001coming down here the meeting of the Isle of Wight County School Board is hereby called to order today is Thursday March 9th 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 shall now take the Roll Call the Cunningham president Mr Wooster president Mrs tynes present Mr Marsh here and Mr colic present next we will have the approval of the agenda or amendments for the closed session Mr chair I move to approve the agenda for the closed session as presented I'll second that we have a motion and a second is there any discussion if there's no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote yes yeah me too all right Mr Wooster your vote
002is a is and Mr Marsh yay aluminum arthritis how did I hit an a that should have been a gay okay okay let the record show that they are all yays next we'll have the motion to go into closed session Mr chair I move to go into closed session two number one review the Personnel report posted on board docs under Personnel tab number one eight decimal one as authorized by Virginia code 2 decimal 2-3711 A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Isle of Wight public schools for employment transfers supplemental contracts deletions supplemental pay bus driver perfect attendance for first semester and resignations of alawite County Public Schools Employees and number two to discuss matters involving three foreign exchange students that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record
003concerning students as authorized by Virginia code 2 decimal 2-3711 A2 and number three to discuss or consider religious exemption for one student as authorized by Virginia code to decimal 2-3711a2 that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record concerning a student second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion clerk shall conduct a vote and we have all the A's to go into closed session Mrs Whitlow has anyone registered to speak in closed session no sir the board will enter closed session at this time foreign thank you good evening the meeting of the alawite school board is hereby reconvened an open session 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
004as required by section 2 decimal 2-3712d of the code of Virginia and I certify that only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the close meeting was convened were heard discussed or considered much like that we have a motion and a second do we have any discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote and the certification passes unanimously now we'll have the moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you good evening everybody present watching at home we want to extend a warm welcome to each of
005you and wish Dr Kramer a very happy birthday now we have quite a bit of business to get through this evening so I'm asking that everyone please help us by keeping your remarks to the four minute limit keeping the noise down on the audience and I'll ask the board members to keep their comments concise and on point now this evening we will not be discussing the 2023-2024 budget those meetings will be scheduled later in the month on Tuesday March 14th and Thursday March 23rd as long as the vote goes the way I expected to and thank you and now miss Briggs will present the Isle of Wight achievers good evening 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
006gifts and talents the Isle of Wight Achievers section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts and we're going to begin with our seniors of the month first from Windsor High School a senior of the month for March is Bryce Fowler Bryce is a student who is a natural-born leader he has earned every opportunity he has through his hard work dedication and his willingness to take risks in the academic setting he is ambitious quick-witted and has worked hard to earn his academic success Bryce has also served in his community he volunteered at obici hospital in Suffolk and participated on mission trips to serve the Navajo Indian tribe he Volunteers in his local community through his involvement with the Windsor High School
007Beta Club and student government Association his hours of community service show that he is devoted to the betterment of the town of Windsor and that is a true asset to our community Bryce is an outstanding student role model at Windsor high he is always helpful thoughtful and an advocate for his peers in his role as senior class vice president quote Bryce is an excellent representative for Windsor high and displays the qualities we aim to develop in our students Bryce has been incredibly involved and has excelled at all of his activities including academic Sports and student leadership his many experiences will allow him to tackle complex problems and bring unique perspectives to the universities and companies in his future I am proud to have played a small part in Bryce's education and know that he will
008go on to great success in life and that comes from Mr Burgess his history teacher Bryce plans to attend college and major in English and minor in business prior to attending law school so we congratulate you Bryce and at this time we'll have you go over to the screen and Mr Elliot's going to get a picture if there any family members that want to come up and take a photo or be in the photo [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you can come up to take the picture get a better shot that way very good congratulations once again Bryce our scene of the month for March from Smithville High School is Caitlin Worrell Caitlyn is a true scholar her Scholastic accomplishments include taking at least five AP classes and four dual enrollment classes she has been
009able to excel in her classes while also active in sports and volunteering in her community she has an outstanding work ethic and is an exemplary role model for her peers Caitlyn's leadership skills in the classroom and in her community warrants her nomination one of the ways her leadership has been demonstrated is through her involvement in school clubs and organizations she's involved in Key Club Green club and Operation Smile she mentors 9th grade students and volunteers at Riverside Hospital and Sentara obici Hospital she's a member of beta the current president of the math Honor Society vice president of the senior class and the current captain of the girls soccer team Caitlyn is a very humble hard-working student who always has a smile on her face and will go out of her way to help anyone quote
010Caitlin Worrell is a conscientious Citizen and a hard-working young person she is a scholar a standout athlete and a proven leader it has been a pleasure watching her grow into a well-rounded student and that comes from Mrs Terry Spady math teacher Caitlin will attend the University of Virginia where she plans to major in biology on her way to becoming an orthopedic surgeon congratulations Caitlin and we'll get you over here to the screen to take a photo as well and David we've got some family members coming as also congratulations once again Caitlin next we have our ABCD award each quarter we recognize one of our support staff members who has gone above and beyond the Call of Duty anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations a panel reviews the nominees and selects the quarterly
011winners our 2022 2023 third quarter ABCD Award winner is Kira Livingston Logistics technician for the technology department the nomination stated the following Mrs Livingston has not only kept up with all of her duties as the logistics technician for the iwcs technology department by ensuring accurate shipping information inventory and paperwork for all the new devices and all the devices that were moved around over the prior year to the start of the new school year Mrs Livingston recognized the department was suffering from major Staffing shortages earlier this year and in turn has continually requested to be able to assist wherever possible to make sure the department and ultimately the division keeps moving forward to success this includes but is not limited to teaching herself how to run the shs auditorium light board and running the system for
012convocation Imaging and repairing computers from the it technician workshelf replacing batteries and computers programming scanners and also becoming clever certified and learning the student information system when possible without the contribution above and beyond her normal workload our department would be in much more Dire Straits and that is in no small part to the perseverance and determination of Mrs Livingston and her desire to help out whenever and wherever she is able as part of her award Mrs Livingston is receiving a 50 Visa gift card thanks to the generous support of the Women's Club of Smithfield she is also receiving a personalized plaque created in the Smithville High School Makerspace congratulations Kira [Applause] and that's actually going to conclude our Achievers but Dr Kramer does have a special announcement he would like to make in an introduction
013at this time I do thank you so much Mrs Briggs Mrs Larissa Harris is our new CFO so please stand Ms Harris let's give her a round of applause as well from her [Music] Miss Harris has over 20 years of experience in government finance and most recently served as director of accounting for a neighboring School Division she currently lives in Chesapeake with her three sons we are so pleased to have you and again welcome next we're going to have the Isle of Wight achievers excuse me the special presentations ion instruction presented by Georgie D Tyler Middle School [Applause] [Music] good evening chair board members and Dr Kramer tonight we will be presenting for you highlights of our media arts class broadcast today at gtms I am Ricky I am addicts I'm Holden I'm Tinley I'm
014Maddie I'm so chill as a part of our meteor arts class this year sixth graders work in two teams to play in and prepare the Daily News broadcast we worked on improving our technological and career skills our production room included many technological devices that we had to learn to use and practice with video equipment green screens and mixing boards were just a few of them communication happened on a daily basis when sharing feedbacks with our teams we also provided a school-wide communication to our fellow Titans about current events over the semester we had to learn to work as a team there were seven different roles necessary for broadcasting today at gtms and we each got a chance to try out each one my favorite was the video mix and board controller because I got to
015control the sound mic and image my favorite role was also mixing world because I was able to control the microphone here are some browsing action s website and Facebook cash and check experiencing gcms are also accepted here's a pretty good designing attractive Graphics was also a fun part of our media arts class this year we made Flyers that were used on the morning announcements and we also learned how to make GIFs that added some Flair to our School's website our ultimate goal for today at gtms was to spread positivity amongst our school and keep everyone informed of great opportunities spreading kindness was just one way that we helped our fellow Titans be kind to everyone today here you can see several students Reflections on how this class helped them grow this middle school year personally
016this class helped me with my creativity and ideas this class helped me be less shy on camera we like to thank you for allowing us to share our learning with you tonight well that's a wrap for our brought for our school's broadcast today at utms are there any questions we may answer for you I don't have any questions but I would like to thank you all for coming out and um presenting to us tonight uh continue to do well in your broadcasting and maybe one day you'll be over there like the uh guests we have here from news 3 tonight thank you very much very impressive thank you young men and young ladies [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it will give them just a couple minutes to get some pictures foreign next Mr Brinkley is going to
017introduce the school resource officers to the community good evening ladies and gentlemen on the board and everyone in the audience Sheriff Clark and SRS y'all like to come forward like to take this opportunity to introduce a very vital component to all of our all of our public schools here in the county and I'm going to have the sheriff of alawite County Sheriff James R Clark Jr come up and he is going to introduce All These Fine ladies and gentlemen that are that are walking toward the front now these are the sros that are now serving in all of our all of our nine schools within our division and I'm going to now pass it over to sheriff Clark good evening Mr chairman members of the board Dr Kramer good to be here today and happy
018birthday sir all right it's indeed honor and pleasure to serve our White County public school in this capacity I'm one that believes in dreams do come true uh we had sros in the high schools and middle schools and I always wanted to have SRO and I believe it should be in every school and with grant funding with your support of Dr Kramer and the Board of Supervisors we made that happen so school resource officers fall under the Community division which is led by Lieutenant Ryan Acy SRO supervisor Sergeant Alex Johnson Smithfield High School SRO Deputy Brett Crawford Windsor High School Deputy Grayson corn Smithfield Middle Deputy Paul crone Georgia Talent Middle School Deputy Mariah zapeda Crosby Elementary Deputy Tim Phipps hot Elementary Deputy Jalisa Reed west side which understands the best side of them Westside
019Elementary Deputy Tracy Crusher was the elementary Deputy Jennifer Rios so it's our pleasure to serve the schools the staff the students the parents and each and every one of these individuals I couldn't have picked butter a group of people to serve with compassion and love for our students and staff at all schools and I'm just amazed how this all came together and thank you for having us here tonight and [Music] thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen if you can turn around so the community can see your faces and Sheriff Clark thank you very much [Applause] [Music] and before they sit down if everyone would would sit back down we have a lovely video tribute to them created by David Elliott hopefully you guys you're standing but you can watch the monitors here so at
020this time if everyone would turn their attentions to the monitor monitors and please enjoy this video of our school resource officers SRO is a school resource officer and with that being said I think that's exactly where we are we're a resource uh to the school to the admin staff to coaches uh to to the whole school system here in Isle of Wight County [Music] hey I'm Sergeant Alex Johnson I'm blow the Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Office hey Deputy Crawford I'm nestro here at Smithfield High School my name is Deputy KRON I'm the SRO for Windsor High School hi I'm Deputy Cepeda I'm the school resource officer at Georgia D Tyler Deputy Paul Caron a school resource officer at Smithfield Middle School hi I'm Deputy Crutcher I'm the school resource officer at Westside Elementary hey
021I'm Deputy Phipps here at carsville elementary my name is Deputy Reed and I am here at Hardy Elementary School hi I'm Deputy Rios and I'm the SRO here at Windsor Elementary School hello my name is Deputy Courier I'm the student resource officer here at Carrollton Elementary is somebody that is the first line of defense for the entire School the students and the staff members to become an app store you have to be a sworn police officer you go through 40 weeks in training and they teach you different things how to talk to students and how to interact with students especially conflict mitigation and mediation as well we're here to just help educate and help uplift and if there's an issue that arrives we typically try to step in um and lend our guidance and show
022some positive just to be motivatives we're not here to crack down on students or or make them feel like this is not a place of learning that our primary role as an assistant school so that it is a safe learning environment for the students and that's first and foremost once the kids are in school we do our basic interior checks I like to check doors to make sure they're secured do an exterior walk make sure there's nothing out of the ordinary and then throughout the day it's interacting with the children it's they letting them know that they're safe give them a safe place to talk potentially just having small conversations with the kids that are having relatively a bad day try to turn them around then with the closure of the day I'm making sure
023that the safety of the children exiting in school from making sure that cars are abiding in the parking lots to making sure kids get in the right Vehicles just all around just being you know an eye for safety for the children in this day age students are going through different kinds of stresses than before mental health is a bigger issue and the ability for a school resource officer to on a day in and day out basis gauge a student's Behavior will allow us to to step in as needed to keep the school secure and also as as we partner with the school system the sheriff's department has resources and knowledge that the school doesn't have so when those two are married they provide additional resources that otherwise may have been missed if the school resource
024officer or law enforcement officer isn't present in the schools the advantages having an SRO in all schools including Elementary School is that you have an SRO you have a person there every day you get to know the children there they get to know you and if something happens you have someone on site immediately to deal with anything you have to encounter that person is always there you know they're constantly there they're constantly building relationships with admin staff uh teachers the students um where you you don't get to do that as much if you're if let's say you have three or four schools to cover I feel like being here in the school kind of humanizes the badge a little bit and I even have students who are kind of like I prefer to talk to
025you over this person or I'm surprised that you're so chill as a police officer so like being able to be here really does get that that experience to be one-on-one with us they learn to trust the uniform and they see that as not just a uniform and I'm also a human I eat much with my students I go to the park with my students I visit some of them in class there are some that have a hard time with their homework and I'll sit in the hallway with them and we'll go over their schoolwork and they concentrate a little bit better which also makes it easier on the teachers being able to talk to a student that from day one was real nervous around me to you know two weeks into it they're smiling any
026high fives you know with the relationships I built here at Smithfield High School so students feel more comfortable coming to me and saying hey somebody said this or somebody said this where if we didn't have a restaurant or assigned to every school you know that student wouldn't have that relationship so it may go unheard personal story I was in the fifth grade and I had a dare program and but their officer was a lieutenant Duncan who was employed with the social police department and as I grew up I said I want to become a law enforcement officer because of that school resource officer and that their officer that was within that school I'm showing a positive showing me how to be positive um having a positive outcome he has since retired but we definitely stay
027in touch and he's one of the reasons where I once become a school resource officer I think the most rewarding part is making those connections where the students know my name that I know theirs and they're they're happy to see me happy to greet me and asking me how my day's going probably my favorite part is in the morning when I agree every kid that comes off the bus there are some that they look forward to seeing me every morning I have some that were badges every day some that want to be Law Enforcement Officers every day I look forward to getting the hugs from 580 kids it's a good feeling at the end of the day I'm here to provide safety for the students so that they can learn they can not have to
028worry about what's going on outside the building providing a safe environment for them inside the building so that they can be set up for success and learn that's that's the number one biggest satisfaction that I have but it's also nice chatting with them joking around with them and uh seeing that you know their learning experience is a good one my name is Jay James R Clark Jr I'm very honored to serve as sure for Isle of Wight County for any child that matriculates through our White County public schools um it's my goal in my tent that when they come to this school from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade but they eventually walk across that stage and receive a high school diploma when we do that by having that relationship with our students
029and our staff and our parents that's why it's very important for me to have an essro in every school to have a person that is able to respond defend detect return and keep your child safe here in school but they can have a good learning working environment [Music] we'd love to get a group picture Dr Kramer come down here so we can assemble all of you over there uh and Mr Elliott's going to come back and we'd like to thank you and I personally want to thank Mr Elliott for the Beautiful video [Applause] [Music] another foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thanks again sheriff and all the deputies [Music] and next we're going to have the request to speak on proposed agenda items and I would just like to remind everyone to please respect the speakers by
030not making any disruptive noises whether you support or oppose that particular speaker's comments okay these are the citizen comments procedures and this is going to apply for this section of the meeting as well as the section that will come after the agenda is approved in accordance to policy bdd h-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 agendas to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two person 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
031do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting first tonight we have Mr Greg Brown all right is that working all right good evening I'm Greg Brown welcome to everybody um so I wanted to talk about some of the proposed policy changes we've heard a lot about parents rights recently in regards to our schools and to me that makes sense parents should want what's best for their kids right I'm a parent of two children at Hardy Elementary Deputy reads great by the way we love her um I'm concerned about what's best for my kids as well and and my concern is I want my kids I I have the right for them to have the best education we can possibly
032give them that that's what I'm concerned about the school system and parents should be partners working together for our children's success as partners that means that some minimum level of trust is required for the partnership to work some of the proposed policy changes like the proposed INB policy absent any evidence of a problem where we're basically labeling teachers as untrustworthy and needing to be watched this creates an adversarial relationship that really is going to cost our young scholars and and harm their education um and it's got the chance to cause our schools to lose some of the experience and passionate teachers that we need to help our children's education I trust that all the board members are genuinely interested in what's best for the children of Isle of Wight count and I'm asking you extend
033that same trust to our Educators and our School Employees that they want what's best for the children of Isle of Wight County as well um I mean they wouldn't be working as teachers if they didn't care about kids that's that's why they do it um the best Educators bring passion and creativity to their jobs they can make kids excited to come to school and learn which is amazing we don't want to stifle them and put them in a box where all they're doing is reciting facts and figures um so that's my comments about that I would also like to point out we have some very real issues that I would like us to spend our time in energy tackling we need to recruit and retain the best staff in the region we need teachers we
034need instructional assistance we need special ed teachers it's An Occurrence that classes will get split up and kids will get dumped in different rooms because we don't have a sub available and we need to fix that there when I looked Newport News is advertising 50 teaching teaching vacancies and Suffolk is advertising over 100 teaching vacancies and they have higher starting salaries than we have so it doesn't necessarily need to be about money but what are we doing to make sure that we get and keep the people we need we need efficient and reliable buses I get multiple reminds a week the bus routes are getting changed because we have a bus down or we have a driver out and they're adding kids to buses and moving kids to buses um we need enough drivers and
035substitutes I'd like to commend the school for the communication but we need to make them adjust on the Fly less by having the people we need um we need excellent facilities for our students we got the new Hardy Elementary we're talking about the vestibules I'd like to thank the board for doing that that's great um and then regarding cost because we're getting into budget we can't afford not to invest in our children they are the future doctors nurses Engineers police officers sheriff's deputies that's what they're going to grow up to be so absolutely we need to discuss the budget and make sure everything we're doing is cost effective but the ultimate goal is to give our kids the best education we can give them and we should not lose sight of that thank you very
036much appreciate your time Maggie Houston good evening my name is Maggie Halstead and I'm a world history one and AP Government teacher at Windsor high school I'm also head of our history Department tonight I am speaking in opposition to the proposed policy regarding the teaching of controversial issues in Isle of Wight County Schools I want to start by addressing the hypocrisy of this policy teachers are being told not to thrust their political beliefs onto students a concept I believe all my colleagues and i would support however that is exactly what this policy is doing a political party or views of certain politicians are rampant in this policy and with no intention of bettering the education of the students we are a county that believes we should make every student college career and life ready yet
037this proposed policy only creates a narrow-minded and incomplete view on the world for the children it will influence another controversial component of this policy is item a of the new framework item a of this policy states parents or Guardians have sole responsibility for guiding their children's views on controversial issues the problem with this statement is the misunderstanding it creates I am not guiding my students to follow my beliefs because I have to introduce both sides of an issue or teach the historical facts and how it affects people today just because what I teach per the vdoe and college board standards does not align with the political or religious beliefs of certain individuals of this County does not mean I am indoctrinating my students teachers are being attacked solely for doing what we were hired to
038do teach the curriculum and ready our students for the world outside of Isle of Wight County we are experts in our content curriculums and pedagogy which is the art of teaching we spend our entire careers bettering ourselves forming relationships with students and continuing our education yet without a doubt this is an attack on those whose goal each day is to teach help and love the students of this County I'm a teacher to all students who enter my classroom not just those whose views align with mine so I asked the school board are you creating a policy that does the same I would also like to ask why is this policy needed in the first place I implore the school board and those in the community who have mentioned that CRT and divisive content are widespread
039throughout our schools where is it can you show me where and how this is happening I teach my students to look for reliable resources and evidence where is yours I would also argue that item F of the framework that states there is no systemic racism in the United States is a prime example of just because you say it doesn't make it a fact I would ask you to do as my students do look for evidence and facts and then make positive policy for changes rather than try to speak something into existence if you truly cared for the education of all children in this County you would have spent the previous months not rewriting the same policy over and over to appease certain voters but addressing the true problems and issues of our buildings you would
040have spent those months visiting classrooms and speaking to all parties involved in our schools including teachers staff parents and students our students have amazing thoughts of what is needed to better their educations and I I would argue that they are the most important stakeholders in our schools school board members I will remind you that our students have diverse backgrounds and beliefs and you are elected to represent protect and better the education of every single one of them I want to end my time speaking to you by posing a question to the members of the board that support this policy I am a teacher so why am I trusted to get children out of a burning building administer CPR or nappy pen or even lock down my room in case of an active shooter but I
041am not trusted to speak to the children in my classroom thank you [Applause] Caitlin McNeese I hope I said that right hello thank you all for your time and the opportunity to speak my name is Caitlin McNeese I live in Carrollton and I have a child in our County's Public School System I'd like to start with one of my favorite quotes from the American southern gothic novelist Flannery O'Connor the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it I'm here to voice my concern over three of the INB policy revisions they are revision a parents or Guardians have the sole responsibility for guiding their children's views on controversial topics I am a full-time working mother I talk to my child about difficult topics but I trust Educators who have dedicated their entire careers
042to helping our children understand these topics as well I appreciate their perspective on a myriad of issues they are Educators a safe place who I trust to care for and teach my child while I'm working on my own career and helping to provide for my family we must put our trust back into teachers and provide them with support not resistance we have struggled to retain our teachers many have threatened to quit if these revisions pass leaving our current policy alone would be to be a great first step to avoid this great loss revision F there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetuated by the United States or any governmental entity while four minutes is not enough time to provide a full report on systemic racism and the racial economic disparities that has caused and still
043causes today or a psychology report on the effects of generational trauma I'd like to point out that this isn't a teaching guideline of which most of you are not qualified to provide this is not a matter of opinion but a false generalized statement that you want printed in our public school policy this whitewash narrative is inaccurate and embarrassing there's a plethora of sources available which outline ways in which systemic racism exists in our country today you do not get to tell someone else with their familial history is or what their life experiences have been like due to that history revision G employees of Isle white school school shall not endorse any political party candidate or ideology and the performance of their duties or responsibilities but rather remain neutral I'm genuinely confused by the addition of
044this revision the three members who are bringing this revision to the table ran an obvious Republican campaign posing with Republican candidates around election time sharing extremist political memes to their perfect personal as well as campaign social media Pages all while falsely claiming that they want they were intent on taking politics out of the classroom gentlemen you have brought politics into the classroom unsurprisingly enough these revisions aren't even original they're straight out of a Fox News Playbook and I must ask Mr colic does this revision mean that you will remove yourself from the republican-backed school board member Alliance that you joined without other board members knowing and paid for with Public Funding who approved that spending and what is the checks and balance system for that process thank you thank you Matt ployd good evening board
045members and happy birthday Dr Kramer my name is Matt Floyd I am the President of the Isle of Wight Educators Association I'm also a history teacher at Smithfield High School I'm here once again to speak on the newest version of the IMB Amendment addressing the teaching of controversial issues as well as discuss the unintended yet very real consequences in rendering this board's insistence of addressing a problem which has been completely manufactured and inflated for the purposes of members of this board to make political points with their base and to make sure that those campaign contributions from certain Pacs keep rolling in the wording has been changed but the primary issues of concern still remain and have been left unanswered after repeated attempts and requests to have Educators and administrators involved in the development of this
046amendment have been totally and blatantly ignored one can only reach one conclusion this board doesn't really care about us do you the teachers trained and educated who work with the students of this community and if you do not care about us or our input how can you in good conscious try to sell to anyone that you truly care about the students this comes off as a very politically motivated partisan and divisive attack on Educators attributes which you claim to want to remove from our school system the only ones pushing a political agenda here in Isle of white are you the board my first contention with the amendment being touted is the fact that there is no infrastructure no protocol in place which is determined if a teacher has violated this potential Amendment who determines that
047there's a violation who determines the consequences you fall short of outlining this procedure aspects of this amendment such as section F which make the erroneous and false statement that there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetrated by the United States or any governmental agency have nothing whatsoever to do with education or our school system where is your data-driven evidence that there are no ethnically biased institutions in this country there is a PL there's plenty of empirical data from a plethora of studies which states that there are intentional or otherwise your comment which is irrelevant to local education makes this less of an amendment and more of a Manifesto no teacher is endorsing any ideology or party in the classroom we simply give the students the information and they draw their own conclusions they think for
048themselves perhaps that is what has three of you terrified that you do not like the conclusions they are drawing for themselves furthermore the amendment goes on to state that issues which will be seen as being controversial include your words many forms of racism sexism and other isms that exist today and in the past so explain to me what is an ism does this mean we're not to teach on capitalism conservativism liberalism cronyism if you don't know what that is a great example will be would be when one tries to slide a six digit no bid contract to have dogs permanently instituted into public schools and that contract will go to your friend and supporter who owns a dog training facility in this County how are we to know how to navigate with such vague wording
049in this amendment I'm certain the College Board is not going to live favorably upon the wording of this amendment the next aspect I implore you to consider is this that the most divisive and controversial issue in local education today is these amendments you the board would be an immediate violation of your own Amendment if you pass this your rhetoric from the campaign and your board seats has given permission to some to behave and speak in very concerning ways teachers who have spoken out about this issue in front of the sport have had their personal information for you your supporters have made fake social media accounts in the names of teachers we have already had teachers quit because the harassment they feel coming from this board just isn't worth it we have long-term Subs teaching English
050courses for the remainder of the year due to your hyperbole we have people standing up at these meetings stating I am a white woman with white children and insinuating that you owe them special consideration because of this and because they support you I would like to remind the board that this county is pronounced Isle of white not I love white school board members have felt entitled to reach out and harass the wife of the teacher at 1am before he is scheduled to speak the following evening against your policies this is far beyond the pale of acceptance and the teachers are tired of not feeling appreciated we're tired of being vilified and we're tired of being slandered by your rhetoric and political ambition if you care about the students truly and the education of this County
051and wants to continue the Excellence of this County stop these amendments with the current policies in place are more than enough thank you very much Jasmine Johnson good evening members of the board my name is Jasmine Johnson and I'm a junior at Smithfield High School thank you for your attempts at changing the device of content policy however I must State the revisions are not acceptable for our White County Schools over these past months there have been countless students parents teachers even concerned citizens voicing opposition to this policy with this known members of the board I have one question for you why why at the months of expressed discontentment are y'all still trying to pass this policy you told us you want what is best for the students then why at the months of students voicing
052opposition to this policy has it not been approved looking at the new evictions to this policy I feel like myself and anyone who has spoken in opposition has been ignored I feel that nothing we have said was taken into consideration it has been mopped by these revisions I assume the school board does not want us to feel this way so again why is this policy still being considered the curriculum has been the way it is for years and many successful students have resulted from it so what is the purpose of changing it now the policy says in the introduction by their nature the study of history sociology literature the Arts and other disciplines can include topics which may be construed as controversial one Revision in the policy is there is no systematic racism or bigotry
053perpetrated by the United States or any governmental entity historically this statement is far from the truth did we not have feathery approved slavery for hundreds of years where women not devalue an unequal in the sight of men why then do you have the audacity to State this in your policy now in regards to turn time then yes there may not be any governmental bigger three or something at racism but then again I cannot be sure what this statement entails it is too vague the introduction says by Nature the study of history sociology literature the Arts but later on it states there is no systematic racism or bigotry my question is this this statement referring to history or current time members of the board your policy is too vague and not acceptable the way it is
054we cannot pinpoint what your intentions are and regards to this policy are your intentions about history current or both the way the policy is written it talks about history yet our entire history is controversial are y'all saying we should not teach history anymore history is supposed to be controversial we have to learn about our haunting past so that we will not repeat it avoiding controversial topics is detrimental to a student's success not only history by a whole world is controversial how it educate is supposed to prepare students for the world if we are not taught properly avoiding such topics would just cause future I like students to be ignorant this ignorance would not be the fault of the students but of the fault of our very own School Board another criteria that is stated multiple
055times throughout the policy is the idea that teachers are not authorized to express or exert the opinion regarding a controversial topic this however is already a criteria that teachers follow and respect never in my Iowa educational career have I ever had a teacher try to exert their opinion unto me or sway me to relieve their views as a matter of fact I have constantly had teachers say that they will not give their viewpoint on a particular topic even when asked furthermore my teachers have always communicated in the way that I could not figure out which side they stand on even if I tried to add this to the inb6 policy as an offense and is disrespecting to all Iowa County Educators with that being said again what is the intention of this policy passing this
056policy will only cause harm you have seen the attempts of many allowed citizens to stop it members of the board I know you want what is best for education in Iowa County what is best is this policy not being passed as of today I am a proud student of Isle of Wight County Schools but if this policy has passed I will no longer be proud but ashamed of what has been done through my school board I don't want this to be the case so please I implore you members of the board think about what you're doing please ask yourself is this what is best for future I like County students I'm here today to tell you that it's not do not pass this policy because it would just destroy the educational system thank you for
057your time thank you Jessica Brannon good evening my name is Jessica Brannon I'm a Spanish and ESL teacher at Windsor high school and I've been working in education for 10 years tonight I'm here to speak in opposition to proposed policy INB as stated in the last school board meeting the goal moving forward would be to keep the spirit and tent of the policy while coming to a compromise I continue to argue that the spirit of this policy is overshadowed by by political aims and personal bias our two new school board members were elected in November campaigned on prohibiting divisive content and strengthening parental rights the initial version attached to IIA was proposed in December immediately after the election other than campaign promises this board has yet to provide why this policy is needed as our
058wonderful student just explained you may believe this policy seeks to require teachers to instruct without bias yet all I see is biased throughout the list of principles principal F states there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetuated by the United States or any governmental entity Our Own federal government currently has a web page dedicated to this point titled factsheet U.S efforts to combat systemic racism and can be found on whitehouse.gov principle a of this policies framework States parents or Guardians have the sole responsibility for guiding their children's views on controversial topics Educators respect parents and understand that every household has a unique value system parents responsibility for guiding their children is undeniable what is problematic is the application of this Principle as an instructional framework how will this be modeled in a classroom with 20
059or more students with each of their own adult supporter personal opinion rather than evidence-based practices has been used to create a policy that would satisfy a campaign promise school board members have not provided evidence of a need for this policy and if the policy is developed under such conditions how can Educators trust it will be enforced objectively a number of individuals have brought up the concerns of how this would be enforced and that still has not been resolved this policy encourages parents to bring matters directly to the school board rather than having positive Communications with teachers and administrators if we want to build an environment of effective discourse parents and staff should be encouraged to work together for the best interest of our students rather than focusing on such a subjective political topic I request
060that the school board use their time to address current problems affecting our students academic success for example School attendance is a concern that is not political and is backed by statistical evidence we are at risk of losing accreditation a fact you can easily determine through data if the school board were to develop a policy to help address this issue of truancy you could easily take an objective look at its Effectiveness clear achievable goals can be set for such a policy INB on the other hand is a politicized issue with no supporting analysis no evidence has been presented for the need for this policy so how would you determine if the policy is effective after implementation what goals do you have to achieve with policy IND and how would you objectively measure those goals drawing upon
061real world connections and incorporating cross-disciplinary studies and other similar practices are evidence-based strategies to increase student engagement and critical thinking skills these methods may lead to situations where we disagree on what is and is not best for students but please let us keep those conversations where they can be best addressed on an as needed basis directly between student teacher parent and administrator let us create an atmosphere of positive communication rather than fueling malignant discourse thank you [Applause] Matt Burgess good evening members of the board my name is Matt Burgess and I've taught for 19 years at Windsor High School I spoke at your last meeting and I'm here to speak once more against Paul C INB what I'm assuming will be the final time I feel like I'm wasting my breath in our Collective time
062however as it's become apparent that several of you have already made up your minds about the need for this policy despite the vocal concerns of students parents and teachers to paraphrase from the policy itself you consider this policy to be a valid position and you are unwilling to accept the validity of the opposing view that this policy is reactionary and entirely unnecessary the very topic of teaching controversial issues is itself controversial but you plan to ignore the many voices of opposition and push through this policy you've made revisions to it these past few months as if you cared about the concerns had been voiced but the end result has been the same each time you rewarded this absurd policy and disregarded genuine and thoughtful questions from the community about the potential impacts it will have
063I can assure you that there will be unforeseeable impacts just the other day I saw a connection between what you're about to vote into existence and what is happening elsewhere in this country there was a headline story in the Washington Post on Monday about subjects that Educators won't teach anymore the state of Iowa passed a law that is almost identical to item F of your proposed policy it bars Educators from teaching at the United States of America is fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist in relation to this law the post reported on record that one of their superintendents in the state told a teacher that he couldn't say slavery was wrong because that's a stance not a fact is this the future of Education that you want for Isle of Wight that we can't definitively
064say that slavery was wrong how about lynching can we say that was wrong the denial of Jewish immigrants before the Holocaust the destruction of indigenous tribes internment camps for Japanese Americans as a history teacher trust me when I say I can go on last month I suggested turning your focus to actual issues that we are struggling with accounting such as attendance still no word or discussion about that no first reading we should be talking about things like the bring your own device policy and how teachers are flooded with cell phone problems that policy hasn't been updated since 2017. since it was implemented the students now have access to free apps on their phones that use the internet to answer nearly any question that is in a text format they can use AI assisted tools such
065as chat GPT to write essays for them and they sure are quick to whip out their phones to record a fight in school for tick tock now instead you've spent weeks and weeks wordsmithing this farce of a policy to appease your voters some of you are brand new to the school board and you're already looking ahead to your next election like true politicians in closing let me remind you of who you and I ultimately serve the students of the county you need to ask yourself whether this policy will help to make them college career and life ready life life itself is diverse Cosmopolitan and full of controversy policies such as this will only act as shackles and blinders for our students as we prepare them to be active and effective citizens please be mindful that
066your vote will affect every student you need to vote in their Collective interests not just in the interests of what your supporters want to impose on the entire County make the right choice and vote against this policy thank you for your time [Applause] herb De Croft eating Mr chairman board members and Dr Kramer several items for your consideration this evening the consent agenda that has the nine February board meeting minutes on it during the discussion the proposed bylaws of that meeting on 9 February Mr Cunningham said we're taking away a lot of the responsibilities of the superintendent etc etc to which the chairman responded absolutely not what responsibility does Dr Kramer have when you look at the iwc's website one sees policy CBA qualifications and duties of the superintendent revised 9 September 21 and policy
067CF School building Administration revised 10 November 22 which says the superintendent responsible for supervising assistant superintendents and principals remember Mary's has stated more than once he doesn't believe the school board can pick and choose what policy to follow late December 22 he also said how can we hold the superintendent and all the staff accountable policy we don't follow our own remember times was president of both board meetings and policies CBA and CF were revised and the board members voted unanimously that Dr crane was supervised assistant superintendents and principals remember Cunningham was present during the 10 November 22 board meeting along with Dr Kramer when policy CF was revised and board members voted unanimously that he's the supervise principals well when you look at the iwcs organizational chart on the iwcs website it shows Dr Kramer's
068not supervising assistant superintendents or principals however instead two directors are supervising their principles well we have two Deputy superintendents Deputy superintendents not funded by soqs by the state in a little school system of only 5 600 students and nine schools I submit iwcs's Central offices over staff you need to take a look at and direct changes immediately especially a view of the significant 20 or 24 budget increases that are requested why does iwcs even have a deputy superintendent much less too when the state soqs fund assistant superintendents according to the Virginia code 22.1 was read from the bylaw school boards that adopt policy to provide for the day-to-day supervision of schools I agree with that Mr Cunningham said and Mr Mary's quoted policy BBA School boards are to see that school laws are properly explained
069and forced and observed to wish Mr Cunningham said the way I look at a policy if it's there you got to do it we don't have a choice you learned that in the Marine Corps I know in any case our iwcs Board needs to revise the iwcs organizational chart in order for Dr Kramer to be in compliance with this contracts Provisions iwcs policies in Virginia school laws and guide him in meeting his responsibilities as the new guy on the Block as our superintendent secondly item 19.2 bylaws changes to work sessions a work session each month darn a good idea Mr Cunningham you forgot during the 22 calendar year that Miss times called 26 special board meetings and ended up with a total of 38 meetings that year this new one would only be 24 meetings
070a year two each month so keep the monthly work sessions of bylaws it's a smart business procedure the requester archetype and replace policies with bylaws suggests that you keep bylaws Incorporated with policies in them not replace the policies and the policies for first read bdeh and KD public participation and school board meetings hey get away from the bddh e or kd-e because the E designates those as exhibits and that gives guidance for implementation the board clerk keeps reading this wrong for years no offense to Miss Jessica but the non-legal verbiage was put into these group policies by the board members that wanted to limit the state speakers to five minutes from five minutes to four minutes years ago and they wanted people to sign up ahead of time so they could sort of exercise some
071effect on their freedom to speech so this wording in the phony policies identified as bddhe and KDE was done by Port attorney pact who knows they were not a policy but an exhibited to do so thank you very much thank you and uh have a good evening Brooke Tenney hello members of the board I'm here to speak about the latest revisions to the policy regarding teaching controversial topics while I would love to say that things have improved since we last spoke there's still some significant issues that are present and frankly it is almost worse while there are holes abound in this policy but we do not have forever so I'd like to speak on two specific issues guidelines A and C I'd like to start with C just to go ahead and address the elephant
072in the room while the fundamental Theory this entire policy is operating off of is wrong the point proudly proclaims no one is inherently a victim or oppressed because of before citing various demographics now let's note the wording here this is not saying that people are equal regardless of these items this is saying no one is a victim due to these things this is saying no one is inherently oppressed for the factors out of their control it isn't equality it is denial for one of the most simple and extreme examples I will refer to you Afghanistan an area among many other historical ones that treats women as objects and does not recognize them as people surely those women are inherently oppressed wouldn't it be wrong for a teacher not to talk about their persecution for a
073teacher to cover up the idea that places in the world in fact have discrimination and bias is wrong look at the United States to see much of the same thing there is a common Trend in police brutality cases in which clearly demonstrates that there is inherent oppression of minorities especially those of African-American descent section c in conclusion is nonsense it is simply wrong unless you would like our teachers to ignore history entirely and blot out the past of racism sexism and as your policy so eloquently put it other isms now let's talk about a shall we the concept here is that parents have absolute control over their children does no one see how concerning this is just outright off the bat who in their right mind would allow their parents to have utter control over
074their children isn't that how people get indoctrinated into cults shouldn't we the outside world and shouldn't the outside world and their experience in school tell them otherwise let's cut to the chase parents are people parents make mistakes parents can be wrong moreover let's not pretend that school sorry moreover let's not pretend that school instructs children exactly what to think I've been in school for over a decade and nobody has told me what to think and anything of the regard no one has told me that I'm an oppressor because of my skin color nobody has told me that anyone in this room is inherently racist and no one has told me or sorry no one has told me that I or anyone in the lgbtq community deserves rights school does not teach us what to think
075it teaches us how to think so why are we ignoring the fact that statistically one and seven children experience abuse or neglect that is 14 of the children in the school who do not have positive outcomes it outside of school so why are we going to leave the power of these fragile Minds in the hands of their oppressors and their abusers you wrote this policy not with the benefits of the student in mind not with their protection of their rights of their education but with the idea of appealing to parents in order to get reelected I hate to suggest such a thing but after going through all this clear evidence of how invalid this policy is it must either be that or simply be being unaware I cannot believe you all to be so sheltered
076so I pray I am wrong I pray that you hear my words in the words of my peers and realize that you have made a mistake and you let this policy die thank you [Applause] Heidi Schwartz I'm not talking on INB ah good evening um first I'd like to just officially thank Mr Cunningham for taking the course to become an instructor for stop the blade um but doing this he joins Mr Wooster a longtime instructor with the program Mr Wooster has been committed for some time in working with the JROTC Colonel and um two Cadets to bring the pilot program to come to life and now Mr Cunningham's trained and this will allow the cadets to all walk away with certified training on April 17th and 18th as Mr Wooster and Mr Cunningham volunteer their
077time those two days to bring the Life Training saving training to our community so thank you um regarding the minutes from the regular school board meeting on February 9th that the board will vote to approve tonight there's a total of 126 Pages for the approval these 126 pages I think also include the special meeting from January each meeting prior to Citizen speaking the school board clerk makes a statement and States attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks you should give them to the to the board Clerk and I'm asking why we submit them if they're not in the minutes at the last school board meeting on February 9th I submitted and handed my prepared remarks along with documents supporting what I spoke about and I even made it a request
078to make sure that they were there for record what I submitted is not in those minutes for approval tonight not any of the citizens that spoke comments were turned in I respectively request that you do not approve the minutes for February 9 2023 until items that were submitted from citizens comments are true and accurate in addition I would argue all documents provided to the board members which includes the school board clerk during the meetings are public record and should be included in the minutes as presented it doesn't cost Iowa County Schools anything to include them in the minutes but if they aren't included in a citizen request these public records it would cost that citizen at least twenty dollars in foia if not more with that regarding the FFA policy I'd like to say that
079Lynn Briggs and I met today we had a great meeting I think so um I had placed yet another request for foia after I realized that my original foia did not have everything in it the added amount came to over six or came to estimated at 600 so I asked Lynn if we could just meet and discuss it we did many questions were answered in my opinion this policy was a rush policy to rename a building that a few people wanted it to happen chair times knew the timeline that was there and with good possibility of a change to the board there was not time to spare unfortunately this left Lynn in a position to attempt to upload a policy quickly on June 9th after Tracy root emailed it to her at 5 pm on
080June 8th I think mistakes took place in the policy not allowing time for for Lynn who is a policy expert and and she loves to not make mistakes to not review it as quickly as maybe she would have if she had had the time with that I believe the end result is a correct policy now in place the CTE building was not renamed and I believe that the mystery of the FFA policy is closed to me thank you Amanda Shannon hello I'm gonna try to Cobble together some coherent sentences here so bear with me I'm a parent of a student here at Isle of Wight County schools and I've come before you this evening to discuss your controversial issues protocol the language teaching about controversial issues is so vague that it means everything and nothing
081and this is the Crux of the problem if I walk into a classroom full of kindergartners and extol to them the wonderful attributes of the wonderful Color Purple I'm going to be met with the cacophony of small voices shouting me down and telling me how purple is not the best color and now we've made color a controversial topic your language is not naively vague as I'm sure you are aware it is intentionally vague because if it outlined exactly what your what you don't want the kids to learn we would be calling a spade a spade your vague language has created an environment where no one knows exactly what will fall into the phrase controversial issues after all isn't life just one long controversial issue this protocol was crafted from your perspective because that's how we
082live life through our perspective but you had to know when crafting item F about the United States or any governmental body that you were intentionally ignoring the perspective of other community members this is not communist China people here in America are free to see their government through their own individual perspective and if they see flaws work together to fix them the wise man will bring peace and compromise the proud man will bring chaos and division never be too proud to see both sides I hope item G of the school board applies to the school board as well the school board should not be an extension of the Republican Party it should not serve it should serve as best it can all members of the public school community do not tear apart this school system and
083this community pursuing dogma and rhetoric help our kids who are behind academically mentally behaviorally from the pandemic they are struggling that is your job you're never too old to grow or learn be good stewards of our children's education get away from your sounding boards today is different from yesterday I never had an active shooter drill in grade school the world these kids are growing up in is far removed from the one we were raised in Old Friends they have access to the entire world good and bad in the palm of their hands it doesn't have to be this way you can make the problem go away even faster than you created it I might start by changing the channel at home but that would just be me but if you must persist make the language
084specific so that these kids who hide under their desks waiting for the day an active shooter comes through the door know exactly what it is that they're supposed to be scared of thank you [Applause] Louis Edmonds good evening um I'll start by making one statement on reviewing policies so tonight we have 25 policies for our first review last time I counted there's roughly 430 policies with the school system they have to be reviewed by law every five years 60 meetings and five-year period do the math that's sevenish a meeting I think we can do better than this um on IMB I'll just say this until we can start to find common ground on objective truth this will continue to fester and it'll still and it will continue to be used for political gain I'm not
085going to get in the partisanship games here I'll just leave it at that what I do want to concentrate on is a couple of policies that are up for first read tonight that I believe have greater impact on teachers uh and staff I'll start with policy CGI this policy covers superintendent's right to move employees as needed Dr Kramer is a busy person he can't nor should he be responsible for directly managing these transfers which means this gets delegated to various administrators uh as it's necessary it's difficult to ensure that all of these administrators can Implement a uniform policy the way the policy is written right now it's not fair to staff and teachers for this process to be arbitrary nor is it conducive to an open and transparent work environment there's a lot of factors
086that should be going into play as to who gets transferred and when and the teachers and the staff deserve for that to be laid out to them and not left to arbitrary means just a couple of them seniority right fit do they have children at the school are we making a teacher or a staff member move from Carrollton all the way to carlsville or vice versa that's a 45 minute change in commute so depending on where you live if you live in Hampton and now you're working in carsville that's a problem and that is a absolute economic impact on that staff member so I ask that uh the board hold off on this policy and asked Dr cram and his staff to come back with a more comprehensive policy that maybe isn't that is part
087of how he's going to administer the policy so not necessarily approved by you but so the teachers and staff understand how this will happen next I'd like to talk about policy gcpb which covers staff resignations uh I've talked to Dr Kramer about this he knows how I feel about this um and this isn't an attack in general honestly it's an attack on the education system so this basically lays out that if a teacher and it's specific to teachers not staff to teachers so if a teacher decides to resign and that reason is considered insufficient or unjustifiable cause then that teacher is subject to their teacher's license being revoked I know of no other occupation especially one that pays what Teachers Pay that you can lose your livelihood because you decide to resign it's a terrible
088policy it's not specific to Holloway County it's supported by the Virginia Department of Education and just because they support it and because it's just the way that they do business and education doesn't make it right um you know and I'll give you another example so last year this board allowed the former superintendent on very short notice to come to the board and say hey you know what I've had enough I'm done you renegotiated his contract and you paid him handsomely to leave are you going to allow other teachers to come in and say hey you know what I'm done uh can we renegotiate my contract and can you throw me a little cash on the way out the door this policy the way it's written and the way that it's executed right now abdicates the
089school board superintendent and anyone else in the administrative chain of command from their role as a leader and uses economic fear and coercion to motivate employees to stay instead of developing a positive work culture and addressing problems so again it's not an attack on the individuals here or the staff it's an attack on how the the K-12 education industry works one other policy time okay thank you [Applause] that's the last speaker on this section chair next we'll move along with the approval of the agenda or amendments for Open Session hmm chair this is times I have a question is um this line 13 the approval of the agenda and Amendment of the Open session we have been an open session now for a little bit should we shouldn't that be moved up to another area
090on the agenda because we reconvene and uh into Open Session and was certified but from seven and then we had a moment of silence and uh Allegiance which that was not part of the closed session so shouldn't This Be Moved 13 maybe take the place of line eight I should have I take your point and it's because we have been in Open Session now for several things we even had the uh um Iron white we've had all of those things no you're absolutely correct for the next meeting we will we will move that thank you yes Mr chair I move to amend the agenda to add the following agenda items additional budget meetings and board member organizational memberships I'll second up okay so we have a motion and we have a second do we have
091any discussion yes yes I would like to discuss um one of the agenda items yes and that is the motion that the Isle of Wight County school board members be allowed to join um an individual as individual members one educational related organization listed on the Virginia Department of education's list of educational related organizations Mrs times we're just voting whether or not we're going to put it on there we're not voting on the issue yet well that's why I'm I'm reading the statements so I can tell you why okay this is It's a motion because I don't think we should need to put it on the agenda okay I'll just stop reading I don't think we need to put it on the agenda at this time okay because I I really do have a serious concern
092with this okay is there any other discussion yes Mr chair I would like to table that item until next month okay is there any any disagreement with table lamp under the bylaws I I believe one member can table can table an item I'll suck at the table so we will table that so on that note I'll need to resend motion resend the motion and then make it without that yeah Mr chair I move to rescind my last emotion to amend the agenda to add the following agenda items additional budget meetings and board member organizational meetings second and we have a motion a second okay board I'm going to take a verbal vote on this one Mr Cunningham Mr Wooster yay Mr colic yay Mr Marsh yay and Mrs times Mr chair I move to amend
093the agenda to add the following agenda items additional budget meetings period second we have motion a second is there any discussion no discussion the clerk will take the vote they passed four ones thank you and just for the record I'm going to place that agenda item just so you guys know where it's going to come I'm going to put that at 20.5 just so you know where it's going to be got it 2 0.5 okay very good next we'll have citizens comments on non-agenda items put this I'm sorry please okay I'm sorry thanks for the opportunity to speak before the board today I just want to quickly talk about what I consider to be the most important word that describes our organization here and that's the word public you guys are responsible for a public
094school system and the word public means well we could look it up I looked it up before I came here today there's a you know basically the community so we have this system that gives everybody in the community an opportunity to get an education which is a fabulous thing and you know when you look into the history of it only really since about 1954 in in our country have we really had a public school system so it's still kind of in its infancy but what it really brings is diversity and preparation for our students to go out into the real world and already have an exposure to that real world because of the diversity that exists within the public school system not to mention the fact that we're giving everybody the opportunity to go to
095school you know most of our schooling historically has been selective various organizations have sponsored schools and they select who can participate we don't have that here so your responsibility is is a huge one because what goes with that diversity is difficulty and so rather than um I'd like us to embrace the diversity because it is an asset for us and for our students ultimately so that's the point I just wanted to reinforce about public there's a couple other quick items I notice about books and the issues with books why don't publish why aren't Publishers required to rate their books from what I can read they're really not required so textbooks and things like that books that end up in the library just you know our movies are rated our TV shows are rated my son
096mentioned to me the the computer games are rated but Publishers don't seem to have to rate their books so I think we should look more into that so that our Librarians and our people aren't responsible for figuring out which books are okay and which ones are not the other thing on that is also I think there are things called I know there are things called obscenity laws that exist I'm not sure they're they're ever really enforced so you know rather than having the school having to do this kind of thing maybe the proper authorities that know the definition of obscenity laws and how to enforce them and things like that could be a way to deal with some of those issues and that's all I wanted to say thanks for the opportunity [Applause] Michael Ozil
097Michael the heart of District have a birthday to you keep on getting pretty more I want to bring to the school board attention on something that I've been asking for quite some time his special education for those of us that pretend participate in that uh game at Smithfield High School against Winslow a couple weeks ago I think it was that's a good excitement I even got to fight with me for your time there's here that brings Joy to all of us and I think we all can get agreement on that but one thing I want to bring to your attention again is showing them some type appreciation now we bring all the students up here staff get them appreciation whenever you think about giving new appreciation they work as hard as some of us do
098they don't have difficulties so I feel like they should have a chance as a part of the school system to show themselves to the public or who the ones should or just bear their confidence up because if they do the rest of us got it but it just was a challenge right there and I've been asking this for quite some time so but when they did this come up with the flight with this is and I say well you know me by me dealing with a special ed and plus I'm on the board for the county a Task Force Special Ed then I feel like I need to bring some ahead again and by showing them just appreciation that they are somebody too it really sets the whole move for all of us that's all
099I have to tell you this moment because um I sure hope that we all can come agreement on that and if we can't then we in bad shape so I would like for y'all to consider that let's give them some type of appreciation whatever it is a whole group or just one or if at a time that's showed them some appreciation and you'd be surprised what more just a little bit due for their spirituality their confidence they even come out here in the world because you know just by seeing them they still got a long shot that we're headed on and I'm speaking for my experience so just showing them moves B it moves a lot of you all over there because they like I said again day two of somebody too I thank you
100for your time thank you Miss Dazzle Reverend Williams good evening boys here and board members and Dr Kramer happy birthday to you I also celebrated my grandson's birthday today he turned five today and I'm sure you're just one year above that but uh thank you all for the opportunities to come before you you know after listening to all of the uh comments that was made on the policy INB I want to say Amen to everything that was said and you know as a as a pastor I would never dare to tell my people do as I say do not as I do and I'm saying that to say that the board ought to be an example for the teacher for the employee uh you all have written in your INB policy employees of Isle of
101Wight County Schools shall not endorse any political party candidate or ideology in the performance of their duties or responsibility but rather remain neutral I read in this Smithfield times yesterday's issue that the board the very chair of our school board has endorsed Emily Brewer am I right about that and as I am sure you are in my personal capacity she is a declared Republican am I right about that I also read in the February 24th wins the weekly that part of your campaign funds was given to you by Republicans the Republican Party gave you a hundred and fifty dollars and one of the board of supervisor members who the declared Republican by the name of a Rosen also gave you 150 am I correct on that I believe so and Jason or Mr Marsh I'm
102sorry I'm sorry Mr Marsh I also read in that same article I've got 33 percent of your money came by way of packed political action committee and that same paper said that Mr Wooster has declared himself to be a conservative and to me all three of you guys are contaminated therefore you're not fit to be a school board member because you cannot make a fair decision no wonder you kick against such a viable program as Girls on the Run I'm a living testimony that that program worked my granddaughter I went through that program last year they're prior to going through that program she was a c student now she is a leader and I want you to know she's an A B student so if you want academic proof of whether or not that program
103worked if you want proof that you need to step aside get out of the way and carry it and take that CRT or walk or whatever you call it you need to take that Republican party stuff right on back to the back woods and let somebody who's capable come and make decision for our public school thank you [Applause] Ethan Schwartz and well Mr Schwartz is coming up let me say that um a few people have made comments about what I do in my personal capacity and I will not be addressing any more of that here this evening I did as much as I'm going to but I will address it between one-on-one or at any Town Hall that I hold but I will not be addressing anything political here because in our positions of school
104board members we do not discuss politics in our personal lives we can just as the teachers can in their personal lives sir good evening uh thank you board for allowing me to speak tonight first off I'm Ethan Schwartz I'm an 11th grader at Smithfield High School and I previously spoke here um on stop the uh regarding the stop the bleed program as a student and with the JROTC program I'm here to represent representing as a student once again and over the past couple of months me and my fellow good at Cadence to Stefano have spoken in community organizations such as the Lions Club and recently Tuesday we spoke at the American Legions Post we have invites to a couple others in hopes of funding uh Smithfield High high school with stop the bleed kits and
105other schools in Isle of Wight County representing the JROTC program but overall this estimate of for all of the schools and offices in Iowa County is thirty thousand dollars and with the limited grants that we've had we would probably need some help from the school board um uh I am asking you to finalize the budget for next year and ensure that this gets done by adding a line item of four stop blade kits just set aside thirty thousand dollars uh but I couldn't attend the budget here in Tuesday the evening as both Cadence and I had after school obligations Canon uh was in a scr uh Hampton in in Hampton at a scrimmage and we barely made it to the America uh Legion Post in time to speak with them at seven o'clock uh we
106are doing everything we can as students to ensure the safety of our fellow students students from pre-k through all the way through the 12th grade and our teachers and administrators the safety uh ensure uh is not well I have the chance of survival in the case of a mass casualty a mass casualty is not just an active shooter situation of course um it could be a vehicle incident in drop off and pickup it could be a horrible break in the leg that needs a tourniquet it could be a tornado that hits a part of a building and has casualties in that building all of those you would need a stop the bleed kit such as this um uh but again I uh I am asking you uh to place a line item for stopped bleed
107kits of thirty thousand dollars and that will benefit all students teachers parents administrators and employees of Iowa County Schools thank you and I submit the rest of my time thank you Heidi Schwartz so I'm going to talk elections during the election process some people and organizations contribute to individual candidates who they think will advance their own interests that's the nature of our electoral system the school board is part of that electoral system after listening to hearing the hearing on Tuesday I know that Mr Williams seemed upset that Mr Marsh accepted a donation from someone he again stated it tonight quite frankly I respect and thank both Mr Marsh and Mr Wooster who like others were first-time candidates this past year both Marsh and Wooster read the instructions on how to properly fill and complete Finance
108campaign documents by doing this they both were open and factual in their reporting by doing this it allowed individuals such as Mr Williams to easily see who was contributing to their campaigns but Mr Williams took issue with someone who contributed to Mr Marsh's Campaign which created a website for Mr Marsha's campaign Mr Williams referred to this contribution as diversive but when I looked at Mr Cunningham's campaign finances lo and behold Mr Williams denoted donated 300 to Mr Cunningham's 2021 campaign Mr Williams the very same man who's been complaining about Mr Marsh's donations Mr Williams the same man who gets up at every school board meeting town hall and spews racist rhetoric and conspiracy theories the same man who called the current chair of the school board last year in any conservative in Isle of Wight
109County a white supremacist I have to ask did Mr Williams give Mr Cunningham that donation because he thinks he will advance his interest because he believes those very same things I don't think so I've only had one face-to-face conversation with Mr kenningham and it was recently I look forward to working with him in the near future I've watched Mr Cunningham for a year on the school board act with respect I may not agree with some of his voting but I've not seen the same racist rhetoric from Mr Cunningham as I have from Mr Williams so how are we now deciding whose campaign donations are considered diversive as Mr Williams described but Mr Williams the only one person who stood up here who has spewed their most racist dialogue I've heard from a person at school
110board meetings and you tell me how does this improve our Isle White County Schools it doesn't thank you [Applause] Laura Fletcher Mr chairman ladies and gentlemen of the board Dr Kramer thank you for having me here for letting us all speak and just so everybody knows I'm the white lady who's married to a white man with white children which I only said because I followed several speakers who felt it necessary to describe their intersectionality which shows the sickness of what we're dealing with right now so um and regarding all of that too I just have to add one thing I love how they uh the the arrogance of Education that they would question parents concerns parents rights yet not bring a single solution to how they could assuage some of those concerns or how they
111might handle it in the classroom and then they want to tell us who are residents and proud citizens of the greatest nation on the face of this Earth that they are victims of systemic racism it's sick and if that's what's being taught in schools then the Department of Education must be immediately defunded which is a plan and it's also an economic fact that this nation is going to have to make some very very difficult decisions which is why I want to speak about the budget tonight Dr Kramer you had a great quote in your PowerPoint that was sort of a quick version of what you're presenting in the budget from Benjamin Franklin an investment in education always pays the highest return that's true except it doesn't have to be money I like this quote from
112Ben Franklin so I brought another one that is the Thrifty maxim of the weary Dutch who by the way financed uh much of the American Revolution helped America win our independence and helped start a fledgling Nation the Thrifty maxim of the wary Dutch is to save all the money they can touch and we've been on a real high since covid with what Ms times likes to refer to as free money and we need to Reign it in the only thing that I think that the top things in my opinion for our budget our security for our schools and for our teachers school buses and I guess my my biggest issue right is the top heavy Administration I think we need to cut some of that out I think to have two what are we calling
113them dean of students coming in who are primarily dealing with discipline well the way to handle discipline is to handle it immediately those children need to be removed parents need to be held accountable we can get them help but you need to protect and take care of the classroom environment for the majority of those students it was at the time or one minute just one minute okay sorry thank you I'm also concerned I'd like you all to consider it about the administration building being builded Hardy for years as a resident of this County I've heard about the shoddy construction there I don't know that it's worth being saved what I really also don't know is that this is the time to spend that money I would really like to see we're getting ready to see
114Congress I believe they're going to have they really need to go through agency by agency of what needs to be cut where we can save money because we are 31 trillion dollars in debt if you want to teach your children you have a serious conversation about the budget here you hold the administration you hold their feet to the fire you make them make Cuts in their class classrooms and their programs through their building projects everywhere they are you make them justify every penny time thank you Brian Mack Elijah Smith Ellen Carver good evening Dr Kramer I hope you have another birthday party planned I'm Ellen Carver I'm the executive director of Girls on the Run for Hampton Roads I'm here again this evening because of misinformation that continues to be repeated in the public domain
115and in the Smithfield times and other places about what girls of the run is it is a non-partisan youth development program that builds confidence in girls I want to also repeat that the flow of funds from Isle of Wight County Schools to Girls on the Run Hampton Roads totals three thousand dollars at its highest fiscal year other monies that have been spent in past years and are proposed to be spent in future years go to support this program actually are paying the coaches who stay after school after their regular school duties end to work with girls we launched this partnership in the spring of 21 the district enrollment has grown 500 percent from 23 girls to 130 girls per year at all seven elementary and middle schools that's 390 girls so far who are experiencing
116our curriculum which teaches critical thinking skills not critical race Theory it builds confidence it promotes community service it increases physical health physical stamina emotional health emotional regulation so that the sros have fewer cases in their schools these girls also experience the Triumph of crossing the Finish Line at a 5k as young as age eight there is loads of academic research that supports our position that youth who are good in their physical health who have high self-esteem and who participate in community service simply do better in school if Isle of Wight chooses to stop paying the girls on the run largely discounted fee of 23 dollars per girl we will find be fine with that we will just implement the feed of families but we want to go on record that the fee to families will
117be new and some of our families will be shocked by that because the program has been free to them for three years additionally if you worked as you work to finalize your budget and I'm fully aware of how difficult it is to make the dollars balance please if you do approve funding for after school buses I ask that Girls on the Run have the same access to those after-school activity buses that other clubs and sports children have additionally and most importantly teachers are hard-working if they choose to stay after school to Mentor or coach or tutor or do anything to enrich a child including girls on their own coaches we ask that if the school board approves budget Monies to compensate coaches and mentors and tutors that that you and that you include Girls on
118the Run coaches in those stipends I want to thank you because I know a lot of our coaches are watching tonight and some are here live I want to thank them for their continued support and I want to thank you again for hearing me out on what girls on the run is and what it is not thank you Phil Watson good evening our school board members uh thank you for allowing me to speak tonight happy birthday is this your 30th birthday though I know the feeling I'm getting ready to celebrate my 75th anyway I'm not here no politics no Islams no nothing so you can relax I'm not here to beat you up I do have a problem all right now I live in a section in Carrollton called Charis Brook okay the main thoroughfare
119is whippingham Parkway there's a street off to the side it's a block long it's about 600 feet long it's called Vintner view I lived very into the cul-de-sac right now we have a house on the corner down here a whippingham and Denton review where two kids cut your handicapped School Bus let me tell you way to run out to that bus I've never seen handicapped kid run like that now they're not in a wheelchair they say Well they're slow Learners does that really you know you you send a handicapped school bus to pick a couple slow Learners when their siblings catch a bus right beside their house and they go to the same school that's a waste of diesel fuel with the price of fuel we've got right now you can't afford to be throwing
120a whole bunch of money around the problem of God is the school bus driver will come in turn in front of the house instead of backing up and going back down whipping him she decides to go all the way down to the Interventional view by my house and turn around a 35-foot school bus and a 45-foot cul-de-sac she got a pull forward and back up two or three times and all here is beep beep beep beep at 6 30 in the morning now I served my country I served my state and I have served my community I got up every morning at five o'clock took a shower put on a badge and a gun I jumped on a Harley you ever tried to Kickstart a cold Harley at six o'clock in the morning that's back
121when they had kickstarters 47 years of police work I would think that I'm entitled to a little peace and quiet now I retired a few years ago my wife just retired and every morning that school bus is bouncing outside the bed with that backup alarm now springtime's coming what do you think it's going to do when we sleep with the windows open what we did to neighbor all the neighbors are ticked off I said give me a chance to go to school board to let them know what's going on because we need a favor we're not here to beach up we just want to ask for some help and it kind of taxes we're paying I think we deserve a little help I'm paying 300 a month in real estate tax on my home that's
122a month okay and on retirement it ain't fun but the fact remains is we put our cars out into the cul-de-sac which is legal it's on street parking if you want to she drove all the way down one morning got dad said oh I can't make the turn she had to back up a tenth of a mile with that school bus we did that for a week you would think she would get it through her head that we don't want the school bus down there so we did it for the whole week Monday we moved to cars what she did comes back down to the cul-de-sac again now either get her a shorter school buses she can turn around in or make her back out onto whippingham Parkway like she's supposed to do I am
123tired of being roused at 6 30 in the morning from a school bus and it would take you need to slow her down I tried to follow one morning I got 30 miles an hour she's walking away from me like I'm parked she picks up two kids in the neighborhood you bring a school bus a mile into an area to pick up two kids that is a waste of taxpayers money especially when he can catch a regular school bus y'all really need to do something about that okay I'm asking for y'all now to talk to this lady it's bus number 21 okay keep it out of our cul-de-sac I don't she backed up dead they almost took a mailbox out all right thank you very much have a good day speak again or Nicole Talton
124today I've seen you good evening school board members Dr Kramer thank you so much for allowing this opportunity for citizens to speak this is my first time so I've never done this before I don't have any prepared notes um I just wanted to say thank you all for what you do and every day and as I've listened I've come to you from Mr wooster's District um District Two they used to be Carrollton I believe I am a parent of a child in the white school system I work in Isle of Wight County I do a lot of things in the community and I greatly appreciate your efforts and what you all do that as I listen to these conversations I've heard a lot of things mostly passion people are passionate about what they believe in
125and what they feel I remember there was a school board member who's currently on the board who was on the other side where I'm standing now who spoke with that very same passion that passion we need to make sure that we express but we do it of course in a respectful way um I really wanted to talk about an item that's on the agenda but I'm not going to do that I just want you all to to know that I'm very proud to of our students one of the roles that I'm in is a facilitator for the alawite student leadership and I saw one of those students come up and speak and one of the students from last year was a recipient of award and that just made my heart proud because that's what the
126school board is about it's about our students and enriching their lives and making them better students one of the best things that I learned as a student is college to question everything that you learn I had a professor that that taught that or said that and that has always stuck with me and even when we can't agree and we won't agree or we don't agree we can still agree to disagree and do it in a respectful way um I also come from a family of Educators I'm the dissenter I did not go into education mainly because my mother warned me not to um just because she was an educator she wasn't she's a retired assistant principal um and she just felt like you know Educators did not get the respect that they deserve so you
127know she steered me from that profession I ended up in banking like that was any better but the thing is um I someone mentioned trust that was another word I heard I heard trust I heard think and respect and that I think is a key part of it trusting our Educators to do what they do day in and day out as a child as an educator I was married to my my husband was an educator he's self-employed now but it's something that we need to keep that in mind and to have those conversations I think that is the solution someone mentioned people coming here with not you know having Solutions the solutions is to have those conversations to have those hard conversations sometimes it's not easy but that's what we've got to do to keep
128our great Isle of Wight County like it is to keep our great United States United and not divided so again I just I didn't have any prepared notes I just wanted to speak from the heart and just let you know that thank you so much [Applause] Louis Edmonds good evening again and uh Happy Birthday Dr Kramer I knew I was going to be tight on time the first time around so I had to wait the second time uh just a couple things to cover real quick so the budget right now is at 83 million dollars um but all that we've really seen from that is depending on what meeting I'm listening to somewhere between four and let's say five and a half million dollars which is about five percent of the actual budget so we
129really haven't seen what the rest of the budget holds and I remember last year when I spoke at the public hearing there was a lot it was a line item ish and it was a little bit easier to discern what we're actually trying to do um Girls on the Run is forty thousand dollars of that budget so if we do a quick math that's 0.05 percent of an 83 million dollar budget we've expended a lot of time on 0.05 frankly I I'm I'm a little confused as to why it's a separate line item so if I'm I'll Trust what people said in good faith that most of that is towards buses and stipends and everything else if that's the case I don't understand why it was created as this forty thousand dollar thing that should
130have just been a little bit more in those different line items and then the you know thirty five hundred dollars or thirty six hundred dollars or whatever it is uh towards essentially what I want to say scholarship for uh people to or for some of the young ladies to do girls on the run we should if we want to go down that route we should create some kind of a scholarship line item and you figure that out for the various different organizations that were covered uh on Tuesday night's meeting you know Beta Club and all these other things like how do we help students with that um the other thing I'll say with girls on the run is not a dig on it but I I'm gonna go out on a limb here and I'm
131going to say young boys are probably a significant larger portion of our discipline issues and some of our challenges and everything else so ask if we're going to consider Girls on the Run like what are we doing to also help there as well um a couple other items kind of on the budget so back in January there was a decision made to move central office over to the new Hardy school and everything else this isn't a comment on whether that's a right or wrong decision but my understanding and maybe I'm misunderstanding it is 1.2 million dollars that was not a line item that I remember from last year was able to be found to make that happen so I'm presuming that that 1.2 million dollars whatever was originally assigned to doesn't need to be in
132this year's budget and so that's what I'm kind of getting at is there's probably money in you know that other 95 of the budget that we haven't talked about that could offset some of this stuff and and I think it would be beneficial to the public and it would be beneficial to the Board of Supervisors if we go back and explain that explain what you're not doing that you did last year where you're you're creating some cost savings um I I'm concerned on discipline so again just based off what I've heard the different meetings it looks like 150 to 450 000 of salary we want to add depending on how you want to you know categorize the dean of students the ssos and a couple other things but it seems to me they're mostly a
133discipline thing I feel like based on the conversations that I've heard especially at the Joint meeting it is about managing the bureaucracy of discipline uh you know that sounds kind of harsh but it's doing paperwork and all the other things that are involved with discipline I don't really hear how we're going to try to reduce discipline and I'm not trivializing that or saying that it's an easy thing to solve there's probably a lot of legal issues and everything else involved but seeing some type of connection between how this investment here and especially considering it sounded like if this will next year we'll come back and we'll ask for more at the middle school level I think we need to draw that line between that investment to reducing discipline um and then I'll just say briefly
134on the time all right thanks Martha Jackson foreign s in the house tonight Martha Jackson District three um first I want to celebrate whm women's History Month Mrs Denise Newby times has con has consistently championed student causes for Isle of Wight County Schools I celebrate you tonight I thank you keep shining your light and and using your voice the second item on my list is a test for all of the board members do you know any of these people Lewis Hamilton Kyra Atkins and you can't use your phones uh Joe Masco hell is your list Alyssa Nichols Jeffrey blunt David Bowden Monday Peterson Morris Brown Maury Brown Todd Barlow Kyra Atkins Carla Hall Erica Holmes Mary Batten Richard blunt and Brian Blunt please check out the green book and the red cape have the newest
135board members made any visits to any instructional classes at our nine schools where teachers are using Innovative strategies and lesson plans and doing so much hard work to educate our students if so how many how have the visits impacted your stance on the framework INB that you have developed you seem to be a little out of touch with what our students need since December 2022 when you took office these are to the new board members have you made any comments to any of the eye on instruction presentations if so which one what is the impact of the shortfall of money Statewide Statewide Aid estimates for Virginia Public Schools the 201 million short of what our district is expected to receive and how do your conservative stance benefit all of their children of Isle of Wight
136County we look forward to working with you I can give you some history on West Side Elementary School which is my favorite school because I attended and worked here please let's work together for our students Samantha Jones good evening distinguished school board members Dr Kramer I am Samantha Jones I am in the carsville district and I have two kids that attend their second and fourth grade I have just a few main concerns I would like to go over with you number one teachers or the amount of teachers that have left in the last year we've had eight teachers alone leave last year and one secretary Cartersville used to be the school that a teacher had to die in order for someone to get a job there it was number one you cannot wait for these
137you know teachers to let a new teacher in it's not like that anymore we started this year and we didn't even happen only one third grade teacher I feel like I don't know if it's a questionnaire that needs to go out but something needs to go out to these teachers that are there now to see how we can help them how can we better their day if not when these contracts go up I'm really scared to find out how many we're actually going to lose I know of two how many more also I'm going to read an excerpt from an email that was sent to a board member this parent has a concern for the cleanliness of our schools it's horrible the floor's starting there's trash Left Behind the janitors when they've left for the
138day she went to actually help set up for our dance and had to help clean okay there was chicken bones on the floor open packets of stuff laying around and this is all just what she saw in plain sight she's a nurse she has a child that has been sick 12 days this year and communication or let me say lack of communication we are going to get 15 million remind messages of our photos I actually got one when I was writing this this morning okay but let it be something more we get a generic remind message this much if you don't know the correct questions to ask your children and mine don't ride the bus I've got the best five minutes picking them up I can learn anything I need to know in that five
139minutes of how that day went but if you don't know you're out of the loop it was upsetting for me to learn that they had silent lunch for three days in a row the whole school 3x why I couldn't tell you no communication behavioral issues now I'm fully aware of the fact that we have several I know this my child is on one of these classes okay what I would like to know is do you think this positive reinforcement is working one minute okay um I don't think it is so we really need to look into that um in the last couple of weeks just remind of a Nerf gun Mr Brinkley I was really scared when I pulled in I thought the cops were here for me I asked what would happen if I
140brought a Nerf gun in my pocketbook and pulled it out and shot someone well I did not find anybody in my family that would post bail so I left it at home but it was okay for that second grader to take it to school and do it and be there the next morning eyepiece 504s behavioral issues there because they're not being met the teachers don't know them so they're not abiding by them that creates problems and threats volunteers we want to volunteer we want to help I will take a vacation day but we're not welcoming to the schools thank you have a good evening chair college that was the last speaker did um did you want to allow Samantha to go ahead and give her update now okay oh first of all I just want
141to say Happy Birthday Dr Kramer um Smithfield is doing pretty well we've had some exciting events lately uh last weekend we had our Smithfield night on Broadway performance by the chorus class I wasn't able to go because I had to work but I heard it was great I saw some pictures and some videos they did amazing spring Sports have really started up lately baseball had a scrimmage so did soccer and softball all three teams did really good I was able to attend baseball and softball both those teams won so and then we have a color run that raises money for mental health research on March 18th so anyone that's interested you can go on a light County website or Smithfield High School and you can find more information on that but that's it thank you
142Samantha okay it is 8 12 we're gonna take a 10 minute recess Fair bike detector the Isle of Wight School Board is back in session next we'll have presentations by the staff and we will start with the early retirement it's incentive program and Mrs Sullivan will present it to the board for action uh yes this was brought to you at the last board meeting Dr Coleman presented it in my absence this is our early retirement incentive program and tonight is up for Action so that we can make this available to any retiree that ends at the end of this school year available to them for this next upcoming school year and I am available for any questions that you might have does anyone have any questions on the board this is Dutch Mr chair if
143there are no questions this is something we do annually right and uh the report was I like she said was given by Dr Kramer at our last meeting I would just like to go in and make a motion to approve their early retirement incentive program also known known as e-rip second so we have motion a second there is no discussion clerk will conduct a vote and it passes unanimously we will go to I teach and Mrs Sullivan will present the I teach memorandum of understanding to the board for information one second they're going to pull up a presentation real quick okay that's okay okay so this is to start off with just a little information about licensure and iwcs so um as of January 30th and we did our last review 28 of our 446
144teachers school counselors and media Specialists that are required to hold that license um do not hold a provisional or a full Virginia teaching license additionally 30 others hold a provisional license which will expire in after their three years of being issued it so we have started talking to a company called I teach and just to give you a little bit of information about I teach it is a rigorous Council of the accreditation of educator preparation approved cost-effective pathway for uh and to enter into the teaching professional so typically for a licensure you have a teacher who has a bachelor's degree in an area of a specific content that they wish to teach or in early childhood development or psychology and so they then go into a teacher prep program sometimes a master's program sometimes a
145program that is offered as a certification Pro program and in both of those programs the teacher then gets or the candidate then gets the coursework and the certifications that they need to then become licensed or apply to licensures through via vdoe and for years universities have offered certificate programs to allow teachers to complete the required coursework for a licensure without having to take the same amount of courses that it would be required to get a higher degree I teach as an organization that is one of the first non-university Affiliated companies that offers the same coursework that is not credit bearing for a reduced cost so just to be clear this is not college credit coursework they do allow which we can see later in a slide they do allow some of that coursework to be
146converted to a university that they work with specifically um all of the coursework that is used during through I teach is um it is self-paced it's online benefits for those candidates that might take advantage of this that it's uh financially advantageous cost um it can come it does convert to a provisional three-year license to a full State licensure in one year um so some of our teachers uh you know have coursework they have to take it's a difficult rigorous process for them to go through um and 12 hours of it can be transferred to a masters at the American College of education benefits the division is it provides us with more fully licensed teachers and it's really helpful in helping current IAS enter into the teaching role if they're so desired it's also a recruiting
147technique as it offers an affordable alternative to licensure opportunity and it they provide Praxis text test prep based on the candidate's specific needs which sometimes is a stumbling block our teachers get through the coursework but then really struggle with struggle with passing the test then this provides them test prep for that it's a little bit about the history they started in Texas they've also reached and gone to Louisiana Hawaii Nevada Washington DC and just recently come to Virginia this is the house bill that recently passed um in the last year that gives us the ability to look at alternative routes to licensure um as you've heard tonight uh you know in different settings we have a shortage of teachers um and so we are looking at ways that we can more quickly and more effectively
148encourage teachers to to become licensed and so there is a house bill and also superintendent's memo that allows for this as far as the cost goes it's zero cost the division it's a 250 Dollar application fee and then the total cost for a candidate is 3 000 which comparatively one course at a college level is about fifteen hundred dollars um some of our teachers are taking anywhere from 12 courses to 36 credit hours in order to get those licensure courses that they need there's application enrollment training and teaching for our teachers to go through this process these are all the available certification areas that our teachers can gain a licensure to through I teach and so the process that they have is that as a division since it's no cost to us we do they
149have an mou um that they ask that we sign with them a memorandum of understanding to work with them uh the mou has been reviewed by our attorney um he did make some uh suggestions for for updates to that and we have at this point given that mou back to the company and their leadership is reviewing that to see if they are agreeable to those uh suggestions um so this is really just an informational uh topic for you all if they agree to those and it's something that we would like to move forward with I'll bring that mou back to you along with an application for us to apply to vdoe to use I teach as an option for alternative routes to licensure for our teachers so really for us it's a matter of agreeing
150to work with them preparing a license and then we have to wait for vdoe to also approve that license um or that application so a couple other divisions such as Chesapeake Newport News have also looked at this as well well um and so and Chesapeake I know has moved forward with submitting the application to vdoe already um and is waiting to hear back from them on approval for this um as far as the division goes we really have to do the conducting classroom observations which we already do of our teachers and providing that information to I teach to support them and that is all for the presentation if you have any questions for me yes ma'am um yeah Mrs Thomas yes oh thank you and um thank you as well Mrs Sullivan um I just
151have one question because I know with in some of the other school districts not the uh the urban districts but um the counties I've talked to some people there and they they are offering this but is uh I guess is north north northwest of us pretty much not with I teach but they're offering a program for their I.T population where they are I think they're they have a contract or something with one of the local uh colleges and the ones that I was talking to a couple of them there with uh Virginia State University and they are training these teachers but the localities are picking up the cost per much that that but they give them two options I think that um one option was the locality will pick up the costs but they had
152the teacher that well not the teacher well the individual that was in the student that was in the program the staff member that was in the program they had to um agree to stay with them for so many years and I think the highs I heard was about five years if they were going to pay for it or they could opt and pay for it themselves and they could even come to Isle of Wight okay if they wanted to once they finished the program uh is this particular I teach will that give our staff any type of options like that maybe some of them may not have the funding to pay this and I know you said I teach would give put them on a payment plan uh that may not be feasible at the
153time you know with you know their budget is is that something that uh we have considered in our contract so it's something we can definitely um consider as far as offering to offset the cost of that this year for example we have Title II funds that we're allowed to use for reimbursements um for cost of tuition taking Praxis tests application fees for licensure and so we have a application process and approval process for issuing funds reimbursing teachers through those Title II Grant monies and so this is certainly something that we could include in our grant proposal for Title II next year to say this is a route to licensure that's been approved we'd like to use this as reverse reimbursement and we could certainly consider that as an option okay all right thank you Mr
154Worster hey forgive me if I'm missing it somewhere in the documentation here but in order to get into this program is there any minimum requirement of the person so they have to be hired hired by the school district um like they have to be an employee of ours in order to enroll through us um and but no there's um so that would be um so it would be a bachelor's degree that they would have yes sorry so they would have to have a bachelor's degree in order to then move forward with the rest of the courses yes okay that was what I was wondering yes um also uh said one question I really got two um I asked uh Ms Getz at a previous board meeting if there were any plans or programs in effect
155to help assist IAS to move forward if so they so chose you know to uh to get their teaching license is this part of what you were speaking about okay thank you I'm doing this job where Mr Wooster just asked you he asked you about the requirements and you said they must have a bachelor's degree but not necessarily education correct they could have any bachelor's degree okay so I'm thinking that this program is uh I understand that too but I was thinking this was specifically for individuals such as uh IAS that have been working in a you know in our district or any district for a number of years with uh you know that instruction and experience so this is actually for individuals that may be coming in with the engineering degree and you know
156that we're tired of something and decide I want to come back in and do some teaching maybe math or something like that or in the sciences and um that but they don't have a license or cannot get it from the state so they can come and take these these quick courses I don't know how how long it's going to take them but uh one year okay so for one year they can take these courses and they can become a teacher yes and it also would help with our IA so many of our AAS actually have bachelor's degrees um they're just in non-teaching Contents um and a lot of our IAS because of the nature of the Ia position they are interested in working with Elementary um they want to become an elementary school teacher and
157that is actually one of our most difficult um areas to get licensed in because of all of the coursework requirements um so I will say for elementary they the I teach does say it usually takes a little bit longer than a year for both sped and for elementary Ed because of the extensive amount of certification that they have to have um but definitely something that our IAS could utilize is this what I'm looking for I'm thinking about the IAS that do not have that bachelor's degree as of now but they have been working maybe 15 years 10 years whatever in education uh is is there a program that they can go to and maybe get certifications to come in the classroom and get a license to teach yes so there are models um grow your
158own I was at a conference today just discussing that um and that is another option that we could consider um it does have budget implications um and so we could definitely consider that for a future future conversation so that's one pathway or one um specific way that someone without a bachelor's degree could be considered but this one is really to address those that already hold that bachelor's degree but it's not um in the area that they need to be in to teach well I would like to uh see us look into that area to help those that have that are working with us now and would like to take that pathway and getting uh certifications those without degrees see what we can do to help them to get a certification because that would help them
159we have them here and that would help you recruiting for classrooms I'm just asking okay yeah absolutely and it may not be feasible but just just check into it for me okay thank you Mr chair do you have one more question Mr Worcester uh just one more question on this as far as the program is is structured is this a self-paced course or is there a timeline associated with it um so the courses are self-paced uh it's online um so it allows someone who is working a full-time job or actually teaching in one of our classrooms right now um to then take be able to take the course and do the coursework at their own pace okay reason I was asking um I'm very familiar with CDC programs um with civil service and they are
160self-paced but there is a time limit with it which you must complete so if you start it today uh you have six months and that's the cut off so I didn't know if there was a cut off for this as well yes so their goal is to get the candidate through within a year they do have that three-year cut off when they have to have those courses or that certification complete before their provisional license Runs Out okay thank you I'm done are there any more questions thank you Mr Sullivan next Dr Como will present the contract between alawi County schools and Johnson Controls to the board for action sure boy chair there we go four chair board members Dr Kramer happy birthday [Laughter] all right so first I'm going to go through the Johnson Controls
161contract and the action item is up before the motion is actually read the the actual contract covers I'm gonna go through what it covers first of all fire alarm annual inspections fire alarm Parts sprinkler annual inspections sprinkler quarterly inspections fire pump annual tests annual backflow inspections backflow repairs annual fire alarm extinguisher inspections extinguisher six-year hadrow and recharge annual emergency exit lights inspection and also of course uh this includes maintenance repairs or fire alarm systems and of course it covers maintaining your fire alarm panels inspections repair and maintenance it also includes inspection on fire pumps inspections and limited coverage on sprinkler systems and backflows inspections and coverage of the fire extinguishers inspections and limited coverage with kitchen hoods and emergency lights and the reason why I want to go through all of the details of what
162this contract actually covers is uh with the last contract that we had with this coverage we had holes in the coverage so therefore different items were missing this is a full comprehensive contract now also I just want to touch base that this is a source well contract so this is a Cooperative contract agreement that we'll be using this uh this year to enter into this contract this is a contract that can be broken after a year but at the same time it's going to be a reoccurring are there any questions concerning the Johnson Controls contract at this time Mr Worster okay Dr Coleman I know we spoke about this earlier I just want to cover this just for clarity for the public watching yes sir um there was a few questions that I had pertaining
163to this contract number one was you know whether you receive multiple bids for the contract number two as we spoke earlier dealing with Source well is there a fee Associated for us to participate with them um could you just go ahead and clarify those for us absolutely uh first of all there is no fee for iwcs to participate in a source well program there may be a fee for the company to get a source well agreement or cooperative agreement um so just to clarify it is a Cooperative contract and speaking of Cooperative contract it has already been out to bid so therefore the RFP process is not needed if you have a source oil contract or if you're on Eva the uh the other Cooperative contract agreement so in dealing with something of Fire Systems
164we want to deal with a company that really knew what the fire systems were we just didn't want to deal with a company that we just I guess you can say got into a contract with we've been dealing with Johnson Controls for about 15 years at this time um they know all of the ins and outs of the safety program so with that stated I think that uh you know we're looking at Safety First going into a contract with uh Johnson Controls once again but this time a more full coverage I think was the best beneficial for the division thank you no problem I have no further questions all right so at this time this will be action item here and to approve the School Division move forward and enter a contract agreement with Johnson
165Controls for the life safety system full coverage inspection and maintenance and the amount of 112 726 dollars as presented second we have a motion a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk should conduct a vote Dr Coleman are you taking the next two items as well yes I mean I will be joined by Miss Harris well Miss Harris is coming up I just wanted to answer one more Mr Wooster uh concerns and that was uh concerning local companies being able to have an opportunity also with the school system and I want to say among other initiatives that we are working in collaboration with the economic development office to create a list of contractors with class A license from the county and towns although the school system is not required to use
166either the electronic Virginia for procurement we try to do so to assist with procurement regulations now but we are definitely focused on using more local companies and we feel that the partnership with the economic development office will benefit us in the future as it's done many times in the past now together we'll be checking the alawite chambers business directory for member business offering these services in the County's online business list on our Economic Development website also so that's one initiative that Dr kale likes actually winning two with the economic development office and that's one thing we're trying to build the class A local list so they will answer the other question thank you okay next Dr Coleman and Miss Harris will present the request for an increase in the FY 2223 instructional budget instructional category
167budget due to an increase in state funding in the amount of 225 680.32 cents from the Board of Supervisors for action yes good evening chairman colic and vice chairman marriage and school board members into our beloved blessed um superintendent happy birthday we will continue to stay until we end tonight um before you I have the board resolution the executive summary resolution for an increase in instructional category for some funds that were received from the vdoe there has been an adjustment in the title 1 and title four and we want to get those funds um amended the appropriation amended by this board get the approval for the amount of 225 680.32 so that we can um get the information sent over to the Board of Supervisors for their approval and be able to expend those funds
168once the ordinance has been passed any questions oh you have a question Mr Marsh thanks Mr chair uh Miss Harris yes so glad to have you on the team thank you um so this is this is for the folks listening more than anything else uh I whoever gave me all the detailed answers to my questions I appreciate it um for the Simplicity of what's going on please tell me how we got to where we're at right now in other words I know that I understand this to be a correction of some sort of a deficiency we're not necessarily asking the Board of Supervisors for more money that's correct we are asking for money that was already awarded we just need to go get it exactly and it's my understanding that this is something that you
169identified since taking your new job yes so what happens is um Whenever there is an increase in allocation for a grant normally um V do we let's send out a superintendent memo and so they do it sporadically you never know you kind of have to be on the radar or also be on the list and so usually in their memos when there is an amendment or adjustment to an allocation they will notify the superintendent that's also represented from v2e that will notify the budget office or Finance contacts as well and so with that being said they'll let you know what the amount is um based on a spreadsheet that they have calculated once that information is received in the finance department it is our responsibility to then go in and make a right up a
170resolution and executive summary saying stating out to our board that we have received additional funds before we can expend the funds we have to get it appropriated so um in this process since coming on coming to Isle of Wight um you have noticed that you received a board executive summary and a resolution which may be a little bit different than what it has been done in the past this has been implemented so that we can better track the funds that are coming in as well as keeping the Board of Supervisors abreast as funds are coming in because they're the governing Authority once this group once our school board approves the funds then we have to submit the resolution to the board supervisors so they can get on their agenda they appropriate it if there is
171any Financial impact with a grant per se I do list it on the resolution so in this case there was no Financial impact which means that the Board of Supervisors does not have to increase any money to us so it's of of no you know no um no bad thing on their end and so once they approve it they will then submit that information to their Finance Department who then writes up the ordinances and the numbers I have spoke with these City CFO because I want to see what the process was to see if it's in alignment with what my experience is used to and so we want to make sure that we are both aligned and so from now on once the ordinance has passed represented from the finance department will send that information
172back over here to let us know that it has been approved and then we can be able to appropriate the money because we cannot spend the money until it's actually been appropriated by the governing Authority so once we receive the ordinance and the number then we'll allow at that moment to put the funds into the financial system for our users to be able to spend the dollars that's been awarded to us so so you have identified and implemented a policy so that this does not happen again that is correct excellent that's all I got and it's all the procedure Mrs times yes I have a quick question for Mrs Harris I understood I tried to track you and I understand what you what you just said but I just want to ask one question so
173this monies has been sent from the state to the Board of Supervisors as we're is there in their um treasure right now in the County's treasure most likely yes that's all I wanted to know because I didn't know if we had to what if we act on it tonight and you know and uh it goes over to them to act on it then we have to request it from the state but the the state has sent the money to them but we have to request it otherwise just stay in their treasure exactly okay thank you very much you're welcome okay if there's no more questions can I get a motion chair I would like to make a motion to request to increase Isle of Wight County Schools fiscal year 2022-23 instructional category budget due to
174increased State funding and the amount of 225 680.32 cents we have a motion in a second is there any discussion oh yeah no discussion the clerks should conduct a vote okay unanimous vote approved and next Dr Coleman Miss Harris will present the request for an increase in the grant fund and answer any questions for action yes so with this item here that we have before the board this is a donation that was received from Ferguson cares back and during the fiscal year the end of fiscal year 20 2021 they initially donated 25 000 and then covet began so it limited the restrictions for students to be able to go to the job sites that it was entitled for after that in addition Ferguson cares added another 25 000 donation to the alawite school board and
175that was received at the end of fiscal year 21-22 in October 2022 during the reversion process the funds was returned back to the Board of Supervisors and so it's in their possession at this time once we were notified or made aware so if staff members were made aware that they did not have the funds here locally as far as the borders as far as the school board is concerned they have been in contact we have been in contact with the city um not City I'm sorry County CFO she is aware and has also explained that it was probably reverted back so we're this request is asking that the Board of Supervisors will return the 50 000 back to us as it was a donation um it appears that it was in the general fund which
176is why I was voted back so this time when we receive the funds it will go into the grants fund because that is a special Revenue fund where donations of Grants go that way we can be able to expend it whenever we need to and it doesn't be and doesn't get reverted back to the Board of Supervisors standing right if there's no questions I'm ready for a motion Ms chair would like to make a motion to request an increase in the grant fund budget and the amount of fifty thousand dollars second we have motion a second is there any discussion seeing none the clerk will conduct a vote okay and it passed unanimously thank you and now we're going to have the proposed 2023 to 2024 school calendar and Ms Briggs will present two options
177for the school calendar and we'll answer any questions and this is for action I will do my best thank you so when we presented the calendar at the the February meeting we mentioned that we were going to make some changes based on feedback we received from parents and from staff and that was regarding the two half days we had for Monday and Tuesday the week of Thanksgiving and in both the options you have in front of you we have reverted those days back to full days which is which is what we did this year those two days were full days and then we had Wednesday through Friday as the holiday there was concern of those half days having uh High absentee rates and with concerns with attendance we felt best to to make that move
178back to a full day the main differences you're going to see between the two options in option one October 9th Columbus Day is a student holiday and a staff work day when we presented this in February Mr colic mentioned that he he strongly believed that that should be a holiday for everyone so option two incorporates that as a holiday for staff and students so you see in option two October 9th is now a holiday for all we did move one of the March student holiday teacher work days slash professional learning days to October to give us a professional learning day in the fall so the option one calendar has March 4th and 5th as staff holidays and excuse me student holiday staff work days professional learning days option two has only March 4th but that
179second day slid over to October other than that the only changes that have occurred was a slight shift in the end of first semester and second semester just to balance out the days each side so you'll see a just a slight difference when first semester ends in option one and second semester begins same for option two that's all thank you Miss Briggs yes sir do we have any discussion well obviously we're going to have some we've got two options uh Mr colic unless there's any discussion prior to I'm prepared to make a motion Mr Mr chair um I moved to approve the 2023-2024 school calendar option number two second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion okay there's no discussion the clerk will conduct the vote it is unanimous option
180two next Miss Magner will present the special education annual plan for information [Music] is up for information it has been presented once already at our seaac which is our special education advisory committee meeting after tonight it would it will go out to uh public for review and for comment and then it will come back to you guys next month for approval just very briefly as you look through the annual plan you'll notice there are two funds six eleven and six nineteen six eleven is for school age students while 619 is for our preschool babies two three and four-year-olds the majority of the money we do receive does go to pay for salaries for about 15 employees after that we have set aside requirements for students who are home based or potentially uh private schooled and
181then also we have um and then after that the uh the remaining funds do go towards materials and supplies so I am open to any questions if you guys have any please let me know not a question repeat what 6-11 was for school age school age okay any other questions if not we'll go to the next topic which is reports from the superintendent staff and it is the extended year proposal for 2022 to 2023 and again miss Magna will present the information on the 2022 to 2023 esy proposal for information Yep this this too is for information it does not come back for approval we are again offering an option for extended school year Services during the time frame of the month of July we do work with summer school so that we're using the
182same facilities and typically we see about 20 to 24 students every summer these are students who their IEPs their teams have determined that extending their school year is required to prevent significant regression and so we typically have about six teachers and six IAS that we staff and really unless you have any questions or if you have any questions let me know please thanks for answering all my questions I assume that you were the one that answered them all um I understand you guys do this at Windsor Elementary we do in custodial expenses are all included in your contract just for curiosity's sake do you pull in an SRO um I don't know and Mr Dr Coleman might be able to answer their time frame for their their services but during summer school we typically don't
183have SRS sorry I got you off guard got it thanks thanks for putting all this together okay thank you Mr Magna and next Mr Brinkley will update the board on his work since becoming the security specialist for Isle of Wight schools uh for information boy chair members of the board once again um Mr Brinkley needs snow and deduction and he'll be coming up here by himself a monthly to give you these reports but I just wanted to start off by stating there's been a lot of movement with Safety and Security across the division and a lot of the opportunities that a lot of things are getting accomplished and Mr Brinkley has been heading this charge meeting with principals and now he's going to give you a full report of the last two months and hopefully
184uh we'll start making this more of a monthly thing so that you can get uh for you can start understanding a little bit more what's going on in the division ready sprinkler all right good evening so over the first two months one of my one of my biggest things has been trying to to build some of the relationships here and to establish the difference in the the working system coming from the Sheriff's Office into the into the school division um and in doing that uh as Dr Coleman said I've met with all of the principals within the School Division and and perform walk-throughs on all of the schools as as I know many of you have uh I've attended several of the meetings uh in my in my early stages the principal's meetings the employee
185advisory committee the parent advisory committee and my absolute favorite out of all of those would be the student advisory committee because who better to come up with some of the some of the ideas and the ways that we can implement the security than the students and and even at their ages to to hear some of their ideas was was just amazing um I have reviewed uh our mutual link system uh and I I did meet with Eric cooperider and went over some of this and we have been talking as well about integrating our mutual link system into our lockdown drills to perform and this will accomplish two things it'll it'll perform more regular tests of our system as well as familiarizing staff with the system capabilities of how to be used in case of emergencies
186one of the big ticket items as you all are aware is the school of vestibules I had met with an architect from from a company that we had worked with previously and after that meeting we've decided to go with a a different vendor that manufactures storefront which is going to I believe save the School Division quite a bit of money when it comes to these vestibules and we are I've gone out with them and done School visits in each school and met with the principals met with the staff included them on some of the design plans and what what they would like to see and what would work best for them so we've gone out and done all the school visits and they've taken all of their measurements and I'm simply waiting for them to
187come back with a quote on all of those um many of you are familiar with the night lock system we're looking at re-implementing the night locks I have had at length conversations with my contacts from the State Fire Marshal's Office to make sure that we are in compliance with this and without a doubt we are with the assistance of Calvin Kelly I actually located all of the night locks that were previously removed from the schools We performed inventories of all of that and what we'll need moving forward in addition to that I was able to have a meeting with all of the school sros and I employed them to to kind of help me out on that and they did an inventory of their schools as far as what they would need additional doors that
188we need the locks on parts that were missing things of that nature so they were able to do a lot of that for me and we have we've finally been able to come with come up with what we need in order to re-implement that system additionally we are looking into the concealed weapon detection systems which I know many of you are familiar with I've spoken with and met with representative from multiple companies on this looking at at different systems and different price points have obtained pricing from all of them and I've actually traveled out to Hampton City Public Schools Suffolk Schools Franklin City Public Schools and most recently uh Southampton County Public Schools who are who are utilizing these detection systems and many of the school divisions have have different detection systems and I've been
189able to kind of pick their brains and see what works best for them and try to bring that back and determine which system would work best for Isle of Wight uh so I've been working on that one of the other one of the other issues that we had looked into was the use of canines in school as a former canine Handler obviously I'm a I'm a big proponent of this I know their capabilities and I know how they can be utilized um and by saying that I don't necessarily mean private sector I've been working with members of the Sheriff's Office and local law enforcement as well and as a result I'll be reviewing the options for the utilization of canines as a part of our Safety and Security for Isle of Wight County Schools um
190I have attended many work sessions uh in the county regarding the County's shelter plan which the schools are a big part of obviously we provide the building and and some of the Staffing and multiple things for the for the shelter plans I've been working with members of Emergency Services the Sheriff's Office Social Services Virginia Department of Health and then also the County Risk Management uh bringing all those organizations together and we've had several work sessions to try to bring this plan together attended and taken a part of the VOC training hosted by dominion and Virginia Department of Emergency Management and preparation for the upcoming vopex cycle we have actually our dress rehearsal for that coming up in April and then the final test for that will be will be coming up in July I have
191also worked with Emergency Services as well as Miss Sullivan to try to try to come up with a solution for CPR training for our teachers and how we're going to how we're going to offer them the Hands-On training that they need for that um and just this past week I attended the State campus safety and violence prevention Forum which was in Norfolk and this was hosted by Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services just a a plethora of information and unbelievable speakers that were that were there sharing sharing information on dealing with everything from sexual assaults within the school to mass casualties to Title IX situations uh so that was that was very beneficial I did have the chance you know I've kind of thrown a lot out here I'm trying to trying to move as
192quickly as I can did have the chance to speak with chairman colic uh after the the sped basketball game at Smithfield High School and he made a comment which is something that I have have been seeing since the start of this you know we're looking at a lot of a lot of new things to implement when it comes to Safety and Security and we're not looking at any one of these to be the solution we're not looking at any one thing to be the the one save all feature it's a it's a layer of security and what we're looking at is is adding these layers of security into our schools to to make sure that we can keep our students safe and one of the main things I wanted to add on was that writing
193them sprinkler he's working through the vulnerability assessments and planning as you already know this is a a longer course of action but he's working school by school along with law enforcement with vulnerability assessments that will probably go into the school safety audit at the end of the year so I know that's one of the the primary ideas that the school board actually wanted and that's another thing that Mr Brinkley is working on behind the scenes are there any questions at this time um yeah I've just got a couple first the threatened vulnerability vulnerability assessments for prevention deterrence and mitigation so I assume Dr Coleman that's what you would just mentioning that's exactly exactly what we'll mentioning okay good because that was one of the questions I'd written down yes sir um and also um Mr
194Brinkley do you foresee any proposal of any policies regulations and processes uh in the next several months and you don't have to articulate anything here this is more of a you know uh in your mind yay or nay but that's going to assist with this layered security approach definitely some processes because any any one of these ticket items that we that we Implement uh take for example the night locks or anything we have to write all of that into our crisis and into our crisis management plans and then as well we have to show how we are how we're conducting training and how we're training our staff on to do that so we're definitely going to be looking at some process changes on how we hand how we handle all those situations very good and
195another question is a question I've already asked you about the storefronts instead of the vestibules is the glass um that's my biggest concern with changing from vestibules to storefronts is bulletproof glass at least on the inside of the school have you been able to look at that at all they do have that was one of the questions I asked when we met and they do offer some some bullet resistant bullet resistant glass panels uh I'm not sure right now what the costs are on that he was going to quote me when we receive the quotes we'll receive the quotes for that as well as the standard tempered glass as well one thing that I would like to see at some point is the cost benefit analysis between the storefronts and the vestibules okay okay and
196I did want to mention that the storefronts our vestibules were not going away from vestibuse it's a vestibule it's just a different no I understand no I completely understand I'm just differentiating the name based on conversation of Mr Brown and many of the schools right now the the main entrances that we have in most schools are utilizing the same the same storefront that we're looking at utilizing for the vestibule yeah that's going to work well most of them Mr Marsh oh Mrs science would you ask him about the um the glass the security I in another capacity that I was in we had to check on that those glasses are very expensive and it depends on the thickness of the glass that some of them you know and the thickness that we needed for that
197um situation they were all very expensive very so actually we had to do a little construction around there Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair I just wanted to note for our audience and community members who may not be aware that this is a new position that Mr Brinkley is in uh I think it's important for us to know that this was the only position I asked for for our current year fiscal 23 and I want to thank you each of you board members you all voted unanimously to approve this position we now have someone who is focusing 100 of their time on the Safety and Security uh for our school for both students and staff so I just wanted to note that for again individuals who may be unaware of that fact thank you Dr
198Kramer yeah Mr Marsh one of the few things that this board has agreed unanimously on is Securities top priority that being said it sounds like you've got your ducks in a row and you've been very busy at this point in time is there any big head any big head hurdles that you have or anything specifically that the board can help you move forward on I don't think so right now I think we're still in the still in the planning stages in the research stages of a lot of this um probably if I if I had to put one of our next steps it's probably going to be trying to re-implement the night lock system and get that in place narrow down how we're going to train all the teachers train the staff and get that
199put into our crisis management plan because that's something that for the majority of it we already have and it's not something that we have to go out and make a big ticket purchase in order to increase the Safety and Security of the students any other questions okay thank you gentlemen thank you and the next topic will be the monthly Financial reports and Dr Coleman Mr Christensen and Miss Harris will answer any questions sorry good evening chair members of the board Dr Kramer the financial summaries check register detail check register summary and facility usage reports should be in front of you and in connection with Miss Harris we're happy to answer any questions that you might have well I'll go ahead and start it off Mr Christensen so last year at this time um we spent
200about 66 .6 percent of our budget this year we're up 69.6 so about 3 percent doesn't seem like a whole lot but I'm just wondering uh are we spending things in different places or is that a result of inflation or do we know I don't think it's necessarily a result of inflation it's just the timing of the spend so you're right it is pretty consistent with where we were last year but there's always going to be some variance in there just because you may have a capital Improvement projects that get done earlier in the year as opposed to the end of the year so you're always going to see some variance in there but but it really doesn't it's not necessarily adjusted with inflation it's just sort of the timing of the spend perfect thank
201you yes sir Mr Marsh Hey sir can you expand a little bit on the front line we spent 74 000 and some change on front line and I know that was when the Dr Kramer's proposed budget request so that's not something we're we're buying without a proven is it it's proposed for next year or is it I think both um I think we can speak to what we're doing this year Dr Coleman can speak to that yes and I can Dr Coleman jump in but the the 46 000 on the large ticket item that's for the initiation of the program so we did initiate the program this year so the 73 000 is baked into this year's budget the next year's budget is a completely separate item so maybe I'm crossing streams here so no
202you know you're asking a very good question I think um how we are funding it I think is what we need to speak to so Dr Coleman can you speak to I think we're using Esther funds for the current year next year would be in the general fund if I'm correct correct me if I'm wrong Esser funds for instruction funds for the current year and then moving forward we're moving to the general budget where we have it yes please come forward thank you I'm sorry I'm not even sure how to ask the question I just it caught my attention because I know it was right I understand what you're asking so it's one of the line items in Dr Kramer's proposed budget because there's a reoccurring cost so the product has already been purchased um
203to implement for this year and so the reoccurring cost is what is budgeted for future budget years does that make sense it does it does thank you yep and then as far as the Esser funds we were able to kind of because of Esser funds we were able to use money from this year in order to make the purchase and I know we auctioned off some school buses and you told me we made 17 625 dollars for nine buses is that is that normal pretty low for even a used bus got it let me check those numbers and make sure I'm assuming that's correct but I've got them right here 17 625 and 31 cents for the nine buses we did get indication from um Andrew Sullivan our fleet services manager that that was going
204to be a better deal than what we would have gotten through the previous auction method however I don't have the um historical numbers of what we've gotten previously absolutely and one thing that Mr Sullivan did point out at the when we sell these buses we have already pretty much taken a lot of the life out of the buses if you remember in his presentation as he stated if we could sell the buses three years earlier we would almost double the money if not maybe 75 percent uh increase in the money but because we hold them so long to over 300 000 miles to over uh 15 years that's when the price decreases to the amount that we're selling nine buses for the seventeen thousand and then was on an open auction that wasn't just a
205private sale that was on an open auction got it and we were as as a County organization and we restricted or refined to how we go about auction and all stuff like that we have rules and regulations on how we auction off but uh restricted or refined as long as we follow our rules and regulations we're fine we've always posted it we've always put the information out there and closed it and then followed the procurement process and um with the fund okay and my last comment I made a note um now that Mrs Harris is here I've been asking for this since I think December in the near future because I know you have your hand full now if you could generate some sort of a legend that defines the funds and the locations and
206the activity codes on our check register so that when I review the check register I can figure out what I'm looking at so that is very feasible that is feasible and we'll add that in the future thank you okay are there any more questions gentlemen thank you okay next we will have the support services update and Dr Coleman who will share with the board any updates from Support Services rotation fuel there are two items that we're going to go over very quickly one item that did not make the uh didn't uh Miss Jessica is going to actually pass it out and the first one is the maintenance work order system just want to go over the corrective preventive request routine and administrative work orders that were actually submitted you have those in front of you
207if you'd like me to add a different column or arrange this separately if you can just let me know but this is for the month of February so overall there was a total of 443 work orders 106 of those work orders are still open and 337 of those work orders are closed at this time Mr Marshall Mr Coleman just so this is uh basically 30 days during the month of February is it safe to say that some of these that were opened were open towards the latter end of the month it's fair to say it's fair to say yeah I can um I can break it down even in more detail if that's what's needed yeah I haven't just got this and I I'm just speaking for myself I for the sake of time I'd
208rather just digest it and come up with some questions no problem that's just me but uh something that I'd be curious to see is are there any outstanding work orders that have been in for an excessive amount of time I know they exist how do we how do we identify those I can identify those by running a different report to just the extended dates out I can extended dates back out to June 1 to today's date so that should catch any outstanding um work orders in that system right there that increase the total number of work orders yeah it it shouldn't increase the total number of work orders it should those uh outstanding work orders should be in these total number of work orders okay uh Dr Coleman would it be possible to start off
209with the number of work orders on the last day of the prior month and then you know have the numbers you have here are perfect but um like Mr Marsh my concern is you know watching historically month after month you know what we're getting done and so we can understand the work orders that are being completed you know in a month-long period and those that are taking months you know or years to finish absolutely okay and it may take some refining over time but I think between of us all of us work together and we're going to come up with something very good but this is this is really good uh very informative thank you gentlemen do you have any questions all right if there's no questions concerning the work orders the next will be
210the fuel by the numbers there was an attachment for information as you can see for the 2021 school year December January and February the total was 82 147.65 and for the 2022 2023 December January February the total was 125 329.46 so you can see the increase in the fuel uh Dr Coleman yes sir again the increase I am going to guess that this increase is primarily due to the cost of fuel um one thing that I wouldn't mind seeing is how much fuel we've consumed uh during these months and compared to the the same thing last month I think that's easier for us to digest than the money with the money fluctuating as much as it is you know so at least for me you know be easier for me to see you know fuel
211bag out yes yeah eight eight thousand gallons of propane you know twenty thousand gallons of diesel or whatever you know and just compare them to the same time last year yes sir thank you does anybody else have any questions you want to see the fuel by gallons yeah uh in the past or going full oh going forward okay no let's let's do this going forward okay all right okay nobody's got anything else we'll go to the next topic uh this is a new hearty update and Dr Coleman's gonna display the Drone footage of the school all right okay I'm not watching all right new hearty update the first slide I want to show you is the angle that will be coming in for new Hardy construction status all right as you can see this is
212the new construction new school for new Hardy and I wanted to make sure that you're seeing the distance the proximity between old hearted and the new school so where the where those doors are at was facing the old Hardy is going to be the Bus Loop doors where the students are let off and go into the school so I want to show you this picture first once again that's old Hardy that's maybe about the library if you know the proximity of that school and that's going to be the doors where the Bus Loop sits and lets off the students so they can actually go into the school this is the next picture it's right here okay so we're starting the Drone as you can see the library for old Hardy and this is going to
213be the drop off as you're coming into the wing of course students have opportunity to go left to go right and this is going to this actually pathway is going directly through the middle of the school these are going to be some of the uh I guess you could say cubby areas in the school you're going to go right to the student study area we're going to get a really good view inside of some classrooms this is where we just came from on this hallway I think this is the first grade Hall third grade and fourth grade is upstairs this is going to be first grade home all right this is one classroom we're going to go inside another classroom to get another view of it coming up all the way ahead you will see
214the gym there's another classroom just inside of it and this is the learning stairs I think I said that right okay the learning stairs and this where a class can be held at and uh in the middle of the school these are the learning stairs another hallway going to the wing of the school oops and moving straight forward we're going to be going directly into the media center you know of course there's more hallways around the media center you don't have to walk through it but this will be the media center and straight ahead is once again the gym and the auditorium if you can look right there in the gym you will see that's the stage area for the auditorium and you'll see the gem area that's done put the basketball goals up different
215things of that nature and we're going to view back to the picture of the front of the school vestibule we can see those boards for the door right now that's exactly what a vestibule is going to be and other offices so as you see it's coming right along at this time I have a more of a detailed report from some of the areas out there for some of the subcontractors next month it's Mr Marsha Dr Coleman is a multi-million 43 million some odd dollar question are we on track to open on time we are still on track it's open on time but we still have to depend on other individuals to ensure that that occurs meaning construction is going as planned but we still have to depend on Dominion power doing what Dominion power needs
216to do Verizon doing what Verizon needs to do and Columbia gas so if these three entities has already been paid if these three entities continue to do what they need to do with the installation of their services we will open on time but if these three entities get a delay in any form of fashion um then we will be delayed and um we'll go right here in anticipation of the worst and we all hope that doesn't happen absolutely if something goes astray yes we end up being delayed at what point in time do we need to stop and look at how we're going to adjust we are already making those plans okay those plans are already in uh I guess you can say in the process during the planning meeting every two weeks I have
217a planning meeting with all of the contractors with all of the Architects and that is already in plans to make sure that if it doesn't go up I don't want to go into detail with the plans because as soon as I tell you something everybody tomorrow is going to be saying you know this is what we're doing because the school is being delayed but yes there are plans at this time now at that point in which I find out you know that one of those three are going to be totally delayed then I will bring that report directly to the school board and you know and of course Dr um Kramer so that we can decide how we're going to move forward but there are plans on contingency of what you do got it any
218other questions thank you Dr Coleman next we'll have the technology update uh Mr cooperider will discuss the technology plan for the upcoming years and this is for information good evening board I want to appreciate you allowing me to speak to you this evening and I would be remiss if I didn't negate the fact that I wouldn't dare offer a happy Birthday to someone in the room so I just wanted to bring forward a plan that we've been talking about for a little while between technology and instruction for the coming school years um this plan really started with a question that Dr Coleman asked asked me in Late July of 2022 and he looked at me and said I want you to think outside the box and think of one thing from your department that could
219have a positive Community effect without a fiscal impact without a large fiscal impact um and so as we're walking and he's asking me these questions off the top of my head the first thing I could think of and the one that's been rolling around in my mind for a while that I proposed was the idea of allowing a student to keep their Chromebook relatively permanently what this means is issue the Chromebook to a student in third grade and they would keep it in third fourth fifth and sixth grade and if they leave our division at the end of sixth grade they are allowed to keep that Chromebook as their own um now I propose that and apparently it stuck around and Dr Coleman's head because it was one of the first questions Dr Kramer asked
220me when he started as he said Dr Coleman presented this and so why would we want to do that right now Isle of Wight County School students receive at least two Chromebooks um if you think about the way our grades are laid out uh Hardy is 30th and fourth grade we have sixth grade up at West Side we have third fourth fifth at Windsor Elementary in carsville just third for third grade at Carrollton so they will receive at least two Chromebooks which means even if they are extremely good stewards of their devices it's possible they're receiving a device that the previous student that received it was not and so um right now what we have to do to account for that is at the end of every year we collect those Chromebooks back we repair
221the ones that need to be repaired we update them and we reissue them back to the student if they're still in the building or possibly a new student if that student has moved on to another building so after four years these devices currently are declared obsolete um every device type has an expected shelf life an expected usage life Chromebooks are normally about four years after four years we issue them as loaners and or paperweights depending on what we wish to do with them and their condition so the question then becomes how do you actually achieve this goal so the first step is is it legal and after many discussions with uh pack it is legal but there are requirements to do it and that is why dn-r was Rewritten for this month as information the
222stipulations include such things as notifying parents the parents have to accept the device and you also have to have a very clear guidelines established as to the order that you are donating these devices essentially to students um and that is because it is a guideline Beyond just technology it's a guideline for all donations to students so there is strong possibility that other donations would occur that you wouldn't be able to provide them to every student you'd have to have very strict guidelines on how you were offering these to families um then the fiscal impact so the fiscal impact is relatively minor for this plan um I'll go into the exact numbers in a moment but it's less than ten thousand dollars variance um parental input is most definitely uh we're required to notify them at
223the beginning of the school year that you would be donating and they must accept the device at the end of the year so our plan would be to notify them at the beginning of sixth grade that they're going to be allowed to accept ownership of this device and then at the end of the year they would have to actually want to accept ownership of the device not forcing it upon them either I don't want my student to have a Chromebook they're done with using Chromebooks or there could be the opportunity for some families that this is the first device that they've ever owned and then what about the increased damage over time that's one of the reasons for the fiscal impact so there is definitely increased damage the longer you own a device but the
224fiscal impact includes increased warranty and a longer lasting case so overall impact we have potential positive changes of um one student gets one device for their third fourth fifth and sixth grade year which is important um students could permanently keep oh I'm popping those peas this evening I apologize um students could permanently keep the device in the conclusion of sixth grade so that they would actually own the device and encourages care of because of the ownership aspect so because we're issuing it to them in third grade and they keep it over the summer and the warranty covers everything it's much more likely that these devices will last in better care through that time and then of course there is a reduction in staff workload it's not something that we're going to negate the aspect of
225because there is a lot of time dedicated by staff retrieving the device at the end of a school year and issuing the devices to the possibly the same student in September of the next school year the considerations that we're still working through um do the benefits outweigh the slight increase in fiscal impact what would the sixth grader donation workflow look like so there is definitely something we need to work through is we need to have parents come in possibly sign paperwork we would need to remove said device from our inventory to make remove tags clean the device before we give it to them donate it to them and uh we would need to increase the idea of checks in the buildings so because we weren't be we wouldn't be retrieving the device at the end
226of school year at the beginning of the next school year so you wouldn't need to issue the device to the same student but you would want to make sure that device is still in decent condition after a summer it's sand anything else might have gotten in there over the summer and then what will the damage device workflow look like making sure that you know using the warranty the way it's intended which is keeping the devices as good as condition as possible so that is our plan I apologize again that is our plan for the Cummings uh years and I just wanted to entertain any questions if you had any it's Mr Marsh I think it's a pretty cool idea has anyone else done it if you've bounced this off any other School Division it's made
227this work um there are other school divisions doing it I have talked to many in our area and none of them are doing it for their students yet that I'm aware of I haven't had a chance to speak with Suffolk yet which was the one I really wanted to talk to um Mr Littlefield there I know him well I don't know if he's doing that I haven't heard of it at this time so I can't answer that question yes or no as far as the region I talked to two divisions who do it in Iowa talk to another one and does it in Oklahoma and I talked to one that does it in Maryland but locally I have not heard of that it doesn't mean it's not happening if I can just time it absolutely
228I'm familiar with that process and for all the reasons stated by Mr Cooper Rider I suggest then we'd strongly recommend that we approve it the fiscal impact I did forget to mention so um one of the things on my um requests for the year was to make sure and have a budget line for purchasing new Chromebooks in future years so uh with existing budget and then what my increase requests it would take the total to 127.064. that's our current way of purchasing devices with their warranties the new style right now the estimates that I'm getting are 135 584 so that's an 8 500 or so differential so I personally thought that was well worth the idea yes I wanted to say something um Peggy what the question that Mr Marsh asked if all the school
229districts around here are were doing that when we introduce our initiative to introduce the students um so we'll introduce technology devices into uh our instructional program Alouette County was one of the first in the state of Virginia we did not wait for the other schools divisions around us and because we knew this was the direction we needed to go in and if that not how if it had not happened when we entered that um area of instructions just imagine what else where our students would have been when we had to shut down for the pandemic there were other school districts right around us the big cities struggling to get devices to kids and things like that and I'm just saying that to say this uh what he presented tonight maybe we are the first here
230but you know what it's eventually is going to be beneficial the other school district's going to find out and they're going to catch up and do the same thank you anybody else just real quick yes sir what is the alternative when you have the the Chromebooks after a four year period when they become obviously what is the alternative you know aside from allowing the student to retain so right now we've gone through one full cycle I have um what used to be the sixth grade Chromebooks in storage we have issued uh I think it's somewhere around 175 of that 300 or so as loners to the high schools so that when a device is being repaired they still have a device they can use those are not all active it's just what we've issued to
231each school and then the other 125 or So currently were in such shape that they are sitting on a Shelf we actually just spoke to a recycling company that the board had approved us to talk to in December and when they came out they said they would be happy to remove them at no cost to us and that's all they would offer that was what I was pretty much figuring most Electronics after a four-year period they're pretty much obsolete at that point anyway so it's beneficial for the student and I agree with you know Mr Marsh I think it's a great idea thank you and I was going to say something I think the plan is sound I think it's going to save some work uh for teachers and staff on both the back end
232and the front end and it's going to help folks in the community like you said some who may never be able to or haven't been able to purchase one of their own for their family up to this point so I think it's beneficial all around and it's definitely something I do support thank you any further questions okay thank you Mr Cooper Rider thank you and next we will have an update from the superintendent thank you Mr chair and thank you Mr cooperider for helping me with the PowerPoint first as he's pulling the PowerPoint up I'd like to thank my wonderful cabinet members and staff members for the Myriad birthday wishes this evening and you the boy and I think I have enough birthday wishes to last me for the remainder of uh my life so
233uh I'm good yes tonight is Young uh first thank you very much sir uh I had the pleasure of meeting with officials from Smithfield Foods regarding partnership opportunities um had the pleasure meeting with Vice uh president of Community Development Mr Steve Evans to my left on the screen you're right and Senior Community Development manager Mr Jonathan Toms and I'm very pleased to say that we have a few initiatives in works and I look forward to sharing with you our board members what some of those initiatives are in the very near future but very excited about the opportunity to engage in collaboration in partnership with Smithfield Foods along with chair colic and board member tynes we had the pleasure of attending the tri-rivers basketball league game between Smithfield High School students and Windsor high school students
234and this is a league for our special needs students so we had a wonderful experience there also joining us that evening uh of that that day rather was the sheriff and many members from the sheriff's department as you can see so a great event and I encourage all of you in future years to just make an effort to get out to either Smithville High School or Windsor High School to experience this opportunity thank you Chef horn and Chef Hagan uh Smithville High School and The Talented Culinary Arts students for recognizing our board members and board members tynes Cunningham and chair colic we're also in attendance that uh afternoon where we were served in fed by our very talented students there and a double treat that day we had a chance to see some competition between
235actually uh Smithfield High School's jazz band and the Army Band and uh it was a wonderful day so thank you uh The Culinary Arts students in Smithville High School my wife and I had the honor and pleasure of attending the NAACP banquet it was great to see many of our students as well and many of them were honored that evening so if you look at the right photo there uh many of those young people are students so a great event and again thank you to president Williams uh for the invitation here we see the central office food drive that benefits the Isle of white Christian Outreach the division departments donated approximately 780 pounds of non-perishable food so a huge thank you to our Isle white departments and our our staff members for your participation night
236that goes to a very worthy cause and I'm very pleased to share the work that we did to help our community so thank you all Isle White staff members we were very excited to engage in the continuous Improvement efforts with principals School staff and central office staff around how we can better use data to inform our instructional practices and improve student achievement this is going to be ongoing work that we're going to be engaged in this was our initial meeting and upper left part of the screen we see Mrs Getz leading some of that work again that will be ongoing work and I think in our presentation coming up coming up either April and May we will speak further about some of the initiatives and the work that we are engaged in to better equip
237our staff with the skills that they need to improve teaching and learning in our schools next I want to thank Mrs Truitt and Mrs Rogers for co-chairing the academic rigor committee uh this committee committee is looking at ways that we can improve and expand academic opportunities for our students uh board members we will certainly share our findings with the board the first meeting was held a few weeks ago and as a part of that committee we have parents school-based staff teachers central office staff and we're looking at ways to improve the opportunities the academic opportunities for our students honors advanced placement you know CTE opportunities how can we expand those opportunities in all areas for all of our students and they will make a recommendation to me the superintendent I will certainly share that with
238you but this is ongoing work and I'm very excited about the work that is occurring with this group and for our Isle of awards our February aisle Awards top left we see uh Mr Brad and Mrs Jane Lankford uh two wonderful volunteers a former teacher at Windsor high school they were honored and they were granted the Inspire award for all the work that they're doing uh there at Windsor high school and uh chair College was able to join me uh that morning as well top right staying with Windsor High School our Winter High SRO Mr Grayson cron was uh provided was a recipient of the Empower Isle award for all the work that he is doing there as an SRO in that Community bottom left we have our routing technicians Mr Blake spratley and Miss
239Adina Robinson they received the lead award for the great work that they're doing in transportation again bottom left and bottom right uh Mrs Amanda Browder who is an instructional coach at Windsor Elementary she received the succeed award so uh actually we spent quite a bit of time in the Windsor community on that day I think all of them including our transportation division uh all received Awards so congratulations to all of our Isle award February recipients next uh this was mentioned a few times by a few people and a few of those individuals work here this evening as well and these are our parent advisory committee members I have the pleasure to meet with the superintendent's parent advisory committee members there is one member uh there's a representative from each School assigned and recommended by the
240principal they give me great advice on numerous School Division related matters so when I present some of our requests to you board members it's important to note that these individuals along with their student advisory members our staff advisory members these are recommendations that they make to me so in many cases I want to state that these are not things that I'm concocting and sharing these are coming from our larger community and again we meet periodically with this group and I just met with this group I think approximately two weeks ago so you certainly want to acknowledge them uh and then I'm also meeting with students I I'm meeting with a select group of students at all of our middle and high schools uh thus far I've met with students from Georgia Tyler Middle School in
241fact the photo is from Georgia Tyler middle I've met with students uh select students from Smith Hill Middle and Smithville High School I'm very excited to say that I will be meeting with students at Windsor high school tomorrow um and again these students provide input on a plethora of of topics and and we encourage them to share all of their thoughts and ideas Miss Briggs Mrs Mullins we Chronicle those recommendations and again in many ways I share back with you our board and our community with those those recommendations are I hope to invite them to one of our meetings prior to the end of the school year and have them uh either present or be introduced to you the board and to the community so I wanted to share those and the last uh photo
242I wanted to share this uh I love White County Schools is celebrating three generations of employees in the divisions transportation department Anderson Ren left is a bus driver for Isle of Wight schools Isle of Wight County schools and has been the division in the division for almost 20 years his daughter Daisy bacon second from left joined Isla white in 2022 also as a bus driver another daughter Rose Cutler second from right and her son Antonio Cutler far right Mr wren's grandson joined the transportation department this school year Rose is a car driver and Antonio is a transportation mechanic they were also featured I'd like to state in a local television segment for their service to our community I think Mrs Briggs shared that a clip so if you haven't seen that please access that Isle
243of Wight County Schools thanks the ren family for their service to the children and families of our Isle of Wight County School Division and community so local celebrities there with that Mr chair that concludes my superintendent's update thank you Dr Kramer next we will go to action on the closed session items okay let's share I would like to make a motion to approve the personal report as presented a copy of which can be obtained from the school board Clerk second okay we have a motion a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk shall conduct the vote okay and it's unanimous everybody voted yes it will go into the next one exchange to move to approved exchange student 23 24 for admission to Smithfield High School for the 2023-2024 school year second
244okay we have a motion a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote again unanimous unanimous approval we'll go to exchange student two three two four zero two Mr chair I move to approve exchange student two three two four zero two for admission to Smithfield High School for the 2023-2024 Academic Year second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote it's proved unanimously next we have exchange student two three two four zero three Mr chair I moved to approve exchange student 232403 for admission to Smithfield High For This first semester of the 2023-2024 school year second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there's no discussion the clerk will conduct a
245vote again unanimous approval by the board next we have religious exemption Rex 2223-03 I would like to make a motion to excuse religious exemption 2223-03 from compulsive compulsory attendance under the religious exemption provision of Virginia code 22.1-254 second we have a motion our second is there any discussion there's no discussion the clerk will conduct a vote and again that is approved unanimously next we're going to action on Old business we'll start with the consent agenda Mr chair I have moved to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is Mr chair before we vote Yes Mr Marshall is there uh do we want to have a little discussion on about adding comments to the minutes or do we want to table that
246for another conversation um there's no requirement we did check with the attorney but I'd rather table that uh okay for later to determine if that's something we want to do I understood okay if there's no more discussion the clerk will conduct a vote we have one nay this is times yes that was me okay and four years and it's passed uh if you would like to know why I had an issue with one item there the other items were fine but it was just one item so I just voted Nations it's all a consent okay thank you thank you okay next is changes to the bylaws and this if you've read the bylaws we cannot change the bylaws in a single meeting it's got to happen over two months um but since passion of bylaws
247a couple things came up that need to be addressed uh first I'm proposing a change to the work sessions from monthly to as needed as Mr Cunningham pointed out during a meeting that we approved them I'm also proposing an administrative change to the clerk's duties to remove a task that is obsolete is there any discussion no discussion we can move to the next which is that's a yeah the vspa business honor roll Mrs Briggs will read the vsba honor roll resolution and before you have a vsba business honor roll resolution it states whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral integral part of this community and whereas many local businesses play a crucial role in supporting our schools and whereas the economic health of our community State and Nation depends on strong a strong
248public school system and whereas collaboration between local public schools and local businesses strengthen schools and the business Community alike by providing a well-trained and highly educated Workforce and whereas an excellent public school system is vital to the quality of life in this community and fundamental to preserving a strong Democratic Society now and in the future therefore be it resolved that the Isle of Wight County School Board named Smithville Foods Riverside Health System and the Luder Family YMCA to the 2023 Virginia school boards Association business honor roll showing appreciation for the ongoing support of this County's Public Schools your work has aided this community on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child who attends them the resolution has to be approved by the board before we can submit it to
249the vsba once it's submitted and and the bsba posts the honor roll we will be inviting representatives from these three organizations and businesses to a board meeting where we will recognize them publicly in person okay you well you're waiting for an action so we haven't yeah do we have a motion okay Mr chair I recommend approval of the resolution second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote you can't get to the screen okay and it is passed unanimously and we're gonna move right into new business we have the policy INB for second read Mr chair I move to approve policy IMB as presented a second we have a motion and we have a second is there any discussion Mr chair
250Mr Cunningham uh I think we've heard enough uh teachers and citizens and students come up tonight that disagree with us implementing this uh this policy and uh I recommend we don't we don't implement it I yield if you have any questions thank you Mr Cunningham is there any more discussion yes I can concur with Mr Cunningham on this policy um when we have that many citizens to come out and they're interested and they're speaking on behalf of a particular policy and asking us not to do it and it's not it and these were students um citizens that included students our students so you know I heard them and um I listened and I will um continue to advocate for them because that is the reason why we're here we're here for them I yield Mr
251Marshall Mr Collett and so everybody's listening so I'm very much aware of the Optics of having all the people speak out tonight against the proposed revision I'm also very attuned to the position of all the constituents of all of all the white with these proposed revisions as has been pointed out numerous times I campaigned in large part for the premise behind this policy it's no secret and I was elected by 67 percent of the voters in my district this proposed revision titled teaching about controversial issues is on its eighth revision since it was presented to the public last month these revisions are a result of positive feedback recommendations Stark criticisms from a variety of people those people included parents grandparents teachers School administrators a retired attorney and individuals with doctorate degree people that are much
252smarter than I the version that is currently presented is a direct result of this vetting process in other words I did not draft this policy with a narrow-minded approach this policy defines a controversial issue as and I quote from the policy the topic or issue that can be viewed from starkly diff starkly differing but valid positions such that people with differing views are unable or unwilling to accept the validity of the opposing view this policy as written does not restrict or inhibit teachers from teaching about controversial issues I'll say that again it does not restrict or inhibit teachers from teaching about controversial issues what it does do is it ensures and this is another quote from the policy it ensures that teachers will establish a safe and respectful learning environment in which students study curriculum
253appropriate to the student's knowledge and maturity guiding students to think critically without promoting advancing the idea or persuading students to presume that controversial topics should be viewed through any particular lens with an atmosphere that is free from personal bias prejudiced or coercion I've heard we've all heard teachers say and I quote we are highly trained professionals that should be trusted you've heard teachers say we don't indoctrinate and we've heard teachers say this policy isn't necessary because we don't do this so those teachers of which I have a great deal of respect and admiration I trust that is highly trained professionals you can read and accept this policy for what it is it is and I quote a framework for teaching controversial issues or topics and provides clarifications to parents concerning how controversial topics are handled
254in the classroom now I agree that the overwhelming majority of Isle of Wight County School teachers are already in alignment with this policy as such an inflammation implementation of this policy should have very little to any impact on the great work that Isle of Wight County Schools accomplishes every day so those people listening that believe public schools are and should be a platform to promote certain ideals I say in Virginia parents get a voice and how and what their parents are what their children are exposed to as such and in accordance with this policy another quote parents or Guardians have the sole responsibility for guiding their children's views on controversial topics on that I'm ready to vote on this policy tonight and I yield my time Mr Worster okay uh one thing that I would
255like to add is there were a number of people that commented on paragraph G and it's clearly states employees of Isle of Wight County Schools shall not endorse any political party candidate or ideology in the performance of their duties or responsibilities but rather remain neutral Virginia code clearly states that public employees have the right to endorse politicians to participate in campaigns to do anything political outside of their official duties now there was some people making you know some accusations against you know a couple members of school boards being hypocritical because we ran for office I endorsed someone that was in my personal uh performance of you know that was as a as a citizen not as a school board member and in the future I will continue to be such and for anyone to say
256because we accepted donations from someone that they don't like we're unqualified to be here that's just insane that is just like saying everybody in Congress is unqualified to be there the president is unqualified to be there and any other elected official is unqualified to be there the employees do not lose any rights that they have they just as Mr Marsh said they cannot share their bias whether or not it's a conservative bias or liberal bias thank you I have a question it's just one concern it's not a question I I heard what quite a few of them said tonight but a few of them actually stated the fact when they refer to board members accepting campaign funds from private political Pacs that's that's that's when you're campaigning for a position um that's and then Mr
257colic I've had a chair colic I've had that conversation with you when you were a board member here I said school board members in the state of Virginia is nonpartisan we do not go towards any on your personal life yes that's your prerogative you can do that but while you're sitting as a school board member you should never get involved with anything that has anything to do with politics because eventually it will come back to you while you're sitting on the board when you start taking donations from private private businesses and organizations especially when you know they're in uh you know it's political organizations that is a concern when you're running for an office like School Board you can take donations from me you can take donations from yourself or anyone any citizen but when
258you're doing it from private organizations and political Pacs I do have a concern with that because they will come back and you notice here some of them have come before us and said pretty much we own you please thank you nobody owns me um I have taken no donations from anyone but individuals and I did get a donation from the Republican party of which I am a member that's it the largest but but the largest it's not partisan life this position is non-partisan the Republican party at that point you just stated you're Republican I have never stated since I've been here you don't know what party I'm a member of because I'm not going there and I do not take any donations from any parties I don't take any donations from anyone because I have
259always financed out of my own private funds for any public position I've ever run for thank you I yield Mr chair for me yes Mr Worster this may clear things up a little bit myself personally being a federal employee since you're on the aspect of donations I am covered by the Hatch Act okay the hatch are you familiar with Hatch Act because what that does is it prevents a federal employee from taking donations from a partisan entity now what it does allow for is the support from that agency or entity it does not allow any monetary donation being a member of the school board does not in and of itself prevent you unless you covered about hashtag like I am it does not prevent you from taking donations from a political party the fact that
260you are a member of a school board does not prevent that I yield all right I think we'll beat that dead horse so oh Mr Cunningham I'm sorry yeah no problem Mr chair um let me read you something here uh this came out of the conservative pact contributed to last year's School Board race records show if you just came out of Windsor and uh I've got to say unless something I'm reading this wrong uh this item says ah woosters campaign Finance reports don't list any donations from political organizations I agree with that they do however show a hundred and fifty dollar cash donation from Angie Sadler of Emporia wife of District 17 State Senate candidate and former NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler the September donation made nearly two months prior to Hermes candidacy announcement accounts for
261just under six percent of the total two thousand five two thousand five hundred and nine dollars and 69 cents uh Wilson reported a monetary and non-monetary contributions as of December 31st for the 2022 election cycle Sadler is running against delegate uh Emily Brewer Republican all right whatever for the Virginia Republicans party's nomination for the open senate seat so from this and this is reported uh to the state you did Mr Wooster you did accept uh at least 150 dollars as a donation from a personal entity who is identified as a republican doesn't matter what they identify it okay all right I'm just reading what I got so I yield thank you okay if there's no more discussion the clerk will conduct a vote thank you and the policy is approved three to two next we
262will go to policies for first read thank you and it's quite a quite a list here um well you're getting in place Miss Briggs um I just want to say we've got 25 policies for first read and we've hadn't had an opportunity to go through them and discuss them as a board as we should and it's my opinion we should have reviewed them and come to a consensus on the text of each policies before putting them up for first reads so and if there's any thoughts from any other board members on this Mr Marsh Mr chair I mean for the most part I don't have any issue with being presented with any policy for first read especially that's been staffed but given that there's such a large amount it is quite a bit to digest
263um I do have some notes I'm certainly willing to listen to anything you've got to say but I'm not so sure that I'll be willing to vote on them all for the next read in other words I may need a little time to digest it make sure I've done my homework so to speak I think as a board as a collective policy is our are most important next to the budget or tool to make sure that we're getting right and at the same time I know that some of these were they've met that five-year expiration so they need to get done I yield Mrs Briggs yeah so you you will see that um several of them are up for review with no revisions and their the file name reflects reviewed so no language was changed
264in those policies it was the fact that they were reaching their five-year review deadline and by putting on on this month and having them approved next month we would not exceed the five years um the other ones were recommendations that came from vsba a lot of the changes were minor changes to maybe a legal reference or changing some things from Shelby to active tents but I do know there are a few in there that do have more language changes to them and certainly it's the will of the board how you wish to proceed with those now as you said tonight it's just information only yes Mr Marsh since since it are you willing to entertain a few questions I will do my best if I can't answer on the spot I will certainly follow up
265fair enough let's let's roll through a few of them um policy CBG evaluation of the superintendent can someone point me in a direction to review the guidelines for uniform performance standards and evaluation criteria for superintendents yes um I don't obviously I don't need it right now but at some point in time the next week or so yes and I believe there was a link to it on the response you received today it's right on the vdoe website okay I didn't have a chance to digest it okay no problem policy da management of funds um I'd like to have a little bit more discussion and information regarding about relinquishing the transfer of funds Authority from the board to the superintendent certainly don't know enough about that to make an intelligent decision at this point um and
266there is a footnote on that one that does say that's an option for the board to decide yes ma'am okay yes sir um on policy EC a b e c a b vandalism can you tell me why policy JFC was redlined out yes it's actually regulation jfc-r standards or student conduct that regulation was deleted a while back so it was cleaning up a regulation that's no longer in existence okay that was a change through the vsba that regulation went away okay um this may be a Miss Sullivan question policy gcbeb for military leave one of the lines in there reads supplemental pay in the amount determined by the school board if blah blah blah how do we go about determining that amount of supplemental pay and I don't need that answer right this moment but
267that's something I'm trying to figure out okay I think the next line in the policy actually States how you'd determine it it I I had to read it a couple times and because I said well the school board it says they determine it but the next line is how you determine it okay um policy gcpb resignation of Staff members I think this is the one we had someone speak about tonight yes sir and again I don't need an answer right this moment but on what Authority can the superintendent or the school board revocate a student's life a teacher's license because he or she resigned aside from policy is there any other authority that grants that yes it's the legal reference at the bottom uh code of Virginia in 1950 as amended 22.1-304 if you go
268look that code up it will say that that's allowed by the superintendent and part of that is when you have staff that can under contract who can leave mid-year we already have people leaving and we have vacancies if there's no and Miss Sullivan can help me out here but if there's no penalty to Breaking that contract I think you would see us with a lot more vacancies would I be correct Ms Sullivan yes and this is only if it's a breach of contracts so there's lots of reasons why we would accept a resignation in the middle of a contract year um it's not it's when it's the non-justifiable reason that there would be a breach in contract and then that's a possibility it's not a requirement that we revoke a license um it's just at
269the code of Virginia offers us the ability to do so I see pack wants to respond and also the school board doesn't revoke anyone's license um it would be a recommendation from the school board to the Board of Ed and the Board of Ed has two separate hearings before licensing revoke one is before a superintendent panel and um the other one is for before the full Board of Ed um as long as I've been practicing in this area and it's been over a decade I don't know of any time since that I practice that the Board of Ed has revoked someone's license under this statute okay okay um let's move along here yes sir iibd School library Resource Centers um do we currently have a process in place where we screen materials I think one
270of the gentlemen tonight hinted on it about talking about uh why don't books have ratings why that's that's well beyond the purview of this board but one of the things I'd like to discuss as we review this particular policy is is whether or not there's a policy or a process in place to make sure that the books and materials that were bringing in our appropriate I don't want to open that can of worms any more than that but that's just that's what I'm thinking my last question Mr chair and then I will yield policy J in student fees why do we charge students students parking fees it helps to maintain those parking lots Paving lining renumbering those fees are are used to maintain that student parking lot at both of our high schools Getz and
271and the decals the students get to put on their cars to be able to park up there yes sir okay thank you Mr chair yes Mr Cunningham I've got a quick question yes sir who reviews these documents and makes these changes is it uh is it you is it and one time I was I was told it was uh the Virginia School Board Association so uh who goes through each one of these and updates something me um well okay now what we do is we get the updates from vsba um the updates are shared with appropriate staff so Ms Getz for instruction Ms Sullivan for human resources and so forth um and they look at the current policy we look at the recommended changes from bsba we typically incorporate those changes and bring it to
272the board for first read and second read okay um that's did I answer a question satisfactorily you did but um looking at uh CBG evaluation of the superintendent uh I see him red it's it's one bullet on here saying uh an evaluation of cultural competency what what is it how do you do that how do you evaluate the superintendent on his uh cultural competency who's going to be the evaluator the school board it's an it's from the Virginia Department of Education it's part of those superintendent standards referenced at the bottom the uniform performance standards and as Miss Getz is saying a teacher that is part of the teacher evaluation as well I believe that was something passed by the general assembly a few years ago that that had to be part of the evaluation process
273which is why this was updated in 2022. okay I'm not picking on you I'm just I'm just trying to figure out um how are we going to evaluate if our superintendent is culturally competent I think it's Mrs uh Briggs mentioned those um those standards will enlist the various items in a bit more depth okay so I think you'll be given a bit more information if you uh think back to what I provided this board uh at the beginning of the year though those standards are in uh that document but yes it will give a bit more detail uh than what appears here okay that'll work this is jru Mr chair yes Mr Marsh this is uh for Mr Cunningham so I a while back it was December early January I reached out to the vsba
274and there's a super nice lady up there she is as I understand it kind of like Miss Briggs she is a one-woman show at the vspa she is the only one at the vsba that reviews legislation and updates policy and provides it to the schools and I'll send her your name later if you want to she's she's sweet as pot that'll work it thank you are there any more questions okay we'll get off the first read and we'll go to a request to Archive and replace policies with the bylaws and basically this is to ensure that the policies that were incorporated into the bylaws are archived in case they're needed in the future so that we have a historical record 20.3 Mr chair in accordance with Virginia code 2 2 decimal 1-78 I would like
275to make a motion to Archive and replace policies a a b b BBA bbaa bbba bbbc BBD BBE b c a b c b BCC BCC Dash r b d a bdb BDC b d d c b d d d b d d e b d d f b f and policy CM with the comprehensive set of school board bylaws as presented this evening second yes I just want to point out something for you all you haven't adopted bylaws yet yes we have yeah we have I thought there was a first read on the bylaws no that's a change today oh okay I apologize yeah okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion no discussion the clerk will conduct the vote and it is past three to two next with we're
276going to cover Legal Services Mr chair I moved to direct the superintendent to release a request for proposals for legal services for the school board a second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion and I will say that our attorney was aware of this before we sent it in so he knows what's going on okay we have a motion we have a second there's no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote and we have unanimous uh approval from the board and next we have one more the additional budget meetings that was a separate page the bottom line Mr chair I moved to add March 14 2023 at 6 PM as a school board budget work session and March 23 2023 at 6 PM as a special called school board meeting on
277the budget both of which will be held at Westside Elementary School auditorium second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion yes yes ma'am sure um I feel that if we wait until March 23rd to do the um approval of our budget as I stated before we are in a situation now that we've never been in before where we don't have a lot of people out there uh the pool of people to re uh to recruit is just not there and there are school districts all around us that have already approved their budget sent them for what their school digits school systems that's already have approval of their budget for next year um if you all need this extra work session fine I don't have a problem with it but on the
278March 14th um budget work session why not at the end of that session we go on and approve the budget because that's pretty much the only thing we're going to be doing on March 23rd why have those separate two separate meetings just combine them and have one meeting on the 14th and at the end because it's for the board not for the public we've already had the public hearing we had our sit down with the Board of Supervisors and I don't see where we need all of this extra time especially when we need to get this budget in there so that give the board of supervisor the opportunity to look over it this is the first time since I've been sitting on the board uh This this term and a previous term that we've ever
279submitted a budget that late in March we always would pretty much vote on it at this meeting oh I I absolutely agree with you Mr times but we don't we have yet to receive a full budget we can't approve something that we haven't seen in his entirety so what are we looking for what are we waiting for we're waiting for the budget Mrs times I I Echo your concerns I truly do and I think that time is of the essence at the same time as Mr colic said we really have not seen the budget we've seen proposals twice um Mrs Harris bless her heart she's probably putting in some long work days getting numbers straight As we saw tonight she's already fixed one two three discrepancies where we've got to go back and reappropriate funds
280that were for whatever the reason there was an error there um I I think it's it's warranted and it's probably necessary to at least schedule a second meeting and if by more March 14th which is next week Tuesday if we can collectively agree that we're ready to prioritize something to submit to the supervisors then I'm sure at that point in time we could vote then and there but I think we'd be doing a disservice if we didn't at least announce a future date as a contingency call it a backup plan because I I think it's fair to say that today Mrs Harris is not prepared to present a budget I have a a appointment set up for next Monday at three o'clock to sit down with her as part of the finance committee to look
281at where we're at and what we've got um based off the conversations I'm I've had I expect to see about a 90 solution and that's the day before our next meeting so Mr chair if I mean yes Dr Grandma so I think a few things if I may State the initial budget book was prepared by the consultant a condensed version of that to your point our new CFO Mrs Harris is providing I think the budget book a more extensive version that this sport I think is is familiar with however we do have the recommendations so the changes and what we're requesting that what I propose to the board when I submitted the superintendent so when I present it rather the superintendent's proposal that is in order so you do have that so that information is
282has been provided you uh I think to Mrs times point that's the information we're really going to be focused on is which of those items you would like to take forward so I do think we have the information that you're going to need to make a decision on available uh absolutely I totally concur with you that the more extensive version of the budget book should be made available and thank you Vice chair Marsh for mentioning the fact that Mrs Harris our new CFO just came on board approximately two weeks ago so she's working on that more extensive version but I do think it's important to note that the information we're requesting uh from this board so that it then you'll take a vote on the budget it then becomes your budget that those requests those
283items we do have available so I do think we have sufficient information and hopefully we'll have uh it is my expectation that we'll have everything you need by Tuesday um to make a decision so whether it's on the 14th that's certainly the prerogative of this board or whether it's the 23rd but I hope to have everything you all need by next Tuesday to make a decision again whether it's it's next week or the following week uh I think we'll have everything you need to make a decision thank you Dr Kramer happy birthday listen with all due respect I think next week Monday next week Tuesday we can certainly sit down and and make some proverbial sausage and prioritize your proposals but in my view in my view alone until I see a full budget where
284the money's coming from and where it's going I will not vote to own a budget for presentation that's my personal opinion I may be alone in that but that's where I'm at and I'm not trying to persuade the board either way I'm just providing some clarity in terms of what we'll have to you so whether it's next Tuesday or the 23rd my staff and I will ensure that you have what you need to make a decision so it doesn't matter to us which meeting it is I at least me I thought my staff might be looking and they might be concerned that we have additional meetings but again we'll be prepared uh whether next Tuesday or the following Thursday Mr Cunningham uh yes Mr chair uh here's the issue uh we're out of time so
285I mean instead of waiting another week if we can't do it on the 14th for some reason why not do it on the 16th I mean I want to get this done I wish we could do it tonight we can't we don't have the information but if if you remember and I know you do the Board of Supervisors wants us to prioritize um what we what we presented yeah we I mean we we're behind the power curve we we've got to start running and we're crawling we're still crawling so if we can do this on on the 14th I would be better but if if if we can't do it the 14th at least let's do it the same week the 16th unless something's going on with a members uh can't show up on the
28616th I can't town on the 16th okay uh I agree with everything you said I honestly do but I think Mr Marsh articulated a little better than I could I want to see the entire budget I think Dr Kramer has given us some very good things that need to go into budget we know that the Board of Supervisors is not going to give us money to cover all those we have to figure out where they should be prioritized within the entirety of the budget so that we can move forward and I I just can't do that in good conscience without having a whole budget and I think we can accomplish hopefully we can accomplish most of that on Tuesday evening and if we can I'd be more than prepared to have another meeting that week
287I'm not opposed to that at all if we if you want we can change we can change the motion and let's just meet on Tuesday with the caveat that we will make another motion on Tuesday for when we're gonna meet again I'm good with that okay I just we've got you know we've got to do our due diligence you know for this money you know there's this is you know 80 million dollars that's a lot of money Mr chair okay the meetings you have now the Tuesday meeting is 14th we read on the 14th if for some reason you cannot come to we need to have another meeting I would rather have that meeting the one that you set or we could have it on the 20th or but or the 21st but the seventh
288on the 16th I am not available Norm I'm available on the 17th I will be leaving town the morning of the 15th right after the 14th meeting and I will not be returning until maybe the 20th notifications for a special meeting is it seven I think you have to make every effort to do it as quickly as possible if it's a special call meeting you just got to do it as soon as you all agree so we if so if we don't know for sure Tuesday if we know for sure Tuesday we've gone through everything we could then make a special meeting for the following Monday I just want to make sure I just want to be present so I can cast a vote for my constituents sure okay not just my constituents but for
289everyone in this County all right because this is an investment in their funds okay and I don't want I I mean this is something it's not something just came up this is something has been planned now for a year and uh um I have invested in that as well so I'm just I just want to let you know that I would like to be here and since we're dealing with dates you leave it at a date where I can attend Mr chairman and Mrs times this is undoubtedly the most important thing this body does so we want to make sure everybody absolutely we want to make sure all five of us sitting here well I don't have a problem with the first date right it's just that when Mr Cunningham mentioned maybe we could come
290back on the 16th I was just I just want to let you know I'm not available now the other dates you had anywhere from the 20th Thorn I'm fine okay if everybody can just you know after the 14th make sure the clerk knows your availability for the following week um then then we'll we'll work through that but uh okay so I would suggest you know pulling back that motion and let's just make a motion to meet on the 14th for for the work session you can car I I don't have a problem with that one the 14th Mr chair I moved to rescind previous motion to add March 14 2023 at 6 PM as a school board budget work session and March 23rd 2023 at 6 PM as a special called school board meeting on
291the budget both of which will be held at Westside Elementary School auditorium second we have Motion in a second no discussion the clerk will conduct the vote Mr Cunningham Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yay Mr Marsh EA and Mr colic yay sure we want to move now fitter for just for the fortune just for the 14th all right Mr chair I moved to add March 14 2023 at 6 PM as a school board budget work session on the budget to be held at Westside Elementary School auditorium second okay we have motion a second is there any discussion clerk shall conduct the vote Mr Cunningham yeah Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yay Mr Marsh yay and Mr colic yay all right next we have said it's passed next we have the regulations and Exhibits that's for
292information only and while folks are looking at that we have board member uh committee report and information and comments who would like to kick it off okay Mr Cunningham all right uh let me see uh and I'm just gonna let everybody know the events I attended uh and Elias I guess three to four weeks of course I went to the uh School Board appreciation month uh luncheon and jazz band at Smithfield High School on the 24th of February uh on the 28th 10 at the sixth grade band concert at Georgie Georgie Tyler Middle School which was great uh Mars II and I tended to try Rivers basketball game at Smithfield High School they had another one I know uh most of y'all went to the one before that but that was uh that was awesome
293watching the kids out there play uh March the third and fourth I attended the Smithfield High School chorus night on Broadway and uh the director Mrs West did an excellent job uh I wish all of you could have been there to see that uh and I'll try to update you on on events that are coming up at Smithfield High School and anything I hear about at uh Adam Windsor correct that's all I have for you thank you Mr Marsh thanks Mr chair real quick uh March 2nd I took the day off and I paid a visit to Windsor Elementary School first thing in the morning I was wearing my dad hat and I attended pastries with parents which was cool and with that when school went into session I turned my hat around backwards as
294School Board member and I met with principal couch and assistant principal DeWees and we chatted about instructional assistance I wanted to see those those folks firsthand and then I mosied over to Carrollton and I met with Mr Brennan and did the same thing got a tour of Carrollton and again I saw the IAS in action I was impressed and just a plug for Mr Brennan that guy has got Rockstar status as principal at Carrollton Elementary and I yield Mrs times do you have anything um I went to well we all went to the luncheon at Smitha high school with the rock band I also paid a visit to Hardy Elementary on um after we had the luncheon and I purchased seven bricks and I that's pretty much all I've done for other than attend meetings
295school board meetings budget meetings okay been busy with the budget meetings well I don't remember the exact dates but um over course of a few weeks I've met with Mr but Owen um I'm dealing stop the bleed thanks to the hard work of Ethan Schwartz and um you know everybody else has been putting forth the effort to it it's come to fruition um we have scheduled a date for April I want to say 17th and 18th right off the top of my head um so far looking at the uh multiple period blocks um it could be potentially and I'm gonna drop it a little bit but 80 to potentially a hundred students over a course of two days and that's a variable of course it depends on teachers coming in during their planning period you
296know that want to participate in the course as well but I'm looking forward to it I think it's going to be a very good program and if anybody wants to come observe perfectly fine with it cheer yes thanks Mr booster I just want to let you know I I did State this before I have had the training and I'll stop bleed with Ottawa County um Rescue Squad when I was a town Smithfield Town council member about just before covet and I did miss the fact that I did do a webinar I do a lot of webinars educational and this was on poverty in um public education and that one was done yesterday and it was very good it did a little launching once and they're very good and I got to uh within that webinar
297um this I guess the presenters they were board members uh from different districts Across the Nation we had I think one was from the state of Louisiana one was from Florida and I want this one I can't remember exactly where the other one was from I want to say maybe Missouri or something like that one of those States and I learned a lot from them although they were in urban areas like because out of Wight County is so close to our urban areas we have some of the same issues um not exact same issues but we don't have it's not as pronounced as some of the larger cities but I got to learn I learned a lot of things from there and I'm going to share them with Dr Kramer but he already knows okay
298I would like sometimes I share things with him when I do those little webinars thank you okay and I'm just gonna gloss over a few things that I participate in one I got to go to another exciting Tri Rivers basketball game I just really enjoy those and then last weekend I attended an educational Summit um while I was there the governor showed up and he talked with school board members from throughout the state for about 20 minutes and the overarching theme that he presented was parents at a primary educators of their children and we also discussed school board powers powers and duties the role of school board members versus the role of superintendent First Amendment and Title IX issues and reviewing adjudicated foia cases and policy development and oversight and then the following day we
299talked about budget formulation analysis and School Board participation um probably some of the best school board trying I've had to date and then um earlier this week I attended some training with Dr Kramer Dr Coleman and Miss Harris um on fiscal governance and I'm looking for the title it's vsba's inaugural fiscal governance training um and we're going to be continuing that for several more sessions and you know we're able to learn quite a bit and I've also visited Carrollton Elementary School Windsor Elementary School met with both of the principals and Windsor High School a couple times wants to discuss the Deans and another time to talk with Coach Parish about the athletic program and I really got a lot of information about how much the booster program helps the school and the athletic programs so
300that's just the Reader's Digest version and I hope everyone has a wonderful night and a safe night home so if there's I've always said happy birthday so without any further Ado this meeting is adjourned that was