it out you know and I guess they opt out because they didn't fill it out so that's why we were late coming back and the other school districts went early so if we completely said we're not going to participate in this year you know that's going to put another year behind so I'm it's it's always going to be a situation there that's what I'm trying to say and and and a situation where we got 5,000 and some Arts students and we only got aund and some to say we want to opt out

192Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair for purposes of next step for us we just need Clarity from the board regarding your will I know lots have been said but we need to know per Mr wooster's request do we move forward or not and we will certainly comply with the um will of the board so we're just ask asking for clarification yes if if I may for Mr woster just for the sake of not stopping the ball from Rolling let's let's let's agree I think we as a collective I think we agree more than we don't here which is a rare occasion I'm a little tickled about it to be honest with you i i s i I suggest that we how about we send out another email tomorrow just a reminder we'll piggyback I think

193I think we have met the letter of the policy as it's written although it may not be ideal let's let's let's resend out an e a direct email says hey just for just in case you missed it we're going to be doing this on this date and let's proceed as planned and then next month let's get that policy up on on the agenda for first read Y and we'll fine-tune it a little bit I don't think any of the principles that attach that document to the newsletter had any ill intent uh they I I I I don't believe anybody wakes up in the morning looks in the mirror and says today I'm going to do something not good that didn't happen so you know let's fix the policy and carry on smartly let's not stop

194the whole train for I'll yield and I would agree with that every everything was done you know the traditional way okay we you know we may not have appreciated that um but like Mr Mar said you know we look at the policy and get it fixed but I think the ball is rolling and I just looked at the slides from August and I think it's important to do um so I'm definitely in favor of let's continue doing it let's move forward so let me just clarify so tomorrow we'll have principales send um a connect 5 message an email message that um the survey will begin next week um parents can still opt out by emailing this person that's correct yeah I don't think we need to take any action on that I think no no

195I don't think so that's friendly agreement I think it was just a good discussion Rock and Rule just just give them the opportunity to opt out again if they would like and and make sure that they know it's going to take place and you still have an opportunity to opt that okay okay if if I may yeah this was never intended to be an action issue it was a discussion issue um and like Mr Mar said we can move forward looking at the policy in the future yeah I appreciate that we certainly did not and Mr Dr Kramer and I discussed today we certainly did not want to move forward if there was you were not comfortable with that so thank you Mrs gats next we have the regulations and Exhibits if anybody has any

196questions Mrs Briggs will be available and I don't think anyone has any questions Mrs Briggs so next we have the professional leave and travel guidelines M Harris good evening again yes so before you you have the travel guidelines that we are updating um the reason why we're doing this is to ensure that um when it comes to professional development and our travel that we are um meeting the um meeting the regulations of VOE as well as following the state um travel guidelines um the GSA rate um as well as the IRS mileage rate so we want to make sure that we have everything as transparent as POS possible when it comes to our travel guidelines we have updated um our procedures we have also updated um an exhibit that you see is a different form

197than what's previously been used in the past this is to ensure that we have transparency as to where um people are going our employees are going also um being able to allocate the coding the allocate the budget to ensure that they have funds before they actually go on travel and then just of course continuing to um Ensure that they receive the appropriate approval workflow so this is the purpose of updating the the professional leave and travel guidelines and we just wanted to inform you of the update thank you and next we have the member board member comments so we'll go ahead and start with district one y you're up okay I'm up uh thank you Mr chair I had a busy um last 30 days on SE I'm going just run down real quick September

198the 21st I uh attended the conflict of interest and ethics training with the Virginia school board association association legislative uh advocacy uh conference September the 26 title 9ine workshop and the presenter was uh Sans Anderson's staff this uh uh law firm in Richmond uh but that was also um sponsored by the Virginia School Board Association October the 2nd I um a webinar with the uh depart Virginia Department of Education superintendent of schools Dr K right Co Coons C NS and it was very informative she gave an update of Education in Virginia and I I wish it was one that all board members had an opportunity to sit down and listen to because this is the first time I've heard um someone in her position give it the way she did normally you know it's just

199what we've already heard bang bang bang and I'm out of here she sat down and she took at least an hour or more to tell us all of the updates and all of the areas and she hit all of the little areas where we have concerns about so it was very good and I and and if and if you missed it I think uh check with v uh virgin Schoolboard Association because all of those things are taped and they can get us video copy just uh uh Michaela can get you a video copy on October the 3 I attended a another webinar School superintendent's evaluation and that was uh the presenter for that was Dr Michael FL thoron and some of you may have heard of Dr Thornton he's retired superintendent from neighboring school district

200of Sur County and he is now working on state level in different capacities and he's very knowledgeable in school uh evaluations of the superintendent that's another tape you may want to ask uh Michaela about because there are little some changes some changes has come down October the 3D dror want to mention we I attended I mean I'm sorry Dr Kramer sorry Dr Dr Kramer mentioned u i see I was just talking about thoron okay National Night Out I attended the uh the smithia PDS as well as I went down to alaw county Shir up over at Benin Grant and they were all uh they were just great having parents and students I mean in the communities to come together it was really great and October the 5th of course we attended the crunch of uh

201H around the Commonwealth and that's all I did for the last 30 [Laughter] days District Two District Two Mr Wester District three Mr Cunningham okay uh well yesterday I attended the uh at uh wh uh participated in the Hampton RADS telecommunication Association EAC uh meeting in nor uh miss you yesterday I didn't know if you were going to show up for that one cuz you came to the first one okay all right all right no problem uh very uh very informative and uh uh Dr Kramer uh also attended um they have a superintendent uh session prior to the EAC uh meeting Dr kraman and I have been uh talking about getting Alla white more involved with uh whro coming out and taking pictures of some of the things we're doing the great things and sharing

202it with the rest of the state so uh I'm hoping that can uh that will happen sometime soon I know Dr Kramer is going to uh speak with some of the principles or all of the principles and try to make that happen let them know what's out there and and we can utilize it since we're putting money into whro in the process uh next the golf tournament that Dr Kramer spoke on I I want to formally congratulate which I've already spoken with the coach but uh Smithfield High School's golf team they made history by getting to the states uh they took second in the region this is Smithfield High School golf has never done that before I mean never in history uh so they took Su in the region and they went to the states

203they didn't do as well as they wanted to but they made it other schools in the in the region can't say that um I'd like to thank coach mcke and assistant coach Wilson they did a great job with uh with the uh the whole team I mean it's nine uh students on a team three of the students are seniors they won't be here next year so that was a great send off for those three to actually go to the state but uh other than that I don't have anything else so how you thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Cunningham Mr Marsh thank you Mr chair so I'm going to take advantage of my microphone and I want to give a shout out to the Windsor Elementary School Watchdog program they're kicking it off tomorrow

204uh I think Westside has a program in place that they're working on don't hom me into that but I know for a fact that Windsor Elementary has their meeting tomorrow first one for the school year um so if you're if you got a child or a grandchild or a nephew or just a friend if you're a male figure and you want to go be a positive role model you want to go see what the teachers are doing over there spend some time eat lunch with the students give the teachers a break it's an excellent opportunity I think it's an excellent program and uh it's an opportunity to jump on so kudos to those ladies over there heading up the Watchdog program at Windsor Elementary School um and then you know this one's for you doc

205Kramer so you catch it from five different directions all the time God bless you I can't even imagine the nonsense you've got to here I know what you get from me I know you get it from five of us um so I want to I want to give you some Kudos your your superintendent's update and you told me about this the other day and it really stuck with me the fact that you're holding your principal's meetings or your leadership meetings in the schools so for me as a retired senior enlisted guy in United States Navy to see a leader grab his staff willingly or not drag them out of their cubicles and take them into the school to mix that's a good thing so more often than not for Better Than Better or Worse perception

206is reality so when you can grab your hardworking staff and pull them out of the offices and go see what the rest of the peoples are doing that's a good thing so kudos to you for making that happen that's that's awesome and thank you thank you and I'll finish it up um still getting back on my feet haven't been out a whole lot except for I think the fair and the uh the crunch with are two big things and then I went up to carsville elementary school yesterday uh with Mr Brinkley and uh talked a little bit about the security uh situation up there which is doing much better than I anticipated so I'm very happy about that um but I will be having two Town Hall meetings one here at Westside and one at

207Windsor High School um they're going to be October 24th and 25th October 24th will be at Windsor high school at 6:00 till 8:00 October 25th will be here at Westside from 6:00 to 8 and it will be more in a form of question and answers you know for District 5 folks I don't know if Mr Rosie is going to join me or not um his schedule uh fluctuates quite a bit but I will be here and we'll be in Wednesday High School to answer anyone's questions uh for District 5 and unless anybody has anything else to add this meeting is adjourned