001foreign the meeting of the Isle of Wight County School Board is hereby called to order today is Thursday April 6 2023 this meeting is being held at Westside Elementary School 800 West Main Street Smithfield Virginia the Isle of Wight County Schools is preparing students for college career and life the clerk will take the role Mr Cunningham president Mr Wooster president Mrs tynes present Mr Marsh president and Mr College president and next we'll have the approval of the agenda or amendments for closed session Mr chair I move to approve the agenda for closed session as presented second we have a motion a second is there any discussion clerical conduct a vote and Mr Collett yay hold on just a second yeah Mr collage your um vote won't show up on there Okay so we've all voted
002to go into closed session so we will do such I'm going to okay Mr chair I moved to go into closed session to review the Personnel report posted on board docs under Personnel tab number 19 decimal one and to consider the resignation and transfer of an administrator as authorized by Virginia code 2 decimal 2-3711 A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of the Isle of Wight public schools for employment contract changes transfers salary adjustments supplemental contracts deletions supplemental pay and resignations of alawite County Public Schools Employees and to provide information on a Personnel transfer and we have a motion second and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion clerk will take the vote Mr colic yay and all the votes are in the affirmative uh next Miss Whitlow has
003anyone registered to speak in closed session no sir okay then the board wanted the closed session at this time why we [Music] always tomorrow why we know that there's always tomorrow [Music] Lean On Me when you're not strong and I'll be your friend the meeting of the Isle of Wight County School Board is hereby reconvened an open session first we'll have the certificate of resolution of compliance Mr chair I move that the closed meeting was conducted in Conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section 2 decimal 2-3712 D of the code of Virginia and certify that only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in only such public business matters were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened or heard
004discussed or considered second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerical conduct a vote okay and everybody voted in the affirmative next we'll have the approval of the agenda or amendments for Open Session Mr chair I motion to approve the agenda for Open Session as presented second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none the clerical conduct a vote and again all voting in the affirmative we will next go to the moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance thank you at this time we'll say the Pledge good evening everyone and a special welcome to the Tri Rivers basketball teams from both Windsor high and Smithfield High we're very glad to have you here tonight I want to wish everyone a very
005happy Eastern Passover and wish you a safe and healthy spring break and this I especially want to tell each and every one of our students to enjoy your vacation get some rest and come back ready to work hard and finish off the school year right we've got a lot to do this evening so we're going to go ahead and just get started right now and to start the meeting off Mrs Briggs will present the Isle of Wight achievers all right good evening everyone hey the vision for Isle of Wight County Schools is to create a learning environment that will enable every child to discover his or her unique gifts and talents Isle of Wight Achievers section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and our staff for their
006unique talents and gifts and as you can tell we've got a lot of recognition tonight and that is an excellent problem to have I know you're enjoying seeing all these student faces out here in the audience so as Mr colic chair colic alluded to we are going to be recognizing our tri-rivers basketball teams and we are going to start with um Smith Ohio but I first want to say for those that aren't aware the Tri Rivers basketball league was started over eight years ago to provide an opportunity for all students to enjoy being part of an organized team the league is composed of eight schools with each School playing a total of five games both Smithville High and Windsor High had outstanding seasons and demonstrated their talent while also exhibiting exemplary sportsmanship towards all players
007we're delighted to be able to recognize the students tonight along with their coaches and staff so as I said we're going to start with Smithville High and I'm going to ask Ms Getz and Dr Coleman if they can help hand out pins and I'm going to ask the coaches from Smithville High I think Ms Gwaltney is here if she can come and help us with certificates at this time and then we'll start bringing the students up she's hot what's being social yes ma'am um yep okay our players from Smithville High first we have Isaiah Moore Isaiah here [Applause] okay [Applause] Christian Moore there's Isaiah and let's have them face the board as they come up Miss Getz is going to help out with that Reagan Williams [Applause] Reagan Williams Layla Moss [Applause] later Julius joea
008I'm Lorenzo okay and Lorenzo joa [Applause] Sam here Sam Overby okay Andrew Mason okay Malachi Singletary [Applause] yep Marquis Martinez okay [Applause] Natalia canalikio [Applause] KT Brown [Applause] Maya ha [Applause] Jerry Holmes [Applause] Liam Matthews [Applause] KJ Parker and cheerleader Kiara Hornback Elder [Applause] and the coaches who are also the teachers and assistants for the students we have Jill Gwaltney who's helping us out here [Applause] Marcy spoon Howard and Diane Williams [Applause] and in addition to the certificates the students are also getting a picture in their folder from their basketball game where they played Windsor high school so they also have that picture and we're going to have them come over here to the side and we're going to take a group photo of them with Miss quality and family members you're welcome to come
009up here and get a picture as well [Applause] I just want to get a picture [Laughter] [Applause] thank you foreign thank you and congratulations Packers we appreciate you being here tonight and from Windsor High our coaching staff I'm going to ask the coaches and the teachers who I call out if you'll come up and help us with certificates as well we have head coach Ryan Pringle a [Applause] assistant coach Chuck Parrish [Applause] and student coaches Peyton Goetz and Lizzie Shaw [Applause] we also have a classroom teacher Rhonda andrusic [Applause] and Monique scussell the assistant I don't have money here or not okay thank you all right now players our players include Aiden Joyce [Applause] okay Landon Pippins and awesome and let's get them to face the board while they're up here if they don't mind
010Lily McKenzie [Applause] Lily nope Justice Bazemore nope Zachary Alexander [Applause] cage de broom I know cages here [Applause] and you know it it i as a hokey Alum I can't shout out the fact that cage had a tech hat on the other day so yep go Hokies uh Xavier Johnson all right baby there's Xavier awesome [Applause] and Alex Brown awesome we are so proud of the Windsor High Tri Rivers basketball team and the coaches and the teachers um congratulations on outstanding season we'll give you a round of applause and then we're going to have you come over here to the side for a nice photo [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and any family members that want to come up to get a picture and get in the picture feel free or what all right oh my God
011[Applause] what's the winter what a good looking group [Applause] thank you again to our Windsor High student athletes try Rivers for being here and their family members and the Smithville High group and their family members we really appreciate all you did this year to represent your schools and Isle of Wight County with such respect yeah all right at this time we're going to move on to our next Group which actually is Junior Beta and students from Georgie Tyler middle and Smithville middle recently competed in the Virginia Junior Beta convention in Hampton both schools were exemplary representatives of the division and won numerous Awards during the competition we're happy to honor those students and sponsors during tonight's meeting and Miss Buckland come up and help okay you do it all right we're going to ask when
012we call your name come on up and Miss Getz has certificates Dr Coleman has got a pin and if you would just sort of line up in front facing the board until we're done reading out all of the names um from your school so we're going to start first with Smithfield Middle the following students are being recognized for placing at the Junior Beta convention first Payton D'Amico who placed third in Visual Arts digital okay Leela Cameron third place Visual Arts painting [Applause] oh thank you Mr Nance all right then we have Chloe Woodard third place Visual Arts recyclable art okay [Applause] next we have the team of John Worthington Ellie fetch Georgia Roundtree Grant Miller and Colin Hicks third place Junior robotics thank you next Lana green first place on-site art painting and drawing [Applause]
013here's my email buddy then we have Kaylee Williford and Grace Cox and Kaylee and Grace received first place Junior Performing Arts solo duo trio [Applause] we'll get it fixed yep and then we have a more tortosa second place Junior speech is some more here [Applause] and the club sponsor is James Nance assisted by Rebecca Cox who's here and that's Miss Cox's right there okay and we want to congratulate all of the Smithville Middle School Junior Beta students and thank you for coming out tonight [Applause] and we're going to have you come over here to the side we'll get a group photo and once again any family members who want to come up to take a photo this is the perfect time thank you foreign congratulations once again Smithville middle [Applause] [Music] now we have our
014Junior Beta students from Georgia Tyler middle the following students are being recognized for placing at the Junior Beta convention and Miss sponsor is Miss Sarah Bachmann Ms Bachman if you don't mind can you come up and maybe help us with the certificates and congratulations to Ms Bachman as well [Applause] first we have Sasha pravat third place Pottery Junior Harmony Singleton third place science seventh grade [Applause] Elisa Baird third place language arts sixth grade next we have the team of Elisa Baird Michael Robertson Jackson Edmonds and Madison Lacey and they placed third in musicology junior oral next Oliver Harper third place math sixth grade [Applause] Oliver also placed first in club three-dimensional dimensional design Junior Cannon Jones second place color photography Junior [Applause] Bailey Mooney second place poetry Junior excuse me Margaret Bachmann second place recyclable
015art Junior [Applause] Riley Lawrence second place science sixth grade [Applause] Nicholas Slava second place woodworking Junior [Applause] Isabella Basden second place Performing Arts [Applause] and that was as dancer Junior solo duo trio and Isabella also placed first in Premier performer Junior dancer so congratulations Isabella [Applause] Diana Gonzalez Amaya first place Spanish 7th grade [Applause] Braden Harris first place social studies eighth grade [Applause] and the team of Rylan zamanski and John Shafer first place Club technology Junior [Applause] and now the team that plays first for living literature and several are already up here but if you have not come up when you hear your name please come forward the team of naira Butler Virginia Brown zelia Davis [Applause] Cassidy Gerger Mackenzie kessinger Chloe Holcomb Kendall Jones Addison Oliver Jeffrey Palma Emma Pierce Diana Gonzalez Amaya and
016Bailey Mooney [Applause] so we want to congratulate our Titans for their accomplishments at the Junior Beta convention and thank you so much for coming out here tonight [Music] and we're gonna have you come over to the wall and Miss Getz is going to get you all organized and we'll get a photo and any family members once again please feel free to come up and get a picture as well [Music] foreign oh there everybody get oh very good congratulations once again Georgie Tyler Titans [Applause] ah all right next we have Windsor High School several students from Windsor High School's forensics team competed in the 2A state competition in March and placed third as a team there were all they were also the two a b super region forensics Champion we want to recognize all the state
017competitors and congratulate them on their success this season first we have and she's not here Payton Getz for Pro's interpretation we have Melissa Carr and smyra Ward Samira Ward for serious Duo interpretation Trent Taylor and Connor Walters for Sirius Duo interpretation Danielle raquana for storytelling oh nope okay Maggie minardi serious dramatic interpretation nope Cadence Delgado humorous dramatic interpretation nope Marina siegrieve third place serious dramatic interpretation McKenna Finley second place poetry interpretation original oratory first place Allison Martins oh [Applause] and um the team is coached by Ginger Beatty riffle unfortunately Miss riffle could not be with us tonight but miss riffle was also named the two a b super region coach of the year and so we congratulate the team and Miss riffle for such an outstanding accomplished accomplishment this year thank you so much congratulations
018yep [Applause] so I have to say when that happens in my head I'm going I know I sent the letters I know I sent the letters because Ali's here okay I know I sent the invites all right and we are going to wrap up our recognitions with our seniors of the month our senior of the month for April from Windsor High School is Claire weisenberger [Applause] thank you Claire learned at an early age to never give up on what she is doing or what she wants to achieve she is persistent in her quest for knowledge and understands the value of doing a great job the first time on any task she is doing she has shown through her volunteerism that she cares deeply about her community she has spent time with the Beta Club weeding
019and planting flowers in the common areas around the community she babysits and dog sits for community members and she volunteers to help monitor event stations that the elementary school's annual field day as senior class president she has facilitated a school community outreach project with Windsor consulate care Claire is extremely well organized and goal-oriented she listens with an open mind processes information quickly and is able to adjust on the fly when things aren't proceeding as planned she has maintained her High grades and handled the duties of senior class president this year without missing a Beat quote Claire possesses a sunny disposition that lights up a room when she enters people gravitate towards her and want to be around her because she is genuine and nice to everyone she meets I absolutely loved having her positive energy
020in my class and that was from Mrs Debbie mcmannaway honors chemistry teacher Claire plans on pursuing a major in communication sciences and disorders at Longwood University in the fall congratulations very much Claire thank you congratulations okay and um our senior of the month from Smithville High is Micah Spicer Micah Micah Micah she's right here Micah is president of the National Honor Society and a member of the Beta Club she is also an active member of the Leo Club the green club and the library advisory Council she is the captain of the debate team specifically student Congress Micah currently has an internship with Virginia delegate nadarius Clark in which he does field work for his campaign she has participated in multiple community service activities such as campus cleanup and canned food drives Mica is a compassionate
021outgoing and dedicated student who goes out of her way to help others her greatest joy is mentoring other students she's always eager to help and when asked her answer is always yes she never turns down a request Micah is a positive role model and many of her peers look to her for guidance and Leadership she demonstrates outstanding character hard work and integrity quote Micah Spicer is the product of combining sheer will grit and determination with an empathetic heart and an unquenchable desire to grow and learn she is one of the most resilient motivated driven and caring young women that I've ever had the privilege to teach and coach and that's from history teacher and debate coach Mr Matt Floyd Micah has been accepted to Colgate University and Temple University in Tokyo Japan she plans to
022major in international relations and we congratulate you very much Mike on your accomplishment you're over here [Applause] all right thank you [Applause] congratulations once again Micah and that is going to conclude our Isle of Wight Achievers tonight we want to thank the Achievers once again who came out and their family members and friends who came out to support them and with that I will turn it back over to the board thank you Mrs Briggs next we will have ion instruction presented by Westside Elementary School please [Music] oh [Music] because I can't count on good evening school board members and Dr Kramer we're here this evening as head of House Representatives to share with you our kindness initiative we are the Eagles and our goal at West Side bedside is to leave a legacy what is
023kindness well in January we met we met we met with Mr Johnson to determine how we could spread kindness and encourage everyone in our school to do the same it was from these meetings we created kindness eggs teachers simply give us kind of sex when we show kindness towards others we even get to recognize teachers and classrooms for their kindness why should we sped kindness we were saddened by local and National tragedies impacting our schools and our world we also began to notice that our houses also began losing Health hearts and not earning Eagle magic because our poor poorest choices we were making we needed a positive change and believed encouraging kindness would help foreign so when did we start kindness well on Friday February 10th we launched kindness with a virtual pep Browning that
024created desire for us to make a difference the following week is kindness week where we had a Spirit Week learn more about the importance of being kind which inspired us to spread kindness being displayed are a few pictures capturing our kindness week [Music] Lean On Me when you're not strong and I'll be I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on it won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody took me [Music] please [Music] even though kindness week is over we continue to be intentional with being kind and recognizing others for their kindness how kindness eggs we earn eggs for being kind and then we place the eggs in our house bird nest at the end of the day eggs are counted and added to our house egg count total each egg we earn is
025worth three house points during our weekly house meetings we use the egg totals to go shopping at the kindness shop and purchase powers for our house we can purchase enchantments armor and strength powers when a member of our house is unkind our principal talk with us and three eggs are removed from our house total then we distributed to the other three houses who should be kind everyone we are encouraged to spread kindness everywhere our parents can even share pictures and testimonials of our kindness with Mr Johnson which we then shares on The Daily Eagle News research shows that a positive School culture can increase student attendance and academic achievement spreading kindness promotes mental and emotional health for us and our teachers Dr Kramer and school board members in front of you is an egg inside
026a nest this egg is symbolic you know your job can be very stressful so these aren't just eggs they're stress reliefs go ahead squeeze on them these eggs represent our kindness initiative we are in eggs at West Side by being kind we ask that you hold these eggs squeeze them but most importantly as you continue with this meeting today and all other future meetings in challenging Endeavors that you consider bringing these eggs that you will use them as a reminder to be kind to one another and everyone for anyone who is in the audience tonight please turn around and remove a special note written from the back of your seat written by a West Side student we hope you appreciate their kindness and gratitude and for everyone who is in the audience tonight and everyone
027watching virtually please remember our pledge thank you do you have any questions for us [Applause] I was talking to them I'm sorry I don't have a question for you I just want to thank you all when I had an opportunity to read my boy docs and I found out what you all were doing I read it earlier in the week because there were other schools across Virginia doing the same thing and I said oh we get to see this kindness I just would like to thank you Mr Johnson and all of the staff members at Westside for working with you and I don't really I don't want to see it to stop here tonight continue that kindness and maybe it was spread right on into the secondary schools meaning Smithfield Middle and Smithfield High okay
028and uh have a lovely spring break thank you thank you for your time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you I got to tell you that let me borrow yours because he was he would tell you I tell you what I need you you know test okay folks uh next we will have the request to speak on agenda items okay I'm going to read the citizen comments procedures and this is going to apply to this section of the meeting and also to the net next item on the agenda which is the request to speak non-agenda items in accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted
029four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific State the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting first we have Mr Greg Brown good evening board members nice to see everybody here I heard Mr Cunningham was at Hardy Elementary earlier today which is nice I got to go to career day yesterday and based on what I saw there we will have no shortage of firefighters and ninjas in about 10 years yeah so I want to speak on
030the I teach idea I reviewed some of the information on it and it sounds like a valuable addition to our options for teacher training and certification some potential teachers might not have the ability to attend a traditional College to obtain the training they need to become certified teachers and this seems like a viable alternate pathway I would encourage making this pathway available for potential teachers who want to work in Isle of Wight schools this does raise the point of recruiting the people that would want to use this pathway and retaining the teachers we already have in the material line I teach it specifically states that the majority of candidates are recruited by Word of Mouth so the best recruiters for our school system are the current employees of our school system we need our employees
031to feel that this is a great place to work because it is our employees that are going to help bring in new people to fill any vacancies we have the I teach program will help provide a pathway to certification but we need to get candidates in the door before they can take advantage of this program additionally our best use of resources is to keep the teachers that we already have National Data places the minimum cost of replacing an entry-level employee at thirty five hundred to ten thousand dollars that is just the direct cost of recruiting and training and other direct costs and doesn't include any costs to Lost institutional knowledge lost experience overburdening of existing employees or any other intangible costs so with these points in mind what are we doing to keep our existing
032employees are we making sure they feel valued and supported by the school board and by School administration unfortunately it seemed like some of the recent statements by some board members gave the impression that we weren't concerned about losing employees um every employee we push away costs actual money to replace and it impacts our recruitment of new employees to replace them so in addition to approving the agenda for the I teach program I would hope that we consider the cost of our word and actions for the residents of Isle of Wight County in the school system thank you very much [Applause] Mr Lewis Edmonds good evening um last month I expressed concern about policy gcpb which was up for first read and you have tonight for second reading approval which regulates employee resignations over the past
033month I've learned significantly more about how resignations are treated by Alouette County schools and our surrounding School divisions I sent this information to you earlier this week for the sake of transparency and especially for the teachers in the county I will recap some of the highlights back in September Mr Sullivan described an agreement or an expectation between school divisions in the region not to hire teachers who have not received release from their contracts to be fair Mrs Sullivan or anyone at Isle of Wight County Schools created this agreement and it probably predates most of the staff that said because it's always been this way doesn't mean it doesn't make it right this agreement is Unwritten none of you know the parameters of it nor do you know what school divisions are following it and which
034ones are not you also don't know if it's legal what I can tell you is that it's unfair and it's immoral this agreement essentially creates a non-compete Clause that teachers have not contractually agreed to in their contracts the school divisions are as included then collude to Blacklist qualified teachers from being hired based off of the reason that they were based off of us not agreeing with the reason that they resign what this does is you're robbing a teacher of their livelihood you're taking their license and that keeps them from being able to be hired in the profession they have trained to there are roughly 425 positions in the county that includes administrators who also hold teachers license that this affects that's over half of your employees by not following the process that the state has
035afforded you which is gcpb and it lays out and what you'll hopefully approve tonight is it gives you two other options it gives you the option to petition the State Board of Education to suspend a license it also gives you the option to petition the State Board to have a written reprimand against a teacher if they resign for what you deem to be an unjust reason I recommend that you follow that process instead of an Unwritten agreement that basically circumvents that by having the same effect on the teacher but robbing the teacher of due process as your attorney pointed out last month two hearings where the teacher would get to State their case as to why they resigned you're also robbing another School Division and robbing our school division of the opportunity to hire qualified
036teachers who for whatever reason may have resigned and all of us are professionals we've all been in the workforce we've all had a boss that you know what for whatever reason it just didn't work out we didn't agree or we had some kind of grievance and you couldn't resolve it and you decide you know what I'm going to leave specifically with teachers some of them just get burned out they they lose faith and the school system they're teaching in and they need a new start what this Unwritten agreement does is it robs them of that opportunity either leaving here for the opportunity to come here I ask that you direct the superintendent and the HR Director to immediately stop this process that you think about gcpb and that you lay out some guidelines and some
037expectations as to what you will do or what your expectations are if a teacher resigns for what is deemed an unjust reason thank you okay the next agenda item is request to speak on non-agenda items our first speaker is Addison diefenbacher as you know already my name is Addison divenbacher I'm a student at Smithfield High School in the ninth grade ever since I was little I have suffered from numerous medical conditions some may include narcolepsy anxiety and ADHD I'm here today to talk about situation I'm here today to talk about a situation I had at school on March 14th 2023. I brought paperwork for my doctor stating I can self-administer my own medication assistant part of this had told me if I had brought in that form oh I if I write in that form
038from my doctor saying I can solve a mystery my own medication I gave my paperwork to my I gave the paperwork to the nurse assistant and went back to class around 30 minutes later I get called down to the office with my medication the nurse takes a look at my prescription and her first words are oh that's dangerous you can't carry this around and she took it from me I proceeded tell her that I need the medication to go on with my day and she said I would need to come back with an adult to pick it up at the end of the day after further talking about the paperwork she said if my doctor directly stayed I could self-administer I would be fine I went back to class and continued my day without my
039medication around 2 20 the same day I was calling to the nurse's office this time with my mom she had my updated pill bottle and was trying to figure out the problem the nurse told me and my mom that the prescription was dangerous we asked why and she responded that it was a stimulant she couldn't name any other ingredient or use of the medication other than it being a stimulant the assistant nurse called down the nurse supervisor when she walked in she told me that this is just how things work and it's legal stuff that I wouldn't understand I explained to her that administering the medication myself would keep me safer the reasoning behind this is that if I'm in the far back of the school all the way upstairs and need my medication walking
040down to the nurse's office is very unsafe for me because I have risk of falling hurting myself fainting having hallucinations from my sleepiness confusion throwing up and other things other consequences that could be seen from this her response to me was no honey this way is safer as if I didn't know what I was talking about I kept further explaining to her what I'm talking about and she treats me like a baby I started crying out of fear worry and frustration and to her response she giggled that's when I left the nurse's office and went home the following Thursday I had a medical emergency in school and my first block around two o'clock I had a friend walk me down to the nurse's office as I felt like I was going to pass out when
041I got there I sat down and the nurse was asking me what's wrong she asked me if it was happening from my narcoleptic I corrected her and explained to her what was happening and sat down I felt my body falling asleep and I asked to go sit down on one of the beds I sat down and she left the room I don't remember what happened next but I do remember waking up halfway falling off of the bed she wasn't supervising me they gave me water and asked me or they gave me water and I asked to have Saltines to help my nausea my mom arrived at the school and the nurse said to me get in the wheelchair please I said that I was feeling fine to walk and I would be okay she said
042I don't want to lose my job please get in the wheelchair I listened and I got home fine one minute you have one minute left oh sorry um why do I get treated as if I don't know my own diagnoses I want to go to school and live my life like I would at home safely the policies that I'm facing don't make me feel safe they make me feel dangered in danger for something to happen I have been advocating and speaking my voice about my medical issues for years now I constantly struggle with things like this that make me feel belittled this speech isn't just for me but for every other student that goes to my school and all the other schools and Isle of Wight that struggle with these things too I want to
043see a change in the system for myself and everyone else who needs it my safety should matter and I should be able to walk around my school feeling safe my doctors have told me numerous times that they feel better if I self-administered but a nurse who doesn't know my diagnosis by heart tells me that it's safer if I don't listen to him I know me and other students need this change and I hope you can see this issue and what it's negatively impacting in students lives thank you [Applause] Jamie Grace Chris Chris Kelly Rick gresco the action my name is Jamie gracekoviak and I'm Addison's mom as a mom one of my biggest fears was that my child would not have a voice and that she would not be heard in this case my child
044used her voice and stood up for herself and instead of being heard she was made to feel small and as if she had to what she had to say wasn't important and didn't matter we need to do better Isle of Wight school's commitment to ensuring each child is life ready was not demonstrated here a ninth grader had the courage and desire to advocate for herself and she was met with laughs from nurse nursing staff and no options she was told a medication that is necessary for her daily functioning is dangerous she was told by someone who has never met her and knows nothing about her medical needs or the struggle of her medical Journey as a parent I can understand the needs for rules and policies and ensure every child's safety what I cannot understand
045is someone telling my child that their medication is dangerous and then giggling in my child's face as my child explains through tears why it isn't dangerous for her to take this medication and her own personal safety concerns again we need to do better I'm asking that we take a deeper look at how students are being listened to why ask our students to question and research where there's a will there's a way right but yet a student who is advocating for their personal health and safety is met with a it's just the way it is we ask our students to trust staff and know that their best interests are at heart but yet a student is laughed at and made to feel dismissed when voicing concerns there was no teamwork in this case there was no
046follow-through there was a lack of communication as a parent I need to know my child is being taken seriously when it comes to her health as well as every other student should be every student needs to feel safe at school and every student should feel supported by School staff thank you Jasmine Johnson good evening members of the board please excuse me I caught a cold and so I might sound like a little congested I would like to reintroduce myself my name is Jasmine Johnson I'm a junior at Smithfield High School as you may be aware I have come before you on two previous occasions in regards to the new policy IMB consequently that is exactly why I'm here before you today once again when I spoke at the meeting in March I studied at the
047possibles pass I will be ashamed of my I Wake County school board unfortunately this is now true due to the policy being passed I am indeed ashamed of my Iowa County School Board as I have stated previously there are many issues and problems with policy IMB I will not list them all as that will take more time than I am permitted a major one that I will mention is the vagueness of the policy this vagueness comes directly from our very own school board for example in the news three segment one of the board members was asked specifically what divisive Concepts or topics are the response given was in that quote it can really be anything anything that's controversial the Schoolboy official danced in it that what most people think of when it comes to such
048topics is racism the news reporter Dan as a topic such as racism can be taught in classes and the school board officials said that the topics all got to be taught and continued saying that if we do not learn our history then we all do to repeat it this sounds great however it is contradictory in itself that's another key issue of the policy so to a library elaborate some of the issues there is not a clear distinction as to what controversial topics are if anything can be deemed as controversial then that means all subjects and topics we learn can be considered controversial and at that point it almost sounds like we should just have been to school why I could go on with issues regarding the policy that is not my reason for coming before
049you tonight as you all are aware many teachers and students have spoken in opposition against the policy voicing many problems and concerns unfortunately those concerns were annoyed and Barry taken into consideration if any consideration at all due to these aforementioned reasons I have decided to conduct an anonymous surveys for teachers throughout the Iowa County School District this survey is a safe place for teachers to voice their views and concerns regarding policy IMB and during this survey my goal is to get a data regarding how teachers feel about the policy for example if you are not already been aware there are teachers who intend to leave the district due to policy IMB after getting the data from this survey I intend to create a presentation today I request that I be allowed to exhibit this presentation
050at the upcoming school board meeting in may I request that I have a designated spot within the meeting to do this my goal with this service in presentation is to show the board how their teachers feel about this policy I want to show further board the effect it has on the teachers within the county in addition I want to show how this policy and many other decisions made by the school board have called teachers to feel in general about our school board I do want to assure that there is no ill intent with this survey or presentation the intention is to be informative and objective members of the board I am extremely passionate about the effects that this policy is having and I am dedicated to working the fits what it has cost I want
051to help the member of the board truly understand the reaction of teachers to this policy in order to help our Quest once again to be added as an agenda item at the upcoming board meeting in May so that can share my findings regarding policy IMB thank you for your time and have a blessed evening Thomas Dubois good evening my name is Thomas Dubois I have five children three of which currently attend Iowa white schools I came here during the summer I believe it was July and we had a meeting about school safety and active Shooters and policies of that nature I was naive to think that there was actually a policy in place I guess to begin with this week there was two incidents at Smithfield High School my daughter is a sophomore there after
052the second incident I was driving her to work after school one day and I asked her did she know about what happened and she said no so not only were the students not informed of what happened but I also asked her if they ever had any active shooter drills and she said no this blows my mind it's 2023 we've already had at least 17 school shootings this year why are we not doing active shooter drills after that I went home and started researching and I could not find any policies or procedures in place for what we do if someone does decide to be an active shooter in one of our schools after reading comments on Facebook from one of the incidents this week it was said that the principal took one of the students back
053to the scene where the gun was supposedly at so if there is a policy in place it's obviously not being followed because I don't see why our principal would take a student who's reporting a weapon in school back toward the school the weapon was supposedly located a long time ago I was in the Army I served 13 years in the Army in the 82nd Airborne I have multiple combat deployments some people operations building schools security all that I've seen firsthand what happens in schools when violence is brought through the doorway I do not want any of our students in this District especially my children to have to deal with that the memories that are burned in my brain no one should ever have to see in this County there are nine schools in this District
054I'm willing to do threat assessments on every single School I'm willing to help with policy and I'm willing to help with training and to make it even easier I'm willing to do all that for free on my own time this this skit that the kids did here earlier was amazing but the minute a gun comes through that door that innocent is going to go away forever and those kids will never be the same like the speaker before me I would like for an agenda item to be added for next month to come up with a policy from what we do in these schools if someone decides to do that I do not want to come up here again as a non-agenda item speaker to talk about something that should already be in place thank you
055Kiana Cox Jones Dr Kramer board many of you know me but for the sake of tonight allow me to reintroduce myself my name is Kiana Cox Jones and I am not your coordinator of equity and inclusion but I am an advocate for diversity Equity inclusion and belonging I'm the mother of three students in Isle of Wight County Schools but I'm also the mentor friend colleague and advisor to many people from all walks of life who carry identities that are different from mine I thought long and hard about what I would say when I stood before you regarding policy INB when I come angry screaming yelling and using inappropriate language no who would do that when I come here and call you names and degrade you as a human being simply because we disagree why no
056who would do that because who would want our children to look at these videos later and duplicate our Behavior or would I come here restoratively and share some truth instead of calling you out call you in to deeply assess your lack of awareness your fears and some of your privilege awareness when reading the policy when I'm reading the policy I'm aware that you lack awareness which is the cognizant of observant and conscious conscious of similarities and differences among and between different identity groups you voted on this policy based on your experiences on your fears and your explicit and implicit biases and Prejudice section B of the policy says life should be viewed although without biases and discrimination towards any individual or group on their characteristics or identities yes it should but that is not the
057case for all students having the conversation about bias is not controversial issue it is an uncomfortable courageous conversation that may makes us more aware of how we respond to people how we view them and see them having these kind of conversations is not pointing fingers but simply ensures that the next generation is better I once read a quote that says systemic racism is so embedded in systems that if we assume that it reflects the natural inevitable order of things this is not your normal order so when we add language like section F that says there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetrated in the United States government or any entity that is your fear of being uncomfortable that is your fear of ideas that are different from you that is your fear of both and
058the United States is a beautiful country and has made choices that are bad and perpetuated racism and bigotry your normal is not our normal I I want you to listen and understand that furthermore the racism that you believe does not exist the racism you believe has not been perpetuated is of everything some of the members of your board and some of the members of your community did to me at least two years ago I was the recipient of hate mail via email via VIA mail I was the recipient of of of campaign smear campaigns on social media and pictures of me being sent to our former superintendent calling me his black queen you tried to degrade me you tried but I hope that this one just like me inspires our students to say what are
059they trying to hide and what you meant for harm and hope that it inspires a group of students to ask questions like that young lady back there who says we will not allow this to go on your policy attempts to hide the very thing that you are doing so it's a cover-up so that you can continue to keep on doing it but the truth comes out today so I invite you to a restorative conversation with me no yelling no anger no friends just you and I having a conversation I leave you with this Dr Martin Luther King Jr said a man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects Revenge aggression and retaliation the foundation such a method is love I'm not angry I'm empowered [Applause] Bob Heinz good evening and I'm Bob
060Hines we got this right um this might be trouble recent comments in the Smithfield times indicates that the writers claim that some decisions by the current school board has set us back many years that's baloney it suggested that newspapers not publishing something is using discretion not censorship but when parents want materials to be age-appropriate and fit for their children then that is censorship both scenarios are examples of good discretion or censorship if you please books showing various sex acts being available to young children is just not appropriate written words can be problem enough but illustrations of sex acts seriously why not put Playboy and play girl in the like in the libraries too age-appropriate discretion or censorship which is it around the country there are drag queen shows explicitly for toddlers some in public schools
061there's an outfit by the name of project Veritas recently they have secretly interviewed and exposed various Educators in New York that feel that it is their mission to groom school-aged children in various ways with sexual agendas as well as to indoctrinate them that the United States is a bad place they impose their personal politics and agendas on their students the exposes have resulted in some people being fired as parents were aghast and Furious to find out about these surreptitiously taught agendas I hope this sort of thing's not going on an Isle of Wight as regards CRT what is being opposed by me and many others is not the teaching of the many past or current major wrongs committed by the USA so say that most if not all conservatives do not want these topics taught
062as a blatant lie people who think like me are branded as racist even conservative non-white persons are branded as Oreos the race card is played by liberals as a cover for enabling what I'm going to say next is being pushed and legitimized truly open-minded persons liberal or conservative should want the unvarnished truth of History taught but it seems that what the liberal agenda is is that if you're born white you must have a racist Gene and everyone else is your victim this is what conservatives object to some people say the U.S has moved past racism many have but of course not all the liberal agenda is to live in the past and bring it back full circle African Americans and Native Americans were 100 victimized by those in control white males unbelievable that some Churches
063bought and sold slaves but they did and for many years after slavery ended black people were held back in various nefarious ways is that the case today surely still buy some but again not all but since I'm white I would not even begin to try to Define what it is to live as a non-white person in the USA but I do know what it is to be branded as a racist just because I'm white even though some others of my skin color believe such other generalized nonsense suggesting that we cannot teach about slavery because it might offend a student as plain absurd I submit that it is liberals pushing at most white folk if not all are racist and at most all others are victims this is what is winding the clock backward and creating
064a separate mindset I'll leave you with us would you take your young child or grandchild to a drag show I saw a report about a woman wearing something less than a bikini bottom and just paste these on her upper body leading around what appeared to be a two or three-year-old little girl at a story hour would you approve of such shows at a school event or church or family picnic would you Lobby for these types of materials to be in your church libraries children's section or would you apply discretion or censorship after all home and church are the places where we attempt to groom the next Generations to our beliefs and values thank you Michelle virtue good evening as introduced my name is Michelle virtue one of my five children has attended carsville Elementary for
065only the past seven months but he will not return next year he will go back to the private school that he came from because of the current state of the school at the March 14 school board meeting Mrs Susan Gutt said we are not getting new teachers who have gone through traditional teacher prep programs know about behavior management systems and are ready to hit the ground running she continued now we are at the point where they come with a bachelor's degree but they have not had all the education courses so someone has to teach these new teachers how to operate in the classroom we hit the wall with being able to attract teachers with their teachers license iwcs is not alone in this sentiment it is Countrywide the National Education Association says that a new
0662022 survey shows that 62 percent of Educators throughout the country are leaving the profession or retiring early this is a 25 increase due to the average uh from prior to 2020. therefore school systems should be embracing people like Mrs Goetz described people like me who are running into the burning building to save our children I started my education 25 years ago with a double major in criminal justice and juvenile psychology after quickly growing tired of being hit kicked spit and urinated on daily in a maximum security Juvenile Detention Center I change directions then in 2020 I felt called to serve my community in a time of need and education through subbing a way that I could help the way that I imagine some feel called to serve our country during time of War I started
067at a private school but private school my son was at then was recruited by ESS to sub for iwcs and after a year of subbing with iwcs I be in full time in pre-k at carsville last summer I started fulfilling the requirements for licensure but my point is I may not be classically trained but I am not ill-equipped or unprepared for behavior management our assistant principal is a former state trooper she was not classically trained but she is certainly not ill-equipped for behavior management and frankly she is the backbone of Cartersville Elementary I have conversed with veteran teachers of 20 25 and 35 years experience who were trained the way Mrs Getz described is preferred and none were trained for the behavior and downright teacher abuse happening in today's classrooms the truth is that I
068am punched hit kicked bitten spit on and even urinated on equally at CES as I was at that maximum security Juvenile Detention Center every day I have had 27 photographicable injuries in 37 school days this year alone in December of 2021 an email to my principal reported that my clothing had been violently ripped daily for more than a week CES specifically functions more like a hospital than a school violent children receive priority attention from all available staff as in an ER sped students receive dedicated staff that is compartmentalized like a skilled nursing wing and staff who are in those units are essentially in triage hoping to be seen soon with students standing in the waiting room waiting to be heard the violence at CES is widespread teachers are leaving in ambulances in first and fifth
069grade classrooms the rooms are being cleared of students in second grade third graders are dodging objects being thrown and shielding their eyes all while in pre-k I'm teaching say please stop ignore ask for help that we've been asking for help since September and until our director of Elementary education came and experienced the violence personally time we were largely ignored my West Side egg says you can do it just don't give up Mr Edmonds you're good okay Martha Jackson thank you Martha Jackson District 3 Smithfield Virginia good evening chair colic board members superintendent Dr Kramer Dr Kramer I am humbled and inspired by your mission to support every student in each departmental staff member in all of White County schools at a time when negativity seeks to be at the Forefront you continue to energize Revitalize
070and affect good change with your recognitions of positivity thank you thank you thank you troubling policies and procedures since December 2022 some of you have clashed but it has over ideologies on ethnicity gender class finances through various policies and bylaws that elevate your standings personally is your refusal to even consider what is best for all students because it goes against some personal deep-seated issues and you're resolved to put a political agenda before the needs of our precious students I hope not to demand that teachers use the framework said in INB is an insult to their years of licensure and continued training are you willing to revisit the policies that you consider divisive and the bylaws that are one-sided I hope so Gerber had a slogan at one time that said babies are our business and
071our only business the best education for every student in grades pre-k through 12 should be Isle of Wight County school board's business and their only business thank you [Applause] that's it chair conk thank you okay normally we would have the reports from the student Liaisons but one thing I just want to mention a board for thought is about combining the two sections on citizens comments on proposed agenda items and citizens comments on non-agenda items don't need any answers now just you know keep that in the back of your minds think about we'll talk about that a little bit later uh next we're going to have the presentations from the superintendent staff and we'll start with the I teach application Mrs Sullivan is going to present the I teach application to the board for action good
072evening um yeah so last month I believe it was I brought to you all the mou for I teach um and now this is the application that we will send off to the Board of Education with I teach it's about a 200 Page application um so if you have any questions I'm happy to take those does anybody have any questions I got a real quick one um I think it's great it kind of echo what Mr Brown was saying earlier is it a recruiting tool is something you can use when you're out yes absolutely so um for people that are unlicensed but have a bachelor's degree it's absolutely a recruiting tool to use to help them um if we're in a district that offers it whereas other districts may not they'll give them an opportunity
073to have a low-cost path to licensure good deal and then just from my own edification on page 65 it mentions that uh field experience it's evaluated is that a part of the program or is it one of our existing teachers who goes out and does the evaluations how's that work so the anyone who's completing this program is a current employee of our district so they'll be teaching in one of our classrooms and a principal or an assistant principal will be assigned to evaluate them just like they are for our requirements of evaluation and so when they go in to do a formal classroom observation which they have to have three times during their first three years with us the principal or the AP will do the regular Isle of Wight County state of Virginia observation
074and then they will fill out a separate form specific to I teach that we will send off to them they require positive feedback from the administrator to allow the teacher to complete the program good deal for you all right any more questions Mrs times I understood last month when you reported that program I just have the one question um you you just answered one because you said only uh uh staff that we present staff that we have now can enter that program once they complete the program they will be get they would get a license to teach just for Isle of Wight County or they can go anywhere in the state of Virginia they'll go to Virginia teaching license so that would be transferable to any District okay they decided to go to and I
075teach does allow candidates to start the program with them without being assigned to a district and after they they complete a certain amount of classes they can come to us and say I'm in the I teach program which is also a A plus for them and a reason for us to hire them because they're already set up in the program okay thank you Cunningham another short question uh once the complete I teach will they uh have to sign a contract saying their work for Isle of Wight or so they'll already have signed a contract when they is so we will employ them just like we are now with some teachers that are not licensed as long as they have the bachelor's degree but they will already have a contract with us and that contract would
076remain in place for the longevity of that individual contract yes so what's the standard contract is it one year two year 10 months for teachers okay so so uh it's a possibility that after the person completes the program uh he or she may leave right after they could we would hope to be able to offer a location that's as welcoming to keep them for sure thank you so this is a action item um we'll take this approval uh we'll get the chair to sign it and then we'll send it off to bdoe and then we'll let you know what that if it's approved okay Mr chair I moved to approve the I teach application as presented second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk will
077take the vote and that passes unanimously thank you Mr Sullivan and next uh Miss Magner who will present the draft special education plan to the board for action um we actually brought this annual plan to you last month for information this evening it's up for approval it has been out to the public for review and to see act as well if you have any questions I am happy to answer this evening Mr chair I move to approve the 2023-2024 special education plan as presented second okay we have a motion a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk will take the vote okay and that passes unanimously thank you Mrs Magnum thank you next will be the Perkins Grant Dr kale will present information on the Perkins grant for both information and
078action good evening Dr Carol is not with us tonight so uh you get us um you know me uh Kristen from Ella she's our coordinator secondary math and science we're going to do our best to answer questions for you but before you you have the Perkins Grant this is an action item it is due to the state the end of the month so I'm going to open it up for questions foreign real quick so I'll I dig through it obviously there's a lot of work that went into this um on page seven of the PDF there's a chart and it's Perkins versus secondary performance standards I'm just trying to understand it it says on the first line it says a four-year graduation rate and then the Virginia agree agreed upon Target is 94 percent and
079then in the right hand side the performance from the actual Pro 84.82 wait what does that mean does that mean we're below the target so that number is incorrect and we know that it's incorrect we have reached out to vdoe to determine why that report is incorrect we have not received a response yet but we know that that has to be amended once we get the correct information from vdoe right now there's nothing that we can do to fix it but we know it's incorrect we believe it is because we've had a number of January grads so students who would have graduated in June but finished the requirements by the end of January first semester and elected to graduate then we believe that that is not being accounted for in these numbers which is causing
080us to be lower than we really are so we do need to get that fixed we just have not been able to get it done yet however I can say it doesn't change the body of the Grant and it doesn't change what we're going to be doing with the grant funds okay okay if you would recall we shared with you uh I think last week with the chair and the vice chair that we were awaiting updated information from the Department of Education unfortunately that information hasn't come in yet we will make search and to provide you with those updated numbers as soon as we get them so if we approve it tonight and you submit it there's a possibility we have to re-vote on it later on I don't think that you're going to have
081to revoke because it doesn't change the body of what we're putting in the grant so I think we're going to be okay but if so we will certainly bring it back to you okay uh and then real quick within the text to the the application there's numerous numerous action items or items you and tend to accomplish within the plan just from my own understanding who who oversees that is it like a self-assess or a self-audit or does someone actually come out to make sure you're doing what you said you were going to do that's more of a self-aud it um there is a lot of um language like we're helping out guidance counselors to help with Pathways so it's more of educating our staff and ourselves on how to move forward okay thank you are
082you are there any more questions Mr chair on that I move to approve the Perkins Grant as presented second okay we have motion and a second is there any further discussion there's no further discussion the clerk would take the boat okay and another unanimous it looks like this uh next we will have Mr cooperider to present information on a purchase of laptops for high school students through the board for Action yes sir uh presented before you is a proposal to purchase the Freshman devices that we do yearly um this is a budgeted expense that we were totally expecting it is a little higher than normal just because our enrollment numbers have gone up in ninth grade um last year we purchased 450 this year it's going to be 500. but uh the cost per laptop
083stayed pretty much the same at the moment and it is for five hundred and four thousand dollars from this chair yes Miss times there's no question I would like to make motion that um they give staff permission to purchase laptops for the high school students in the amount of five hundred and four thousand dollars second we have motion a second do we have any further discussion yes Mr chair Mr Marsh in the in the uh document she submitted uh Mr cooperator it says there's a vs vpsa Grant a local match and an Esser Grant yes sir tell me about the local match so I know you said this was expected and it's I'm assuming it's a part of the budget yes sir tell me about the local match so yearly we receive an allocation from
084the vpsa grant which is based upon number of schools as well as an allocation for the division itself totals two hundred and eighty four thousand dollars to receive that money we must present a 25 20 local match of that 25 percent of the local match has to be for training and the other 75 percent has to be straight out of the technology um operational budget is there any further discussion okay the clerk will take the vote and the purchase of laptops has been approved thank you Mr Cooper Rider and Mr Christensen will present a list of light duty equipment to put up for auctions to the board for action good evening board chair members of the board Dr Kramer uh you all should have a list of light duty auction items listed out that we
085are looking for approval to proceed with auctioning of these are items that as the transportation department continues its exhaustive inventory have identified a number of items that are simply just beyond repair these are items that are just going to cost much more time maintenance and effort than is worth it the value is going to be at this point in auctioning off those those items clearing the space receiving the funds we can and putting it back into the program so at this time we're looking for approval to move forward with those auctions there any questions Mr chair I I moved to approve the light duty auction as presented second we have motion a second is there any further discussion there is none the clerk will take a vote okay and that is passed overwhelmingly thank you
086and next Miss uh Larissa Harris will present a request the increase in the Isle of Wight County Schools FY 2022 2023 instructional category budget in the amount of 2017 2718 due to an increased funding from mentor teacher Grant Miss Parish good evening chair Vice chair Dr Kramer and members of the school board so before you you have a request that we're asking for two thousand seven hundred eighteen dollars to be appropriated to the grant fund budget um back in February 2023 there was a superintendent's memo in which the Commonwealth of Virginia media distribution to the mentor teacher for fiscal year 2023 we would like to have that allocation given to us here at the school board so we're submitting this request on tonight upon your approval to ask the board supervisors to approve the allocation
087for this award an increase in the alawite county schools fiscal year 2022-23 instructional category budget due to increase funding to the mentor teaching Grant and the amount of 2718 dollars second we have a motion ass second is there any further discussion not the clerk will take the vote okay that has passed and Mrs Harris will present a request for to increase the alawight County Schools FY 2022 2023 instructional category budget by 11 596 dollars due to distribution of Mentor teacher allocations for FY 2022 and fiscal year 2023. did I read that correctly yes okay okay so once again we have the mentor teacher award Grant um back in fiscal year 20 in the ending of fiscal year 21 and 20 beginning of 22 an allocation was given from the state from two different pots of
088money one from the state and also one from the Esser in which each amount was five thousand seven hundred and ninety eight dollars and so um in the first portion that was given was put unfortunately in the general operating budget last year and so the funds that we reverted back to the Board of Supervisors included five thousand seven ninety eight dollars which was a grant so we are requesting tonight that those funds would be reallocated back to the school board on the second portion there was an allocation that was made from the Esser back in October 2022 those funds have been are on the state we did see the um the award we have not drawn down the funds yet and so we're making the request to have those funds allocated so that we can
089spend so the total amount between both pots of money is 11 596 dollars chair Mustang I'd like to make a motion to request to increase the Isle Wight County Schools fiscal year 2022-23 instructional category book budget by eleven thousand five hundred and ninety six dollars due to distribution of Mentor teacher allocations for fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023. second we have Motion in a second is there any further discussions Mr Marsh yes I want to start by saying thank you for catching this this is in my words a correction of an accounting error would you agree I I agree okay so kudos to you for finding this stuff thank you I hope there aren't many more I pray not um my question is given the point the point where we are in the school
090year and that this grant was specifically for teacher mentoring are we going to be able to properly apply it so that we're meeting the rules of the grant does that make sense well we have time to to spend it I believe the the 11 596 I believe we have to September 2024 to actually spend those funds so even if um I Believe Miss Sullivan will actually be ahead of this for the most part so what's not being able to be spent in this fiscal year we still have till September of 2024 to spend it so even in a new upcoming fiscal year these funds can still be able to assist our teachers so if we don't spend it this school year it will be considered a carryover that's correct got it okay I'm figuring it
091out okay I yield okay is there any further discussion okay the clerk will take the vote okay and that's passed thank you Miss Sarah thank you I think you've paid your own salary now with everything you've found next Mrs Getz will provide information on the fev tutor Incorporated for the board's information and for Action hello again so we receive algebra Readiness funding through the state this money is used for our middle schools as we are preparing students to take algebra we would like to use this money this year to pay for Feb tutoring it's an online tutoring program actually company where we would actually designate students through some of our screenings to determine which students in six seventh and eighth grades who would qualify for this tutoring it is individual tutoring one-on-one sessions 40 minutes
092long the student logs in the tutor is logged in they do not actually see one another but they can communicate talk and so forth through through the program we would like to start this right after spring break it's going to run until May end of May end of May end of May um and like I said the students will have several sessions of 20 sessions per student it is a Cooperative contract that's why we need your approval so tonight we're asking for your approval to spend the money and again it's money from the state that has to be used for algebra readiness and and the people the children that we're we're looking at are children who still have learning loss that is going on that we have not yet been able to recover and students
093who we are concerned may have issues with their upcoming Sol test so these are the students we're going to Target with this tutoring and Mrs Getz do we have a way to capture data to see how well this will perform um we certainly can absolutely we have not used this before other divisions have but we want to give it a go um and we will definitely collect our data to see how it turns out absolutely thank you are there any questions no questions thank you I know at least one gentleman for the County Supervisors that will be tickled Dr Kramer that were identified a very specific program to close that Gap so kudos to you we're doing lots of things this is just one awesome Mr chair I move to approve the Cooperative agreement with
094fev tutor Incorporated for the purchase of tutoring Services as presented second okay we have a motion a second is there any further discussion there's no further discussion the clerk will take the vote and that past five years next we will have the reports from the superintendent staff Dr Coleman and Mrs Harris We'll answer any questions on a monthly Financial reports Mr Marsh all right so my fellow board members Mr chair Dr Kramer I have uh spoke with doc Coleman offline and so before I start getting into the weeds here I would like to have a little discussion and look for any objection to I suggest and if CFO agrees that instead of having a detailed check register and a check register summary we just have one detailed check registry because I'm confident that all of
095this is already in here that is correct so unless anyone objects that would be my suggestion to the group I I don't think we need to make a motion for that do we no do you have any issues with that Miss Harris not at all I concur okay let's let's roll that way um so for the the reports themselves on the summary on the revenue side general fund we've got uh 359 101 dollars in parentheses so that means we're negative correct repeat that again I'm sorry I didn't on the on the financial summary under the revenue fees and other revenue on the far right it's unavailable budget it says 359 000 in the negative is that right am I reading that correctly all right the financial summary for General fine yes ma'am under fees and
096other Revenue you'll see on the far right okay yes the 359 101 okay so our budget we anticipated to to earn 431 000 we've currently um this this month for March period raised 43 or earned rather 43 986 currently today um it should actually read for that section Revenue year-to-date Revenue we have gained 790 thousand and so we've actually over we've received more than what we budgeted for we actually was expecting maybe 431 000 and we've actually received 790 thus far so it's more of a credit we're over not enough exactly so just for clarification under that one line there it says general fund and revised budget current expenditures that third column should say year-to-date Revenue yes that is called okay I apologize that's okay that's better better to be over than under yes um
097and then on the register itself I noticed that we had a significant jump in substitutes 145 000 and change if I recall last month we had seventy thousand is that is that because of the bug going around is that unexpected stock Coleman I'm gonna have to lean on um let's get so Miss Sullivan quite a few long-term Subs that are out at this time and it's a lot of illness yes it is okay it's pretty sick it's almost twice what it was last month stomach bug okay and uh Tallahassee Automotive 51 000 what was that where are you looking for that it's it's on the check register summary it's also on the 51 000. the description says capital outlay I'm not familiar with what capital outlay means so the vendor is Tallahassee Automotive the amount
098was 51 498. I'm gonna have to get back to you on that particular one I believe it has something to do with Transportation but I'm gonna have to give back to you I want to give you a definite okay that's it I yield Miss Harris thanks for all your ongoing work with this excellent you're very welcome appreciate you I yield okay okay are there any more questions okay Mr chair I moved to approve the monthly Financial reports as presented this was just for uh information uh Mr Vice chair yeah uh rescind my motion thank you for the support okay next uh Mr Christensen will provide an update on Support Services yeah we'll get to 19 that's next so good evening again uh the support services update should include two items for your reviews one would
099be the fuel reports and the seconds uh which I believe is Whitlow is passing out now would be the work order summaries both for the month of March and I'm happy to answer any questions on either of those items yeah Mr Marsh Mr Christensen just on the on the fuel by the Numbers it's uh I find myself trying to compare year to year to kind of see where at the bottom dollar is an obvious comparison we're spending more this year than we were last year I'm going to assume that the usage or the number of gallons is basically on par it is fairly consistent year over year however we have already spoken with Mr Blackwell the transportation coordinator to include specific gallon numbers in the report for next month and moving forward so that you
100can have a clear indication of gallons year to year as well as cost I'm assuming that most of the increase has been driven by cost per gallon not usage absolutely yes okay thank you that Mr Christensen I do have a question on on the cost now are we paying retail wholesale or do we get bulk fuel prices it's bulk Fuel and it's based off of the opis rack right I have to go back and check exactly what it is but yes sir it's it's a standard bulk rate okay great thank you are there any other questions thank you Mr Christensen thank you uh next Dr Coleman we'll share some photos of the new Hardy elementary schools when they're not going to have drone shots today not no sir no sir all right first photos you'll
101see is the learning stairs and the stairwell leading to the second floor one thing that we have not taken a peek at at this time was the second floor of new Hardy so today we'll just be looking at the second floor so we have the learning sales on our left and to our Center is I mean to our right will be the staircase leading to the second floor this is the top of the stairway view of course you'll know that this will be Goliath's all-wheel round and it'll be nice looking over the parking lot and also looking over Blunt's Corner area right there that's what you'll see when you get to the stop of the stairs next is just the implementation of the elevators for the second floor just like we have at Georgia Taylor
102Middle School now we have elevators at new Harley this is the same hole looking at it from both directions this is the primary Hall on the second floor um just leading to all of the classrooms that are located there the picture to our left is the top of the learning stairs so as soon as you get to the top of the learning stairs that is what it looks like you're coming around the corner and you can see the second floor the first thing that you see is the um the collaboration space and sort of the tech coding room right there it's gonna be a better picture next it's going to be the backside in the middle you will have the collaboration area for all classes in the area then you have the collaboration office to
103your left and right those rooms on the left and right are collaboration offices meaning kids can go in students can go in and actually work on projects uh teacher-led throughout the day the picture to your left is looking from the hallway into the area and the picture on your right is actually inside of the classroom looking out and once again that's the center of the upstairs second floor next this is another picture of a additional collaboration space that's on the second floor and two classrooms one on the left one on the right both classrooms once again share their collaboration space next we just have other classrooms that are on the hallway at this time these classrooms have already been assigned and of course the staff at Hardy had an opportunity to walk the building on
104uh earlier this week or early last week last we see one of the restrooms on the upstairs as you can see the sinks the on the outside and the toilets and urinals and different things of that nature um the plumbing and the plumbing is in at this time that's the the biggest win is the plumbing is in at the building so it's a big win that ends are there any questions concerning the pictures that were shown Dr Coleman I don't have any questions but I just want to make a looks like correction you know you're not from this area when you showed us the front of the school it's not over the community I really want to make that correction yes ma'am it's not the Blunt's Corner that was looking directly into the Thomas Park
105Thomas Park neighborhood I'm adjacent to this Arctic Garden the last corner is the road that goes down into Morgan's Beach it's just the corner okay yes ma'am that's important now I will not forget it I also want to bring up the Columbia gas so I know that a couple of months ago the board asked make sure I bring anything to the board that has maybe an issue coming sooner or later now there's not a major issue at this time but I do want to bring to the board's attention there is a issue with the Columbia Gas installation now this issue was bigger than just new Harding because the Columbia gas pipeline will bring gas to the entire neighborhood this is something that the Board of Supervisors Randy Keaton and Don Jennings are working on and
106we're in contact every single day Mr Chris Bilbo the project design manager will be here next month to answer more questions and get into more of the timelines since we are getting closer and closer yes ma'am I do have another question for you um I just wanted to ask you is there anything major uh that's still left in the construction that has not been put in place yet put in place as in anything major as in um roles and classrooms all of those areas are up now we're waiting on other items the reason I asked because I was thinking it's such a significant historical thing um I noticed that yellow being that you had in one of the pictures yes ma'am if if we had known prior to them putting it in place maybe we
107could have had the staff that is at party now right to go over as well as board members and superintendent and anyone else that would like to participate sign off on the the back side that it's going to be you know walled in that's why I asked you that is anything left okay I can check to see if anything of that nature is still going on and then I can definitely let everyone know and and that was done when they when they charge a detox it was the last one that has been in it that was within the last 10 years in this County and I and the other schools too it was previously done but uh I wasn't on the board then yes and I'm not saying that because I'm on the board now
108but it is significant because years later it's just like when they do the time castles right sort of like a little time castle or something you know I hope that we'll find something in a hearty when they take it down maybe someone did something yes yes ma'am thank you no problem Mr Marsh Todd Coleman whatever the issue is with the gas if what if is there a backup plan yeah whatever the reason the gas doesn't get hooked up what's our contingency um with the gas line that we're working on a contingency for um I guess so you can say tomorrow we're meeting up and going over more contingency I don't want to go into all of the details of the scenario but from the beginning the backup plan has always been if we cannot finish
109on time then on June 17th we will not demolish old Harley it is playing itself so the bottom line is the gas is potentially a go no go for Oakland the gas at this particular time is going to be a go no go to a certain extent you have to remember heartache oh Hardy runs off a gas line right now so it's just a two inch gas line the new gas line that's going in is going to be a four inch gas line the gas line is not for just for the school but the gas line is for the entire community on that side so with new hearty going in um we kind of had to put the bill 02 pouring the gas line for the entire area do you need anything from the board
110at this time no Mr Randy Keaton is on top of the scenario and like Mr Don Jennings is also on top of the scenario so we have meetings going on almost daily trying to figure out exactly how we're going to make sure that everything continues to run smoothly excellent excuse me um Mr chair Mr Marsh I wonder um what Dr Coleman just said on a previous group that our governmental group I was with I the reason why when they do new construction like that and especially out at Hardy where they really didn't have any lines water lines gas lines or anything her say when those um uh companies come like uh electrical companies gas companies and all they asked for the local government if to do the upgrades and sometime if they had infrastructure there
111prior some of those pipelines were probably smaller they would automatically go to the larger upgrades because they know eventually the area is going to be populated and they do that they put in the infrastructure during that time sometimes it's a little costly but it's worth it in the end thank you okay Mr chair if I made just a recommendation Dr Coleman given it we're getting very close at this stage uh we're already in uh April and soon to be in May I appreciate your questions uh perhaps we can give you more uh consistent updates at this point uh so I think Dr Coleman as soon as we get some additional information whether it's from Columbia Gas or the uh County Administrator and his staff we will make certain to provide you with uh with those
112updates yes sir okay thank you Dr Coleman we're at a point right now where we can take a short recess Okay so huh yeah I gotta go so we'll we'll we'll take about a five minute recess thank you [Applause] okay the school board meeting is back in session next we will have the superintendent update from Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair and during this time actually Mr copyright is pulling up the PowerPoint there I will say I feel great that I don't actually have to rush this evening normally we've been going pretty late so I can actually go through uh so as we go again thank you Mr Ryder so uh let's go to the second are we okay all right I'm sorry I didn't mean to Russia young man thank you very much so
113that Mr writer so one members as you know I've been meeting with all of our secondary schools and the students uh seeking their input so the last school I had a chance to meet with at the secondary level was Windsor high school and that was back on March 10th and where I sought their input uh their recommendations their concerns and I'll tell you you are heartened I was and encouraged as you meet with these amazing students I will be sharing with you uh board members some of their major recommendations uh thematically so that you can see what's on our students Minds in the future my hope would be to begin taking you boarding members along with me to have those conversations and again I'm sure you would be encouraged as well our future is in
114great hands when you get a chance to meet with students like that uh next I had a chance to meet with a first year teachers I've met with so many of our Educators but we wanted to sort of pull out and meet with our first year teachers and these were teachers or teachers rather who are first year to our County not only to our County but teachers who are first year in the profession and Miss Sullivan and I had a great session with those teachers taking them through activities again enlisting their input their recommendations their concerns certainly uh with the goal to to ensure that they stay here in Isle of Wight and to find ways to continue supporting them next I had a chance to meet with our employee advisory committee these are standing
115meetings and these young ladies in fact ironically most of the young ladies we do did have we I think do have a few gentlemen one was there and these are employees from the different employee groups again continuing to seek their input what are their concerns what are their thoughts what are their recommendations and they've made quite a few equally I will share with you uh in the coming weeks months what those recommendations are and then on Saturday March 18th I had a chance to attend the JROTC Cadet ball for Smithville High School and UC there our principal cuffy and actually the tall young man in the middle is her son Colonel badoin and his spouse first sergeant Hunter and his spouse and my wife was able to join me as well I'm an amazing event
116by our young men and women in uniform there at Smithfield High School and that was held at Smithfield the Smithfield Center next uh actually this occurred this week uh I was able to attend and was invited to attend the Smithville High School boosters board meeting where they received a 10 000 donation uh via a grant that they wrote uh and the organization that provided that uh was the Smithfield VA event who are put on numerous events throughout uh Smithfield and the community and they I think have given Miss Briggs this Miss Briggs still I think they've given over a million dollars in our community and uh you know not a lot of people are here in Smithfield but let's give them a round of applause that's quite a contribution and as a former High School
117principal I'll tell you ten thousand dollars goes a long way uh when you're trying to uh support athletic uh yes ma'am oh you want to give a little bit of history please Dr Kramer did mention Smithfield VA events give you a little history about that they started when uh the park was donated by Mr Joe Luther the Luder family uh and uh one's a castle park and if you have been around here long enough you know a lot of the town of Smithfield events take place in that Park Smith Smithfield event has an office over there in that park that's they're stationed over there uh the red Barns and all of that they help with all of those type things over over there and they they pretty much hosts the events and the ones at
118Castle Park uh this is uh actually fundraisers for them and they don't donate back into the community with those funds and uh yes they have earned over millions of dollars in those events and this is a good thing they give him back to the community thank you for that history Miss Terence next had a chance to read to uh Hardy elementary students in Miss hartung's class and I had a chance to read The Good Egg and Jabari tries the books discuss the importance of perseverance and being good to yourself and one another I'm encouraging it as a look at Miss Getz our schools to continue soliciting uh readers and I Look to You board members I know many of you are very busy but it's wonderful when we are given opportunities to reach our students
119they actually enjoy it believe it or not and I think it gives us an opportunity to see the great things that are going on in our schools so miss Getz as I look at you let's continue to encourage our students and our principals our our teachers rather and our principles to reach out to our elected officials here next are I'll award uh recipients and I will have to look at my cheat notes here so upper left first of all our very own the awesome Lynn Briggs received the Empower Isle award and yes yay hand a round of applause for Lynn Briggs Miss Briggs does so much for everyone and they surprised her and gave her an award so well deserved Miss Briggs uh upper right hand uh Mrs Roddy our nurse uh coordinator I'm probably
120not giving her a proper title supervisor thank you ladies I I know I can look to my left and and be corrected there thank you all she received the lead aisle award bottom left bus driver Connie Bryant please listen to this who has worked and served this community as a bus driver for over 50 years yes five zero yes Round of Applause for a miss Connie Bryant an amazing person and could drive for another few decades she was awesome and she received the succeed aisle award and most of her years I think uh have been in the Hardy community at Hardy elementary school if I'm not mistaken uh so I don't know if you know her or Miss times but she has been doing amazing work in that Community for a number of years absolutely
121we should do even more for her we've done something for we gave her the Isle award but certainly we can do more uh bottom right Mr Eric Cypress uh the young man uh there who works with our Smithfield Packers Youth Sports League yes a round of applause for Mr Cyprus and he surprised on that evening received the Inspire Isle award so for all of our March Isle award recipients another round of applause for all of these well-deserving uh recipients and finally uh just a few more I had a chance to attend the March the pyramid concert on March 30th uh yes absolutely in the back it was an amazing event and the talent of our students uh was on display students from Carroll to an elementary Hardy Smithfield Middle and Smithfield High and what you
122see here are all of those students actually on stage together I know a few board members I won't steal you thunder you were in uh attendance as well and I'm sure you'll share that momentarily but an amazing event and I think we will so that I do not speak out of turn I think there will be a similar event in the winter Community later on potentially something similar later this year hopefully and next I had a chance just this week uh any an amazing event and a number of uh our staff members were there a special thank you to our special education department for working with Suffolk County Schools to host these Special Olympics and what you see there are all of our students from Windsor Windsor High pardon and Smithfield High School who participated
123but also the students who supported those students uh from both schools were in attendance and you see the staff there so we have a pretty large group there from those two schools and they participated thank you to our friends from Suffolk for hosting this event and for allowing us to participate but an amazing event and my hope is that that event continues next year and the hope is that it grows although I will say more about this event next month but Westside Elementary students the rocket launch occurred today and I promised Mrs Burrell's class that I will give them a shout out but again I'll share more about that uh next month finally I would also like to wish all of our students staff a safe and productive spring break please take this time to
124refresh to reinvigorate yourselves and most importantly be safe when we'll see you the following week thank you very much uh Mr chair for allowing me to share my update thank you Dr Kramer next we'll go into action on the closed session items Mr chair I move to approve the Personnel report 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 there is no discussion the clerk will take the vote and it is passed unanimously next we have the action on Old business and we'll start with the consent agenda Mr chick go ahead Miss times Mr chair I move to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented second okay we have a motion and a second is there any
125discussion there's no discussion the clerk will take the vote okay and part of the consent agenda donations to the various schools so I'm just going to read off those people and companies that have donated to our schools this month to Carrsville Elementary the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Queen gave 100 free blizzard cards Hardy Elementary from Bishop NC Johnson coach for students and from Tractor Supply two five gallon buckets for stem night Smithfield High School they received 140 dollars for the drama Club Windsor High Bay Port excuse me Smithfield VA events gave Smithfield High School 140 for the drama club Windsor High received a thousand dollars from BayPort Credit Union for the DECA Club Student Activity account the land lab they received a 2023 Valley stock trailer from the Virginia Port Council that's worth quite a bit of
126mine and the Isle of Wight County Schools as a whole from the Women's Club of Smithfield three fifty dollar gift cards for above and beyond the Call of Duty ABCD recognition program and Mr Jim abeg and Smith Smithfield music ten thousand dollars for the music programs of Isle of Wight schools I want to thank all these people that have generously donated to our schools you are what helps make it better okay where are we at Madam Clerk the bylaws okay next we have a changes to the bylaws foreign Mr chair if I may start with comments please so I think there may have been some confusion at our last board meeting so just for the sake of clarification so that we're all on the same page in accordance with article 7 of the current approved
127bylaws we can change our bylaws with a majority vote after two consecutive regular monthly monthly meetings tonight marks the second monthly meeting since the proposed revisions had been presented by chair colic as such I moved to approve the bylaw of the bylaw revisions as presented so I'm gonna okay we have emotioned and a second do we have any discussion if there's no further discussion Mrs times elaborate a little bit on what we are changing we know but the public right now may not understand actually what we are changing is the work session meetings show be held on the fourth Thursday of every month at the same place as regular meetings and shall begin at 6 PM unless otherwise set by the board and they're changing that to work session meetings Shelby held as needed right
128at the same place as regular meetings and shall begin at 6 PM unless otherwise set by the boy right and that's pretty much it okay okay is there any further discussion if not the clerk will take the vote okay yep three years two Nays and so it does pass next is action on new business policies first policies for a second read Mr Marsh thanks Mr chair uh fellow board members doc Coleman um last month we were presented with 25 individual policies for review it's quite a bit to digest especially since last month was the end of our budget workings um me being the stickler that I am for policy I have scrubbed through these and of the 25 I've got eight policies that I'd like to dig into and have some some good discussion because
129I think as a board getting policy right is very important and and I certainly want to get some buy-in from Dr Kramer and staff um there's also 17 policies that I've reviewed and I think are pretty simple decisions to give a blessing to um so without making a formal motion just yet I'd like just to kind of have a little discussion and say I I'd like to I'd like to propose that we take eight policies uh CBG d a dgc e c a b g c i g c p b i i a e and i IBD and I'd like to table those for further discussion possibly during a work session so we can give them the the do attention that they deserve and so I'll yield for the moment and hope for some discussion
130that I think if we pull them out and we you know we had a work session we could certainly talk about a special session that way we could vote on it right then and there individually as we go through them and that might send things a lot along a little bit quicker with the same result pardon me no I just remove those from the list today and um table it further discussion okay is everybody else in concurrence with that I I just want to make sure uh Mr chair that bddh was on that list I didn't catch all of them repeat it again sir so the eight policies that I I suggest we table for the moment is CBG and that's the one that pertains to uh superintendent's evaluation uh D A has to do
131with uh whether or not we relinquish Authority transfer funds dgc uh it's about records maintenance uh e c a b is about vandalism GCI has to do with uh employee transfers gcpb is has to do with um the superintendent of school board's revocation of teachers that's directly related Mr Edmonds had to talk about um i i a eh the only thing that I'd like to discuss is whether we should change the verbiage Board of Education to alawite school board it's really a simple one and then I I B D is uh has to do with the selection or the the library materials so I I think we could as a collective have some good hearty discussion on that if you'd like to add something to that list certainly would be um yeah Mr chair yeah
132I'd like to add a bead policy bddh and also uh KD KB KD yeah that's basically the same policies yeah b b d h b d d h in uh KD they're basically the same you know it'll be a quick discussion when we have the meeting special meeting are you kg is not even on this list if I if I can um that's on there okay that says experimental and Innovative programs they're not consistent with accreditation standards or other regulations promulgated by the Board of Education that's the state are submitted to the Board of Education again we submit to the state for approval prior to implementation implementation is that correct Miss Bridge yes in that case it's referring that we would have to take them to the state level Board of Education right right so
133it doesn't affect them it doesn't affect the school board at all it's not referencing the school board it is at the state level Board of Education okay that that was i-i-a-e can I add um comment on one of the other ones please uh ecab vandalism Mr March I believe you would uh shared a question prior to the meeting why wasn't the standards of student conduct listed as a cross-reference we it should have been that correction was added if you have additional discussion on that but if that was the reason you wanted to pull it we've made that change please miss Briggs yes ma'am and I caught your change and thank you uh okay well I did have an additional comment or just discussion 2 500 for vandalism I know we had vandalism last school year
134so you know I I don't know the answer but I think it's worth the discussing it is if a student tears something up is twenty five hundred dollars enough I would argue that in this day and age it may not be and I only wanted to to point out if that was the only reason was because the cross reference we made that correction yes okay I think that's a good one for discussion unless anyone objects no no I think if any member wants to pull something for discussion we can we should certainly do that I miss what load you have the current list okay um are we just going to read the list that you were approving okay okay I was I'm still working on getting all the letters and then if if my fellow
135board members could check my work here I have the policies that we wish to table CBG d d a d g c e c a b g c i g c p b i i b d d h and KD and then for the ones that I suggest we approve tonight as as uh presented would be [Applause] g c b b g c b e b d d g k I've got it if you just want to make the motion I'll do it and remove those that you read first yeah one second though KD is not on the list so we can't have it for a second read but because that is cross reference from bddh I think that would be that would be an administrative function anyway if we made any changes to bddh
136KD is on the list it is yes the second row from the bottom it starts with purple which is why you probably missed the pose for the same reason make the motion Mr chair I move to table the following policies CBG d-a dgc e c a b g c i g c p b i i b d b d d h and KD for a time in the future future and the date to be determined second okay we have a motion and a second is there any further discussion there is none this for the sake of accuracy I'm going to take a verbal so I can get every single thing down when I've watched this back to do the minutes so Mr Cunningham yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yay Mr Marsh yay and Mr
137colic yay I said yeah Mr chair I move to approve the following policies as presented i i a e a e e a b g a b dash i i b e a GCB gcbb g c b e b bddg CBD i g b e i i b e a dash g a b i j d j j a c j n l a and l i and before you make that motion include i i a e that's the one that Mrs Briggs evaporated on and cleared up yes ma'am that was the first one oh okay I'm sorry I I was doing a man of water I'm sorry that's okay all right so we have a motion do we have a second a second we have a motion and a second clerk will take a
138vote Mr yeah yes times yay Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yay and next we will have uh discussion and uh for approval of the adjustment of the 2022-2023 school calendar Dr Kramer you thank you yes please Mrs Briggs okay just making sure um we've had fairly mild weather this year and unfortunately I haven't had a chance to do my snow call to people um many people are disappointed but the nice thing is we have quite a bit of time banked up and after looking at the calendar and the amount of time that we still have talking with different people we're going to recommend that we change the calendar to give all staff and students a holiday the Friday of Memorial Day weekend that still gives us with plenty time gives us plenty of time excuse
139me it also we've also made sure the testing schedule is can support that and we figure presenting it now gives people plenty of time to plan so our recommendation is that we make that date a holiday for students and staff Mr chair Mrs Thomas I would like to make a motion to approve changing Friday May 26 2023 from a regular school day to a student and staff holiday second okay we have motion and second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk will take the vote and we will have a snow day in May okay next on the agenda is School Board member organizational memberships and basically a discussion on School Board member memberships and School Board associations Mr Marsh thanks Mr chair uh fellow board members Dr Kramer I I requested to
140have this added to the agenda um just to kind of get a discussion going get the wheels turning people thinking about it um I know that the conversation kind of got started last month when Mr Collins school board member Alliance Jews were presented for reimbursement um so I guess as a collective we need to have some discussion about uh professional memberships specifically the vsba um from myself I think last year somebody can correct me and I hope they will we spent somewhere in the ballpark of thirty nine thousand dollars with the vsba some portion of that thirty nine thousand dollars went to a policy service um one of my requests to Dr Coleman and your staff probably directly to miss Mrs Briggs would be what exactly are we getting as far as a return and
141investment for that policy service do we have to be a member of the vsba to take advantage of that policy service can we find an alternative to some sort of a policy service so just my understanding that after having spoke with the member of the vsba the single lady that does the policy she is a army of one and I mentioned last month she is sweet as pie but literally what she does is reviews legislation as it's made into law and she scrubs existing policy and makes changes and it having looked at I can't tell you how many different School divisions across the Commonwealth The Lion's Share of every School Division in Virginia their policies have the same look touch and feel they're all categorized by the alphabet that that we have for alawite um
142so I I think it's worth it's worth looking into is that something that Mrs Briggs in an attorney I mean surely that they're abreast of legislation that passed is that something that we can do internally I mean today is a good example we've got 25 policies in 17 or so of them are literally date changes or unupdated legislation there's really not a whole lot of brain power that went into it in my opinion so all that said uh you know the 39 000 for vsba membership personally I'm not a big fan of the vspa but that's only one person's opinion they are by far and large a lobbyist organization um Virginia code says it as a school board member you have to participate in professional training every year that's really as as Loose as the
143law states so I haven't been to a vsba membership or bsva event yet um I have participated in professional training most of it was online through our Clerk so I just think it's worth a discussion it's worth looking at for forty thousand dollars I just assume put that money into a separate little bucket and send some kids on a field trip so I'll let it rest and open up that can of worms Mrs times yes I guess I'm the oldest person sitting here as far as services on this school board I'm also the oldest one as far as Services doing public uh office in uh right now um the Virginia School Board Association was established in 1906. they've been in existence now for 117 years I don't know of any other organization in the state
144of Virginia that I would want to belong to other than this organization because they're coming with history they're coming with experience especially experience in leadership advocacy and support they are there to support us I don't know if another organization that has that level of support leadership and advocacy that we need it is well respected not only in Virginia Across the Nation and the world and I don't know of another one as of yet that has that and I don't think it will happen during our time I'm not going to say it won't happen in the future but not during our time thirty nine thousand dollars you said that was the total that we paid but the things that we paid them for we paid them for leadership they do that when they come and they
145train us the reason is virtual is because of covet those things could be changed and suit they gave people an organization opportunity to participate that could not come due to covet things if you felt bad before when I first as a school board member if you were sick you were sick you could not participate and you know and then we had to request some time to for refunds and and and like anything that you sign up for uh after a certain date you may not get it all back but at least with the virtual we could call the clerk and say hey we're not feeling well or something has come up I really can't go to Richmond wherever they are having at Williamsburg or whatever I would like to do the virtual okay and a
146lot of people sitting here as board members in Isle of Wight County now I do know of one board member personally was on the board for 30 years or more and pretty much has been away from that board that we as we know it for about 20 years I give or take so so that is 50 years right there and we were members alawight county has been a member of the Virginia School Board Association uh Mr Marsh I heard you say you know you talked to the lady that does the policies and things like that and she just pretty much Advocate change those things if you look it's just like we have staff our teachers they all went to different colleges we even have a superintendent sitting here next to us right now different College
147he came to us from a different state but because of the education Department that we have in Richmond they bring it all together okay yes the other public school districts in the state of Virginia their policies are probably sure they're going to mirror Isle of Wight counties and all of the others in Hampton Roads Northern Virginia Western Virginia wherever they got to mirror one another because we are public schools in the state of Virginia getting funding from the state of Virginia getting funding from the federal government of the United States as well as local and during and because of the funding that we receive from those three government entities we have to mirror something we have the same children in the state of Virginia they're just in different government look different jurisdictions that's all and
148of course those policies will be similar maybe some of the larger school districts may have extras a little different look a little different from the rural areas but we're going to look the same and like I said I don't I don't change things if it's not broken and it's nothing broken about it I cannot force anyone to participate in anything but I think we will be making a major mistake because only once in the state of Virginia I did my homework Virginia Beach and I want to say maybe I'm not even going to call it but it was a school district in Northern Virginia a large school district but they pulled away from a Junior School Board Association for some of the same reasons because someone came on board and said we don't like it
149they pulled away and they were only gone less than six months they found out it was a grave major mistake alawite county has made a lot of grave major instructional mistakes this year that is known no longer in alawite County it's known across the state across the region Across the Nation the world okay don't do this don't change it because of the sake I don't like it there are a lot of things I don't like but I participate it's called team tandem work with it thank you I yield I I don't think anybody's saying let's withdraw from vsba um it's been my experience the training there is very good okay as you know I participated in the Train on participating actively right now with with Dr Kramer and Dr Coleman and Miss Harris um the
150piece that I don't care for is the lobbying efforts that the bsba does but I also believe that as a board member I have the right to belong to an organization that really mirrors you know some of my beliefs okay when I first went my very first vsba meeting it it was like I was at a wake because the Democrats have lost there was a lot of speaking about how bad it was gonna be because we have a new governor and staff coming in okay I mentioned that to a few people and I know a few others did it's got Tamer I don't hear any of the politics of the vsba anymore and I think that's great but there is absolutely nobody here that I'm aware of stating we need to pull out of the
151vsba what I am saying is we have the right to belong and participate in the organizations that we would like to for professional development and if that's you know the vsba good if it's the sbma good if it's one of the other many organizations that's fine too as long as we're meeting the letter of the law stating we're getting a highly professional training that we're supposed to get okay it's not either or it can be both Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair Vice chair if I may I would caution against uh us removing ourselves from uh vs VA not because I'm in any way uh wedded to an organization or because there is some Allegiance I would like for us to have a thorough discussion and be able to respond to you regarding the numerous
152services that are provided to our school division um there might be some things that you may be unaware of uh chair colic just mentioned a training that we are currently involved in you mentioned the policy uh services that is provided to us I would venture to say it's probably a bit more extensive than what you just shared I can share with you uh significant advantages that that provides us coming from another state where that service wasn't provided um and that cost will be uh absorbed elsewhere if we were to remove ourselves and I would venture to say that that cost would be more extensive than the current dollars we're spending so at a minimum I would ask that we be permitted to share with you those Services the benefits that we are receiving from those
153Services before the board elects to make a decision so Mr chair I would ask for that opportunity uh before there is a vote Mr Marsh Dr Kramer that's essentially what that's essentially what I was asking for right to be fair and for the record I would pull out of the SBA but that's not what I'm suggesting tonight what I am asking for is exactly what you've you've offered is tell me what we're getting show me the return on investment uh you haven't done it for 30 years Mrs times there's no doubt you've got some experience in in hey I foreign I don't know what I don't know I know that you didn't have a some version of vsba in Maryland somehow you survived you've told me off the Record or behind the door that you
154had your own system for developing policy and I'm not trying to drag you into an argument I'm just asking for what are we getting for it that's the point of my opening this discussion sure and I didn't expect to take any action tonight right I just wanted to get it out there have some awkward conversations and if I have a reason to squeeze my stress ball if I may respond uh yes we certainly will do that as I look back at staff um we could probably respond to some of your questions tonight but given that this was not an agenda item I would like for us to be able to respond more thoroughly and in a more comprehensive manner so if that is the will of the board that is certainly what we will be
155prepared to do This Is The Answer um I just want to say this and Mr Marsh just referred 30 years I have belonged to organizations every governmental public office I have belonged to and I have belonged to the Virginia Municipal League that is what the towns of Windsor and the towns of Smithfield belong to which are organizations just like the Virginia School Board Association just a different name the Board of Supervisors have I think theirs is the Virginia counties association yes same thing we also have them on the national levels if you choose to belong to the National levels but most people do belong to on the state level these organizations just didn't come up overnight in Virginia they have been there for years if we move from town and cities which with this Virginia
156Municipal League they mirror some of the same ordinances okay same thing with the County Board of Supervisors they're going to mirror some of the same things so this is the first I've ever heard of the school board ever mentioning why belong to the Virginia School Board Association we must belong to an organization a professional organization and I do know it came up earlier that why can't we belong to other organizations fine you can join other organizations but it should not be we should not join that and use uh Public Funding to pay that membership enrollment do it on your own you can join anything you want because what you're going to do now if you decide to go down that road you're going to open up that can of worms that I keep telling you
157all stay away from been out here a long time in public office okay Regional Offices as well some of some of the some of them on the state but I'm gonna tell you once you open that can of worms those worms not going to want to come back in that can okay and we need to concentrate on I think someone told us tonight education okay concentrate on that organization that's going to support our organization because they have the years of experience they know what we need I don't know of another organization in Virginia that I can't even call vml right now to say hey I need so-and-so in education although I know what they do if I want to call them in local government fine they can help me but not in education and we
158used to belong to the National Education Association but Virginia School Board Association pulled away from that over a year ago and they started their own and all and that was a political move as well uh politics has no place I will say it again in education maybe in other local governments but not in education okay Mr chair yeah what I wanted to say is they're trying to find out how long Isle of Wight County schools has been a member of bsba and I and from what I understand as well over 50 years um and and like Mrs uh time said uh vsba has been around for over 117 years uh that the biggest thing that I'm looking at here is teamwork and I've spoken with uh Personnel at vsba I mean I've been on the
159board since November 2021 same time as you I think I may have you by two months uh been to conferences in Williamsburg every year in November Richmond have gone up there uh also Charlottesville we we all went up there together um there is nothing else out there no other organization that can do what vs vsba is doing now and and I know I know you're going to say we're not talking about leaving them but the thing is vsba is more School Board member as a whole driven some of these other organizations are like onesie twosies a member can join but the whole board is not joining together so is I'm not going to bring Church into this but it's it's like going somewhere and getting a different word so when you come back to the
160table you one person has this training one person has this training so that's not the way you bring a team together and you know that from military teamwork is about working together getting the same training if you're not on the same sheet of music how are you gonna get the same training well well first let's let me say that um it can be complementary okay you've had MOS training and then you have left your command to go to get Advanced Training and brought that back to your command okay okay it's very similar very similar will other organizations replace or you know do everything the vsba is doing no there's not out there I'm not going to argue that point and I'm not going to argue saying you know that we need to pull out of
161the vsba okay okay that that's not something I'm arguing for okay okay what I do believe is every member has the inherent right to join a school board member Association uh of their choice as an individual as well and there are a couple school boards not many but there are a couple school boards with a whole board has joined the spma no okay and well I said the um thing about the vsba there's the one aspect of the vsba that I do not like and I won't mention words it is it is their lobbying efforts 100 of what they Lobby for is against my family values and my religious values at least when I go to the sbma I am receiving training with people who share those values under my first amendment even as a
162public official that is a right that I have and if we're going to spend money so we can all go to the vsba to get training well we can spend a couple dollars about one dollar for every 10 that we put into the SBA membership that we can spend you know for a member 250 a year versus twelve thousand five hundred a year for the entire board to the SBA that's all I'm saying okay that is it I have gotten invaluable training from the vspa I have made some good connections through the vspa going to the meetings I'm you know I'm I'm not going to put them down but I will tell you I am 100 against their positions in lobbying I have not heard them Lobby on anything I agree with and so I
163wouldn't mind holding back the portion of our dues that goes to lobbying so Mr chair yes so I if I hear you correctly what you're saying is you would like to participate continue to participate participate with Virginia School Board Association yeah because I'm not going to pull out of that but you also want the board members the five of us sitting here uh uh saying we can choose other organizations to become members be members of as well and we could come back together if that is something that you would like I think that would be appropriate and the reason I said that is because if just say hey I would like to join the NAACP the national associations for colored people okay and I know you all sometimes think of that as just being African-Americans
164but that organization like it said call it people people of color so anyone that has any skin color can belong to that organization so I could very well say hey I want to join that and I want to take funds from Isle of Wight County Schools to join that organization my thing is we belong to an organization that support us anyone sitting here can join any organization they want but we're not going to be taking funding from Isle of Wight County Public Schools to do it the only one we're going to do that with is a Virginia School Board Association okay you can join anything you want I don't care what you're doing that's fine and if you go to those conferences and come back and you think it's something you can share with us
165sit down and share with us but it's on it's coming out of your pocket and not the public pocket Mr chair Mrs tynes just just the sake of being the contrarian that I am to the best of my knowledge today some members of Isle of Wight County schools are active members of the Virginia Association of counties the National Association of nurses the Virginia Association of the superintendents and the Virginia Virginia Association of principals and I know there's a handful of others that are all being funded by taxpayers so I don't think your argument holds water I respect it I respect it I'm talking I'm talking I respect your opinion but I disagree with it I just don't think that holds water and again I'm not asking tonight to make a vote to pull out a
166bsba what I'm asking for is for someone to show me the return on investment that's what I'm asking for well then you finish I yield okay Mr chair may I say something again of course well if that's the case if you want to do it on the Virginia School Board Association all of the organizations that our staff members belong to we want the same information to pull it together what are we getting from it okay absolutely and I'm sitting here now I also belong to some other organizations in Virginia for other boards that I'm sitting on that's right and they've been in Virginia for years so if you just can't say we want it for this organization and not the other organization you want that information pull it for everything okay I don't know if
167that staff our staff is going to be able to do it for you might have to go to higher Staff to do that because it's going to take a little time at least three of those were in the monthly Financial reports that we just approved I yield uh uh Mr chair I want to say something else too please and I know all of this came about because I mentioned the fact I caught it in a financial report about a month or so ago where a board member and I'm just going to say I'll chair which here join an organization funding Public Funding was used used to join that organization and our question where did the approval come from because I feel that you use your leadership position to do something you can join any organization
168you want I don't have a problem with that but once you approve and say I want to use Public Funding to do that and it wasn't approved by the board I have a major issue with that no Public Funding should ever be spit spent from Isle of Wight County school budget unless it has been approved by the board and that was not approved by the whole board it was only approved by you the board leader and I do have concerns you came back the next meeting you wanted to put a motion on there Mr cunning Mr Cunningham pulled it table it this is why we see it here today no you're backsliding then that's what I call it backslide that should have happened prior to you joining the organization giving us an opportunity to take
169action on it that didn't happen you spent the funds before we took the action then you came back with the motion on the table that was tabled I came back with the motion after you had concerns yeah I still have concerns as I stated before it was in the bylaws as far as taking training from any organization I know you didn't vote for the bylaws but they are still the governing document they were the bylaws that you wrote and you sent them to us and asked us if they were going to be able okay the bylaws should we all should have sat down in a meeting whether it was a special meeting and we should have developed our bylaws together as a five-member change that should not happen okay you're absolutely right you are taking
170place you using that leadership position to do what you want to do and I have major concern with it Mr chair Mrs times you're a 100 percent right the five of us should have sat down or written those bylaws but you refused I didn't refuse last year and you refused this year I refuse who's sitting down and approving the ones that you did last year we didn't have bylaws we had no we didn't when I proposed so when I proposed it it was shot down four to one oh anyway I still don't give you permission to go off and spend Public Funding without permission the Board needs to vote on that I don't care you're not going to wiggle out of it do what you want to do say what you want to say but
171it was wrong no other board chair has ever done that that I know of and I talked around with some other people in the history of Isle of Wight County until now I seem to remember a board chair spending twelve thousand dollars without the board approval for a superintendent search and going two meetings being told she needed to get board approval for that until finally she did we got thank you Vice chair okay we're not getting anywhere on that point of order point of order Mr Marsh Mr chair I recommend we table this for a discussion and I would request I do not want to make a motion I would request the superintendent look into the value we receive from being a member of the Virginia school boards Association on a not to interfere basis
172in other words don't bend over backwards to do it pull up some information and we'll talk about it at a later date and I yield okay the next uh note that I have is um Dr Kramer you and I had talked about an update on learning loss and you are going to be yes the staff and I will be prepared to share that in the May at the mayboard meeting okay yes and what I want to ask my fellow board members um I would like to invite the Board of Supervisors as guests to come and listen in not necessarily as a joint meeting if if nobody has a problem with that I will I would like to go ahead and do that pretty good okay The Stance uh why they're interested in our students achievement
173they've continually asked about it well well that's just fine if you if you want to do it but you know hey I've had a joint meeting with them this year on our budget we had a joint meeting with them prior to that then they're invited to come to any meeting we have because they're all public meetings but we don't have to send continue to send special invitation they don't send special invitations to us to attend their meetings and I'm not lovey-dovey with any of them up here because I separate the two I know my role as a school board member and they know their role as a board member of the Board of Supervisors and I don't think the two should cross other than budget thank you okay next we have regulations and Exhibits [Applause]
174I know these are just informational but um there was a question we had about from one of the board members about why we are deleting JEA Dash e that is an old form that exhibit is no longer necessary because we have an in-house isaep program which is essentially a GED program um for students between ages 16 through 18. before when we didn't have an in-house form if parents wanted their children to participate in a GED program they had to submit a request for that child to then go and attend a different program that's not the case now since we have our own so it's um it's it's a form that's not necessary it's an obsolete form are there any questions okay no questions we're going to go into board member comments start off thank you
175I would like to thank Hardy Elementary lovely the wonderful appreciation luncheon they um invited us all to and they also invited the contractors from this building the new Hardy Elementary right now and um their staff as well as parents and I would like to thank all the staff parents and the students for giving us that uh appreciation luncheon also uh I would like to thank the Windsor High School dudes for donating Tina t-shirts to us uh this evening and I would like to leave and say to all have a wonderful and safe spring break and we will send you see you after thank you okay District Two yeah I just want to say that I started my day off this morning um over at Windsor Elementary for their career fair and apparently that word spread
176a lot quicker than I could travel in my vehicle so but anyway it was very enjoyable uh I had a blast the teacher the students they had a blast they got to learn about fire extinguishers you got to learn about a smoke detector which did not work it did initially but then it broke and that just shows that you need to check your equipment um all in all I'm not going to make this long-winded all in all it was a very good day I was very very enjoyable and I just thank the staff for having me over there today look forward to doing it again if possible Mr Cunningham District three okay I I'd like to thank Hardy Elementary School for the thank you luncheon like Mrs Stein spoke of uh that was March the
17713th for March the 15th I had an opportunity to go to whro in Norfolk for the h-r-e-t-a educational advisory committee meeting um they gave us a tour of the uh Studios they got radio TV everything and and explain what they do for uh the different schools in the area and and while we're uh donating money to uh uh whro and they also told us about things that uh that we should be taking advantage of and uh uh uh Dr Kramer is looking into uh ways of uh utilizing what they have to support our schools and our students all right March the 29th I went to the csap meeting in Norfolk it was a board meeting uh Dr Kramer is there with me uh uh also on the 29th we went to the Governor's School of
178Arts joint board meeting also in Norfolk in the same conference room March the 30th I attended the pyramid concert at Smithfield High School uh chair you didn't know I was there but I was in the back supported my son anyone uh last but not least this morning I want to thank Mrs Denson and Mr Summit I spoke I was the keynote speaker at Holly element Hardy Elementary School uh uh this month is the month of the military child celebration um Mr Summit lined up the Norfolk Naval band uh it's called the popular music group and they played at the event this morning uh also found out that uh Mr Summit plays a mean bass guitar he is good so uh everybody enjoyed the event and uh yeah it was it was awesome um I want
179to say to everyone have a safe spring break and happy Easter that's all I have thank you thank you Mr Marsh thank you Mr chair so since December when I took this seat I've actually lost count of the number of behavior incidents that I've had reported often they're connected to School Safety and Security one way to the other they're most definitely connected to academics we've been talking about improving academics uh you know if you've got distractions your teachers are occupied your administrators are occupied dealing with all sorts of stuff we're forming committees blah blah blah academic inevitably will suffer opportunities are lost I'll spare the details of the incidents that I've heard of but they're in abundance so as we push through after spring break I'd like to team up with the superintendent and fellow
180board members and kind of refocus on behavior and discipline and Safety and Security uh it was also in December when this body unanimously voted to approve the capital Improvement plan and our top priority we all agreed upon was Safety and Security since then we've had some discussions uh albeit some have been contentious but we've discussed uh canines as an option we had in brief demonstration via video of weapons detection systems which seem to be a pretty neat tool to add to that layered security plan that we're all concerned about there's no doubt um so I'd like to make a motion but before I do I'd like to ask if I may Mr chair I'd like to ask the superintendent to give me uh how if I asked you to give me a proposal for a
181proposal for k-19 and an employment plan and to purchase weapons detection system and a detailed employment plan how long how long you need to get that together I wouldn't venture to give you a time frame just let me given that this has just been proposed tonight these are things that we've certainly been looking at and things that we've been considering and things that we propose for the CIP so I don't want to give you a time frame but I'll certainly have staff begin working on this as early as tomorrow okay and I would want to have further conversation with you regarding specifically what you're asking for which I think would give me a better understanding of what we would be providing for you I don't need that this evening I have it well you can
182give it to me after it I don't know believe of the point but I think if we can get those specific specifics from you and if you have those in writing uh that would I think help us expedite uh what it is you're asking us to provide okay yes sir okay so so the the point behind my my request here is that uh it is an expense we just submitted our adopted budget to the county um we also promoted or submitted our Sip and its budget season so you know I think time is of the essence especially if we're going to start asking for money so in terms of cost we could give you that tomorrow cost is one thing but the cost won't do much if I can't provide a plan well again I'd
183love to hear respectfully what you would like to see in that plan so that we can be responsive yes sir and that's that's you know it's got to be a team effort I think it's a collective effort I know this is near and dear to Mr wooster's heart and certainly everybody else's um anybody else want to say anything and I'll make some sort of emotion here no I'll I'll say a few things now um about a month to show ago I had a reporter ask me she said you know there are some teachers here to say there's going to be a mass Exodus out of Isle of Wight schools my response was no there's not a couple teachers may leave there's not going to be a mass Exodus she said oh yeah teachers are saying
184they're they're going to leave I said I don't think so no well what what do you think would happen if they do that's not going to happen well just just hypothetically if they left I said we'll hire a bunch of conservative teachers that took on a life of its own folks okay the news media decided they were not going to report the story about INB but they created their own story to fit a narrative so I just want to make sure all our teachers know I fully support every teacher here I am not looking for any teacher to leave I've heard comments for the last two meetings at least received emails phone calls of how I hate teachers well folks that's totally untrue I've received comments that I want to just go out and recruit
185conservative teachers well I want the folks at home that are listening right now and may listen to the Future and the news media from wavy to understand I have nothing to do with the hiring of anybody in this District okay so I want to put that to rest once and for all if somebody hears that I've said something and you've got an issue with it come talk to me find out if it's true because on every single news report since IAA with the exception of Smithfield times every other news report has reported it wrong and report it to fit a very specific agenda now I want to go into the good stuff I attended special education advisory committee meeting on March 15th again meeting some very good people and we have one of the best
186programs I have seen ever since being involved in the special needs Community for the last almost 20 years um and then I attended the pyramid concert Smithfield High again with Dr Kramer the students were just absolutely phenomenal you can I cannot describe how good they were the music directors we have in Isle of Wight are second to none I have never seen such enthusiastic music directors right across the board every single School the energy that they had was incredible so I just want to thank them thank the students thank everybody that made that happen because that was some really great entertainment and with that I want to wish everybody again a very safe and happy spring break if nobody else has any questions we will move to adjourn uh this is something I forgot uh
187thank you Windsor high school for my polo shirt uh I'll be wearing it during the summer when we go to uh polos or t-shirts but uh thank you and thank you to everybody and we've gotten so many gifts this year oh thank you thank you