001the meeting of the alawite school board is hereby called to order and the clerk shall take the role Cunningham Mr Wooster president Mr colic president Mr Marsh president and Mrs tons present now we will have the approval of the agenda or amendments to the agenda Mr chair I move to add reorganization impacting the finance committee to the agenda it does take considerable thought to explain your reasoning for that I thank you and finally thanks to everyone for coming out tonight to support our students our staff and our administrators as we strive to take Iowa Isle of Wight County Schools to the next level in educating our youth now the vice chair will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence please rise I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
002States of America to the Republic for which it stands a nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please be seated and next on the agenda we will have the Isle of Wight achievers Mrs Briggs meeting you're first to go that always happens first of all I'd like to say thank you to everyone that participated in our grow go red today in honor of American heart health month we did Isle of Wight County Schools goes red so you'll see a lot of red on stage and in the audience and we appreciate those that participated in helping to bring awareness to heart health the vision for Isle of Wight County Schools is to create a learning environment that will enable every child to discover his or her unique gifts and talents the Isle of
003Wight 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 our first honoree tonight comes from Smithville High School Smithfield High School basketball icon Vivian greens Legacy continues to grow so as I read about it I'm as Miss Vivian Green Brown to please come forward Mr Cole Dr Coleman if you'll come help out in November Vivian was inducted into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame Vivian currently serves as the first female assistant coach to the Smithville High School boys basketball team the 1969 through 74 Smithville High School basketball standout set six State records her senior year in 1975 her freshman year of college green was named most valuable player at the first ever NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament earning her
004the honor of becoming the first female athlete to receive a three-year full tuition scholarship to Norfolk State University to this day she holds the school record for career points at 2 386 and scoring average at 25.1 points per game earning all CIAA honors in each of her four years at NSU her most memorable performance may have come as a junior against Shaw University when she made 23 field goals in route to a 50-point game By 1979 she'd been drafted to play professionally in the women's basketball league which was a forerunner to today's wnb WNBA pardon me she was the first Norfolk State athlete male or female to have her jersey retired and also had her jersey retired at Smithville High and we have a little uh collage of photos here from Miss Viv we've got
005in the bottom center that's our Smithville High School play in days and the top you can see her wearing her Norfolk State jersey over to the right that's when she was in the women's basketball league with I believe that was Dayton is that right Vivian so she was with Dayton and you can see the top left where she had her jersey retired at Smithville High School and as I said she was recently inducted into the Hampton Road Sports Hall of Fame so we are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of Vivian Green Brown and we thank you for continuing to give back to your community thank you Vivia [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and I know Miss Hines has something to hand you as well because of this young lady for you tonight Vivian redirected my life
006in the 19th century high school and I guess I was a junior a junior I graduated class in 1975 and again I'm thanking them this is all about research lies she's all about being role models for the young people give him thank you for all you have done for our White County you made us thanks [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations again Vivian I'm very proud of you [Applause] all right and we're going to move on to our seniors of the month our first senior of the month is from Windsor High School and the senior of the month for just excuse me for February from Windsor High School is Kylie Newberry Kylie has a Natural Curiosity and a strong work ethic she asked thought-provoking questions is driven to see her own answers and has the ability to
007take charge in situations when necessary she performs quality timely work and is able to balance her school home and work life effortlessly Kylie is a quiet individual to which others gravitate she is a good friend to many and is often sought out for her ability to listen she also sees all sides of the discussion which allows her to empathize and guide her peers when they seek her advice quote although I only taught her for one semester she is the one that I will never forget because of her kindness towards everyone and that's from Mrs Halstead her AP Government teacher Kylie hopes to narrow her focus of study while exploring the many options at Tidewater Community College in the fall and we congratulate Kylie congratulations [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oops get back a minute okay and our
008senior of the month from Smithville High School is Kevin Parker Jr [Applause] Kevin is a well-rounded student athlete he is polite intelligent outgoing and a positive role model for his peers Kevin is a hard worker who has set High academic goals for himself he has been a member of the football and basketball teams for the past four years and he was named to the all-academic first team in basketball Kevin has been an influential Force within the classroom this semester and always gone above and beyond both in class and outside Kevin is goal oriented and committed to giving his all in everything he does and that comes from English teacher Mr lonike Kevin plans to attend a four-year college and study to become an electrical engineer congratulations Kevin [Music] [Applause] [Music] I also believe Kevin's grandparents
009both work for us Mr Lee and Ms Lee if y'all would like to stand Mr Lee's one of our drivers [Music] thank you and Miss Lee serves as a substitute nurse for us so thank you all very much it's nice to see the family fan of all family here thank you all right um next we have a little shout out for our board members if you want to have a seat a minute I'll call you back okay February uh February has been designated a school board appreciation month in Virginia as citizen leaders school board members face complex and demanding challenges yet few people fully understand the scope and far-reaching implications of board members responsibilities tonight we would like to recognize the vital contributions of our school board members and focus attention on the crucial role
010these elected public officials play in the education of our children their job is to establish a vision for the education program design a structure to achieve that Vision ensure schools are accountable to the community and strongly Advocate continuous Improvement in student learning that job entails an endless string of meetings and school functions to attend lengthy reports agendas proposals and other information to read and study and a host of difficult decisions to make the time spent in board meetings represents just a small fraction of the hours school board members spend leading the division they also work hard at seminars and training sessions to keep informed of the latest trends in educational leadership are deeply involved in community activities and spend time in the schools and at extracurricular events their love for Learning and concern in caring
011for students staff and Community drives our board members desire to lead so students can achieve in recognition of the dedicated service of school board members throughout Virginia February has been designated as school board appreciation month this is the time to show our recognition and to increase our understanding of how local board members work together to provide a better future for our children tonight we want to want each of you to know that your hard work has been noticed and is truly appreciated chairman John colic from District Five Vice chairman Jason Marsh from District 4 Denise ties from district one Michael Cunningham from District 3 and Mark Wooster from District 2. congratulations and thank you okay all right in addition February 13th through 17th is School Board clerk Appreciation Week and in honor of this week
012we are recognizing our clerk Jessica Whitlow and Deputy clerk Crystal Briggs tonight and I'm going to ask if they would please come down on the floor and we have a little something for them foreign board clerks are tasked with maintaining accurate records of school board meetings and official acts but they are more than record Keepers for the board they make sure the board has the materials necessary for their meetings in a timely manner they serve as a point of contact for parents employees and the community on behalf of the school board and superintendent and they work additional hours attending meetings like tonight we would like to thank Jessica and Crystal for their dedication and service to the school board of Isle of Wight County thank you so much [Applause] [Music] and Mr Elliott's going to
013get a picture and with that we conclude the Isle of Wight Achievers for tonight thank you very much and next we will have eye on a structure instruction Carrollton Elementary School goodness good evening my name is Nico and we are the character Cardinals we are Mrs King's third grade class we would like to present something we have been working on in music class hello hello my name is Emerson our driving question for our school song I mean project was how can we work together to write a school song that's right our 30th year at Carrollton hello my name is Riley writing a school song took a lot of planning Miss Wallace helped us go through the process first we had to choose a tune for our song this wasn't easy due to copyright rules we
014had to be very careful [Laughter] hello my name is Lily Miss Wallace let us listen to a lot of different songs we loved hearing some college fight songs and some songs from other schools but it was time to vote we needed to decide what tune would be used for our Carrollton School song hello my name is Luke we finally had a winner we decided to write this song to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ball Game we're ready to start writing hello my name is Alvin ridingers hello my name is Alvin writing our song was not easy we had lots of opinions as well as took us to the running process we brainstorm Rule and edited we broke into two groups to work on each part um for each on the song um
015it was hard but we kept going we wrote the song we had to decide on a title we chose CSR our song was complete and we are ready to record we were so excited to have the chance to record with to go to Smithfield High School and record with the Ben thank you Mr Sorel and Miss Gail for making this happen we would now like to sell our project foreign [Music] so let's go [Applause] [Music] hello my name is Aubry if you would like to share our song with our community do you know hello my name is Ari we would like to share a song with our community after our presentation we would share hard work with our fellow Cardinals Our Song along with a QR code to perform will be displayed at caes thank
016you for listening to our presentation do you have any questions very well done thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's awesome foreign [Applause] yes I'm gonna give these guys a couple minutes for the kids to clear out [Music] um foreign [Applause] test test can you hear me okay thank you next Dr Coleman and Mr Christensen are going to introduce Mr Aaron Hawkins who will share the results of the FY 22 School Division audit good afternoon Mr chairman members of the school board I wanted to take the time to introduce Mr Aaron Hawkins but before let's give you some information that led up to this we had a audit last school year and we were actually posted those results in December once those results were posted the school board requested that we
017get a member from the auditing team to come out and explain in a little bit more detail concerning the audit for iwcs so we have with us today Mr Aaron Hawkins from Robinson farmer Cox Associates Mr Hawkins um for the FY 21 audit that was our first year auditing the county and when we're selected you know there's a RFP process that goes out and different firms submit proposals and there's an interview process and then um we are hired by the county to perform the audit um and we have to hunt the school board because you are a component unit of the county and you you are you you fall under their audit as well as theirs and so when we begin the the audit for the year for the fiscal 22 year audit we typically
018send out planning information in the spring to both the county and the school board and other departments and we we do about a week of what we call preliminary field work usually in May or June and you know when we did our preliminary field work uh I think the the prior Finance director was from fy21 was no longer there um but there was still some other staff that had been a part of the audit process from the previous year so our preliminary field work went you know relatively good um you know we do a lot of what we call controls testing in the spring we do that preliminary work you know we go we select 40 random checks that are written during the year we also select all the largest checks that were written during
019the year we make sure that um you know for every payment for all those payments that we selected that you know documentation was the way it was supposed to be everything was posted the way it was supposed to be um you know the right people signed the checks they were supposed to sign the checks and same thing for some other controls testing that we do for other areas revenues things like that and so the preliminary field work went pretty well but and then you know during the summer was when we audit your school activity funds which I think I presented that the results of that to you um probably early September or so and then we're supposed to come back for to do our final field work in the fall which is when all the
020numbers for the year should be finalized um you know everything should be reconciled and basically you know the county and the school board say hey these are our numbers these are our amounts for the year your job is to come in and tell us are these numbers correct or is anything wrong that's kind of put it in layman's terms Simplicity um but that's what our testing is supposed to do and so when we came back came back for final field work we were kind of met with some difficulties because there had been a a lot of turnover that had occurred between um you know when we did our preliminary Bill working when we were doing our final field work uh there was basically no one in the finance department that had any real involvement during
021the year um for the school board and so um you know that needless to say the school board really wasn't ready for us to do our work at that time and um it took a lot of effort from Folks at the county to kind of help you guys get to a point where we could audit numbers and we thankfully we did get to that point um but it was a bit of a struggle and um that's kind of to give you a just a summarize of where really where things left off with FY 22 audit was um really just keeping your Finance getting the finance staff in place and keeping them in place as best you can um you know and everyone deals with turnover it's not it's not just you all but um but
022those are the kind of complications that can happen um especially you know in the finance department but we did end up getting through the audit and getting to a point where we we met the the state's deadline of getting them audited financial statements by December 15th um so that's a good thing um to talk about the you know when you pick up the County's financial report that the school board's financial statements are typically towards the back um you know I know I'm not sharing my screen right now and I don't know if anyone even has the financial reports in front of them but if you wanted to jot down these notes um if you're looking at a PDF I believe it's page PDF page 235 and 211 would be if you're looking at a hard
023copy the number at the bottom of the page you know at the actual page and that's where the school boards uh unstatements would begin so they are included in those County financial statements all right um we did Issue a separate management letter it's separate from the audit itself and in the financial statements you know I I want to be clear that you know our financial statements or the financial statements that were audited had an unmodified opinion uh which means that based on our testing the financial statements can be relied upon so we we did get to a good point and feeling comfortable about the numbers and the report um this management layer that we sent out separately you know it kind of identifies things that you know while they didn't rise to a material Level
024of um you know or I shouldn't say there was nothing that caused the financial statements to be materially misstated that weren't corrected um you know we could include them in this letter and the first of which there was three items on our management letter the first of which was on school board reimbursement requests um and this had to do with the turnover honestly uh like the you know the the immense turnover that occurred um you all get several federal grants and this year particularly you got a ton of um yes sir proven related federal assistance in the form of Esther funds and um you know you all had spent a lot of money up through June 30th and a lot of it hadn't been requested for reimbursement yet it was sort of sitting up you
025know we spent all this money um it was actually to the tune of about 3.6 million dollars you know this is money that we spent um the money has gone out of our bank account we spent it we have to do these reimbursement requests and send them off to the state so that we can get reimbursed by them with federal dollars to reimburse ourselves for this money that we spend and um you know because of that turnover that that wasn't occurring and so um it did get end up getting requested you know at you know towards the end of the audit process and so the money did end up I believe coming in and was requested successfully but um you don't want to wait that long you know for to request funds typically you know
026with a big grant program it should really be done monthly um definitely no less than quarterly uh we had another management letter item that we indicated you know what I kind of already told you this is you know trying to maintain your finance department and staff you know it's um you need to have someone in place they can they can make you know not only day-to-day operations but also be able to handle the year-end fiscal responsibilities of the school board and with that not being in place that you know we just wanted to kind of you know put put that in in this management letter that it is something you need to be aware of it's something that you need to to remedy and on the second page of the management letter um this is
027the third item and this really affected the county and the school board you know when we when we show up for our final field work and I kind of have said this earlier as well um it's what really should happen is the county and school boards say hey here's our financial statements these are our numbers tell us if they're running wrong um when that process started uh the numbers kind of kept changing on us you know we were getting journal entries from both the county and the school board for things that hey we haven't we forgot to record this or we still need to record this and do this and so that while they weren't entries that I was having to do um so I was independent of these journal entries um you know that
028they weren't recorded yet when I started the audit and you know it's hard it makes the audit process complicated and a little bit inefficient when um like I said you we're obtaining numbers we're trying to audit them and then the target kind of keeps moving on us um so that was that was the third item that uh that I needed on the management letter and um and that's and that really is that the main highlights of of the audit process and and how it went in FY 22. um I'm willing to answer any questions that anyone has to the best of my ability does anybody have any questions no questions no we have no questions that was uh very good very concise and it answered all the questions that I had okay all right thank
029you Mr Hawkins thank you sir thank you all thank you have a nice student what's that did you cut it off he'll be history okay okay next we've got the bright brand presentation through the Mr chairman members of the school board staff I am Don Robertson with County administrator's office I have been asked to give you a brief update on broadband expansion in the county so I will uh Endeavor to be very brief but certainly I'm willing to answer any questions that you might have relative to the County's Broadband efforts uh when I was growing up I had a camera we take a picture and uh it'd be a little thing that rolled out a little piece of paper and you'd sit there and it was a blank piece of paper for a long time
030and you'd wait and you'd have to shake it and after a few minutes uh images would start to appear on that piece of paper this process is much like that process uh we have been working behind the scenes for about the last two or three years now uh relative to broadband expansion in the county um and if I had a dollar for every call that I've gotten over that time period asking when is broadband coming to my house I could probably retire today but we are still working on that process the image is still unfolding and uh make a long story short we have been able to secure Federal as well as state Grant funds Federal funding is provided through the rural digital opportunity fund we call it ardoff State funding is through the Virginia
031technology initiative or body funds as we call them and so Isle of Wight County is currently participating in a regional project with the city of Suffolk and Southampton County this is well over a 30 million I think it's about 34 million dollar project between our three communities uh several thousand homes be served and at the end of the process it's expected that every home in Isle of Wight County as well as the other surrounding communities will have the opportunity to subscribe to broadband service what we are currently engaged in is the actual construction phase and in Isle of Wight we are at the very beginning of the construction phase so if you go to parts of the County south of Route 460 you'll probably see some trucks you may see some conduit and you'll see
032some folks out working they're in the process of laying conduit most of the construction currently is occurring Underground wants to conduits in place they'll come back and actually Place fiber in the conduit and then there's several other steps in the process where they uh test the conduit after they've made connections they'll Electrify everything and then they'll begin to supply service to homes we expect to receive fiber to the home which is literally the state of the art uh the best possible service that we can provide to homes in Isle of Wight County the process of the construction process is probably still going to take another two two and a half years and so there's going to be a lot of folks shaking that paper wondering when that image is going to come into full View
033uh but the process is occurring there is a good amount of work that's already been done in the city of Suffolk and then they've moved West West to Isle of Wight County and so as they begin to build out uh in some of our more rural communities south of 460. uh they'll begin to move north and west there now there is a portion of our County because all of the the homes that I've kind of described are being served by Charter Communications so if you see a truck with Spectrum or Charter or some of their subs that's going to be the bulk of what occurs in Isle of Wight and they'll be the providers for most of the homes in Isle of Wight there is a small portion of our County in the western part
034of the County uh on the mill swamp area that goes all the way up to rushmere and then East to about rensmill Estates that area will be served by a rural band rural band is a subsidiary of Prince George Electric Co-op uh at the end of the day everybody's service is pretty much going to be the same it's going to be fiber to the home state of the art serve a state-of-the-art service for all of those homes that currently do not have broadband I'll point out one last thing and then certainly if you have questions I'll do my best to answer them affordability is a major consideration you know everybody wants Broadband everybody certainly during covet understood the need for Broadband but there is a cost and for many homes in a traditional sense it
035would be unaffordable but because of the funding sources that we have secured with federal and state funds and the way that the grant programs are rolled out affordable programs have to be offered to homes and so we'll be working with families as we go through the process to obviously qualify people and make sure that they are eligible for those reduced rates literally it may be at no cost to some households but most households will be able to get high-speed broadband service at a very affordable cost and with that I'll pause and certainly answer any questions that you might have that's the chair I have a question yes Miss dice yeah um thank you Mr Robbins I just want to ask the question and I know it's probably no but I just want to know um
036I I notice a lot of concerns especially on social media where people that are moving here and that are living here of course in a rural area uh we don't have a lot of choices when it comes to Cable as far as TV services right now you know is pretty much a spectrum unless you want to download things um what do you see uh in the future as far as us getting other options in the county so Isle of Wight has always welcomed any other provider who would like to come in the challenge with that is any provider who comes in is going to have to come in and provide their own infrastructure it's a very expensive proposition and I would submit to you that without the subsidized funding that we're getting relative to the
037federal and state grants you wouldn't be having this conversation about Broadband expansion right now uh so there is certainly the possibility but the likelihood is very low that there would be other providers to come in and provide TV service one of the beauties of broadband internet is that you have a multitude of streaming services at your disposal uh that provide either subscriptions that have a fee associated and some streaming services are free to the customer and so I think most homes will probably gravitate more toward those streaming services if you look at National Statistics over the last several years there's been a downward Trend as it relates to cable TV as we historically have known it right and then uptick in streaming services okay thank you very much Mr Cunningham I've got a question on
038the time frame uh I don't know if anybody else is wondering when is uh when do you think the first customer will be able to use Broadband in the uh County that's a great question I wish I had a great answer okay uh the the we are already seeing customers in Suffolk come online as I noted construction is beginning in Isle of Wight so the process of getting the conduit in the ground getting the fiber in getting that fiber to the point where they can then provide service to homes takes several months my really loose guess is that late spring early summer we'll start to see homes coming online in Isle of Wight and and I mean in a significant way in terms of uh you know probably several hundred homes coming online in a
039relatively short period once they get that infrastructure in the ground okay thank you but don't hold me to that because that's the call I get every day yeah no problem I'm not going to only do it I'll let you know when carsville gets it carsville will get it sooner than many because again they're starting in the southern part of the county and uh part of that is because Southampton is also a partner in this Grant and so as they move from Suffolk to Isle of Wight to Southampton uh they'll be coming through your neighborhood in the not too distant future thank you Mr Robertson we appreciate it thank you thank you and if uh you know you need an update in the future I'll be more than glad to come back and provide you updates
040thank you we appreciate that thank you next we're going to have citizens comment on agenda items in accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific State the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed session okay first we have Jerry Tenney
041I came here to speak but I must tell you I was inspired by the third graders that really uh set things up hello I'm Jerry Tenney I've been a citizen of Isle of Wight County for 45 years 37 of those years I've worked for Isle of Wight County Schools as a teacher a coach a club sponsor and a substitute bus driver my children and grandchildren have all been in Isle of Wight County Schools or they're still currently attending I'm grateful to the county schools and applaud the accomplishments of the County Schools so many good people working for and with our future citizens as they learn and grow first I want to thank the school board including my former world history student Mr Wooster for its service by being elected you've taken a nonpartisan obligation upon
042yourself hopefully you and future boards will be promoting and providing an excellent education during a school board meeting in January I watched you being told by a citizen that your Prime consideration should be the interest of your voters in conducting School business I disagree each of you holds a nonpartisan seat once you were sworn in your primary obligation became to the entire County we don't need the distractions that currently exist concerning policy changes whether it is learning culinary arts studying Algebra 2 or alternative education what we do need is the best education we can give our students the County Schools have always had issues to deal with and they will continue after you have served however the structure for dealing with issues already exist the pressure that is generating proposed policy changes won't be the
043last pressure the school board will face if the pressure is successful it will just be the beginning there will be unintended consequences for our schools that will be harmful and costly because of being recently elected the majority of the school board has little experience take time to understand what exists use it and move on from there give yourself the time and perspective that is necessary the two existing policy points covering the teaching of controversial topics are sufficient they are all that is needed the first two points the revisions following the first two points would create an unstable policy game of Jenga for the benefit of those that want to recreate the schools in their own image good teachers were to literally leave the county new teachers will think less about coming here families with children
044are going to have to give consideration to not living here very and counterproductive we will literally be stepping from Isle of Wight to Olive was the job that you have now is to maintain and improve the schools for a focus of Excellence do your job you have the tools use them for the sake of our future we need Isle of Wight County Schools focused on and committed to Excellence thank you for your service [Applause] Greg Brown good evening thank you all for your time I'm Greg Brown I currently have two children in the County School System at Hardy Elementary they love it there everybody that we've met in the school system just wants the best for our kids the proposed policy on controversial issues that we're talking about is it's written to look like it's
045impartial and unbiased we just want to present the different sides of an issue without providing an opinion however there's any number of issues where there is a definite right and wrong side to that issue it's black history month right now I would not expect our schools to teach that the George Wallace's and bull Connors of the world had equally valid points to Dr King and John Lewis that would be wrong we would be doing a disservice to our students and that would be dishonest if we were to do something like that nobody in the school system is blaming the kids today or trying to make them feel bad about things that happened in the past there are any number of things in the past that people are uncomfortable about and that's as it should be
046because there's lots in the past that was not good but ignoring uncomfortable facts does not make them go away our children are going to be around the show one day like you said at the beginning Mr chairman we're preparing our students for college career and life so we need to do everything we can to help prepare our children for the best lives they can live scaring our Educators into Blanding down the topics and not providing our children the information they need out of some fear of being labeled an indoctrinator is is not doing a service to our children lastly from the data provided in the school board agendas from the last couple months we've been losing more employees than we've been hiring for at least the last five months um I don't think that the
047attacks upon our Educators from the community are helping in that regard and if there's one thing we need to work on it's finding a way to attract recruit and retain the best people we can for our school system because that would be the best for our kids thank you very much I appreciate your time thank you herb degroft yeah Mr chairman and board members and Dr Kramer herb degroff to uh Hardy Mill Swamp Road now in the carsville district I think the work that's been done between the school board and the staff are I double double IA is to be commended keep up the good work and always work to improve but I'm really here to talk about though is what occurred late last year relative to policy FFA in December my board member sent
048questions to Dr Kramer and Mr Peck and it asks questions relative to the authenticity of what was on the board agenda late last winter or early last winter and needless to say the violation of Virginia code 18.2-168 if any person forges a public record or certificate return or ask that station knowing Saint to be forged shall be guilty of a class IV felony here's some of the questions that we're asked of Dr Kramer and the staff is it your position at the version of policy FFA loaded on board docs for a second read was the current version of this policy why'd that question have to be asked of course it should have been who uploaded the March 12 2015 documented division website and whose Direction was this document updated and did anyone realize the wrong
049version of policy FFA was being uploaded who knew that the 11 June 2015 date was added to the March 12 2015 document prior to it being uploaded who if anyone ordered or authorized the changes in the document prior to being uploaded questions that shouldn't have to been asked because it's everybody's responsibility to uphold the letter of the law and the policies that set forth and voted upon by this body which board members were aware of the issues concerning policy FFA the naming of school facilities and why wasn't the entire school board made aware of the presidential conflict between the intent that follows the FFA and their desires of most folks let me remind you as I said before it's a class IV felony according to the Virginia code 18.2-168 former chair for the Grapevine or
050scuttlebutt as those of us who've been in the military no told Dr Kramer in so many words just ignore this issue and it would go away really I don't think so and then we're using questions from Mr fack according to the official minutes of the June 11 2015 school board meeting the version of policy FFA used to change the name of the CTE building was not the current version does the version of policy FFA that was revised on June 11 2015 to proceed to policy that was re-dated and used to rename the facility I am asking this board to take corrective action and vote to have an investigation instituted by the Virginia attorney general a state police or a state agency with the authority to refer to a court trial because in my opinion as
051a citizen a class IV felony has occurred and Mr miyari's is already after the former parole board chair for falsifying documentation hey what happened in all the way County relative to FFA is no different thank you very much Heidi Schwartz thank you I'm just going to make a previous comment in regards to a previous comment that parents also are afraid to speak up because we are possible retaliation to our kids that's just the remark from a couple weeks ago oddly enough I'm going to also speak on policy FFA um I just want to give the public a little more history on renaming of the CTE building all that I'm going to speak on was found on foia which I'll submit for record minutes to be uploaded tonight um this past May prior to the June
0529th meeting when then chair times initially brought to the Public's attention the renaming what we didn't know was central office had been having discussions with rrmm an architect in Virginia Beach to design the sign for the CTE building so before citizen input was to take place taxpayers money was already being spent on the project there was even a resolution designed by Pac to be read at an earlier May school board meeting and what's even more interesting and later emails in November of 2022 there's a mention that the attorney would have needed the FFA policy to design that resolution for the May 12th school board meeting yet we were told it was June when a policy was suddenly found in time for the June 9th meeting now there's additional communication that would add to the who
053the what and the when and the where what I was told were not privileged to those due to attorney-client privilege what would be in those and this leaves even more unanswered questions who initiated the renaming when someone in central office or someone on the board where steps started to design the sign by a board member without other board members decisions or was a strictly central office was it Thornton and Pax cc'd and correspondence so it would conveniently be attorney-client privilege was the May board meeting resolution called off because a sign wasn't ready or because Pac asked questions regarding citizen input and that's where the fraudulent policy comes into place so the naming could still happen for a living individual unfortunately there's still a lot of unanswered questions hidden under attorney-client privilege and as you can
054see this leads to all kinds of theories what I do know I know the decision to name the building after Dr Dr Thornton was decided long before the switcheroo of the fraudulent FFA policy on June 9th I know a resolution was designed by Pac for a May meeting well before the June 9th meeting and abolishly should should or was provided to him and I know design for the sign wasn't was with an architect was well on its way before the June meeting when citizens were told we would have input into June 30th by chair times I do know it wasn't going to matter what anyone's input was the trajectory to have Dr Thornton's name on the CTE building was going to happen regardless fraudulently even the only reason we have up for second read tonight
055is because we had a change on the board and the fraudulent version was flushed out I asked that the board make a motion to immediately resend the previous vote on renaming the CTE building under the fraudulent policy In fairness if the decision were to have a cons to have considered renaming the CTE building and happened to have the opportunity to do so for a living person it should have been named the Roberts Thornton CTE building let's not forget that Casey Roberts leadership had facilitated the broken of a three million dollar donation from Smithfield foods that directly supported the creation of the CTE program also I'm direct I'm directly requesting that I receive an email that's missing from my foia between ruit and Briggs on June 9th ruid the clerk on June 9th 2022 in June
056of 2015 was the owner of that policy of FFA in the email she states I have entered the policy and information into the spreadsheet not Briggs as Briggs stated in her confession statement in December ruet was the owner of the policy not Briggs root entered it in the benefit of Thornton but there's a missing page in my email on my um Voya in between those two thank you Matthew ploid good evening thank you for having us tonight uh my name is Matt Floyd I'm a history teacher and a government teacher at Smithfield High School and I'm also the president of the Iowa white Educators Association the last school board meeting saw teachers students parents and citizens point out the shortcoming uh the amendment for IIA due to threats to educational integrity at the curriculum College
057Board issues the probable loss of AP and dual enrollment programs as well as a very whitewashed version of history and English being what the authors of this amendment seem to desire from our schools since that time Mr Marsh has introduced the same principles under the guise of IMB teachers wanted to be a part of this conversation we proposed a proposed that requested that the board established an ad hoc committee made up of stakeholders parents teachers and administrators to help navigate our way through this to find a common ground that all parties can live with the board apparently wasn't interested in any educator input is the committee never materialized Meanwhile we're here right back where we started most of the concerns of the teachers were ignored the dictionary defines Insanity as repeating the same act repetitively
058expecting a different outcome and that is what this IMB Amendment means to us now instead of repeating my yourself Ad nauseam allow me to instead ask some a series of questions if the answer to any of these questions is I don't know then I respectfully suggest that we need to pump the brakes on this amendment before irreparable damage is done to the quality of Education that our children receive and to the careers of the highly motivated specialized and trained Educators who work with our students every day this amendment appears to have no infrastructure or protocol related to it and the verbiage as well as all provided definitions yes we read them uh is vague and subjective for example who decides what is divisive who decides or determines what's indoctrination is teaching the positive and negative
059history of both parties in a government class indoctrination is challenging students to see both sides of an issue indoctrination who determines what constitutes a violation of this policy department heads highly controversial political agendas or since most of these items directly align with the talking points the candidates uh whom they finance do we just let middle resolution pack determine the outcome especially considering the amount of money that they sank into specific campaigns in the last election cycle are we really putting politics and cronyism ahead of giving our students the best most well-rounded education that we can provide and the proposed amendment it states neither the school board or any employee of the school division shall endorse any political party or candidate while performing the prescribed duties or responsibilities for Iowa County Schools congratulations if you pass
060this this board has three members who've already violated it by claiming last month to represent only certain constituents and representing conservative values these statements were made repeatedly so respectfully what is the consequence of this to be before touting the size of your election wins in the last election let's be honest and put it into context voter turnout was very low and the point I'm making with that is now that you've been elected to this post you no longer represent your specific voters you represent all of Isle of Wight County and it's time we start acting like it on a personal note not as a teacher employee but as a husband it is never okay for any member of this board to reach out to the wife of the teacher at 1am especially the night before
061he's going to speak and especially after he's been very public about his criticisms about some of the policies coming down from this board maybe it was a hack maybe it wasn't I have a hard time believing that someone who is not on your friends list social media list or has ever even met you just randomly is the one person that gets harassed by this hat hacks don't work that way normally it's certainly the most inefficient hack I've ever seen my wife is not to be contacted by any member of this board period if harassment continues I will not hesitate to take the story to any media outlet that I have at my disposal it's time to put the politics and victory Alex behind and start moving forward with the business of educating our children thank
062you [Applause] foreign Williams good evening I want to talk about the teaching about controversial issues underneath um I guess my topic is constitutional negligence so we could be standing up here and all talking about how the school board honored the teachers by gifting them with pizza today since today was National Pizza day or a creation of a teacher store where teachers can get supplies or the development of community closets within a school to help students in need or let's not forget about the topic of security but here we are talking about constitutional negligence so this policy or these policies are just simply political jokes and a diversion for Bridging the Gap between community and school and I can tell that there is no connection between the mission and the vision for Isle of Wight County
063schools and it seems to be a lot of loose gaps in between when there is a need for a policy there is a reason have you conveyed the reason with the community as a licensed curriculum development writer helps me to understand the why before creating anything now the why includes a combination of community leaders teachers all different types of people not just one so the verb usage in some of these policies to me they seem to have a double double meaning less annotating critique number three for example the word persuading as it relates to the teachers are you not persuading others how to think when you develop policies that only support one political view or read as a commandment you are not God so why are you using the word shall in vain so are
064teachers the ones that are endorsing political parties or are you the one that's endorsing political parties with pictures and one-sided arguments on social media so you don't want situations to be viewed Through The Eyes of race when it was clearly stated during the last school board meeting that Dr Coleman was an African-American or Dr Getz was a white woman and it may appear that you think that I'm a black woman standing up here but I'm not soy latina is Blanca so I'm pleasantly confused with number eight when using the word Superior so what students are you referring to be specific number nine is a pure sprawl or joke you do know that teachers are not teaching systemic racism in the classroom however it does exist makes number nine a lie I have a black son
065so can you be more specific when you say political activist organizations and social justice movements there was a sense of ambiguity you do know that social move is included but are not limited to Civil Rights Movement conservation movement Human Rights Movement lgbtq Mothers Against Drunk Driving tea party women's suffrage and I forgot to mention World cleanup day do you want to get rid of that so if I were to show you this and ask you what this is you might just say that this appears to be a worn out hair tie so I went to do my daughter's hair this morning I found this in place of the rubber band that I placed on her hair yesterday I asked her why and she said mommy my hair band popped and my teacher took this off
066of her wrist and she put it on my hair to make a bun see we're more than just teachers in the classroom we keep things in place yet you're trying to replace them with Duds James Baldwin once stated that it is certain in any case that ignorance allied with power is the most for atrocious enemy Justice can have Sia corner so I guess you can't lead by example when you fail to give a diverse perspective of some [Applause] Matt Burgess good evening members of the board my name is Matt Burgess and I've had the honor and privilege to serve Isle of Wight County as a teacher for the past 19 years I'm here tonight to speak on the proposed policy for teaching about controversial issues for nearly two decades I have taught history in government
067at Windsor high school and for most of my career I have felt myself to be a valued and respected member of the community they say it takes a village to raise a child now I've been a proud member of this Village having taught thousands of students I hope to teach many more lately though I have not felt so valued and respected the proposed policies on teaching controversial topics would name teachers as the enemy The Boogeyman the villain the proposed policy declares that my colleagues and I are not to be trusted there is no need for this pointed mistrust I am not a Marxist I am not a fascist I am not a groomer I don't teach critical race Theory no teacher I know of in this County fits any of these descriptions or is attempting
068to indoctrinate the children so let's be clear about the proposed policy and its previous iteration that was attempted last month you are chasing a solution to a problem that does not exist you are like Don Quixote tilting at windmills please you are working hard to appease an angry and vocal portion of the community one that is here at every school board meeting demanding change one that I suspect has watched too much cable news and is beating the drum to fight non-existent problems if passed this policy will be the first of many that they demand next they'll demand an enforcement addendum and you'll find yourself hiring inquisitors to comb through teachers lesson plans to seek out any new heresy you'll find yourself creating a new wave Committee of Public Safety to find the Traders among your
069teachers like a rock thrown in a pond the Rippling effect of this policy will undoubtedly affect the students in a negative manner teachers will be nervous to teach any issue that might be considered controversial and will find ways to avoid the topics I see it already happening among my colleagues with teachers second guessing what would be normal lessons and student-driven class discussions and you haven't even voted on the proposal in addition to my role as a teacher I'm an adminator at Windsor high school and I help with a number of things at the school including school-wide attendance tracking instead of focusing on problems that don't exist I wish you would turn your attention to an actual crisis that is happening under your watch are you even aware that Windsor high school is in danger of
070losing accreditation due to student attendance not s will pass rates not graduation rates student attendance we're only halfway through the year and 42 students have already been identified as chronically absent and that number will grow every week that's already eight percent of the school the state expects schools to have less than 10 percent of the student population is chronically absent good luck explaining to the citizens in your next election of whs loses accreditation at least you'll be able to tell them you Vanquish the CRT Boogeyman I suspect that you will pass either this policy or another variation of it at some point but I hope it's worth the cost you will have defeated your imaginary foe you have appeased the loud voices in the community but in doing so you will have alienated your teachers
071named us an enemy of the students and the parents and ignored real problems that are growing every day thank you for your time [Applause] Ben Phelps sorry sloppy notes good evening board and members of the audience it's always a pleasure to speak with you hope you're all well this evening it's good to see you I come here tonight with a heavy heart I come here tonight as a parent of four children I come here tonight as a teacher at Windsor high school this morning when we got word of violence at one of our schools right around the corner from us our 12 year old is stabbed in the neck with a pencil and so I redirected my speech for tonight I like to mix it up I can get all vitriolic and excited and we
072can have Civic discussion it's how our country was made it's important but that saddened me and it hurt my heart because I thought about my children and I thought about your children I thought about folks in this room they were all friends here that were all people we're someone's children were someone's parents so it really shook me up and I redirected my speech I told myself to calm down and really focus on what was important which is the health and safety of our children in aloe County Schools and this is where I really would like to direct my statements at the group of citizens who seek to threaten teachers who seek to threaten and back Channel Facebook groups which some of you are aware of our qualifications and what we do um I am not
073one to be threatened easily and I'm not one to be scared and I don't run from said threats it is not cool that people from this group show up at people's houses and take pictures and in some cases track US it is my humble opinion that I would ask these said people some of them are your friends maybe you can relay the message for me and for us it is time to take our discourse back to a civil level which is a foundation of American government and American history which many people Pride themselves on knowing a lot about our history it doesn't seem like they paid attention that day in class so uh Mr Marsh thank you for your new revision um I am here to speak against this revision and I'm here to speak
074to you as a parent um I have heard through certain channels that you're fearful of future generations of alawite County students being called oppressors this will not be the case there's no student there's no teacher one minute that I have ever known that would call a student an oppressor um also as my friend Matt Burgess mentioned earlier education is not indoctrination we do not indoctrinate we educate I don't seek to indoctrinate anyone I rise up in a pit in my classroom but I do present facts also I need each of you to hear me you need to trust us we are trained professionals I've done and taught the same class for 21 years in this County and I'm incredibly proficient we go through rigorous training three years we're on summative evaluations and then we go
075through recertification programs I don't teach the mechanic at Dewitt's how to change my transmission and I don't tell my former friends in Southampton County how to plow their fields time thank you very much [Applause] Jessica Brannon I knew I should have worn the heels oh good apparently good evening my name is Jessica Brannon I am a Spanish and ESL teacher at Windsor high school and 2019-2020 Isle of Wight Teacher of the Year this will be my fifth year at Windsor and my 10th year in education I am very passionate about my job especially helping my students first and foremost thank you for this opportunity to speak and thank you for those who responded to my email after the previous January school board meeting tonight I would like to address the policy INB teaching about controversial
076issues issues the proposed policy appears as retribution for teachers who spoke out against policy IIA instead of banning controversial issues which I applaud the change this new policy places teachers under the magnifying glass in order to accomplish a political agenda I have always tried my best to be politically neutral in my classroom while providing a safe and welcoming environment for all my students but it's become increasingly difficult to do so in the last few years I work in a time when current events often invade the classroom I have had to navigate how to support my students and teach my content while maneuvering the incidents of the real world whether it is teaching the day after the January 6 Insurrection after a local incident with a police officer makes national news or after a depressingly numerous
077amount of school shootings my instruction is frequently affected by controversial events that impact how my students feel and learn as a high school teacher even if I try to ignore these situations even if I do not plan instruction around them my students will bring them into the discussion I implore you to consider the impact this policy will have on your teachers and subsequently your students this policy creates an environment of fear rather than protection how will the policy be enforced what will the consequences be for teachers who are considered in violation who determines if they violated the policy can any one moment in a lesson be singled out for inspection in response to my email Mr Marsh told me I am comfortable in assuming that you and I sit on opposite sides of the political
078Spectrum based on your signature block alone end quote if a school board member makes an assumption about my political views simply from a signature block what assumptions can be made from a worksheet taken out of context or a conversation a student initiates in the classroom as I stated in that email I encourage the school board to take stock of the actual need for policy change by pulling all stakeholders staff students teachers parents Etc in iwcs as there are a number of individuals that we're not able to and are not able to vote for school board members that are affected by these changes in education we use data to drive our instruction campaign choosing to campaign on a political narrative is not reason enough for a policy change the board should provide a data driven reason
079from our schools that justify such action in the meantime if you would like to keep controversial topics out of the classroom let us use our professional training to develop our instruction and school board members use evidence to drive your policy making not political talking points foreign Fletcher well I I will first um say good evening Gentlemen of the board Miss times and Dr Kramer my name is Laura Fletcher and I'm from District 3 and I am white I'm a mother of white children just wanted to say that by many I'm probably considered undereducated I do understand representative government however and you all do represent those that elected you to office and you are to work for the good of the county and I know that you understand that and I thank you um I'm here
080to share my concerns about the spending spree Isle of Wight County Schools was embarked upon things I've heard brought before the board recently a new Hardy School completion new admin building the old Hardy new school buses new bus garage new athletic fields with Synthetic Turf new band and chorus rooms new school on the agenda for this evening new interactive white boards additionally I recently recently heard Miss times bring up the topic of universal Pre-K which she continually referred to as child care another doozy of a comment was her statement that Universal Pre-K would be paid for with free money do you know how offensive that statement is to a tax paying citizen I have seen zero restraint from Isle of Wight County Schools regarding the items they want to fund with my free money not
081even a blush when they up the Annie at every school board meeting I will ask this board again to not allow one more project to be considered without a full accounting of how the Esser and covet funds were spent and what's left I see we're almost eighty thousand dollars of remaining Esser funds are being proposed to pay for the new interactive white boards which I one thing I think I saw was four hundred thousand dollars maybe I I did some quick research these boards have only a three year warranty and they are not ethernet ready making them unreliable particularly in more rural areas with unstable Wi-Fi I want everybody to understand that enough we are hemorrhaging dollars we don't have to pay for things we don't need we're heading into grave financial times as a
082nation we are 31 trillion dollars in debt over the next few years we'll pay 8 trillion in interest alone we're living in a dream world I urge you to rein in your spending Focus only on what's a necessity set aside rainy day funds and if we care about the future of our children we'll make the tough decisions now Mr colic Mr Mars Mr Wooster do not forget the people who rewarded you with their vote we must have answers to how and where the user funds have been spent I'm not sure of the protocol but I'm asking tonight for a special called meeting to be arranged for a date in the near future where this information will be provided to the citizens of Isle of Wight County I'd like handouts and PowerPoints as well we can't
083continue to rubber stamp pet projects and luxuries and since I've gone there actually I meant to say we're making our children debt slaves since I've gone there I want an accounting of every dime spent on Equity programs in this County whro's presentation a few weeks ago proved how entrenched Dei and CRT is throughout our curriculum and teacher training programs racist propaganda and its tenants must be rooted out and defunded I will conclude with accommodation Mr Marsh Mr Wooster thank you for words you've shown in presenting policies IIA and INB all with the singular goal of protecting our children from the mire of worldly perversions barreling down on them long before their hearts and minds are ready to carry these burdens thank you for supporting parents rights Maureen province good evening my name is Maureen Province
084and I'm a parent of two Smithfield High School graduates and one current freshman um I spoke at last month's board meeting regarding the problematic nature of policy IIA and I'd like to thank the board for hearing the multitude of concerns expressed that evening and for subsequently amending the language of policy IIA to reflect that the use of instructional materials must take into account the educational needs of students with all grade levels on the subject of sexually explicit instructional materials I believe the board has reached a reasonable compromise and I applaud you for your willingness to listen to constructive criticism and adapt accordingly however in regard to the IMB draft that is being presented during this evening's meeting my first impression is that it seeks a solution in search of a problem I'm not aware of
085any instances of teachers trying to coerce or indoctrinate students to adopt beliefs that promote racism sexism oppression victimization or any of the rest of the laundry list of ideological Concepts detailed in items four through nine of this draft although the wording of the draft now addresses controversial issues the spirit Remains the Same namely the Banning of any quote inherently divisive materials since items four through nine are basically a rehashing of that definition of divisive content as established by Governor yonkin's executive order if I were a teacher presented with this policy I would be deeply offended by this extensive catalog of what not to do when presenting content we're reaching a dire stage both locally and on a national level of a teacher shortage that's undoubtedly negatively impacting our children's education combine that with the post-pandemic
086learning loss that's been documented across the board and I think it's imperative that all parties parents teachers Administration and the school board strive to focus on fully supporting our students and teachers rather than burdening them with a restrictive policy that's both redundant and quite frankly insulting in closing I'd like to urge the board to use this moment as an opportunity to lead by example item number four of draft INB States the teachers quote shall not endorse any political party political party platform political candidate political ideology political activist re organization or social justice movement or narrative the demonizing of quote inherently divisive content is without a doubt a shining example of a political narrative in the interest of holding yourselves to the same standards you propose to require of our teaching staff I respectfully ask the
087draft INB be discarded altogether or at the very least edited in such a manner that it gives our teachers the benefit of the doubt that they understand what is and is not acceptable to endorse or promote in our schools thank you for your time and your service to our community [Applause] that's it foreign for speaking next we'll have board member committee reports and other information are there any members of the board that would like to make comments Miss times uh yesterday I had an opportunity to um share a couple classes at Carrollton Elementary with one of my colleagues Mr Cunningham we had an enjoyable morning at Carrollton Elementary with two classes they were third grade classes they were Miss Mrs Barlow and Mr S Mrs anybody heard it so so that's it tell us to
088call him Mr s yes and I would like to thank the parents of the students that are in those two classes because those young children they were aware of a lot of things that's going on in the world and I'm positive they did not get it all from school with some of the questions that they had from us because listening to a lot of the speakers tonight I'm sure some of the teachers are not going down that Avenue right now with some of the students so I'm thinking they're learning some of these activities from home and uh again thank you to the parents and I always thank our staff because those two teachers it's amazing what the students were the questions at the level of of the questions that they had for us uh I
089we asked a question about you know most of the time what would you like to be when you finish high school and all these young people were coming with things like archaeologists uh engine of course Engineers uh veterinarians those type things I think we only had about two teachers maybe three the most okay and I was so proud of them but we had a nice day at Carrollton Elementary yesterday morning I also would like to uh thank Mr plot Mr Matt plot and the Smithfield High School debate team for inviting me out to be one of their um student Congress uh debater for one of their student a judge for one of their student Congress debates which will take place on Saturday I think it starts around 8 30 and it should end around 5
09030 Saturday uh evening so if you are out and about stop by and see what those young people are doing thank you that's all I have thank you Mr Titus Mr Marsh oh okay uh I attended two meetings on the first of February one was the Governor's School for the Arts and uh the same day csep uh I'm on a joint board they had a meeting on that day I believe these uh both of those uh organizations are going to have meetings every quarter or something like that but I'll be the point of contact uh to go to each one of the meetings uh Mr Marsh is is the uh secondary to go to those so if I can't make one I'll let you know well in advance so uh you can attend but I
091have the dates and everything uh one thing about the government school we have students out there that are doing great things um everybody here should should Google the government Governor at School for the Arts is in Norfolk and go see some of the plays they have out there it is fantastic doing a meeting they had two uh students come in I believe both of them were seniors one played the cello and one uh sang and it sounds like uh like they were in Broadway shows or something it's wonderful and I wish I'd known about that before that's all I have Mr chair thanks Mr Cunningham Mr chair I'll piggyback on you there Mr Cunningham with regards to plays on January the 14th I went out to Windsor high school and I watched the the students
092put on an Adams Family Musical and just a big shout out to all those students and the people that put it on it was it was really neat and my two little kids had a hoot watching it um yeah it was good stuff it really was I was impressed with what they did and it was for the record Mr Kramer it was stand in room only in there it really was um and then on January 27th I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr colic and County Supervisor gray so Mr Keaton and Mrs Humphries and Dr Coleman and uh for me it was a training session because I got to get the back story of the funding of the new Hardy how it came to be where it was and where we are now
093it was an eye-opening experience the finances with the schools it's it's a lot to wrap your head around the big takeaway for that moving forward when we start talking about money is that in 2020 from now we are 14 million about over the original estimated cost so there's a lot that goes into that but for me that was a big eye opener so we're way over budget on the new Hardy and that's all I got I yield Mr oyster okay I've got a couple things um last week I attended the Virginia school board association's Capital conference and Richmond and some topics included the the upcoming legislative budget along with some education highlights that include reading and math Specialists a mental health pilot program and lab schools we also received a legislative report that included several
094bills to uphold the fundamental rights of parents to make the educational decisions for the children as well as some bills regarding School construction and modernization uh the legislature has finished their crossover from the house of delegates to the Senate and vice versa so the opposite houses are working on those bills now and I also attended two games of the Three Rivers basketball league this is an eight School league of special needs students both Smithfield High and Windsor high are participants last week Dr Kramer and I attended the game between Smithfield High and plan B Academy out of Chesapeake and this morning I attended Windsor High against Plan B and was fortunate enough to sit with my son who is a student at Plan B Academy and if anybody has the opportunity to go see these
095games please do it would be well worth your while you will enjoy every minute of it thank you chair call oh sorry go ahead yes I want to let them know also I did attend the conference in Richmond but I did it virtually and that's it for right now thank you do you want to go ahead and get um the report from Samantha absolutely okay you're ready yeah I apologize so Smithfield's doing pretty well we have our JROTC blood drive coming up in two weeks uh first 100 donors get Q Daddy's coupons so that's an incentive for anyone come on out um then our Operation Smile club which it buns cleft lip surgery for uh kids so and we're having the fundraiser with the world's finest chocolates and we'll be selling T-shirts at any games
096so like soccer games coming up will be there sell t-shirts so we're really excited for that thank you next we'll have the monthly Financial reports with Dr Coleman Mr Christensen Miss pepper foreign good evening uh chairman members of the board Dr Kramer you have the financial reports in front of you as well as the check register check register summary large ticket item summary and the facility usage reports so I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have Mr Marsh gentlemen I have a few questions in no particular order and a lot of this is from my own edification and for anyone listening um on the check register we've got a treasury a five thousand seven hundred seventy five dollars to the treasury of Virginia for textbooks is that because we buy textbooks from
097vdoe or why is it to the treasury of that particular purchase is uh for virtual Virginia Virtual Virginia yes sir okay uh next question completely unrelated there we have I noticed that we have the uh the monthly Warehouse lease for Hope Presbyterian Church and I also know that our lease is coming up to expire yes sir um if for some reason our new Warehouse the old Hardy gym isn't ready by the time the lease expires is there a plan in place to mitigate that does that make sense I don't know if I'm asking it the right way dude yes it does go ahead.com yes sir um one plan that's in place is asking for an extension on to the warehouse for a couple of months just in case but we are planning for issues that
098may occur so that we're ready for all sorts of um I guess except pop-ups at that time so we do have a plan in place to ask for an extension if the extension is not given then there is other plans in place also where we could store all the items that we do have and items not moving to the warehouse moving forward until we can get in to the area thank you sir and one last question again this is unrelated and really from my own understanding in the check register there are approximately twenty four hundred dollars in total charges to our Bank of America charge cards uh the item description is food and the location is number 910 that's central office admin and so my question is what did we spend twenty four hundred dollars
099for on food and what's the criteria for buying food for staff or whoever and I'm going to presume some of that was for the monthly meetings so I'm just trying to get a handle on that yes sir I mean to get you the specific dollar amounts associated with each um event I would want to to do a little bit more research on that but I do know that part of that was due to um there was some meetings that happened during the month that involved students and families Community there were different communities that came to central office and there was Refreshments provided there we also had a um a holiday gathering at central office which some were purchased there as well and um this gets could you uh Miss Marshall I can actually answer some
100of that for you um we also did a candy cane delivery for all students um where we central office goes out and delivery can deliver candy canes to all of our elementary students so that was included on there you did mention the Christmas party for central office school board meetings we also did a luncheon for the principals as uh this was December so there were a lot of holiday things going on so it was sort of an unusual month but we did do a holiday luncheon for our principals and then we also had a student advisory committee meeting where students came and met with Dr Kramer and we provided them with lunch but if we may if you would like we can provide you with an itemized account I think Mrs Getz uh Dr Coleman
101and Mr Christensen have given you uh an account but if you need something more uh extensive we can certainly provide that no so that's sufficient I mean I I tend to dig into the registry and so 2400 bucks caught my attention for a month but that makes sense and I yield my time are there any more questions okay thank you gentlemen thank you the next object will be support services update Mr chairman I will be referring to 15.1 division fire system yes sir contract yes confident all right what you have in front of you is the division fire system contract this is going to be informational and I want to actually go through this contract with you do they have it they don't have it all right what we're going to speak on tonight is
102the and I'll make sure that you get a copy um I thought we had it attached but the division fire system contract every year we have to take a look at the fire system contracts one company that we've been working with um was Johnson Controls Johnson Control does have a Cooperative contract and I just want to touch a basis with I know that some of you have experience in it fire alarm expert service sprinkler service um the backflow systems the dry sprinkler systems the wet sprinkler systems um the all of the fire extinguishers that we have in the division Emergency Lighting systems and the hood system and one thing that we really want to do when you come to fire system is make sure that we get it right we have no no leeway into
103messing up in this particular area so using an expert as Johnson Controls that have been doing the work in the division for at least the last 10 years no matter what contractor we use at one time we use the Outside Agency GCA we did it in-house now we use SSC we always use Johnson Controls for those Fire Systems gel controls come with a Cooperative contract so this is just information I'll let you know I would like to move forward with Johnson Controls of course as soon as the contract is signed I will bring it back for you so this is just an informational for you thank you that are the right questions guess informational thank you Dr Coleman if we can go right into the next item all right next will be buses for auction
104we have two buses for auction at this time we have a uh GMC miniature type A and has uh 278 000 miles and needs a new engine the cost of replacement of the new engine is three thousand ninety nine dollars and that's without labor so we put labor in there we have found that this item will be cheaper to auction it off and get a new one once it's time to get a new one on the replacement schedule next is the bus 27 a 2000 International type c it's 23 years old and it's very high mileage so those are the two buses that the fleet services department wants to auction off at this time so I'm just bringing it before you and and that's an action that is an action item to allow us to
105auction those two items okay so we can go ahead and yes Miss times motion I would like to make a motion to approve bus 304 and bus 27 for auction due to age high mileage and repairs needed and request that the Border supervisors to appropriate any revenue from the auction back to the transportation budget line okay we have a motion do we have a second I'll second and we have a second clerk shall take the boat and at passes five to zero next topic new hearty update yes sir and before we touch our new hearty update video I just wanted to make sure um about some clarification and just piggyback off of um of something that Mr Marshall mentioned earlier concerning the meeting and I just want to make sure we uh add clarification to
106what you said Mr Marsh was right on right on point with exactly how in depth the meeting went with the uh uh the I guess you can say the preview on what occurred what happened at the meeting what led us there but I made sure I want to make sure that we're we're looking at a 12 million dollar overage that 12 million dollar overage was during the planning phases I just wanted to make sure we're clear it's not a 12 million overage now now everything is running exactly the way it's supposed to run but during the planning phases yes it was a 12 million dollar overage but not now now we're absolutely zero right on point all right yes Mr Marsh Dr Coleman just to clear the air that wasn't a direct shot at you
107or anyone else my point in saying that out loud was so that everyone listening knows that everything is more expensive today yes so as we move forward in financial discussions it's a big part of the equation is how much stuff costs today absolutely yes sir yes Miss times yes I would like to say something on that part because I was board chair as well as Mrs card during the time that I was I wasn't sure I was vice chair Mrs Carr was the chair that 12 million dollars just like uh happened when covet came about the board the school board did their part as far as the planning for the new Hardy Elementary we had actions we sent it to the Board of Supervisors as we were supposed to but the thing that we call
108covid-19 came about before the Board of Supervisors had an opportunity to act on anything I'm saying this because I think the public need to know the process and actually what happened we were not negligent with their monies no one was negligent with their monies so things shut down when the project came back before both bullets of course you know like everything else the price of materials had gone up so it costs more money so this is where that 12 15 million dollars is coming from and I say 12 15 because sometime you hear 15 sometimes you hear 12 so something in between and that's I want to explain that no one has done anything with the Public's money this is what's happening it's just like when you go to the store now try to buy
109a dozen of eggs it costs much more Nelson's covet so it's going to cost us a little more money to build that school but I'm proud of what we're doing for those young children in Isle of Wight County thank you thank you all right this is going to be the new Harley from the inside this is the first um if we can pause it for one second okay we'll just jump right in all right first this is going to be the hallway we're passing on now right it's the administrative offices and on the left it's the psychology and the gas guidance Council offices um one of the main office of nurses jobs and bookkeeper offices once again on the right now on the left turn leads you toward the second grade area so the view
110that you're seeing now is down the second grade home and the ceiling you will see the hadronic lines for heating and cooling systems that runs throughout the school and the first floor throughout and the second floor and moving forward on the Left Behind the media center and on the right is the cafetorium cafeteria in the auditorium caban which we are now entering this pitch is a little dark but as you can see this is the cafeteria area that you're standing in and where you see the red tape it it leads to the auditorium side once again there we go this is the auditorium set all right now we're headed into the main office HC the nurse's office is what we just passed and then of course the conference room additional offices for APS storage areas
111and this last room here is going to be the electrical room right now you're looking directly in the guidance offices you have two guidance officers in new Hardy this is the second one right there and now this hallway here is leading to the second grade you're going to pass several classrooms on your right right now we still have all of the lights and everything in place but in the upcoming month you will have a very clear picture of what it looks like with the ceiling towels in another classroom and now this is a picture of one more hallway was going to lead to the group bathrooms this is the sink area and more bathroom spaces one side of the group bathrooms of course you've seen the hand washing stations on the outside of the bathroom
112behind Washington state is on the outside and we're gonna go right into the other side of the restroom once again hand washing stations and the other right now the Stalls are not in not in place at this time but you will see that in the upcoming month all right thank you and that is going to be it once again that is the inside view this first inside view that you have had for new hardware are there any questions concerning that view there we decided not to go with the exterior just because it was the same but yeah hey doctor so the last time we spoke you mentioned that there were some potential delays and back ordered parts backorder parts and if I recall they'll quote me on this Old Dominion possible delay it was a
113it was a it was two different delays it was a architectural delay with Verizon architectural delay with dominion and it was a I think we got through the processes of the delay with Columbia Gas all three areas are designing and um I've received the email today concerning Verizon I'm concerning moving forward their design period is over now they've just sent a quote on how much it's going to cost and then we'll pay them and then we can move forward but once all of them get on board get them lined up we still have to organize who's what when where why who comes in and and go from there but there were delays in all three of those areas were so they're we're good we are working through the last one at this time I just
114received the quote today and and once the architectural phases are done then they have to let us know when they can come out so it's not like okay they just finished a day so they can start tomorrow they still have to organize themselves so excellent sir yeah in any any major head hurders for you any big concerns not at this time not at this time I I yield Mr chair yes anybody else have any questions Dr Coleman thank you Dr Coleman no problem okay the next item is purchase of instructional technology purchase of 15.4 purchase of instructional Technologies Interactive whiteboards this is the cost of the interactive whiteboard that then we're going to go into um what branch they came out of and exactly where they would be in the division first off it's uh
115Title One FY 23 74 172.92 Title 1 FY 22 225 520 and 50 cents Esser 108 813.65 an adult ed 14 273.60 this is for overall 143 interactive white boards all right so that is allowing you to know where the money came from came from Title One FY 23 Title One FY 22 Esser and adult ed now Title One both funding sources have 96 boards for new Hardy carsville Windsor Elementary School classrooms Esser 43 boards were purchased for secondary schools math and English Smithville High School Windsor High School Georgia Tyler middle school and Smithfield Middle School an adult ed came from the adult ed Grant for mobile Interactive whiteboards so that sums up the 143 total interactive whiteboards and the funding sources that they came from does anybody have any questions for Dr Coleman Miss
116times motion to approve the purchase of interactive white bullets in the amount of 422 820 8.95 second we have a motion and a second any discussion Mr Marsh thank you Mr chair so for the folks listening what exactly are we spending four hundred and twenty two thousand dollars on I get it through interactive Smart Boards give it to me in layman terms what is it and what are we doing with them all right so to go into more detail of how these boards I use on the instructional side I'm gonna lean to miss Getz once again and she can go into more detail of the teachers and and the plans for the interactive whiteboards good evening again um these are actually Promethean boards that we're going to be purchasing we already have some in our
117classrooms all third grade classrooms for example um training comes with them to use for the teachers um so teachers are have already some of our teachers have already received the training it is ongoing they are really enjoying them and we were in classrooms earlier and we saw elementary students using them for fractions where they can go up on the board use the little fraction icon they can shade in so it's it's interactive it's just like you know what it appears to sound like it's a great instructional tool they're all across the country we are actually little I don't want to say behind but we have had this on our list of items that we wanted to purchase for quite some time and we've done it slowly as we've had the funds available title one has
118allowed us to have additional funds because through the coveted relief we actually were afforded more money than we had planned so when this happened we thought a great use of this money would be for covet for white board's interactive whiteboards and then also for the adult ed as well so that would be with Mrs Ford's program if I may add a vice chair this is pretty much standard equipment and most of our classrooms this day and age I think what I'd like to recommend we do uh Mrs gets Dr Coleman's preps to have a demonstration for the public Although our Educators and I would mention to say many of our parents have seen this but I think for the board's purposes and probably more so for the public perhaps we can have a demonstration in
119the coming months sure yes Miss times um what Mrs Getz just said that we are behind I I'm going to agree with her because when um previous superintendent we had here Dr Pereira when she was here as our leader we want to we I toured um a school we were going to Richmond one day to the capital of the conference so we stopped in a school and her right code where she had previously been principal and they were utilizing the Whiteboard that was the first time we saw it there and they were utilizing the white boy that day so if you can recall when Dr Pereira was here that was like uh 2015 2012 2015 and we're now in 2023 so uh our students are a little behind thank you are there any more questions
120or comments if not one thing that I would love to see is a benchmark a starting point of where the students are at the end of this year and then a year after we have these boards let's look at how how much you know what our Roi is how well this has helped our students perform because we want to be able to show that this is a good investment if if if we're all short it is okay thank you next on the agenda is excuse me okay so we had the discussion now we're back to the vote so the clerk will conduct the vote thank you okay and I passed all yays five zero and the next topic is the report from the superintendent Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair and hopefully it can present
121thank you very much excellent job gentlemen so uh starting with uh the month of January I'll I'll our aisle Awards uh if we can next slide thank you sir so as that's coming up we present aisle Awards each month and these are presented in four categories uh and there we are thank you kindly so top left is Mrs but Beth Butner uh who grew up in Iowa wide and supports literacy efforts uh throughout the county and she received the Inspire award uh our top right is our very own she just uh presented uh Mrs Susan Getz Mrs Getz received the lead award and thank you for all that you do obviously Getz bottom left we have two of our outstanding age one is a bus driver pardon Mr Everett Wells and then a bus aide
122Mrs Doris gualtney who who uh supports special needs students on their bus and they receive the succeed award and then the bottom right is uh Mrs Andrea May who is the president of the Education Foundation of Isle uh White public schools and she received the Empower award so to all of our recipients uh Mrs Getz and those who are watching thank you for all that you do and congratulations on the various Isle Awards yes we can give them [Applause] next we have our student advisory I am so proud of these young people and these are representatives from our secondary schools our two high schools our two middle schools and our sixth graders are represented here uh from West Side Elementary and they provide us and me with the absolutely a round of applause for those
123young people too that's right and they provide input on major items that we discuss our calendar our uh safety measures um our Capital Improvement plan they provide input and recommendations and I then convey that to you Mr chair uh you miss the vice chair and to members of the board so we meet periodically and uh they've just been outstanding hopefully before year end we can get them in here so that they can receive an award of their own because they're certainly deserving next I have the privilege of meeting with this awesome group of people uh the Women's Club of Smithfield uh this is a they are a major force and uh in the month of January was I think education was the major area that they were focused in on and I was invited in
124to speak to this wonderful group of individuals so thank you Women's Club of Smithfield uh next Sunday well if we can give them a round of applause girl uh had a chance to attend the Smithfield Windsor high school basketball game at Smith at pardon at Windsor high school and also had a chance to recognize one of our former teachers Mrs Langford and her husband and even though she's a former teacher they do a lot of supporting of the school of volunteering in a number of ways so I wanted to acknowledge them and thank all of our young people for the work that they do our student athletes and and all of their efforts I had a chance to sort of a two for one that evening uh viewing both Smithfield High and Windsor and uh
125in the same game next had a chance to meet with this uh young lady our president of the NAACP Miss Ariane Williams and not in the picture he was a second late for the picture uh Mr Derek Boone our vice president uh was there as well so I had a wonderful meeting with him and look forward to ongoing meetings uh with our uh Isle of Wight leaders for the NAACP so thank you all for what you do and yes uh our I had a chance to meet with and they presented earlier our CEO of whro Mr Burke Schmidt uh so as many of you know and some of you may not know we actually or one of the school divisions that own a percentage of whr also each year they present and I as your
126superintendent had a chance to visit and tour the facility and have a discussion with them about our usage of uh of their um content and the media offerings that they uh provide our school and our School Division so I wanted to recognize that many of you have mentioned the next slide uh vsba uh Mr colic and I were there in person Mrs times as she mentioned earlier uh had a chance to participate virtually and I think uh Mr Wooster uh participated virtually as well then a wonderful event we learned quite a bit about topics such as foia uh Robert's Rules of Order and a number of other things so I thank you all board members for those of you who are able to participate and all of us will be invited to to Future trainings
127uh next you mentioned this one uh Mr colic and I were in attendance at the cry Rivers basketball uh game at uh at Smithville High School against the plan B academy uh an amazing event great job by our principals and our Administration uh they had our administrators pardon they had all of the or a large number of the student body there to cheer these students on and what an amazing event I honestly all my years in education have never seen anything like it unfortunately today I was in a meeting that ran long so I missed the event at Windsor high but next week I expect to see the game at Windsor and Smithfield and I think that game is going to be held at Smithfield if I'm correct so I'll get a chance to make
128this up to you Windsor High Studio uh last night had a chance to attend well let me do this slide first uh had a chance to speak to several classes as uh board member times and board member Cunningham mentioned I was invited to come in to Carrollton Elementary School last week the Cardinals and I had a chance to uh prior to that meet with Mrs Baker's reading class and I had a chance to speak to several classes and to read to a few classes Mrs weibel's class Mrs Odom's class and I had a chance then to speak to Mrs Lee's class about careers and about what it takes to be successful and the students were so smart and they were telling me here's what it takes sir and even though they're only in the third
129grade takes hard work and perseverance and I didn't tell them that they told me that and then we elaborated on that so thank you uh principal Brennan and staff for your invitation and a few things that uh I was able to participate in is the latest uh last night and today as I stated I was I was excited to be at the playoff game between Smithfield High School and I won't mention that other school that's not in our division uh our students uh I congratulate them on advancing to the playoffs so and I'd like to congratulate all of our student athletes for the playoffs and all that they're doing in addition to their academic studies uh also excited about the opportunity I had this morning with Smithfield High School Smithfield High Smithfield Foods I was
130invited to their corporate office and I had a chance to meet with the vice president uh for Community Development uh Mr Evans and his assistant a gentleman by the name of Mr Toms and we've had discussions about ongoing Partnerships and collaboration between our School Division and Smithfield foods and that was my first time actually all the months that I've been here actually being able to be in their facility a 20 billion dollar Corporation here in our community uh and they are discussing ways to extend Partnerships and they've done so much already for our community around CTE and other efforts in My Hope expectations and theirs is to continue building uh onto again those Partnerships which are already in existence and uh with that uh thank you for the opportunity and uh thanks I don't have
131I didn't have to rush this month uh given that we are not at 11 30 so uh that's a good thing so thank you very much uh Mr chair thank you Dr Kramer uh next Dr Coleman we'll present the early retirement incentive program Mr chairman the early retirement and Center Program e-rip just for everyone here I just wanted to make sure that we go through the qualifications for Europe to so everyone can understand exactly what e-rip is e-rip participants must have worked full-time in iwcs for five years be at least 50 years old with at least 30 years of ERS service or be at least 65 with at least five years of the RS service the effective date for retirement has to be July 1. if someone retires mid-year they do not qualify employees can
132elect for employee only health insurance coverage they pay the employee calls per month and iwcs pays the rest they will also have to complete 25 full days as a substitute within the division employees can also elect to not receive health coverage Health Care coverage and receive a buyout for the employer cost of health insurance the e-reparticipant will receive this payment in July retirees can participate in Europe program for up to five years they do not have to participate in four or five years they meet with human resources and the finance department each August to confirm participation at that time they will receive payment slips for their monthly health insurance premiums now era participants must complete their 25 days prior to accepting any paid ESS absences this is a program that Alan white has been doing
133for many many years so every year we have to come back make sure that we present it before the school board and to get it uh approved so we can once again move forward this is not an action item just informational but just wanted to make sure that we um presented this for you thank you.com does anybody have any questions thank you yes sir okay next is the capital Improvement plan I'm just going to stay for any questions at this time are there any questions on the capital Improvement plan okay ready to go Mrs Dodge sorry I would like to make a motion to approve the captain Improvement plan as president Dr Coleman you look like you want to say something um yes we probably need to make sure that we State out exactly um
134what is approved and in the order that it was approved so therefore we to everyone knows exactly what we're doing would you like to state that issue that the order that was shared I don't have that information in front of me at this time did you say we needed to State I was I'm asking oh yeah I don't think we necessarily need it in the most we can say as decided during a work session right right absolutely just wanted to make sure that we stated to be clear this is it but it does not need to be stated in motion Mr Marsh wants to say something I think it's worth our time to pull up exactly what we agreed upon at the last meeting just to say it out loud it's my opinion okay it's
135in the minutes or yeah it's now the exact order I know that we're actually if we can pull that up and uh as I recall I think there were three um the clerkers pulling that up right right well we'll work on that let's go ahead and rescind that motion and then we'll make a new motion yeah we can go ahead and resend it and then we'll make the new motion I would like to rescind the motion that I just made and remove it from the floor thank you thank you second I'm gonna do a verbal on this one Mr Cunningham Mr Wooster yay Mr Collins Mr Marsh yay and Mrs times yeah okay so I'm going back into the minutes just so we can um State exactly um what was chosen I believe it was
136security mechanisms the bus garage and the school it was school safety Fleet Service building and new school so you just need to prioritize how you want them in this yep but once again school safety Fleet Services building and new new school did you guys want to put that in the motion or did you want to do the motion like you stated no we'll put that into motion okay I will just make it Rock Solid it is Safety and Security bus garage and a new school yes sir safety hold on what was the name of that equipment the security equipment the pass-through their security equipment remember we never found I mean we never went with one name since we're gonna have to do RFP for that okay we were trying to stay away from okay yes
137okay so again the the order of safety I think was moved first yes there's this uh the new school was second no the school was third the school started the garage the repair facility what did we end up calling it maintenance facility as I recall the discussion was a transportation facility right correct and with the intent of sitting down with the County Board of Supervisors to discuss a possibility of a joint County facility that's why I want to make sure everybody watching knows what we agreed upon right so it was number one we all agreed with the exception of Mr Cunningham because he was not here right number one was security yes number two was Transportation facility no no no Mrs Mrs the clerk has it here let's have her read it if we've made
138it if I'm just referencing the minutes that are going to be approved tonight and it says Mr Marsh proposed that we make security number one the new school number two then the fleet services facility slash bus garage with the intent to sit down with the county and ask them about working together to save money right the other three board members agreed it is so good to have minutes yeah okay that's it so we're ready for the motion we're ready okay at this time I would like to make a motion to approve the capital include uh Improvement plan to include one Safety and Security two new school and three Fleet Services bus garage second okay we have a motion and a second is there any further discussion then the clerk will conduct a vote and what
139it what do we call the third one I'm sorry Services Fleet Services was three the garage which is the bus garage I just said bus garage for those that you know okay all right um foreign folks if we can take 10 we'll take a 10 minute recess folks use the restrooms and then we would be back here at 8 29. I believe okay the meeting is back in session and next we are going to have the proposed 2023 to 2024 school calendar uh Mrs Briggs yes good evening everyone sent out a draft calendar for feedback and the calendar was available for student staff parents citizens anyone to review and to provide feedback we had 599 responses which was a good amount and the majority of them were from parents or parent employees and then the
140second category would have been employees we had um 66 that said they were fine with the proposed calendar we did have 34 percent that had some recommended changes and the the two dates in particular that came up with recommendations or changes were the two dates proposed prior to Thanksgiving as half days for students and that would be November 20th and November 21st we proposed two half days and um the students would be there for half a day they would leave and we'd have a parent conferences on the Tuesday it would be students there for half a day and then we'd have a teacher work day and we did get quite a bit of feedback that people didn't see the value of the two half days they anticipated High absenteeism on those two days and suggested
141that we look at doing something different and that came from both parents and employees and just to share we do and you heard from a teacher tonight accreditation is based on attendance so we certainly don't want to put things in place that encourage families to possibly pull their children from school so so based on the feedback that we got and already looking at the proposal you have in front of you um we are making a recommendation to change those two days the 20th and 21st back to full days like they were this calendar year this year Monday and Tuesday were full days for students and staff and then we'd have Wednesday Thursday Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday which mirrors what we did this year so while what you're seeing is the calendar people um gave
142feedback on we're letting you know that we're recommending it at least that change for what we bring back to you for a final vote we do see a value to having those parent conferences and our instructional team is looking at dates maybe the week before or the week after where we could work in a day for conferences but not tied to those two days prior to Thanksgiving holiday and those are the main main things I don't know if you have any questions or you want any additional information I know this is just first read tonight just times thank you I just have one question uh did we get a uh what type of feedback we get on uh whether to start school prior to Labor Day we had 599 responses and I can probably count
143on one hand people that said they'd like for us to consider that so only about five five okay I got you something that's out the window they prefer to after Labor Day okay thank you yes ma'am so therefore the 599 responses they will be the ones that we're going to listen to when we 've proved this calendar because the others did not respond thank you yes ma'am Mr Marsh Mr bricks just to make sure so the calendar presented November 20th and 21st are grayed out and you're saying that you're recommending a full day yes sir those would go back to just a white background which is just a regular school day yes sir okay thank you yes sir Cunningham Mr Worster you know the only thing I want to do is you know reiterate that
144the only legal holiday that we're not taking off um is going to be uh Columbus Day and that's actually in the code of Virginia that that's a holiday and it's a Federal holiday so that's something that you know I would like to see happen but of course it's going to be up to the Border as a whole but that's the only issue that I've got with the entire counter I think otherwise it looks good yeah and just to clarify for those that don't have the calendar in front of them we do have that day as a student holiday but we have it as a staff workday right which is what we did this year but I question um yes please is this one is the staff it's a student's holiday but uh I want to
145did we have it this year where this staff could work virtually if they wanted to I don't know that day we do we did we did have a day um I think back in January one of our days so we've had some virtual and we're looking at some others but I it wasn't this day okay that was nice thank you Mr Marsh Briggs and and Dr Kramer is there anything that would prevent you from wanting to give the teachers that day off as well I think we would just have to look uh we have to be very careful with our hours and uh making certain that we are you know meeting the needs as it pertains to the state so if that is something you'd like us to look at Mrs uh Briggs and I
146can certainly look at that day uh again we have to be very careful with the number of days because we have to have so many days that we're in session and so many hours that we need to meet but we can certainly look at that if that is the will of the board yeah if if you would at least look at it thank you absolutely Mr Cunningham yeah I agree you should look at it and just make sure okay thank you you can do that okay thank you all right thank you next the proposed bylaws Mr chair I move to approve the bylaws as presented it's not gonna okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion Miss times with those bylaws because while I was reading through those bylaws it put
147me on his own and that zone went into a dark Zone because I felt like it was um as an adult it was had a lot of restrictions by the time I got to the end I I felt like I am in America or am I living in a communist country and that's what I felt like with those bylaws and that's all I plan to say thank you okay um I I can address part of that most of it was actually cut and paste from the policies that we've had in place um there there are some things that are not but a lot of it was from uh from policy there any more comments Mr Cunningham Mr chair I I've have issues with different sections of this some of the wording in here it needs
148to be changed it looks like we're taking it looks like the school board has taken a lot of the responsibility that the superintendent has looks like we're taking over those UH responsibilities um we have to look at this again before we vote on it uh because even what you just said you copied a lot of it out of uh other things uh other documents I guess you got it from video e or I don't know where you got it from but but before I mean it's 15 pages here and I've read through this version this is uh the version that was put out uh February the 9th and I read through another one that was done back in January and there were changes in in this one but there's still things in here that need
149it's wording uh even on the first page where it says looking at uh section 1-2f it talks about each member shall remain respectful of the citizens of Ottawa County we provide their input through public comments and correspondent to their board members the word they are board members so they're not supposed to respect the other board members it's words like that so yeah that's as you look at that that's there so you're saying uh my district the citizens of my district have to respect me but they don't have to respect the rest of y'all that's what that's what that means first page section 1-2 purpose of bylaws and rules of procedure I read this thing two or three times and I I didn't Redline it I black lined it but I can tell you right now
150I'm not going to vote yay for this one until it's fixed and I I'll be doing a disservice for this board and a disservice for the citizens of my district if I vote yay on this that's just my comment okay and and one that really communication we did that last year and and the year before that too restricting me to the communication of only by emails and I'm gonna um I I just I guess I just want to tell you that I don't know uh some people know this but there are some people with disabilities and I am one of those individuals and my preference my preference of acute communication is verbal because my disability is severe operators okay and with arthritis there are times that my hands I just cannot you know uh manipulate
151the keyboards okay I can barely sometimes manipulate my phone so this is why I use little pen and you know to push things on so my means of communication will be verbal yeah and there's there's actually a part in here that calls that when an email is not feasible or is not in the the best method of Communications phone calls are appropriate and I'm not bringing this to the board to say hey this is what has to be this minute but I'm bringing it to the board so that we can have a good set of bylaws and we have some discussion we make changes that need to be made and we've got something to work with it's a single reference material instead of trying to scroll through you know seven different areas on a website
152and then look through 32 different policies makes this much easier you know I forget how many policies we have but there's there's well over a hundred and that's the purpose that I am presenting this to make it easier and everybody would have a reference manual on the board instead of having policies and having us grow through policies to see what's what but I am more than willing to have a session where we can sit down dissect it and make the appropriate changes that the majority of board you know can live with it's not John's way to Highway it never has been we did that previously I don't see anything wrong with the bylaws that we had where we needed a 14 page um we need to cut you know convince them to a few pages
153uh like I said we're professionals and professionals did the bylaws that were presented earlier until you came with the revisions and uh I didn't see anything wrong with those and we had everything we do here we have to sit down in a session sit down in a session what's wrong with the sessions that was people sat there and in previously they were professional people and the people that sat down I know they were all professionals certified licensed by the state of Virginia and educators well we we haven't had any bylaws since I've been a board member for the last year and two months we have had we had bylaws last year code of ethics and protocols much different than bylaws and most of them are Incorporated within here along with a lot of policies on
154procedures of the board so just so I can get my uh two cents in there Mr chair personally I'm a fan of the bylaws because I sat on the other side of this table and I watched this Paul this board previous board pick and choose policies they chose to follow so I think and I hope that a set of governing bylaws will keep the board on a path moving forward and if there's if there's areas of concern like Mr Cunningham said I'm absolutely willing to sit down and go through it I I would agree Mr chair that this should be a consensus more than a you know a majority vote but I I am willing to well I'm ready to vote on the bylaws but if if the desire is to make some more adjustments
155I can do that and I'll yield stores do you have any comments I'm just going to reflect the same thing that Mr Marsh just stated um as with any other policy I'm not opposed to reworking and changing language so there's Mutual benefit I do support the bylaws over the policies I'm looking at right here and you've got 17 policies which this actually covers so it just eliminates the the back and forth Shuffle of paperwork foreign here would you be willing to sit down and go through them with me or Mr Marsh or Mr Worster or in lieu of a special meeting you know what it's it's going to be what it's going to be we can just do the vote tonight I don't think it's going to change anything because I I believe what we
156had last year was good and I and I'm telling you I've gone through page for page doing this and I don't concur with this but uh you know I'm gonna accept what the majority wants the will of the board I mean it is what it is okay Mr Marsh is there anything burning desire in here that's bothering you other than a few words anything specific yeah it's a lot of things in here I mean see this thing is not number if you go to article three meeting section 3-1 timing locations of regular work regular work and special session meetings all right look at uh B work session meetings from this it looks like we're gonna have one every month so that adds an additional meeting the way this is worded that is an additional meeting
157for this board to attend every month that's two meetings a month I mean I you know I know I can make it but why are we having so many meetings out yet on the last policy it stated that we would have a work session if needed and I agree with that I don't agree in having a meeting I mean you know how to well both of us or in the military we had meetings to plan meetings exactly for the next meeting and that's what it looks like we're doing here we're gonna we're putting a meeting that the way I look at a policy if it's there you got to do it so we don't have a choice so that I mean I to me that's a waste of of uh of time and I mean
158people who work will strike that uh clerk has to be here our superintendent has to be here you know we got other people who have to be here too and that's not being considerate of all the workers that have to be here to support this no uh I mean it's this thing I just don't see what's wrong with the one we had last uh last year but again it's the will of the boy so majority rules I don't agree with this you already know where I'm going to vote if we vote on it tonight I don't see how we're going to fix this I I really don't so that's the bottom line I don't see how we're going to fix it I yield a floor Mr Cunningham I aside from the work sessions anything else
159yes again we're taking a lot of the responsibilities to superintendent Hayes from him I mean that's okay right back I told you I read through this thing all right Article 2 the school board section 2-1 School Division legal status the supervision last sentence the supervision of the schools in Isle of Wight County School Division is vested in the Isle of Wight County School Board the daily supervision of the schools is responsive now this is me speaking the daily supervision of the schools is the superintendent's job and responsibility first what you just read Mr Cunningham is directly out of constitution of Virginia okay okay so so that's out of the Constitution so so this our superintendent we're we're taking responsibilities that he has now so if all right so so from what you're telling me and
160I'm not arguing about this I just know I know what's right and I know what's wrong we're taking uh superintendent's job certain parts of his job away from him oh we are no well okay superintendent is responsible for daily operations of the school system and we are responsible for oversight of that school system for the supervision of the schools in the county of alawite as stated in the constitution of Virginia so you're saying I pulled I pulled this stuff right out of policy okay I didn't write it I don't agree with the way that's written and I'd like to I like this uh you know I'll look it up myself because I didn't go into uh death on that but but all the footnotes and endnotes are there for you okay I need to see
161that um I go to uh section two days three School Board powers and duties I mean I've got Stars by this looking at eight the school board adopts policy to provide for it day-to-day supervision on the schools okay I agree with that but we have the responsibility of adopting a policy we delegate The Authority for day-to-day supervision of the schools to the superintendent that's the way it works this needs to be Rewritten read it well really I believe it needs to be thrown out but but that's not what we're supposed to be doing yeah we do the policy but when you put in here day-to-day supervision that's that's all current policy right now on BBA yes sir I hate to say it like that but uh I hate to say it like this but what
162so what's the uh superintendent gonna do I mean if we if we we're taking his job we're taking his responsibilities we can we can delegate delegate Authority but he's got responsibilities are we going to take over those responsibilities uh absolutely not and what I'm explaining to you is there would be no change in any roles or responsibilities this has taken policy putting into a bylaw format these are policies that are in existence today passed by prior School boards including some of these policies may be have passed last year when you're on the school board and you voted for him picture Please Mr Cunningham I'm looking right now at policy BBA School Board powers and duties last revised June 10 2021. the bulletized line items are verbatim the same ones that are in BBA are cut
163and paste into section 2.3 School Board powers and duties there's nothing new it already exists only we've taken it from a policy and smashed it into a set of dialogues are you all right again what I said majority rules if it is the will of the board then I mean I'm wasting my time talking you know I don't I mean time is valuable I don't want to waste anybody's time you already know how I'm going to vote drive on not you okay that ends discussion quick show conduct the vote okay and it passes three to two next we've got the action on closed session items we added an item there okay we added an item Vice chair Mr chair I move to nominate Mr Wooster to replace Mr colic on the finance committee and I'll
164second that is there a discussion it turns out that if Mr um if the vice chair and a chair sit on the same Committee in the majority of the committee anytime they meet there must be minutes taken even during an agenda meeting we confirmed this with the attorney and therefore we found it is best to move me off of the finance committee yes please we've always uh the finance committee always consisted of the chair and the vice chair the reason is because finance that is what makes the school system without any funds we don't have school okay it's important in those positions they hold the response those individuals will hold a responsibility as chair and vice chair you hold that leadership responsibility for this board I do have concerns because at this point you're we're
165going to have two brand new members and that that position meaning they just came on board in December at least you have been here a year you understand the some things okay I do have a concern with that but like I think it like again it's the will of the bullet please um I just want to make sure the board understands that I the reason why it's a meeting is not necessarily because your status is chair and vice chair but rather if there are only two people on the committee when the two of you meet there's always a quorum of the committee right so therefore if that's the case then even when you meet when you are meeting to talk about meetings it would be a committee meeting subject to right the open foia records
166um it's up to the board whether or not the board wants to make that switch that's not what I'm buying on but to the extent that even if you make the switch and you continue to only have two people on the finance committee when those two people meet it's still a meeting of the committee of the committee and you it would also be subject to foia so if if your intention is to fix that um I don't know this would fix it but you know but I just want to just make that um clear so that the board understands yeah it would certainly fix it for the agenda meetings but there could be some unintended consequences uh and the only other way that I can see to do it would be to either have a
167couple of members of the committee who are non-board members or a committee at a whole that's right you can certainly appoint vaccinate the superintendent as part of the committee or and or um yeah we definitely couldn't have issue a member a a finance staff yeah um that's that's up to the board I'm you know obviously I'm not advising you the board does that I'm just saying that would be permissible to to as far as a committee of the board concerns it can contain the committee can contain non-board members so for example the board has C act and actually CAC committee has um parents on the board and they are considered committee members okay uh is there any more discussion Please Mr chair I would uh like to put the superintendent on the spot and solicit
168some feedback you got 30 some odd years experience was this what say you I would defer to the attorney I think uh as he's recommending even if we make the change with uh another board member the challenge that I think we thought we were resolving is still going to be there right so whether it's the chair in the vice chair or whether it's the vice chair and another board member that's still a quorum according to our attorney so I I don't think that this is going to rectify what we were hoping for and I think his recommendation is that we look at different members being on that committee perhaps with the chair or with the vice chair so my recommendation would be that we look at a different um committee as opposed to just moving
169different members from the board on that committee so that would be my recommendation and we could certainly have a conversation about who those Representatives should be from the school division with the chair the vice chair or others so and that I'm sorry I'm sorry one one other thing I want to make clear through the board too is that um not thinking the law prohibits the chair and the vice chair from exchanging emails to discuss agendas now now I understand that there is there is the notion in Virginia law that if you know when three or more board members um exchange emails if it's spontaneous where it like it acts more like a chat room it could constitute a meeting under foia and if you don't advertise it accordingly you would be filing open records law
170but so but for the purpose of exchange and an agenda item back and forth you know so long as is not immediate like you know if you were to send an email to Mr Marsh and be like look these other agenda items I'm thinking about putting on this but for our committee meeting and he reviews it and perhaps provide you feedback 15 minutes later or an hour later so long it's not it's not simultaneous that would not be in violation of foia and also it would appears to it would also appears to um be congruous with the board's intent of preserving Communications through emails and record so that's another that's another thing too for the board to consider as well I I thank Mrs tyne's comments are very applicable um I I think your comments
171are very applicable um to have in both the chair and the vice chair so I think we will need to move forward and figure out another composition um to this yes Miss times listening to the attorney as well as Dr Kramer um this committee two people can we add a third person is there anything that prevents us from adding a third person as long as it's not another board member right well I mean no no the board can add another board member the board can add another third person the board can the board can add anyone okay at the board's discretion well I would I would suggest that we would keep it with the chair of the vice chair um as of once we um act one uh agenda items from closed session Personnel we
172know we have Dr Kramer has hired a new Financial director and I would recommend that that would be the third person to be on this committee now now however let me let me add this to the caveat ordinarily under foia under foia committee a committee of the board is not required to keep minutes however if there is majority members of the board on the committee then you must keep minutes so if you add a third member to third school board members that committee then you must maintain minutes so we still have a quorum if we have one more that's correct oh that's correct but what I just said it would be a third member oh no I'm not trying to contradict you miss times I was just explaining to the board oh okay okay I
173was just trying to explain the consequences of the the different types of members you would add to the committee so my recommendation two board members chair Vice chair and a staff member Director of Finance Mr chair for me can we have a discussion about how the finance committee was composed last year may I ask a member of our staff to share with us if I may Miss Briggs uh do you have a moment to come forward and share with us or any member of Staff uh Mrs sketch or thank you Mrs Briggs would you share with us the composition of the committee from previous years and I'd like to hear from you uh attorney if uh there was a concern with that prior composition so my understanding while I was not a member of the
174committee the finance committee was composed of our chair Vice chair and the superintendent the chair and vice chair of the Board of Supervisors and the County Administrator and those individuals compose the committee so we had our our Representatives that served on the committee and the county had their representatives to serve on the committee so by appointing the chair and vice chair we were appointing them to be part of this larger committee not just a division committee and I would default to the previous chair and vice chair if that if I'm correct in that I wish that was explained to us um Mr colic may I say something Mrs Mrs um great bricks is correct it was that's why I kept referring to the chair and the vice chair it was the chair Vice chair superintendent
175and the Director of Finance from the school board and it was the same thing on what a supervisor's level it was the chair of the vice chair County Administrator and their director Arch whatever of Finance okay that makes a lot more sense and it was eight people only in that room and oh wherever whenever you all would meet that's it okay that was never explained um so I am glad you did thank you and we just need to make sure we capture that for posterity that everybody is aware it is not a school finance committee as a County finance committee okay I appreciate that well we get beyond that piece Please Mr Martian so before we start making motion solid is it appropriate now to rescind yes okay that said Mr chair I move to
176rescind the motion to nominate Mr Wooster to replace Mr colic on the finance committee I'll suck it up any discussion no discussion I'm going to take a verbal on this one but that's okay Mr Cunningham yay Mr Wooster EA Mr Collett yay Mr Marsh yeah and Mrs times yay thank you okay next we have action on closed session items Mr chair I move to approve the Personnel report as presented a copy of which can be obtained from the school board Clerk second is there any discussion no discussion the clerk shall conduct a vote we got five years and we'll go on to the next item this is the adoption of consent agenda exchange student no oh that's right that's right this yeah that's right next month okay Vice chair Mr chair I moved to approve
177the consent agenda as attached and presented second is there any discussion having heard none the clerk should conduct a vote foreign next we have policy updates and revisions first we have policy INB for first read is there any discussion foreign Mr chair and for the folks that are paying attention um INB so where to start I wish Mr Phelps was serious still here because he said something that really resonated and I can't quote him but it was something to the effect of we need to get back to the Civil discourse and I couldn't possibly agree more with what the man said um no doubt there are some heartfelt positions on the draft of INB both sides of the fence um I did get some very constructive and positive feedback from a gentleman in the community
178he reached out and he offered me some suggestions on how to reward a few things to make it a little bit uh my words not his palatable um and I have already in my hot little hands some revisions that make it sound a little bit better just like we did with posi IIA tune it up a little bit um just the last couple days I've heard from quite a few of our teachers and the general consensus that I've received from them is that a lot of the teachers feel insulted and I feel like some trust issues I get that I do um but I wouldn't have presented draft if I didn't have concerns for some of the stuff I've seen before I've sat up here and that's been identified a couple times several times I've
179been accused of bringing politics into the school board I've been declared a quote full-on racists um not much civility in that I've even had a fellow board member sit up here and make the inference other members of this board were racist um there is a there's much to be said for civility we're not always going to agree we're not but we've got to maintain some civility and if for no other reason to set the example to the kids that are watching so I'm going to continue to make some refinements on it it's not a perfect product it needs some work but I will press forward with the spirit and intent of this policy and for I'm going to give you one example I had a gentleman reached out to me and he said this isn't
180happening there's no indoctrination going on it doesn't make any sense and he even made an analogy or a metaphor I forget I don't know what you call it he said it's like making a policy to restrict putting elephants in a gymnasium and if he's listening I hope he's paying attention because I took it to heart and he's right why would you make a policy to prevent someone from putting an elephant in a gymnasium doesn't make any sense well on the other side of that coin today and maybe it's poor analogy I don't know but I'm going to use it either way we've got a policy let me find it here [Applause] we've got policies in place policy GB EA that restricts Isle of Wight County Schools Employees from using Distributing manufacturing or soliciting illegal Controlled
181Substances now I'm confident sitting up here saying we don't have a teacher in Isle of Wight County Schools making drugs or sell them in the schools but we've still got a policy in place and if that's an insult to Any teacher because we've got a policy that says you can't make drugs then I'm sorry if you're a teacher and you're not trying to I'm going to read it verbatim okay if you're not trying to inflict your personal bias Prejudice or cohesion then this is a non-issue if you're not trying to promote instruct or Advance an idea of anything that may be perceived as controversial then this is it's a non-issue yes controversial is subjective what's controversial to me may not be to other people it's going to be some good judgment and I know that
182our teachers have some good judgment so I'll get off my soapbox that's the point of this policy and uh I'll work on it we'll get it posted up for some more public review and I will bounce it off the fellow board members I want everybody to have a chew on it and we're not all going to agree but we're going to move forward and I yield there are any more comments on this policy on this draft policy the only thing the only thing I'm going to say is uh I I've only gotten one positive email on this uh policy I've gotten at least 25 and I know I'm not exaggerating I'm sure I don't have my phone out but I'm sure I'm getting emails right now uh not agreeing with the policy um I don't
183know I don't know how we're gonna fix it that's the thing I don't know how we're gonna fix it uh the five of us up here we're gonna vote on it eventually but I don't know how we're gonna fix it to the point where the teachers approve of it and then the the big thing is I think one of the one of the teachers came up here and said who's going to make the decision on you know who is doing what if I mean is is that right are you are you indoctrinating kids who's gonna make that decision is it going to be one of us is it going to be the supervisor I mean uh superintendent is it going to be the principal is it going to be the assistant principle we I mean
184if we if we use this policy somebody's gonna have to make the decision and and it needs to be in the policy who's going to make that decision uh a policy is only as good as it is written and if it's not I mean I don't see how we're going to fix it if it's not written good a well if it's not written well you're not gonna fix it I mean and I don't know I mean another teacher came up today and said if it's you you even say it about the elephant thing if it's not broke why fix it what's broken here are we gonna try to censor what our students are taught I have a student I have a son that's in school I I tell him what's right I tell him what's
185wrong and he has listened to me I know because I've never had the police come to my house and arrest him I have a good son and I know a lot of other good kids here and a lot of good parents out there they know what what they should do and what they shouldn't do so and the teachers out there I have a degree in education Mrs times has a degree in education we were not we know we trust the people who work work for this school system this division we we don't need anything to censor what they're putting out to our kids our kids like selling why do we why do we even want to take a chance I'm not saying we're going to hurt him but why do we even want to take
186a chance of hurting them and that's that's just the way I look at it I mean I've had a daughter graduated from Smithfield High she's she's got her Master's Degree now I mean she went from uh uh she did a two-year College got a got a bachelor degree now she's got her Masters she's a great kid well not a kid she's 28 years old so I mean she's not out there robbing banks or making drugs or doing anything I mean we got good kids here got a few problems but you know what policy inv I don't see how it's going to fix it but again this is just me this is where I look at it it's my view I'm one number I yield thank you Mr chair Mrs times I agree with Mr Cunningham
187and I have a daughter as well and she graduated in the same class as Mr Cunningham's daughter she's now a college graduate in grad school and um I tracked some members of that class and they're all doing well some of the students that we have the last of eight the eight years I have served on this board what I'm going to say seven years I've completely served uh those students are doing well I haven't heard of anyone been incarcerated or or you know murdered someone or you know things like that um I'm I say that to say this it's not broken do we have to fix all of these policies it's like I'm looking at them like it's broken someone think it's broken because they keep coming back with all of these revisions and all
188these changes as a matter of fact we normally don't even look at these policies because they stay here for at least five years before we go back and say hey we need to update them and that's when we start making revisions if we need to okay but sometimes we don't have to sometimes we might tweak a word one or two words and and move forward it's not like I've heard that I hear a lot the previous bullet the previous bullet I was on the previous bullet and I was on the board before that and even before that there were boards before that and there were boys before that these policies policies and Compasses what all of those boards has been doing for years and saying for years that this is what we want the students
189and the staff of Isle of Wight County Schools to follow okay and why do we have to make all of these changes what is the issue now what are we trying to fix nothing is broken these kids are acceler these kids are graduating we graduate over 500 kids a year from Isle of Wight County Schools they're going out into the world the young lady we had here tonight Mrs Vivian Green Brown pro basketball we have some others out there I'm not even going to call their name if you only knew the things that they were out there in the world doing and they came from Little Isle of Wight County okay people want to come into Isle of Wight County they want to bring their children here professional people I've got emails from them doctors
190attorneys Engineers they want to bring their families here to live because they want their children to be educated in Isle of Wight County and is and is about the staff that we have in place I'm sure they don't care about the school board members because we come and go but they know we have a good staff in place that that will be there to teach their students I mean their children I yield to anybody thank you Dr Kramer thank you Mr chair uh Mr Vice chair if I may I do think I would be negligent as superintendent if I did not speak on behalf of our teachers I think the group that is going to be affected by this more than anyone else are the teachers so I would employ you to at least and
191I'm sure you will be amenable to feedback from our teachers uh so you mentioned you know receiving input from the board members if you would allow my staff uh and I to have an opportunity to support you with receiving feedback from our teachers I would greatly appreciate that Dr Kramer absolutely one of the suggestions I got from a gentleman he said that rather than like and I don't know how you guys didn't see the current version that I've got but several of the bullets say shall not shall not shall not his suggestion was to take the knot out and to rephrase it with a positive spirit and intent being the same but switch it around so it sounds positive and so I'm more than welcome to uh play with that and figure out a way
192to make it better so yes I just want to make sure that the spirit and intent of this does not get lost and I you Mr Worster do you want to say anything I think everything's pretty much been covered at this point okay well I'll just say a couple of things I thought the speakers that came out tonight several of them made some what I thought was some very good points um I took a lot of notes um and I just appreciate everybody coming out we we should be able to get through this um to make sure it is beneficial to the school system if it's adopted and I hope that the teachers will provide some good substantive feedback I think they will they've been very receptive so far next we'll go into policies for
193second read we'll start with i i a to make motion Mr chair I moved to approve policy IIA as presented second up so we have emotion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk shall conduct the vote and it carries three to two next second policy or excuse me policy for second read is policy FFA Mr chair before I make a motion I'd have a few comments if you'd allow you've got to make the motion then we can go into discussion okay Mr chair I move to approve policy FFA as presented second and do we have any discussion the marsh yes Mr chair so if you recall back in December when we were talking about FFA um Mr excuse me pack Mr Pino what time of Chip I'm working on
194it uh Mr pack when we were talking about policy FFA he said that um if we were to rescind the policy we should give you notice so I did say back in December that I was going to do it and then we we deferred this discussion because of I think it was just time constraints so on that and I know that we've got a motion on the table this is an emotion but I intend to do so so I don't know if we should do that on top of the existing motion or after okay so then not on that I yield is there any further discussion there is no further discussion the clerk shall conduct the vote and it passes three to two now I've got a parliamentarian question for the attorney um would this
195be a point for Mr Marsh to um proceed with the motion that he wanted to make or would we be required to put that on an agenda for a later meeting since it's directly a result of this policy I I think it could be a pro it's related to this policy I think it would be appropriate if the board wishes to correct if the purpose of the um motion is to correct an error okay Mr Marsh Mr chair on that I move to rescind this school board's previous action on September 8 2022 which it proved a resolution renaming the Career and Technical education Building located on Smithfield High School campus after Dr James D Thornton on the premise that this previous action took place using an incorrect version of alawite County Schools policy FFA so
196I could is there any discussion Mrs times yes I would like to see again when we took action and named that um to name the building the facility after Dr Swanson we put it out there and Mr chair you were part of that discussion you agreed with it as well all of us were in the same place we did not know at the time that there was another policy out there we even reached out to our attorney we did not do anything wrong and for us to rescind something that we have named after a gentleman and the reason it is there I heard someone said tonight that it's there because of someone else no Dr Thornton himself was the one out he went out and got the funding for that building from Smithfield Foods okay
197the principal didn't do that it was Dr Thornton and it's I've also heard someone come up here before us and said but what if he goes out there and get in trouble well people have gotten in trouble before and things were named after them we have we've had people to get uh uh to be sitting in the seat of the highest Office of the United States name come up but we don't take things from them the board that was sitting at the time did not know which included you chair that there was another policy out there so I don't feel like we did it wrong okay if we had no one Lee did something wrong hey by all means I'm guilty I got caught let's make it correct but we did not knowingly do anything
198wrong so why are we trying to rescind something why are we trying to keep that action from going forward please do not let person of feelings get in place put those feelings aside because you dislike someone did that person ever do anything to you personally no but I just dislike them because of the way they look that's like that's childish therefore I'm going on to say I'm just rescinding I'm not I am re against that I think we should go forward and keep his name on that building going forward going forward with the policy now that we know that is in place we will not do it again but you're going back in the past to do something that we the board at the time did not do any normally we did not do anything
199wrong it was just a mistake so we need to grandfather that mistake and go forward and leave Dr Thornton's name on that facility that's all I have to say and I yield is there Mr Marsh Mrs times I would with respect request you not make presumptions about why I'm making the motion or or rather assume that I'm doing it because I do not like the man it's got nothing to do it do with it I made the motion because it is my conviction that this school board cannot pick and choose which policies we would we adhere to so for me it's a matter of principle it's got nothing to do with Mr Thornton it's a matter of principle regardless of how the mistake was made it was made so that's where I'm at with that
200and I yield okay if there's no further discussion the clerk should take the vote convertible Mr Cunningham nay Mr Wooster yay Mr colic yay Mr Marsh yay Mrs Times May okay is passed next we have regulation ee a b and Dr Coleman if anybody has any questions this is on school bus scheduling and routing are there any questions there are no questions Dr Coleman next the citizens comments on non-agenda items 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 agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific State
201the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting and first we have Miss Heidi Schwartz well I'm going to reiterate um something that I was just that was just said but there's been a lot of interest of policies and that was just said that you can't pick and choose which policies are going to be followed so I'm just going to reiterate a Gaba policy it's regarding social media specifically [Music] um can't be friends with students and using defamatory on social media just wanted to put that that policy out there in regards to
202some things that were going on my reviewing documents um I have I'm going to talk about policy gah but by reviewing some foia some foia documents recently I noticed um one specific teacher Mr Benjamin Phelps solicited the central office to contract with the school to teach other teachers how to help students pass sols this sure seems to directly violate School employee conflict of interest which is known as the policy gah it prohibits School Employees from having a personal interest in certain contracts in transition transactions that involves the division it prohibits using confidential information that employees have acquired by reason of an employee's public position and which is not available to the public and they should be referred to the ethics Council for assistance appears from the foia documents that the school system may not have
203contracted with the employees company or allowed him to use its facilities if they did then all four documents that I requested were not received however it is alarming that three senior central office employees didn't immediately direct their employee to the CEO COI policy what I do know is that the employee used their school issued email to continue to solicit their private business to at least three senior central office employees over months also did the employee not gain the specific information about Sol testing through their position as a teacher in the county information is not is not available to the general public Additionally the employee infers that they were holding a meeting related to their business with another educator at another school facility on a date that was still a teacher in student work day did
204the employee have permission to use a school facility to further the business interest this also would seem to conflict with policy gah I'm not against employees creating businesses and other forms of income to supplement their salaries many do in our area and I directly even support them however those businesses should not produce a clear conflict of interest though in this particular situation it even appears to take place on divisions time and divisions property the school system was to have all teachers at a grade level across the county collaborate on also Improvement where they need to compensate this employee but not the others would this employee be allowed to excuse themselves so that they did not harm their own business interests you can see how this could quickly get messy as a parent who's had my
205child's private education shared by an employee of Isle White County recently which I had to take up in a report to the bdoe I care about policy gah especially when it comes to the example of stating using the employee's own economic benefit with confidential information that the employee has gained in their public position I'm hoping that Dr Kramer central office and the board makes sure that employees of Iowa County schools are not in contract with Isle of Wight County School Division and that employees are not solicitating nor using their their positions of Isle white issue email and school time of private information from students to further private business or share confidential information thank you foreign Michael the harder District first I want to recommend uh our new board members and uh hope that you all
206could see get some confidence this year um to the new board members just take another time I think get understand how the operator the school goals it didn't come out an abortional concern because let's know that one point we're all going to get together on one point another to get things done but at the beginning it's just like going to a new job you just don't jump at a job you don't know too much about the job so at times you can sit back and see how the job operates and that way I think everybody would be on the same page uh because right now things up in the air all on all ends on all the way so uh I just want to congratulate the new board members and the back chair and vice
207chair and I'm looking forward to working with you as always um I'm always around here somewhere but I work with anybody who wouldn't work with me so uh and I do believe we can get something done it does take your time for the like I said new board members we'll go back and look at some things and then come out and uh voice your concern and I think that's what we will look at more more professionally that way than this to go start and change the things at the beginning because like I said when you in the beginning you start new you don't know too much about it as she said and see how things operate then gradually bring your changes and I think in that way we all could be on the same page
208and I thank you for your time [Applause] Gail Lockhart um Valeria Harris Rhonda bradby that's it true okay thank you everybody for speaking this evening next we have board member requests and comments who would like to start off Mrs times um thank you my um first one I guess is a comment and it was brought to my attention today and I'm just bringing it up because there were some parents out there concerned and I'm hoping these parents are watching us tonight um it was they it was the concern that was brought up today was from the parents that their Middle School age students uh children uh were sent a survey and the concern was the parents did not receive the survey but if the boy members maybe Mr Cunningham would remember uh it was mentioned
209by staff that that survey was going to come out from the state of Virginia and at the time the Middle School the Middle School admin sent out notifications to the parents that it was going to happen that notification did not come like it normally come in a district form it came from the Middle School itself and that was the survey it wasn't anything because the parents were concerned about it that was a state of Virginia survey it was called the Virginia school survey of climate and working conditions and it was the school virgin grades six through eight so I don't a lot of parents said y'all sent that out and you it didn't have anything to do with Isle of Wight County school board or Isle of Wight County Administration Administrative Office it was sent
210from the state of Virginia and the only part that we handled was what they asked us to do to notify the parents and the parents were notified by the middle school staff thank you okay um I would also like to um I forgot to order this or the audit that we heard tonight thank them for the audit because uh I've been sitting here and I've been hearing within the last year I've heard a lot of native things about uh funding and and you know it makes you sit here sometime and you really can't talk you can't speak up you can't explain what you need to explain to people and it sounds like we have uh taken some money did not appropriate the money uh the funds appropriately uh but when you hear heard the auditor
211tonight you heard just like we heard it did not happen okay everybody was paid that's supposed to be paid and how they're supposed to be paid okay and we are we did not run short thank you that's all I want to say on that and um one other thing uh I heard the superintendent's report tonight I heard more chair said he had a nice time I don't know if we got it or not I'm not saying it could have come out I don't know but the next time something special like the basketball game with the uh special needs students please let us know because I would have been there okay actually I just found out about this a day or two before the first game I went to it's it was brand new to me
212I guess the teams have been going on for about six or eight years there is going to be a game next Thursday morning at 10 30 at Smithfield High School between Smithfield and Windsor and I will be there next Thursday morning hold up 10 30 10 30 in the morning it is really fun yeah because I absolutely because we get we get night basketball games or football games you get lots of citizens out but these are played during the time when a lot of the parents are working or whatever and I I'm retired so I can show up you would have a blast and you said that was the 16th right but we shall yes it's on Thursday what time 10 30 A.M if I may Mr chair we will make certain uh Spriggs is
213still here that in our weekly update we'll highlight what those events are I think we've tried to do that but I think we can be a bit more clear and concise than that so I take ownership of that uh uh I blame myself so we'll correct that thank you a little photo shot and we didn't know that Just the Two of y'all it's captured in Mr Kramer's the end of it but it's kind of buried in there yeah thank you is there anything else Mrs times that's it thank you yes who's next Mr Cunningham go for it I really don't I think I've spoken enough tonight oh but but the thing is uh some of these things we're doing uh we need a suspense on like where uh we're gonna get for IMB policy INB
214uh we need comments from the teachers or you need comments so you can uh draft it a little differently I'd like to see uh like a suspense saying okay uh can I get comments in the next two weeks three weeks whatever the case may be because if we just throw it out there then you know somebody may think I got I got a month to make comments so I mean this is just a recommendation you know when we when we come up with something if we're not going to have a meeting between now and the next board meeting then let's have a suspense so when we need comments in that's easy that's all I am have a great month Valentine's day next week do not forget thank you thank you Mr Marsh good Mr Worcester
215yeah I just want to take one moment to um talking about policy IIA and I want to thank Mrs Goetz for working with me on this policy from the last meeting taking the time out of her schedule to come up with you know acceptable wording where it maintained the Integrity of the policy but at the same time you know providing say a safety issue for the amp and honors programs so I just want to take a minute and thank you Ms guts that's all I've got and I will be the last one it looks like Mr Cunningham that I dare suspense dates I think is spot on um so if I could ask you two gentlemen to work that out so that we can everybody in the board can have a chop on it before
216it goes up for second read that would be very helpful and again I just want to thank everybody for coming out I want to thank everybody that provided comment tonight during both comment sessions we're going to have a change in format at next month's meeting very slight but it will be noticeable all the comments will be on the front end of the meeting we won't be saving until 10 o'clock at night any longer the time frame will still be four minutes yes I would like to thank all of the schools West Side Elementary Carrollton Elementary Carrsville Elementary did I miss any Smithfield Middle School for the packages they sent out to us on behalf of Schoolboy Mike thank you and I I did that because I'm the female here you know okay thank you thank
217you thank you thank you but we would like to thank all of them very much and this meeting is adjourned