School Board Meeting 1/12/23

001good evening at this time I would like to open the regular Motley meeting of the Isle of Wight County School Board today is Thursday January the 12th and the year is 2023 and happy New Year to all of you first thing we will have a roll call from Mrs Whitley Whitlow Mr Cunningham president Mr Marsh president Mr Wooster president Mrs times president and Mr College president okay it's five five zero so we all hear present today item number three on the agenda you have approval of the agenda or amendments and um I do have some corrections item number 21 It should read second read instead of first read we also have three we also have a I would like to make a motion to amend the uh closed session agenda to add Personnel investigation January

002January the 23rd that's just the case number okay j-a-n-2301 and a motion to amend the agenda to add action or closed session item Personnel investigation case number j-a-n23-01 Madam chair I'd like to add one one thing to the organizational meeting agenda and Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to add draft bylaws to the organization hold on a second because I have one motion on the floor to take care of the amended items for the closed session items before we bring on anything new okay you want to vote on that separately then that's fine okay all right I'm gonna do a verbal on these um Mr Cunningham yay Mr Marsh yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yeah Mr collie yeah okay now I'd like to make a motion to add bylaws to the organizational

003meeting agenda is there a second I'll second all right we have the lotion on the floor it's been a second any discussion no okay sorry um Mr Cunningham no Mr Marsh yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes May and Mr colic yay motion passes three two okay if there are no more amendments for the agenda at this time I would turn the meeting over to Dr Kramer thank you madam chair good evening board at this time I would like to ask for nominations for the board chair position are there any nominations at this time I'll nominate Mr colic is there a second I'll second that are there any other nominations at this time with no other nominations we will need a motion okay Mr Marshall Mr Marsh made the nominations please oh what's on there oh

004come on here we go okay with the Three A's two Nays and per policy BCA upon election the chair immediately assumes office and presides over the remainder of the meeting congratulations chairman colic thank you Dr Kramer thank you members of your board yes I will and the next item the next item on the agenda is the the election of the vice chair are there any nominations for vice chair I'd like to nominate Miss Worcester Cunningham Mr Cunningham is nominated for vice Jerry Mr Cunningham I respectfully uh decline that nomination thank you though okay Mr Cunningham declines denomination that are any more nominations Vice chair I'll respectfully nominate Mr Marsh Vice chair is there any discussion clerk will take the Roll Call oh do we have a second I'll second it okay we have three A's

005and two Nays Mr Maris is the vice chair for the year 2023. congratulations sir next can I have a motion to appoint the school board clerk for 2023 Jessica Whitlow for our clerk for the year of 2023. second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion please take the roll call Miss Willow finally a unanimous vote congratulations Mrs Whitlow thank you next we will have the appointment of the Deputy clerk if I could have a motion for this position I would like to make a motion motion still breaks for the position of Deputy Clerk oh second we have a motion and a second foreign as it should be the ladies are much more popular than a gentleman congratulations Miss Bridge uh next device chair will make a motion to go in a

006closed session [Applause] all right I'm motion to go into a closed meeting to review the personal report posted on board docs under Personnel tab 19 decimal one and to review Personnel case January 23-01 as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711 A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Isle of Wight public schools for employment contract changes supplemental contracts and deletion performance and discipline and resignations of the Isle awake County Schools public alawite Public Schools Employees we have a motion do we have a second second on 3-01 is important that we do that with the motions that's how it's written let's make that correction so someone can second it now yeah okay we have a motion and a second we can take a vote okay the board will be going at the closed session

007uh Miss clerk do we have any requests to speak during a closed session yes sir okay we will be back after the closed session resume approximately six o'clock this evening foreign okay welcome this evening's open meeting is about to begin the Isle of Wight County School Board here on the West side of Elementary School auditorium at 800 West Main Street in Smithfield Virginia today's date is Thursday January 12 2023 and we are preparing students for college career in life now we've just finished closed session we're now in Open Session and so I need a excuse me a motion for the certification of the revolut resolution of compliance chair I make a motion that the close meeting was conducted in Conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by section [Music]

0082.2-3712d of the code of Virginia and certify that only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the close meeting was convened or heard discussed or considered do we have a second a second we have a motion and a second the clerk will take the role excuse me the vote all members have voted yay the certification resolution compliance has passed I'd like to welcome everybody particularly I'd like to welcome chairman McCarty and Mr Jefferson of the Board of Supervisors and are there any other supervisors here this evening I don't see any and I want to welcome all the good citizens of Isle of Wight County welcome to the first alawite County school board meeting of 2023. I would

009like to thank the school board for your trust in your faith and my abilities to chair this board for this year I would also like to thank Mrs Denise tynes for her service over last year I know it was a thankless job on many occasions but Denise I certainly learned a lot from you thank you [Applause] as the chair I have one basic role in addition to my role as the school board member for District Five that is to ensure all meetings are run efficiently effectively and within the legal framework for public meetings other than this I have no more Authority than any other school board member unless this board votes to add additional authority to this position so when you have an issue that you feel needs the school board's attention please contact your

010school board member who will help you in any way that he or she can now as the chair I pledged you to follow all laws regulations policies procedures and bylaws that govern this board I pledge to assure all school board members have equal opportunities to represent their constituents that is if any board member wants to add an item to the agenda it will be added whether or not I agree with it I also plan to allow citizens comments at special meetings using the same rules for a regular meeting this board will listen to your comments and we may even ask you a question or two for amplifying information and at times we may table agenda items based on your comments my personal goal for this year is to work with Dr Kramer and his staff

011to increase the academic performance across the division as we continue to rebound from the coveted pandemic setbacks particularly for those students where the need is greatest again thank you for coming out and supporting our students staff and administrators and I hope that you'll be able to support this board in its effort to take Isle of Wight County Schools to the next level in education thank you now the vice chair will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice withdrawal foreign now Mrs Lynn Briggs will present the Isle of Wight achievers test there we are okay good evening chair board members Dr Kramer

012the 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 Wight achiever section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to celebrate and recognize our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts first we will have our seniors of the month from Windsor high and Smithfield High when I call your name if you'll please come forward Mrs Susan Getz Mrs Susan Getz I will hand you a plaque and a pin when I call you up our first senior of the month is from Windsor high and that is Corrine Walters [Applause] [Music] Corey currently serves as the Beta Club president where she leads over 100 academically minded students through service projects for the school

013and community in addition to her service work she collaborates with the Beta Club officers to prepare for both the state and National Convention she also serves as the senior class secretary and as such helped plan and execute December's community outreach activity where Windsor High seniors connected with the seniors at Windsor consulate Care by delivering stockings full of Necessities to each resident she is a true multitasker and manages to balance her life with school and her involvement outside of Windsor High The Windsor High Community quote Corrine Walters is one of the most giving students at Windsor High she uses her time and talents every day to make our space A Joyful place to be I thoroughly love working with her both inside and outside of the classroom and that comes from Mrs mcmanaway the chemistry teacher

014Corey plans on attending VCU in the fall and pursuing a degree in biology she is hopeful this will lead to medical school as she plans on becoming a doctor congratulations Corey [Applause] [Music] and if any of Corey's family members want to come up and take a picture while she's in front of the backdrop and or join her in a picture Mr Elliott is doing the photo honors at this time come on Mom and Dad we know you're there Brother come on [Music] [Applause] that's right okay congratulations again Corey [Applause] okay the senior of the month for January for Smithville High School is Aiden Shannon [Applause] Aiden attends the Governor's School for Science and Technology where he studies biological sciences he is currently interning at the Commonwealth attorney's office as part of the gsst mentorship program

015he was named a commended student in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship program and he is a member of the Beta Club and helped to pack gifts as part of the club's community outreach program Aiden is captain of the Lincoln Douglas division of the Smithfield High School debate team and is undefeated this year pretty awesome he has also volunteered at the Regional Library and helps tutor algebra for Smithville Middle School quote Aiden Shannon is a standout student offering insightful and Discerning opinions in class leading class discussions with a unique and astute perspective and that comes from Mrs Julie ing advanced placement English teacher Aiden has earned a full scholarship to Princeton University [Applause] and probably the only thing he hasn't accomplished yet is he is currently undecided on his major congratulations Aiden and if you'll move

016to the backdrop we'll get a photo with you and if you have family members that would like to join you as well [Applause] hmm and our last part of the cheevers tonight is actually a general recognition and announcement about our United Way campaign the 2022 United Way campaign for Isle of Wight County Schools wrapped up in November in 2020 the division raised about fifteen thousand dollars which was around our annual average in 2021 I was blown away when we raised over 29 000. this year I'm absolutely stunned our school division of 800 plus employees and 5500 students raised over I'm getting Goosebumps raised over 48 000 48 thousand dollars I have always been proud of the generosity of our employees our students and our families when asked to help others less fortunate they don't hesitate

017it reminds me a bit of the final scene of It's a Wonderful Life Isle of Wight County Schools people always Step Up I want to publicly thank the campaign leaders and principals for their leadership and guidance and if you would if you are one of the school campaign leaders or a building principal would you please stand at this time are they here okay and I want to ask them to come up we want to do a group photo because I'm just so darn excited so y'all make your way up here and I want to close out this little part about the United Way to say I also want to thank everyone who contributed to the campaign you have made a difference in our community the United Way will notify us of our official contributions in

018the spring and at convocation we'll present our United Way Awards plus recognize them at a board meeting in the fall but this news was too good to hold on to until then so Mr Elliott if you can get a group photo of our principals and assistant principals that came and campaign managers because these were the boots on the ground that contributed to the Forty eight thousand dollars and while he's getting the photo I'll just say that this is going to con conclude our Achievers tonight foreign and as they're getting their photo I've noticed supervisor Grice has come in I'd like to welcome supervisor Grice here with us tonight as well with the other supervisors thank you board members [Applause] next Dr Kramer will introduce new hires to the team thank you Mr chair colic I

019am honored to be able to introduce as you stated some new individuals to our team and we are going to start with one individual who was unable to be here but we will still acknowledge her Mrs Lacey winner is returning to Isle of Wight County Schools as the accounts payable technician she previously worked for the division as a bookkeeper at Smithville High School and returns with 15 additional years of experience in the finance field this is when it lives in Battery Park with her husband's son and rescue dogs she was unable to attend this evening but let's give her a round of applause nonetheless and I hope to not embarrass the next three individuals too much so I will ask that you stand when I read uh your brief bio so let's start with Miss

020Chelsea Mullins Miss that's right absolutely Miss Mullins Miss Mullins is the administrative assistant to the superintendent that would be me she has six years of experience in higher education at both William and Mary and Christopher Newport University in the areas of Admissions and student services Mrs Mullins Mrs Mullins lives in Smithfield with her husband Dr Greg Mullins and their son Michael welcome from another round of applause for Miss Mullins next we have Mrs Sherry hedgepeth she is our new coordinator of Finance she has 23 years of experience in higher education at both camp and Tidewater Community College in the finance department Mrs hedgepeth moved to Isla white in 2001 at the marrying a lifelong resident of the county and has two children her son is a graduate of Windsor high school and her daughter currently

021attends Windsor High School welcome to the finance department and they all uh filled vacant positions but this gentleman is assuming a new position and that is Sergeant Jason Brinkley please stand sir [Applause] [Music] Sergeant Brinkley will serve as our first security and Emergency Management specialist he brings 15 years of Safety and Security experience to the division Mr Brinkley lives in hunterdale in the hunterdale area of Southampton County with his wife and their five children welcome Sergeant frankly [Applause] [Music] thank you Mr chair that concludes the introductions thank you Dr Kramer next we will have eye on instruction from Smithfield Middle School foreign we are the members of the Smithfield Middle School abandon course I'm Trinity Freeman I'm Jaden Bennett I'm Madison Smith we're here to speak to you about our latest project our performance at

022the SMS Veterans Day program this Veterans Day program has been in existence for the last 16 years music reaches the hearts and minds of people where words can fail as we spend time learning to read and perform music we develop something special with our community our music ensembles at SMS provide us with the ability to accomplish many things we were honored to offer this program as as in as an offer to this program uh as an Outreach to our local veterans and service members in our annual Veterans Day performance we were able to use our skills to honor those who have served to communicate our patriotism and thanks all of us here already know the beauty of music it is the purest form of Art and expression it can make you dance or cry or

023bring you in a different place in your mind or bring back a memory you haven't thought about in years and our Veterans Day performance we were able to do just that not only did our skills show our patriotism but we were also able to show the people that are active and retired in the military that we see them we hear them and we are proud to be in Isle of Wight with them music it holds so much power and the value of music goes much deeper than what you hear it it provides an escape into a whole new world and like our own we would like to share some of the incredible ways that performing in music ensembles develops resilience grit creativity communication and collaboration performing music invokes activity in which many different parts of

024the brain are actively working at the same time learning music strengthens Connections in the brain which have been shown to improve memory motor functions and learning in other areas being able to express ourselves manage stress work together cooperatively have empathy and understanding towards others is a valuable part of daily life can you imagine a world where everyone had these skills their music we can achieve this learning music is a long-term commitment it takes work and requires Great learning music gives us an opportunity to practice long-term and short-term goal setting and helps us to perform for our families in the community every day in abandoned course we're able to apply and refine our people's skills we do this in music ensembles by putting aside our differences and working together towards the common goal of putting on

025a successful performance the part of a long-steering tradition of honoring our community at SMS this this performance not only allows us to demonstrate our creativity and talents but also gives us the chance to interact with those who have served and learned from them this performance not only helped us build self-esteem and confidence by participating in large groups and performing in crowds but also let us talk to adults in a respectful and mature manner all through the power of music and its importance in our lives throughout the last 16 years our program has blossomed this year our PTA provided over 80 lunches for our veterans our 8th graders attended as a part of their Civics classes and applaud our guests as they prayed into the auditorium our boy scouts presented the American and Virginia state flags

026and provide a full flag folding ceremony the band and chorus members brought both smiles and tears due to the feelings that were brought to the surface when hearing patriotic music as a part of the Smithfield Middle School chorus and band we want to express our appreciation for the programs and activities we have in the support from the Island community thank you for your time have a great night foreign [Applause] ladies and gentlemen I want to thank you for that Veterans Day ceremony I don't know if you know but three of us up here are veterans and I think I can speak for all of us that we really appreciate that thank you and as they're getting their picture taken we will start preparing for the Smithfield High School special presentation and uh it will be

027called the stop the bleed project members of the board first off I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak tonight on stop the bleed I'm here with one of my fellow Cadets uh Cadence estefano who is a third semester Cadet me personally I am a fourth semester Cadet and I have Colonel budilian who is like a 50 000 symmetric Cadet at this point um uh next slide next next slide yeah okay what does it mean to stop the blade stop the uh stop the blade the evolution has stopped to believe was a program was influenced by world events in 2012 20 students and eight adults were met were casualties in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School stop leading the Grassroots organization a call to action and call to action

028uh to that encourages bystanders to become trained equipped and empowered to help help in a bleeding emergency event before professional help arrives and unstoppably course you will learn three quick techniques on how to save a life before someone bleeds out similar in the way the CPR is taught uh as led to Cadet or second semester Cadets you are taught CPR so this would be further training on top of that um occasions is definitely will take the next slide and then Colonel budoian will do the last slide good afternoon I would also like to thank you for inviting us here today my name is Cadence DeStefano I'm a third semester Cadet and a sophomore at Smithfield High if I could direct your tension to the left side of the screen this is the why behind why

029we'd like to do this it takes three to five minutes for somebody to bleed out and it takes seven to ten minutes for a first responder to attend the site if deemed safe given that some of our schools within the county are in rural areas it could take longer several states in the U.S are already enacting legislation to implement stop the bleed in high schools across the county in the country what we have done Ethan has spoke to Glover yankin about bringing stop the bleed to schools in Virginia we have met with Dr Kramer and principal cuffy to bring stop the blade to school in alawite County we've applied for two grants for training kits and stop the bleed kits we had to reschedule the Lions Club that we were supposed to have Monday night

030for later in February thank you I'd like to pass Dr colonel badoin today's General School Board Dr Kramer Cadence and Ethan have covered the the what and the why and some of the who of this project I'd like to fill in the rest the of the who the when and the how we've just met you just saw Mr Sergeant Jason Brinkley introduced by Dr Kramer as the new safety security director and we would like to do is start planning a way ahead with him as well with Dr Kramer and administrators in order to bring this program to Isle of Wight County Schools we've recommended we start a pilot reason I'm being I'm here is to I have about 80 80 to 100 Cadets a semester we'd like to start actually after spring break with some

031of the training for stop the bleed as a pilot and then spread it to the rest of schools there's a monetary stipulation there for stop the league kits we'll work with Mr Brinkley on trying to lower the cost of those but what Ethan has been working his little fanny off getting grants to sway that cost the end State or the goal is to have Personnel throughout each school both students and faculty trained and stop the bleed so if something should occur that we don't want to we have students and faculty that can save lives um so basically with your approval we like to move forward in the the heavy planning with Mr Brinkley administrators to stop the bleed instructors and select teachers and administrators next slide you can leave it uh if you want any

032any more information on stop to bleed those two links are one is to the stop the blade organization and the other one is through the Department of Homeland Security with the stop to bleed basically the hashtag subject to your questions I do have one question about the pilot not Dr Kramer that's something you can authorize correct you know we are we will continue as I think Colonel badoin stated we're working with Ethan um Cadence and Colonel would first of all thank you all and uh we greatly appreciate the work that you've been doing Ethan it was a great meeting with Ethan Cadence and uh Colonel badoin at the school and since we met with um Mrs cuffy so we will continue to continue to support them and work with uh Smithfield High School and if

033there are others who are interested we will revisit that uh in the future but I think as Colonel Bedouin stated as well with Sergeant Brinkley here he will also work with them support them and make a recommendation to to us as to how we can expand this potentially elsewhere no that that's perfect and if you do need support from the board obviously come come back and we'll do everything we can to support you I think thanks sir all right again thank you for your time and this concludes the slideshow thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay next we have the request to speak on agenda items so the clerk will go ahead and relive something for you okay in accordance to policy information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board

034no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for the presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific State the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting first we have Luanne Scott good evening I'm blue Ann Scott from The Windsor District I'm a educator recently retired from Isle of Wight County Schools and I taught for 45 years high school English I'd like to speak tonight to the proposed

035amendment to the governor's request for censorship that was read at last board meaning the purpose of education is to do many things but most importantly it is to widen Horizons and to expose students to other worlds besides the limited ones in which they live one of the reasons that we value education is because It prepares children to move outside their families outside their narrow World outside the world they already know and embrace a world with different ideas there's a danger in censorship a very real danger I've read a book that had a big impact in my life and it had almost all the divisive issues that were listed in the amendment like murder and racial issues and sexual issues and guess what it was called the Bible [Applause] so thank you if we are to

036if we are to censor what our students see and hear and read then we are asking for them to be limited in their thinking in their scope 30 years ago I stood before the school board at a parent complaint about a book that book was by Maya Angelou and there was an attempt to keep that book out of our curriculum and at the end of the discussion on that the mother admitted that she didn't want her child reading that book because it she was tired of her reading about black people and I was bowled over at that point 30 years ago and to think that we are here tonight looking at the exact same issue we are here because there are people who don't want our children exposed well what does that mean well I

037think George Orwell wrote a book about it he said that if you want to limit people's scope if you want to limit what they know then you take language and ideas away from them okay so what is the nature of this amendment I really would like to know where it came from because I believe it is a more political than educational piece of writing it is it is very widely understood and easy to find that there are multiple venues multiple school boards being presented with this very same concept so is this really about the educational quality of the children of Isle of Wight County because that is what you were elected to do one minute what does one minute left or one minute going one minute left okay so what does divisive mean I don't

038know what is divisive to one person is not divisive to another um put this in overdrive if there's an impact on parents it's because they have chosen a very narrow vision for their children and the problem with that is if we give in to parent a and let them Define what our children will read and study then we are limiting my child because I don't agree with those ideas so is one parent then going to make the choices and the decisions for all parents the other issue is children need to have a large world and they need to learn lots of different things not just what they already know and I'm going to go to the teachers at the end because I'm an advocate for teachers and because I'm retired and that is to say

039that that this is unenforceable Teachers cannot and managed to accomplish what this does it could not be done thank you thank you if I can remind everybody we've got quite a few people they're going to speak so if you can not have any Outburst no applause you know nothing like that everybody's taking their time to come here and speak tonight let's listen to them whether you agree with them or not and get on and move on to the next speaker thank you Christopher Johnson [Applause] I'm also speaking to the censorship proposal good evening Mr chair I'm Dr Kramer and other members of the school board I am Christopher Johnson an English teacher at Windsor high school and a proud Duke graduate Winter High School had and still has impactful teachers their lessons taught me how

040to think critically and debate respectfully along with my parents they bolstered who I am today it was a team effort then and it still remains a team effort my parents did their job at home so my teachers could do their job at school our teachers have grown by leaps I mean our schools have grown by Leaps and Bounds surely we have widened our practice and realized we teach and learn in a changing world we are connected through vibrant industry and commerce that is a part of the globalization regardless of our political religious or personal views it is moving rapidly as students deserve schools that prepare them for this move tonight our teaching practices are in question the depth of our standards is suddenly feeling constricted much like a noose around our necks The Proposal regarding

041instructional materials is a direct attempt to discredit his teacher's ability to make some to make sound judgments and it questions professional ethics and integrity the strikethroughs and additions make it problematic for any teacher to Source reading materials to teach standards maintain student interest and Foster critical thinking these limitations create a partisan environment for teaching and learning the contents of the Virginia standards of learning is evidence that teachers do not possess any state approved objectives that promote any topic contrary to Governor Junction's guidelines in your revision the third bullet would deem the superintendent responsible for ensuring students are subject to the personal views or not subject to the personal views of Staff members that could be considered divisive during instructional time divisive is by definition a means to cause disagreement or hostility between between people School

042Board I ask you what is the instrument you will use to determine which of the standards we teach do or do not create some form of thought that could possibly lead to disagreement or a potentially challenging conversation between our students and what is wrong with having those conversations anyway this Banning policy brings into question the materials selected for classroom use we address content that relates to the difficult Human Condition the very books written address matters such as suicide murder death love sexuality politics globalism morals and ethics it prevents the use of virtually everything in print and as Miss Scott pointed out even the Bible which is one of the most controversial books ever written and it's still in print today and is referenced in hundreds of literary Works filled in the books that our taxpayer

043money paid for one minute teachers can be transparent and their views should be promoted for close inquiry and competing ideals teaching controversial topics is the foundation of a democratic education not an indoctrination if we want our students to live by a certain ethical standards how will they ever know what is right if they are not taught what potentially could be wrong it is also Paramount that we all understand that we live in a society moving in a direction of a moral compass that points in many directions here lies the beauty of teaching watching students unfold as thinkers and not being mere magpies of a narrow-minded perspective thank you foreign [Applause] Williams [Applause] good evening the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically intelligence plus character that is the

044goal of true education so it has been unsettling to know that our school board has become a local mimic of a 1984 movie Footloose the very thing that the board members shielded from the kids backfired and you may think that you're moving the school system in the future but you're placing the system back in a traditional controlled discriminatory and racist mindset I find it daunting that there are those that harp on a curriculum used from another District but have no issues with an amended policy that has been copy and pasted from a national perspective built on a one-sided racist view there is no other District in our area that is following these changes as they know what will come along with such a change where are the school board members that care about the community

045and the well-being of all of our students clearly some of you have stated that you did not even understand the curriculum so how in the world can you implement a policy without including your great teachers in Isle of Wight County Public Schools this policy clearly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on many different levels had a conversation with a couple of you all just a couple of weeks ago about an assignment that my daughter had um only two responded thank you um to you know but I understand why but you could not um clearly tell me how that that assignment was considered to be divisive yet you're still trying to Define what the word divisive is today and you cannot for example I've taught AP classes and I know that many of those instructional

046materials are flooded with various topics and issues that do not teach oppression rather how to develop arguments healthy conversations collaboration and diversity so are you willing to risk the College Board removing AP classes from the schools as their equity and access policy states the following the College Board strongly encourages Educators to make Equitable access to guiding principle for the AP programs by giving all willing and academically prepared students the opportunity to participate in AP schools should make every effort to to ensure their AP classes reflect diversity of their student population so I find an error in defining instructional materials that you would mention that this amendment or change does not reflect the assessments of such tests because you know that you can't change the test now let's think about this it's not okay for our

047authentic and educated and caring teachers to not use specific instructional materials or content that could be on a test so how can we prepare them so the content that these tests reflect are diversity in our students in Isle of Wight County will suffer academically if the College Board removes AP classes from the school system so we must begin to understand change comes with communication and out of communication comes policy that reflects diversity of all key players involved and not just an empty field which some of you all continue to play on [Applause] Matthew Floyd [Applause] good evening uh thank you for having us tonight uh my name is Matt Floyd I am the President of the Isle of Wight Educators Association and I'm also a history teacher at Smithfield High School Smithfield High School's mission

048statement to enhance and expand on each child's unique gifts and talents to ensure every child is college career and life ready the ill Amendment the censorship amendment being touted currently by the Isle of weight School Board is a drastic misstep in the evolution of local public education at the end of the day should this amendment pass our ability as Educators to fulfill this mission statement will be severely impeded if not completely derailed this is because in life students we'll have to meet and coexist with many who do not share the same perspectives ideologies beliefs and worldviews that they do our curriculum exposes students to a myriad of perspectives in worldview so they're able to develop as individuals and to develop their own worldview with all the information that they need life is divisive it's controversial

049and insightful it is far better that our students learn how to approach and navigate these issues in the safety instruction and confines of our classroom that is what makes them college career and life ready passing these amendments will be doing them a disservice on an academic level contrary to statements from members of this board regarding our AP program we run the risk of seeing our AP programs become defunct in this County College Board who oversees the AP curriculum is already threatening to pull accreditation for school systems to adopt these and other similarly politically motivated amendments limiting curriculum and instructional materials this puts our students who are college and university bounded at a severe disadvantage as they are striving for acceptance to high performance schools in a ridiculously competitive environment statements and responses from members of

050the school board accusing teachers and my colleagues raising these concerns of fear-mongering and that our AP program will be unaffected only highlights and broadcasts their lack of understanding and their inability to grasp the reality of how college board works our students should not be penalized and have their lives negatively impacted because of misunderstandings on how AP functions my next point is that the wording of this amendment is so vague and subjective that other unintentional consequences of the decision are going to leave long lasting ripples which will ultimately negatively impact our educational system in this county do I disband the shs debate team who have won eight out of the past 10 state titles every topic they have to debate is controversial it's divisive and it's insightful that's kind of the point are they we no

051longer to teach ideologies parties and provide examples of liberalism conservativism libertarianism and other ideologies we're not required that we are required to do so by the sols put out by the vdo week are we not expected to teach the reality and the strife and struggle of the Civil Rights Movement the wording of this amendment is so vague and subjective that teachers are legitimately afraid of violating it having their careers threatened when all they were doing was the job that they were hired for we educators are professionals we have spent decades in school learning developing and perfecting our pedagogy we have spent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to perfect our craft show us the respect we deserve trust us to do our jobs without being handicapped for the political expediency of certain members of

052this board my colleagues deserve better than to be served up as red meat to a political base and my students certainly deserve to be treated as more than political pawns to be manipulated for political talking points several of the members of this board have recent campaigns where they ran on the platform of providing more parental choice however one of the first actions by this board results in the Restriction of personal and parental Choice by removing topics and materials from our Arsenal which have already been approved by the vdoe for all the accusations of classroom indoctrination which is circulated in the last election cycle this amendment comes off where from the outside looking in it appears that the only ones attempting indoctrination are on this board if you are determined if you were determined to go

053down this road I implore you to consider the following table this topic for the upcoming semester establish an ad hoc Committee in the interim made up of all relevant stakeholders teachers administrators parents and board members bring everyone to the table to truly accomplish what is in the best interest of our students let's work together thank you [Applause] Julie ing [Applause] something thank you good evening as a teacher of 22 years 16 within Isle of Wight County schools and a resident of this community I am asking the school board to reconsider the proposed policy change regarding divisive texts we must prepare our students for the real world in life they will certainly encounter ideas and people which they may not understand but through education we can help them learn to navigate the world our students are

054intelligent enough to read about and learn about cultural differences while still maintaining the morals and values they have been raised with we are doing our Serv our students a disservice in fact we are failing them when we do not prepare them to think critically about challenging topics and ideas no business or university will hire or admit citizens who are unable to think and react responsibly yet that is how we are limiting our students with this policy furthermore members of the school board have publicized that they do not believe the policy will harm the academic program this belief is incorrect if the school board adopts this policy prohibiting divisive texts the College Board has definitively stated they will revoke our affiliation meaning iwcs will have no AP program if that occurs we are harming our students

055intellectually as well as actively destroying their ability to be competitive applicants in the academic world AP classes offer universities the ability to gauge the competitiveness of our highest achieving students by taking this away we will harm them irreparably in their Quests for first-rate University placement and scholarships Please be aware that AP is not protected under the governor's policy I implore you to not destroy our County's academic Integrity thank you for reconsidering this policy [Music] [Applause] Ashley Janowski did I say that right [Applause] good evening as a teacher and parent in iwcs the board's current draft of IAA has left several questions that concern stakeholders involved in a child's education Isla white Prides itself on ensuring every child is college career and life ready as a parent I brought my child to this County for the

056educational opportunities Isle of Wight offers our County school system has always been on The Cutting Edge and paved the way for surrounding counties while other districts May neglect students planning to enter the workforce iwcs has invested Millions into student career programs like culinary welding and JROTC iwcs has consistently placed our children's educational opportunities at the Forefront of their decision making and revising the draft of policy IIA should be no different I'm asking the board to consider these questions and provide specific clarifying answers to the community prior to a final vote who will provide teachers with a list of appropriate books instructional materials resources and revised curriculum that also supports Virginia's standards of learning since our options will be limited by this new policy in talking with my colleagues it was difficult for us to decide

057which text would be acceptable and which texts would be prohibited based on the subjective term divisive what will the process for identifying prohibited content look like what will the procedure look like to ensure content is reviewed and potentially replaced in a timely unbiased and effective manner that is representative of the interests of all impacted stakeholder groups in our community where will the funding for these materials come from what will the procedure of ensuring students are not subjected to the personal views of Staff look like I agree as does Governor yonkin's policy that parent choice is important in 11 years I've had four alternative text requests and they've all been successfully accommodated how does this policy support iwcs's commitment to ensure all students are college career and life ready what does this policy do to further

058close the gap in student performance on the Virginia sols often material that has the potential to be divisive provides students the opportunity for the most meaningful student-led discussions and educational growth prohibition will guarantee the opposite thank you for your consideration we look forward to hearing your responses [Applause] Regina menkel [Applause] good evening my name is Regina mangle and I am a secondary English teacher at shs I don't have very much experience in policy and procedure but I do know about the writing process we teach the steps of the writing process every day they are consider the prompt brainstorm and plan write a first draft receive feedback revise and edit until your ideas are communicated as precisely and effectively as possible the writing process is inseparable from the board's process of creating and revising policy you

059call them motions actions agendas first and second reads but it is the writing process through and through receiving feedback is undeniably the most conflicting step of the writing process Mr Wooster as the author of this policy you put yourself out there in solicited feedback from your community during the December school board meeting at that meeting and likely since you felt the sting that our students experience when they receive feedback from others drafting can be a difficult process but effective writing requires modeling the same expectations we have for our students in order to work for a common ground in order to show our students that they will never get away from the writing process I am asking the board to consider the following questions and provide specific clarifying answers to the community prior to a final

060vote how will the Isle of Wight board Define prohibits and advances so students teachers and parents can avoid the confusion from the December board meeting surrounding appropriate texts and access to texts how can the Isle of Wight policy be revised so that parents can be confident they have the choice Governor youngin campaigned on was elected on and is guaranteed an SB 656 Mr Marsh your background and understanding of policy was clear back in December wading through an incredibly comprehensive subject with Ms Briggs how will Isle of Wight revise the policy to be consistent with or more comprehensive than sb656 which only covers parental notification for sexually explicit material wouldn't it be more effective for Isle of Wight to write a standalone policy regarding parental notification or prohibition of inherently divisive materials I'm sorry inherently divisive

061content as per Governor youngin's executive order one and was modeled at the state level what feedback was provided by the board or to the board from the iwcs legal team since Mr wooster's draft of IIA deviates from the vs ba model finally and most importantly how do the newly elected officials of the school board plan to move forward to improve the process of soliciting Community feedback and encouraging respectful difficult conversations especially so policy reflects the common ground of as many stakeholders as possible thank you for your time and your consideration [Applause] [Music] Jennifer Boykin yeah Volbeat Boykin fully Boykin good evening board Carswell District um here to speak on the item 11a policy um not saying it couldn't be tweaked or changed to some extent but two of you made it clear that you supported

062this policy when you ran for election in November 2022. one of you made it clear that you supported a policy of this type when you ran for election in 2021 in November the elections there are a lot of people here tonight there were a lot more people that voted in these elections the people that opposed you opposed these policies and you supported them and everybody knew what the policies were everybody knew who supported them and who opposed them you won the elections not by a small majority but by a large majority the large majority that voted for you because of your positions deserves and you have a duty to follow what you promised and what those constituents voted for you that they wanted there were many thousands of them many more than could ever fit

063into this room thank you thank you [Applause] Leah Carroll [Applause] members of the school board my name is Leah Carroll I'm a 2021 graduate of Windsor high school and a former student School Board liaison now I'm honored to attend the University of Virginia as a recipient of one of the most prestigious Scholarships in the nation the Jefferson scholarship I would not have received this scholarship had it not been for all the work I completed fighting for equity and inclusion in iwcs I'm very concerned about the direction the school board has taken since I graduated if iwcs truly aims to prepare students for college career and life speaking from experience as a current college student I wholeheartedly believe the proposed amendment to the instructional materials policy would do nothing but harm students and their futures I

064have numerous questions surrounding the provision calling for the censorship of inherently divisive materials I can't help but fear there are less than good intentions in including this revision especially with current outrage over iwcs supposedly teaching critical race Theory while I never learned about the incredibly complex legal Theory known as critical race Theory and iwcs I thought I'd take this time to share what I did learn which I fear this censorship would prevent current and future students from learning in elementary school I learned that had I been born half a century earlier I would not have been able to interact with some of my closest friends simply because we had different skin colors I did not feel any guilt learning this information because my education taught me that I had no impact on the past but

065I did and I do have an impact on the future [Music] okay I I have a lot so if you are so concerned white students would feel guilt over learning about the history of their ancestors I would encourage you to wonder what environment you are cultivating that would cause them to identify more with white slave owners than with white abolitionists in middle school I learned about gender identity and sexual orientation I did not learn this from my teachers I in fact learned it from the internet with social media students have access to all sorts of information and opinions including and especially the most hateful rather than refuse to speak on divisive topics I know that if teachers have the opportunity to guide students towards Simple Kindness not toward discovering their own identity and not imposing

066political beliefs but simply acknowledging that people with different identities exist and deserve all the kindness in the world our students would be much better people in high school I read true and fictional accounts of sexual violence these topics were of course not easy to learn about they were absolutely necessary luckily I had teachers who were able to guide students through this difficult content in a way that was empathetic toward authors victims and students alike my teachers these teachers pushed me to be a free thinker whether we agreed or disagreed my teachers helped me develop strong thought out and empathetic opinions I shared these opinions and essays and interviews which got me into a phenomenal scholarship program I shared these opinions with my friends because teenagers are going to be talking about these things regardless of

067what you censor them from learning whether they do so in an educated and empathetic manner is all going to depend on if you let teachers do their jobs and guiding them to be the intelligent equipped and most importantly kind adults of tomorrow thank you [Applause] Charles haskett good evening uh Charles haskett Windsor District I just wanted to come out tonight in support of uh policy 11a being presented tonight I have to say it's been a breath of fresh air since Dr Kramer Mr colic Mr Wooster and Mr Marsh have been brought on to the board the issues going on have been going on uh have been have been a long and frustrating battle and I've made some realizations over the past year or so it's hard-winging an argument against a smart person but it's impossible

068to win one against a stupid person what's even more frustrating he's been having to be governed by even stupider people I think with the new board members and superintendent we will be able to bring back a little intelligence and decency within the school system I hope to see this policy pass before my Pre-K CERN Pre-K son learns to read he is learning quick as I read bedtime stories with him every night to teach him one of our favorites has been an article written by Stephen felske at the Smithfield times about Kiana Jones leaving her position as a diversity equity and inclusion coordinator this past December hopefully this new board will bring back many more wonderful bedtime stories to come thank you [Applause] Grace Chatham [Applause] good evening my name is Grace Chatham and I am

069a senior at Smithfield High School after learning of the proposed policy regarding curriculum that could be potentially divisive I decided it was imperative that I expressed my opinion on this issue as the policy currently reads students will still be permitted to take exams with material that is said to be inherently divisive but for AP students this will still cause us harm the College Board policy states if a school bans required topics from their AP courses the AP program removes the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP course Ledger provided to colleges and universities as the policy reads in my history classes and my government classes we would not be allowed to learn about the Civil Rights Movement the Holocaust or even the women's rights movement as it would paint to quote

070the policy an individual by virtue of his or her race skin color ethnicity sex or faith as racist sexist or oppressive whether consciously or subconsciously if we are prevented from learning this material the College Board will move the designation of our school's AP accredited and we will no longer be able to take our exams receive Advanced waiting or gain college credit for our courses this year I am taking four AP classes I have a twin sister who is taking three herself each test costs 96 dollars which every AP student has already paid if our school were to lose its AP accreditation my family would be out 672 dollars that we paid under the impression that I would gain credits towards my college diploma one class the college I will be attending next fall is about

071fourteen hundred dollars with these four APS out of my transcript I would have to pay roughly fifty six hundred dollars for the same credits I could get for less than four hundred dollars now through the AP program the amount of money that I and my fellow students stand to lose from the loss of AP in our schools is astronomical in December I was accepted into the University of Virginia if this policy is implemented I will be forced to contact the office of admissions in Charlottesville and explain to them why I am losing four different college courses for my transcript which is such a hard excuse me harsh change to my application that they are well within their rights to resend my acceptance I have worked tirelessly for the past four years to be accepted into

072college and will be devastated to see all of my hard work and the hard work of my teachers who helped me reach this point go to waste especially since this policy is not something we are choosing for ourselves beyond the implications for juniors and seniors applying to college think about all of the housing developments going up in our community currently if parents who are thinking of moving to alawite County hear that their children will not be able to take AP classes learn about the Civil Rights Movement or form their own opinions about material they learn in class will they really want to move here our County and school system could lose a lot of money on incoming families who very possibly could move somewhere else or enroll their children in a private school that will

073allow them to take advantage of college-level classes I implore each and every school board member to think long and hard about this policy and how it could affect your community and your constituents thank you Laura Fletcher good evening chairman colic Mrs tynes gentleman Dr Kramer finally Brothers whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any Excellence if there is anything worthy of Praise think about these things Philippians 4 8. the Bible never glorifies sexual perversion it never glorifies evil it never glorifies violent please face the board you're dressing the board and it always gives Purity and Truth this should be the goal of Education exposing our children to beauty and Truth creating thinkers and fostering a love of lifelong learning giving them

074an understanding of the value of each life and a respect for others Governor Younkin won his campaign because Virginians gave him a mandate to end critical race theory in education two years in I commend this board for taking steps to come into agreement with the governor's order EO number one and encourage Isle of Wight County Schools to go beyond what expressed what's expressed in e01 and choose a more local personalized and protective stance than even Richmond suggests the executive order has no teeth if localities fail to deem its importance we've really seen tonight the battle that's being waged right now over the family over our American history over the very fabric of American society the arrogance of Academia that they think that they know better than parents for their children no one here is interested

075in censorship there's not a single conservative who would ever want to suppress what people can read or what they can say we're acting we're asking for uh consideration in what is our children are exposed to and how that exposure happens you can have you can read gritty novels with your children if you want to you can do whatever you want to we just don't want that coming from other people and teachers obviously those here tonight think they know best I just want to conclude with a couple of things and I'm I'll I've had to kind of go off Veer off course here um this is from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders she just this is a quote from her critical race theory is antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality equality and fairness it emphasizes

076skin color as a person's primary characteristic thereby resurrecting segregationist values which America has fought so hard to reject and finally from Robert Woodson at its core critical race theory is the perversion of the Civil Rights Legacy that I fought for because it minimizes the ability of each person to shape his or her own future it Bears almost no resemblance to the Civil Rights message of great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr who envisioned society in which everyone is treated equally before the law and held by the same standard thank you gentlemen Kieran Smith hmm [Applause] hi I'm also talking on the same topic but I'm a parent of two high school students at Smithfield and I want to address how this policy is written and what's in it my first concern when I read

077it was the line the Isle of Wight County School Board ensures sexually explicit content or inherently devising material will be prohibited from use in instructional material as part of a student's curriculum that line is written as a complete ban on any material with sexually explicit content or inherently divisive material being used in the classroom I want to know how you're going to teach family life anatomy and physiology or biology with a sexually explicit content ban how are you going to teach my children history with a ban on inherently divisive material at high school our students are studying world history not just American history this doesn't mean a ban on anything related to slavery in the USA we're talking about the Holocaust in World War II Pol Pot in Cambodia genocide in Rwanda treatment of women

078in Afghanistan I could go on and on and on history by its nature is divisive but if we don't teach our children they'll just be ignorant they need to understand the world around them and all the divisiveness in it I don't doubt that this band's also going to affect books in English and government class are we saying the only safe subject is math I want to remind you I have two high school students in five minutes on the internet they can find more sexually explicit content or inherently divisive material than they're going to be exposed to in a whole year of school classes students tend to be 16 17 or 18 by the time they're taking these Advanced biology history and English classes they're about to go into the workforce military or college they don't

079need to be protected from the same content than an elementary school student does but this policy is for the entire School District from Age 4 to 18. that's one of the most alarming aspects of this there's absolutely no consideration about a student's age and then who's going to determine what content should be banned there's some vague references to a process is it going to be the school board is it going to be the superintendent the teachers or some random parents it's totally a subjective parent choice is the reason that the that the Virginia Department of Education sent this directive to our school boards to adopt a policy on sexually explicit material okay by Banning everything you've immediately removed my parental choice there's no mention of inherently divisive material in the policy that we are to

080adopt so why is our school board added that is that to remove more of my parental choice these policy revisions are poorly written far too wide ranging take no consideration of the students involved they amount to censorship The Poetry reject all of these proposal Visions because I as a parent want parental choice in what my child is being taught at school I don't want you to decide what they learn and what they don't learn and in conclusion what I really like to see the board do is start looking at some of the facts like my youngest didn't have a teacher for two of his classes last year that's two out of the six classes he talked okay that's a third of his classes so instead of spending your entire time revising policy that's already been

081dictated by the Department of Education could we start helping the administration retain and recruit more teachers so my children actually have a teacher instead of worrying about what they're being taught thank you Ryan Mack [Applause] good evening honorable members of the school board and esteemed guests I would like to first thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of myself and my student body my name is Ryan Mack and I'm the senior class president at Smithfield High School today as so many of my peers and instructors have given their outlooks I will be speaking on the newly proposed policy and its errant limitations and flaws I've personally taken the time to read through the provisions of this policy and in retrospect I believe the correct intentions are present however it has been gone

082about entirely and correctly inherently divisive content in and of itself is hard to avoid in any context or manner whatsoever it is present in all stages of life and limiting our education in the singular stage will not change that broken down the base definition of inherently divisive content is this content tending to cause disagreement or hostility between people in a way that exists as a natural or basic part of said content a great example that so many other speakers have addressed is critical race Theory critical race Theory defined by Jace Fortin from The New York Times as a map for change critical Race 3 is a module in the educational curriculum that takes the lived experience of racism using history and social reality to explain how racism operates in American law and culture its sole

083purpose is to educate students and push them further towards understanding and eliminating the harmful effects of racism and bringing about a just and healthy world for all critical race theory is not about President prejudice is about but one of miscommunication excuse me Kimberly Williams Crenshaw a law professor at the UCLA School of Law is widely credited for the creation and implementation of critical race theory in schools when asked about the negative backlash the curriculum receives she says it's only prompted interest now that conservative right wing has claimed it as a subversive set of ideas it's been made a problem by well-resourced high mobilized Coalition of forces the reason citizens have negative biases against critical race theory is because of the incorrect stigma stigma surrounding it a common thought regarding critical race theory is that it

084is hate mongering and it's asked its aim is to castigate or punish white people when in fact that it's not the truth in the slightest to say that our curriculum no matter how graphic or uncomfortable it may be will be censored will not only harm our academic lives but our society as a whole we will grow ignorant of common issues while all the while being shielded from the truth while I do agree that preserving students worth and well-being is very important this is definitely not the way to go about it this policy of past but censor or otherwise banned materials or information that is sexually explicit divisive or remotely implies that an individual by virtue of his or her race skin color ethnicity sex or faith Bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by

085other members of the same race ethnicity sex or women even without the implementations of such so I ask what is left topics such as slavery the Holocaust the women's rights movement and other concrete Staples that we should arguably learn from in our history will no longer be taught in our schools we will fall behind as a community and we will be left to our own devices to pick up the slack this policy is not only crippling our young minds it is setting a precedent that is extremely harmful to our futures to ban explicit and divisive material does not read the original problem that this policy was drafted to fix in the first place I implore you to reconsider the passing of this policy considering its blatant faults thank you foreign [Applause] Williams congratulations uh Mr

086chair thank you Reverend and good evening to each and every one of you uh Mr Marsh and Mr Wooster I appreciate you responding to the email that I sent to my representative although neither of you are my representative but thank you anyway uh for your quick response your proposal or proposed amendment for IIA policy if approved will jeopardize our County a possible loss of federal funding in your proposed amendment you so stay the Isle of Wight County School Board ensures sexually explicit content and or inherently divisive material will be prohibited from use in instructional material used as part of a student's curriculum then you'll propose amendment continues on in an attempt to Define inherently divisive content to mean advancing any idea in violation of title IV and title VI of the Civil Rights Act of

0871964. in Hearn in your inherently divisive content definition is a violation of title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. title 4 says no person in the United States shall on the ground of race color or national origin be excluded from participating in and I want you to hear this be denied the benefit of or be subject to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance I want you to consider something if all instructional material presented in the classroom come from the knowledge and experience of a single culture are we not denying our students the benefit of learning from other cultures which would be a violation of title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. when a benefit denied is present there is a strong possibility that we could lose Federal

088funding the loss of federal funding means that the board of supervisor will now have to cover the loss of funding now the board of supervisor will have to increase taxation on his citizen I further submit to you that in November October November 2022 Isle of Wight County School Board and many other area school boards passed a policy one minute which met the state department of education requirement as set forth from the governor's executive order 1 2022. again I wish to put forth a question for your consideration why is it that only our current Isle of Wight County school board has a problem with the current IIA policy and finally why are you using the governor's executive order one as the base for your proposed change everything in that order is subjected one's opinion and a

089very definition for an inherently divisive content makes the whole order loyal and void in closing I must warn you that the book of Psalms verse chapter 7 verse 16 says Mischief backfires violence boomerangs thank you [Music] Ashley Bryant [Applause] good evening I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to me my name is Ashley Bryant and I am a senior at Smithfield High School I recently heard about a situation that concerns me I've heard about policy IIA and I do not believe it should be passed I'm going to use my class advanced placement United States government and politics as a specific example as to why this policy should not be passed and before you say that AP material is protected the only protection in this policy is for the exam not

090the content in the classroom part of the curriculum of this class is a letter from Birmingham Jail it has been brought to my attention that if this policy is passed this will be one of the many materials no longer allowed in the classroom on the College Board website there is a numbered list for what AP stands for number three on that list is an opposition to censorship it states that if a school bans require topics from their AP courses the AP program removes the AP designition from that course and its inclusion in the AP course Ledger provided to colleges and universities the College Board has promised us that if we were to censor any piece of material that is part of any AP course they will revoke our right to take AP courses and exams

091this means that every High School student's hard work from this year will be a waste our guidance counselors will have to call every seniors college and tell them that we are no longer taking AP courses and our transcripts will look like we dropped the classes colleges will reject students because their classes no longer fit the standards standards of that school students will not only lose thousands of dollars in scholarships but they will have to pay thousands more for classes that they could have completed in high school how would you like to tell students yourself that unfortunately their full ride scholarship has been revoked but that the school they have been dreaming of attending since they were little no longer accepts them I strongly urge you to reconsider your stance on this issue and think about

092what the students in the schools want not what you want herb degroft foreign board members herb degroff the Hardy District I have previously this afternoon uh sent you my detailed remarks for this evening so I'm just going to highlight a couple of things here Mr chairman you especially over the last year were discriminated against when it came to agenda preparation I'm sure that you going forward are going to be totally open and ensure that your fellow board members can get items on the agenda unlike you having been rejected over the last year so congratulate you for being more open the policies FFA this school building facility naming policy has been a fiasco since the beginning and what the shame is so far there's been no recommended corrective action from the superintendent for whoever the perpetrator

093was who messed with the June 2015 policy and came up with this ridiculous change which thanks to Ms Schwartz and Mr Wooster was discovered on that thing called the cloud well hey it's also in that central office policy manual that the school board clerk is supposed to religiously and Faithfully maintain and should have been maintained over the years I'm sure miss harup did it I'm sure Ms Walton he did it I'd like to think Miss ruett did it but whoever perpetrated this change to policy FFA needs to be discovered and corrective action taken on this controversial IIA policy on culturally responsive teaching critical race Theory what the heck ever you want to call it if you haven't Googled the death of common sense I recommend you do that because so far we haven't heard a

094word about using common sense in fact when you read that death of Common Sense from back in the 90s I think you'll probably agree yeah Common Sense still a large degree has died but hey going forward let Common Sense Rule and arrive at an action that takes care of Isle of Wight County schools and all the students lastly you have a little bundle of money as a result of somebody leaving the system in the middle of the school year and I strongly encourage you to undertake a forensic audit from 2016 to 2022 of alawite County Schools finances because God knows if some of the stuff that went on in a previous County of a previous superintendent this forensic audit has really called for because how many things were done that were done against policy possibly

095even against purchase law and after all using us Isle of Wight County taxpayers money so thank you very much congratulations on your new organization and uh thanks Michael for your decision God Bless America Jasmine Johnson [Applause] [Music] good evening my name is Jasmine Johnson and I'm a junior at Smithfield High School thank you for allowing me to come before you this evening it has recently been brought to my attention of a proposed censorship enactment for our current learning curriculum I must state that I strongly oppose this proposition because it will lead to extremely negative results in future education in Iowa County not only will this policy have a great pernicious effect on hard-working AP students who deserve their credits but it impacts how history be taught as a whole the inherently divisive content portion of

096the policy states that any current that any curriculum will be removed that violates title IV and title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. title IV prohibits discrimination on the basis of race color national origin language sets religion and disability with title VI reaffirming this criteria and prohibiting no exclusion or denying benefits the current curriculum of Iowa County schools abided by both Tyler Ford and title VI there is a distinct difference between learning and discrimination discrimination is the act of being treated in an unfair manner due to your race color religion sex national origin disability age or genetic information when learning a slavery there is no discrimination against Caucasians when learning of the Holocaust in the mass of genocide we do not discriminate against Germans when learning a women's suffrage men are not discriminated

097against in no way is any One race skin color ethnicity sex or faith blamed for what their ancestors did in the past history is taught so that the events of the past will not be repeated so so we will be sympathetic for the past events in and be determined to build a better future instead by enacting this policy you'll be cultivating a generation of insensitive students who will not be exposed to Accurate history of our world you will create in the minds of future Generations a perfect history when reality our history is completely opposite students will grow up not being aware of dire conflicts in history and when exposed to the real world they will be shunned by others because of their lack of knowledge that schools are expected to teach us in conclusion I

098beseech you to please reconsider the censorship proposal because the out from it was just unfortunately censor our AP students academic abilities and individual attitudes as well as depleting the essential historical knowledge the historical truth for future ioi students thank you for your time [Applause] Zachary Myers [Applause] my name is Zachary Myers I'm a junior at Smithfield High School upon hearing the news of the notion IIA which is intended to limit certain divisive and potentially inflammatory topics within certain curricula I am increasingly concerned with the potential effects this ruling may have on my and many other students futures this year alone I'm enrolled in three advanced placement classes which is a Paramount aspect of my high school transcript the ability to show colleges I'm able to think critically on their level is something that is necessary

099to compete against other students in admissions the potential attraction that the College Board May enact is a direct result of your decision effective immediately will force many of my peers into a blatant disadvantage these peers who mostly share the same goal as me have been caught between two posing viewpoints that in all honesty are fundamentally disregarding one of the main purposes of our education system one of them being to help students get into college the entire premise of an organization like college board is to provide objective facts when creating an AP curriculum expression regards to subjects like history these facts whether divisive or not are not things that should be subjective whatsoever I and many others should have a fundamental respect towards the classes of young adults to eventually formulate their opinions based on the

100objective truth the overwhelming majority of my classmates believe the passing of this notion will not help in doing so all of the students who choose to challenge themselves through rigorous AP classes have the initiative to hold themselves accountable to a standard of learning that transcends High School academic expectations although these classes may be somewhat more difficult they do display what a high school should resemble the inherent purpose of a modern education system is to properly inform the youth in a way that is non-partisan which includes the right to teach subjects in history that are sensitive informing somebody in a way that specifically chooses or nitpicks the information we may learn excuse my generation farther from the truth if this notion is passed many people will lose their trust in Isle of Wight County's education system

101including myself all I ask is to consider my many other livelihoods when you vote because the immediate outcome will have drastic effects it could ruin the futures of Those whom you represent finally I would like to leave you with one quote by Edmund Burke those who don't know history are destined to repeat it thank you thank you William Britt [Applause] I'm ever Brit I'm a senior at Smithfield High School from my understanding one of the most important reasons we learn about history is to stop us as a society from repeating previous mistakes we've made examples include but are not limited to segregation based on race a discrimination based on sex ostrichization due to Faith and discrimination due to social class a failure failure is the best teacher then why are we excluding important historical events

102from our school's curriculum The History of the United States and the world is incredibly important to learn and if we decide to neglect teaching some of the worst parts of History we increase the possibility that similar events can occur if I were an elementary school student 10 years after this policy was implemented I would not know of the events such as the Civil Rights Movement anyone learned anyone who learned about this event the events of the Civil Rights Movement should know that they were socially acceptable to be racist and exclude other races from participating in any events if I were to never learn about the Civil Rights Movement I would never have felt bad for what happened and sorry excuse me it could potentially encourage racist behaviors in myself and my fellow oblivious classmates we

103may feel a little guilty about our history but it stops us from repeating it and I believe this is more important if you're sitting in sitting in your seats feeling bored and frustrated at the same major points being repeated over and over again by multiple people then I think you should consider that the policy you're trying to implement is creating a major problem our education is in your hands so excuse us for showing a little concern about our futures we ask you to consider what we have to say to protect our education and the education of all future students thank you [Music] Heidi Schwartz foreign thank you board superintendent Kramer congratulations to the new chair and vice chair um understandingly there's a lot of controversy regarding IIA there has been outspoken citizens over the last

104almost two years it's brought us directly to how this policy has been Rewritten we have seen a changing world we have seen children change in Behavior discipline in our parents over the last few years in schools and how their education is provided parents and citizens woke up about two years ago and voted directly in this County at a 64 plus percent for governor yonkin to make a change for that policy this County voted this past November at a 57 plus percent in a 68 plus percent for the school board to change and those two winning candidates ran on this type of policy to change I believe allowing parents views into schools back in 2020 has brought us here tonight I asked did any of the teachers and parents here tonight ask to meet and sit

105down with any of the board members prior to tonight to discuss the policy and give points to define a policy to work together or did you just show up tonight to complain and send complaint emails there's a lot of accusations a lot of words and a lot of Applause but was there any means to meet and Define a plan to work together over the last two years I've tried many times to work with the previous board I filed forms I scheduled meetings and I sent emails the previous board ignored me I for one know that this board has and will work with parent citizens and teachers regarding the attorney viewing the policy if you asked over this last month you would know that yes pack did view it know how I know this I asked

106want to know how inherently device content is defined young can defined it it's defined already one point last year I asked about the Bible at Smithfield High School when I asked why there was four Islam books in the Christmas story in the religion section on emedia VA there isn't a Bible at Smithfield High School last The Laughing while opposing views was stated tonight's extremely disappointing especially by the teachers while in front of their students it's exactly why I as a parent want to know what's going on in the classrooms what I do commend are you students that showed up here tonight and you braved yourselves to speak I know it's not easy I know your teachers have coached you to get here social media posts and speeches and classes it definitely shows the impacts that

107teachers have on you and that's why I like to know what's going on in the schools thank you Forest Brewer [Applause] hi my name is Forrest Brewer I'm a junior at Smithfield High School I'm here today to say that the school board's prerogative to continue on the course of harsh restrictions on the teaching of instructor deemed inherently divisive content is Gravely missing the point students should be trusted and respected enough as individuals to be able to educate themselves about all ideologies political values histories and intellectual Concepts without fear of them being tainted or misled in some way because students are not blank slates that are written over with every new ideology they are presented with the general concern I and the student body I have spoken to holds is that what should what students should

108be promoted instead of censorship is the school board members uplifting students to educate themselves on all manner of free thinking and academic studies passing this new notion will have a reaction that will adversely affect many of the gifted students who rely on in-depth analysis and as a result this will significantly disrupt our learning if you take a look at the Isle of Wight County website the first image that appears is a quote by Dr Martin Luther King Jr it says the following the function of education is to teach one to think intensely and to think critically and intelligence plus character is the goal of true education the use of this quote is in direct contradiction to the Motions being promoted here today and the fact that our school board will incredulously use the statement while

109actively moving to create an environment in which students will be incapable of fully forming their ideas of the World shows that they are willing to portray themselves as productive and protective of students while actually being in opposition to us and if the board continues to advocate for the policy it shows it shows how out of touch they are with what is actually needed in our schools academic censorship is dooming our youth to blindly follow the status quo [Applause] Candace vanderbreak foreign board members as most of you know I've been advocating for stricter policies and control on material accessible and promoted to children listening to everybody I think everybody comes in at different angles from being parents from being teachers and we all see things differently I would not want this to you know if pack

110says that it's going to disrupt AP classes or anything like that I wouldn't that's not from where I come from I come from a parent of a five-year-old last year when my five-year-old had videos of a transgender man reading his cartoon book children's book stating if everyone tells you you're a boy but you don't feel like a boy then you're transgender on his school-issued clever app I was shocked to say the least when the library started promoting and telling kids they get t-shirts to children to read books describing bloody rape scenes I was horrified when the questions arose where the school had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars then issued a statement to parents blaming the Board of Supervisors I was appalled this new policy provides definitions that should have been publicly defined by the

111board months ago and I'm not quite sure if I'm reading the definition the same as everybody else with the device of material what I read says that device of material promotes the violation of civil rights acts saying that it's not going to you can still read learn history and all that kind of stuff but you can't promote the violation of civil rights for those that don't know there is a difference between supplemental policy and or supplemental material and instructional material in alawite County policy and that's a separate policy than the policy issued today so this policy ensures sexually explicit or inherently divisive material would be prohibited from use in instructional material I'd also like to say that it defines inherently divisive content I think I kind of skipped around a little bit but this is

112what the board was the newly elected board was voted in to do and I hope that you do what you're promised you can tweak it to AP classes or you know whatever for history you know but at the end of the day my five-year-old had inappropriate apps on his iPad his school issue device if you Googled talent show inappropriate stuff came up um after speaking with the board and reading the policy and the entire entirety I do not see where it would prohibit the learning of any classes instead it will assist in preventing the further desensitization of our youth and allow them to focus solely on factual and unbiased material and resources allowing them to formulate their own individual opinions and I think that's what everybody agrees that we want is just finding the avenue

113to get there but I do say that I've been involved in the last two years and I would like to see change and this is what the board got elected to do was to promote the change and I hope you stick to what you promised everybody thank you Ben hadimer [Applause] hello I'm Ben hadmer a senior at Smithfield High School I'm also on the Smithfield debate team I have here a poem that similarly models the issue in this District I originally found this poem in Julie Aang's Apu literature class who also spoke tonight the history teacher by Billy Collins trying to protect his students innocence he told them the Ice Age was really just the chilly age a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters and the Stone Age became the

114gravel age named after long driveways at the time the Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions such as how far is it from here to Madrid what do you call the matador's Hat the War of Roses took place in a garden and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan the children would leave this classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart messing up their hair and breaking their glasses while he gathered up his notes and walked home past flower beds and white picket fences wondering if they would believe that the soldiers in the Boer War took long rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off now I want to address something there's a line in the amendment that censors a teaching of abuse of One race

115If It embarrasses the race who abused them why one question to the board is that is what situation supplies to does it apply to the Holocaust Armenian Genocide Muslim forced labor camps in China Japanese internment camps in U.S during World War II or the inherently divisive history of America itself uncensored history is vital not only to the success of my fellow students but the country as a whole as it gives us a lesson from the past to help us solve problems in the future thank you Elijah Smith [Applause] good afternoon for those of you who don't know me I am Elijah Smith a senior at Smithfield High School and I'd like to specifically address how these guidelines in the most recent proposed policy will affect the students After High School I would like to express

116first that I am upset I'm upset because this policy prohibits inherently divisive content I understand the isolation about learning of the idea that one race is superior to another the hurt of content that asserts that it was believed that people of color reviewed us lesser than and yet I'd learn it 10 times over I want to be again because it is history and despite the potential beliefs of those here today I do it again because I am entering college and in college I will encounter a myriad of beliefs and Views unlike mine and without the knowledge I would not know how to have an intelligent conversation with them even if one can get behind the Restriction of the content in Isle of Wight of County Schools it will not be restricted in the real world

117a problem considering that we started this evening with preparing students for college career and life I am upset because we are hindering the education of Smithfield High School students let's assume that school is purely an educational environment students don't talk or Converse or have friends this policy still falls short it's ironic that you Source the Civil Rights Movement only the Civil Rights act as almost as justification yet under the amendment I can learn about the Civil Rights Acts such as Leaders like Malcolm X Martin Luther King Jr and WD the boys but not about the beatings and rapes and tortures given to Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner I can learn about the Holocaust Survivors yet not the experience and atrocities that took place within it now imagine a Smithfield High School student sitting at a

118Socratic seminar and they have to say the words slavery wasn't that bad the way I learned it I am upset because some of the comments made here today regardless of how many people supported each member I didn't and I'm allowed to be angry because you won't be pulled out of AP classes you're not going to be affected by the curriculum or be ignorant or have your job threatened that is us that is the teachers and that is the students here today furthermore social media and coaches did not lead me here listening to Mr wusu's content listening to Mr wooster's com comment on some on what is definitively divisive content is what led me here today something you did not give definitive uh answer to witnessed by Miss Spicer Miss Williams and I I am here

119today because that exact same ignorance is what brings me up my best memory or worst memory that I've had in this building which is the first time I have ever been called a slur finally I am upset because I am selfish I'm upset because I'm a black student hearing there are people filtering my content training education that takes away Shakespeare and anti-slavery pamphlets and other great works I'm allowed to be upset and I'm allowed to be selfish because this policy affects me if you care about the faculty and the students and the parents you'd listen to them here today anyone will tell you that I am a generally kind and light-hearted person maybe a bit melodramatic look and I have bit my tongue several times for each policy that I see implemented but I assure

120you if this is if this is past this will not be the last you hear out of my two-toned lips [Applause] Maureen province [Applause] good evening policy iiaa states that the Isle of Wight County School Board ensures that sexually explicit content and or inherently divisive material will be prohibited from use in instructional material I find this policy Troublesome both in language and in spirit within this policy definition are two phrases that are quite subjective in nature making the policy very much open to interpretation the first is the phrase sexually explicit content two listed examples of sexually explicit content that I find problematic are lewd exhibition of nudity and sadomasochistic abuse there are countless renowned works of art that depict nudity where will the line be drawn in determining what is or is not lewd the

121policy's definition of sadomasochistic abuse includes the following flagellation or torture by or Upon A person who is noon her cloud and undergarments would this rule out depictions of the often cruel mistreatment of slaves there's a real danger in adopting a policy that would be subject to the whims of the board at the expense of academic integrity even more troubling than the vagueness of sexually explicit content is the concept of inherently divisive material because the definition of inherently divisive material dictated by policy IIA is quite lengthy I'm taking Liberty of condensing it to fit my understanding to me prohibiting inherently divisive material seems to cater to the idea that the teaching of historical facts must take care not to offend anyone sadly the history of our state our nation and the World At Large is Rife

122with examples of mistreatment corruption power struggles and even atrocities the study of historical events should not be a feel-good experience often painful truths must be examined if lessons are to be learned and isn't that the whole point of Education to apply the knowledge gained from the past in the hope of securing a more promising future one final point that I would like to dispute is the contention offered by a few board members that quote policy IIA will have no impact on AP programs unquote because the policy states that instructional materials do not include standardized National or state assessments what is being overlooked here is the connection between the material that's taught and the AP exams themselves if the Isle of Wight School Board opts to limit certain instructional materials on the basis of explicit or

123divisive content this will negatively impact student preparation for AP exams which are nationally administered and therefore not subject to the constraints of any local school board furthermore the AP program specifically specifically states that if it determines that AP certified teachers are being prevented from teaching texts which are labeled divisive the College Board can and will remove affiliation regarding the spirit of policy IAA I'm deeply concerned that it will not be beneficial to the students or the teachers of Isle of Wight County I take no issue with allowing parents to be notified about sexually explicit material and to be given the opportunity to opt out for their child but the subjective nature of such determinations is not a one-size-fits-all scenario I believe that content moderation is a job best suited to the professionals working in the

124classrooms the past few years have been incredibly challenging for students Educators and administrators we're facing a teacher shortage as well as a formidable learning Gap that needs to be bridged I urge the board to concentrate on supporting and uplifting our children and teachers rather than implementing the burdens of policy IAA thank you for your time and attention and your service to our community [Applause] Zach Cartner I'm sorry if that's wrong [Applause] it's a toughening um I'm Zach Karchner um I just want to first of all say that I'm so happy to be here tonight and to see whether you are in support or in opposition to this um the policy at hand to see everyone here tonight exercising their rights under our American democracy um a little bit about me I am the father of

125two children they go to a Hardy Elementary so they're not in high school yet but they will be I don't plan on leaving here this is our home now um now I consider myself to be relatively conservative I don't understand our current societal obsession with pronouns I don't know what would possess a person to either hair green that being said I think that this this policy which does seem to be a partisan-driven policy is in direct opposition to conservative ideals this seems to me to be an example of government overreach the government should interfere in the lives of its citizens as little as possible the fact that we that the Isle of Wight County School Board has gone above and beyond a proposed policy that's government overreach in my opinion to um and for so

126furthermore setting aside the fact that we are showing distrust in our teachers who have spent years and years and countless dollars of student debt that they are still struggling to dig themselves out from in many situations because they're grossly underpaid setting that aside I feel this policy also disrespects My Prerogative as a parent if my children are taught something if they read something that is inherently divisive that's sexually explicit things that I don't agree with in school that's my responsibility as a parent when they come home from school the first thing that I ask them is what did you learn at school today and if any of you have children you understand that it's going to take a little bit of needling to get it out of them but eventually they'll tell you what they

127learned and if they learn something that made them feel uncomfortable it's up to me to discuss that with them it's not up to a vague and possibly arbitrary um the policy to thank you to determine what should and shouldn't be taught to the the to the children I have faith in the abilities of our Educators to make that distinction but also in my ability as a parent to to make that determination in the home um and also again it is a partisan it does seem to be a partisan-driven a policy Amendment I would just like to suggest that while it seems good right now the the the tides may turn and you have to consider what this policy can be done what can be done under this policy by another individual that doesn't have the

128same morals or ethics that you do and that's all I got to say about that y'all have a lovely evening thank you for hearing me Ben Phelps [Applause] thank you man good evening board hope everybody's well tonight my name is Ben Phillips I've been an employee of ala Wight County schools for 21 years as far as I know I'm the longest serving history teacher in the county never once have I ever taught critical race Theory to any student let's be clear critical race theory is a political agenda used by Glenn yonkin to get elected I'm sorry I'm a public education professional trained over 20 years and retrained to teach your children I'd also like to thank Dr Kramer to address Ms Schwartz concern why don't teachers come out why don't we speak we're scared of

129boards who can take retribution against us so thank you Dr Kramer [Applause] also I didn't know having a degree and being an empathetic educator made me an arrogant academic also I didn't know a guy that secured the Confederate Monument had a right to threaten school board members [Applause] I've been attacked by that group for teaching students how to think critically how to be empathetic how to be leaders in this community I consider it an affront not to trust the teachers of Isle of Wight County Schools to teach our students did I mention I'm also a father of four beautiful boys who go to Isle of Wight County Schools one is currently majoring in archeology at Longwood University and crushing life so the future is here tonight you have heard them speak they spoke to you

130they're the reason we get up in the morning you need to hear them because as far as I'm concerned my main man sitting behind me said the word stupider I've been called arrogant and the guy that secured the Confederate statue that's the past we're talking about the future and the people that stood up here tonight that is the future of this County that is the future of the American United States of America speaking to you Mr colic Mr Wooster Mr Marsh so I ask you tonight if you do one minute thank you decide to proceed we the teachers of Isle of Wight County Schools deserve a place at the table we deserve to have a say so we can work out the mechanisms of this policy so if I need to teach Evolution on day

131two I need to be able to work with the concerned parents of the county to make these things work just a complete blanket policy is not going to be effective for anyone here lastly we all grow when we're uncomfortable because we're uncomfortable doesn't mean insightful there are administrators in this room who've made me uncomfortable but guess what I'm better because of it and I'm an example I've learned from those people I learned from my students every single day and I ask you to learn from the people who have stood before you tonight thank you very much Brooke Tenney hello my name is Brooke Tenney and I am a senior at Smithfield High School honorable members of the school board thank you for allowing me to speak tonight regarding the policy this policy is undoubtedly a

132noble effort that is intended to preserve the self-worth of its student body however just because a policy has good intentions does not make it a good policy and this policy has many flaws within it while amending the previous provisions of the original document has lost most of its original purpose in the current past version of this policy it specifically regards sexual items and explicit content in regards to nudity and explicit content I do agree that on a base level that there should not be any sexual acts described but I will say almost all of what we read in class does not pertain any of that and if the little amount that does it has a greater meaning sorry however even bearing that in mind this is an optional provision it allows parents to choose if

133they want their child to view such material the basis of this was a parental choice however the policy that is proposed has a complete and absolute control over the material being taught this is undoubtedly a far overreach of governmental Authority one that has lost sight of the original goal aside from this identity crisis there is also a matter of censorship this policy would restrict not just explicit content but also what that is which inherently divisive this is an outlandish restriction in a world which is so consistently divided on so many issues How could somebody say anything without being considered inherently divisive is specifically mentions that it cannot encourage material which could essentially make someone feel uncomfortable but this is the same mindset of so many dystopian Futures the fact of the matter is that if

134we continue if we continue to do things simply based on comfort and pursuit of him oh sorry indonesianism sorry I can't say that word we lose ourselves entirely historically such policies have been enacted by despots and governments acting as absolute it is the same mindset that killed Socrates one of the greatest Minds in philosophy his words irked those around him and he was sentenced to death for that shall we condemn the trials of history and the nuances of literature to death as well solely because they make us feel uncomfortable in doing so we lose opinions we lose discourse and we lose the very basis of democracy this is a future written in countless novels but one that stands out is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury it presents a place in order where in order to

135make sure that everyone is appeased and comfortable books are quite literally burnt it is a horrible this horrible Visage is very far off and it is not to say that this policy will set us into this motion but why should we take the steps of one minute of um why should we follow the footsteps of book burners and tyrants and world in the words of the author quote we need not to be let alone we need to really be bothered once in a while about something important about something real through censorship of material you are not only stripping away the truth and simplifying but it also takes away from our education and our knowledge of the World by putting this policy forward as it stands now you are putting all of your students at a

136disadvantage to those who have not adopted the censorship policy the vagueness means something like the Holocaust absolutely could be restricted it may after all make someone feel as though they are inherently oppressive or may even be inherently oppressed yeah we can all agree that the Holocaust must be taught because it is a tragedy that we need to learn from as long as there has been history there have been those who have ignored it and all who have ignored history are thus doomed to repeat it and even this is merely a reflection of the past thank you [Applause] Elizabeth Johnson uh could we call a 10-minute recess we've been going at for just over two hours of your last one okay very very quick very good then we'll recess after that yeah yeah and I know

137I'm supposed to [Music] appear and expressed their views and prepared statements I mean this is amazing and I couldn't do that probably when I was their age so thank you guys [Applause] my name is Elizabeth Johnson I live in the second district and I have two children at Smithfield High School and I'm speaking on behalf of my family and other families that some are here with me and some are not but I'm going to list them so that you know I speak for more than one voice the Allen family they're in the second district as well they've had three students here uh the Lang family they have one student at the high school the prince family they have two students at Smithfield schools the shaw family they have two students at Smithfield High the Schwartz

138family they have two students at Smithfield High School the Wilson family they have two students at Smithfield High School and I'm sure I speak for many others I strongly oppose the elimination of inherently divisive content in our academic curriculum the definition is Broad it's open to interpretation and if the proposed verbiage is implemented our children our students will lose classroom time on topics needed to learn critical thinking skills they lose the opportunity to discuss to analyze topics because only a subset of information will be presented and many topics are even going to be removed this puts Isle of Wight students at a disadvantage the knowledge gaps they're going to be evident in basic conversations with their peers from other school districts they could show up in their future workplace they're not going to be at

139the same education level as their colleagues and the knowledge gaps will certainly come up for students who pursue College when it's expected Isle of Wight students are prepared with basic knowledge of History Science and English literature along with the ability to apply critical thinking skills and analyze information one immediate impact is the AP designation AP courses are taught at the college level and it's an opportunity for students to take a weighted class for a higher GPA it makes our students look more competitive for college admissions and a huge benefit is that AP courses save families money they count toward a college class for their degree and it costs around ninety dollars to take the exam last year Isle of Wight County we had 97 students taking at least one AP course and those students well

140students this year taking AP courses are in the middle of the school year if approved these students are going to have to find another school district to take them in so they can continue the AP curriculum for the rest of the year in Isle of Wight County if that happens should be responsible for any costs for those students moving to a different School District and I'm respectfully asking the board consider all the impacts to the proposed changes that remove important topics from our curriculum and put our children behind others who don't have those constraints put upon their education so in other words please don't set our Isle of Wight students apart from others by keeping them behind thank you thank you and I want to thank everybody for coming out and letting us know how

141you feel it's important to us we will consider everybody's comments here tonight um now we're going to go ahead and take a 10-minute recess it is 8 14 right now we will come back at 8 24. if everybody could take their seats oh you lost it everybody could take their seats we'll go ahead and get started again all right you ready the meeting is back in session we're going to start off I'm going to ask Mr Worster to make a couple comments oh excuse me excuse me but we need to we did not have Mr Wooster coming here coming at this portion of the agenda we did not amend the agenda for him to speak at this time he will have an opportunity to speak when we get to that portion of the agenda policy

142IIA and if there is emotion on there we can discuss it at that time Mr chair I would hope that anybody that's here that did comment um please stick around and listen uh Mr worst has got a few things to say that I think you're going to find very enlightening and now then we will go back into the school reorganization we will start with the school board code of ethics do I have a motion to approve the school board code of ethics do I have a motion to adopt the school board code of ethics I do not have a motion to adopt the school board code of ethics board protocols we have a motion to adopt the board protocols as presented do we have a motion to adopt the board protocols as presented huh no

143that's a chair yes what uh okay are we are we talking the same protocols we had last year or is this something new no these would be the same protocols that we adopted last year okay okay uh uh Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to you know approve the board protocols as presented so it's no change correct correct do we have a second second and we have a second and the clerk will take the vote oh there ain't comments yes I have comments sure so I know we haven't gotten to it yet but we're going to talk about a drafting a set of board bylaws the reason you didn't get a motion or a second out of me before the broad protocols or the code of ethics is I believe the draft bylaws

144as written incorporate the Lion's Share of both of those documents so it's not that I'm personally opposed to adopting a code of ethics or a set of board protocols but if you recall last year January January of 22 this board adopted both the code of ethics and the political protocols in the last you heard of them was this this month you haven't heard anything of them since they've been buried in the minutes from last year February when they were approved so I think from my position as we work forward and talk about these bylaws both the code of ethics and the protocols can be wrapped into that one single document so that anybody can go to the website and see exactly how this board operates within the parameters and what we're all about and that's

145all I got um for the discussion Miss times I just wanted to say the protocol and the uh the code of ethics they need to be separated not wrapped together the code of ethics is something that all school boards in the state of Virginia at higher too protocol comes from alawi counties okay so we can't wrap it all together we need to keep it separate they are separate we're just doing I know they're separate tonight I was just responding to Marsha's remarks some things was for a per verse and going forward we need to continue to leave these things as they are until I guess you'll learn protocol please why why do they have to be separate and why do we have to adopted as in accordance with what just because everyone does it doesn't

146mean we have to foreign agenda and agenda has them as separate so at least tonight we have to follow that or oh yeah we're going to do it we are um did you want to go back and make them expunge the motion on the protocols and go back and make a motion on the ethics well we're all ready we can correct me if I'm wrong uh uh Pat we've already made a motion for the uh uh board protocols correct and it's probably been second correct correct so we need to vote on this and then uh if if so decided we can go back to the adoption of the school board code of ethic that's fine no I have no problem with that the code of ethics are the ones that we have to sign off

147on at our first meeting okay is there any more discussion about the protocols clerk will take the vote and this board is not adopting the board protocols now we will go back to the school board code of ethics do I have a motion that a school board code of ethics to adopt the school board code of ethics Mr chair yes I will County School Board adopt the school board code of ethics and do we have a second second and we have a second is there any discussion yes Mr chair so again I want to know what is there any legal binding requirement to adopt a code of ethics and that would be for our legal I'm I'm not aware of any binding I'm not aware of any statutes that require the board to adopt code

148of ethics these ethics were adopted as of July did not 2009 and every board from that time on at the first organization meeting has been um voting on these and at the end of the meeting the clerk will have us to sign off on them if we do not adopt them then this will be the first sport in history it probably did not adopt them but I'm thinking going forward this year is going to be a whole lot of first what is board pack I've got section 22.1-78 under bylaws and regulations yeah it said it it section 221-78 authorizes the school board to opt to adopt bylaws and regulations it doesn't require it is there any more discussion on the code of ethics there's no more discussion the clerk will take the vote foreign ethics

149does not pass next I will make a motion in accordance with Section 22.1-78 I make a motion to Archive and replace policies AA BB BBA bbaa bbba bbvc BBD BBE BCA BCB BCC BCC Tech r b d a bdb BDC bdd c b d d d e b d d f b f and policy cm and with a comprehensive set of school board bylaws as presented second a good idea we have a motion a second clerk will take the vote any discussion so yes chair I do want to say a bit and I know this is going to be a long night so bear with me I like to talk um the the idea behind adopting a set of bylaws in my view is because in part as we learned last month when talking about

150policy FFA the school board is well within its right to waive its own policy true statement correct yes the school board can vote it's to waive a policy that is not required by law thank you sir however if we adopt a set of bylaws that Encompass all of the policies that Mr colic just mentioned and we adopt those bylaws we as a board if we vote to approve them we cannot waive those bylaws is that a true statement Mr attorney I have to double check double the Robert's Rules of Order I think that comes into play when whether or not a motion that is made in consistent bylaws is nullify so I think that may how it comes into play I don't I'm not aware of any statute that says that a school board cannot

151waive its bylaws that is not otherwise required by law now under the Robert's Rule of orders and that's how that particular provision comes up is that when and I don't have I don't have every word that is um memorized under the Robert's Rule of Order but if I recall correctly when a board votes against its bylaws when when emotion that is made that is against a bile of the board the motion is nullified under Robert's wolf order okay thank you is it fair to say that the policies within that have been pulled into the bylaws we can no longer waive those well I mean I guess it's some semantics because I don't waiver could mean if the boy if the majority of the board were to amend the bylaws that I that would essentially be

152kind of waving it but again I think it comes back to procedurally if emotion is made in violation of bylaws it would become null and void but um but if you purposefully make a motion to wave the bylaws I I don't see any issue with it it's just that when you have to remember under policy FFA the question was whether or not a motion that is made against a policy becomes a legal novelty and that's the question and under the Roberts of Rules of Order it says that only emotion that is made inconsistent with the board's bylaws becomes nullified it doesn't say whether or not the board can make a vote to amend or Bypass or wave certain bylaws at a particular time I think the board can still do that but it's just a

153matter of whether or not a motion that is made inconsistent with the bylaw or policy can become nullified and that's how that particular set of circumstances come up so it's a little bit different than the question you asked me right now okay well I appreciate it I think I'm probably talking apples and oranges from you um either way despite the semantics as an average citizen that was sitting down there not too long ago who has dug into every policy currently that applies to Alouette County schools there is a plethora of policies and it's like wading through a maze so if we can adopt a set of bylaws and post them to the website and have a One-Stop shop for the public and the board and the administration to say hey this is how this board's

154going to operate so me that's a win and that's an advantage roughly how many policies have we pulled in Mr chair um about 22 22 policies the the one thing you know and obviously this is up to the board um what to do it is my understanding that some staff member has saw some things in the bylaws that have been proposed that may be inconsistent with current policy or inconsistent with how things are done with staff my I mean I think that is just something for the board to consider at that it is voting on today whether or not you want to involve your staff to look at some of those things before making a final vote but certainly that is up to the board that is just an piece of information that I am

155aware of that I would just want to make the board aware of if if I may if I still have the floor chair I I think given the latency latency that we did drop this on the superintendent and his staff it would be in our best interest to get at least Mr Kramer's buy-in on it um because it is a lot to digest sure we asked the table this uh until the next meeting Mr chair it's they are 14 pages in this document there is and uh uh I know the school board members didn't receive this until probably Tuesday of this week Tuesday so I went live for line and I do have issues with it so I don't know how much Dr Kramer has reviewed it but uh there are a number of things

156in here uh that look like it's the boy's responsibility and it's actually the superintendent's responsibility um like I'm not going to give examples it would take too long but I would like to see a uh uh a bottom line of work session where the board sits down with Dr Kramer and his staff goes line for line on this document and and and it comes to a uh an agreement on on what needs to be in here absolutely right now this is one way and I it's going to be a problem for everybody involved absolutely would you concur Dr Kramer we welcome the opportunity to provide the input and uh and to give the board our recommendations and considerations regarding this so absolutely we welcome that opportunity okay clerk will notate that that issue has been

157tabled foreign second okay yo you already seconded it well who made the most who made the original motion it wasn't I don't even know okay I rescinded the motion okay you checking it now it's rescinded I'm gonna do verbal Mr Cunningham yay Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yeah Mr Wooster yay and Mrs times I'm staying okay now we're gonna get to the easy one the code of conduct photo School Board Clerk can we have a motion please the vice chair I would like to make a motion that we um adopt the code of conduct for the school boards Clerk and do we have a second second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion there is no discussion the clerk will take the vote past five yeah and it's passed okay next

158we are going to uh vote on committee assignments so we need a motion to appoint the chair as the V8 SBA delegate and the vice chair as the alternate uh oh you want to do it okay go ahead I moved to a point the chair is the vsba delegate and the vice chair as the alternate second we have a motion and a second any discussion no discussion chair clerk will take the vote Mrs times for some reason it says not present at vote did you yeah I voted your verb can I get your verbal abstain okay now to find it okay we've got four yays one abstention next is a finance subcommittee Mr chair I moved to appoint the chair and the vice chair as the finance subcommittee let's look at that is there any

159discussion it's the worst are you sure you don't want it I'm sure take a vote okay the whro board of directors and Alternate this is an action item and does anybody want to volunteer to be the whro board direct board of directors we're already alternate mine is a voluntary positions does anybody want this position okay that's going to go unfilled no if we got it if they don't volunteer then that's the chair okay I'll take it there we go does anybody want the alternate I'll take the audience Mr chair very good is there any uh is there any discussion okay let's go vote on that Mr chair I moved to a point Mr Cunningham as the primary whro board of directors and myself Mr Marsh is the alternate second so we have a motion and

160a second and the clerk will take the vote what are we voting on they're voting on The Who board of directors and I walked in it moved to a point Mrs tynes is the alternate for the special education advisory committee exactly yeah we have a motion a second take the vote okay Mr Cunningham thank you Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yay Mr Wooster yay and Mrs times okay and finally we have the CTE advisory committee now a volunteer for that one because I've never been on it okay and I'd like to be the alternate do you go volunteer as well but he's got it you're gonna be the ultimate okay now go ahead okay can you meet during that can you meet during the school day because that's when they normally me I know you

161have some conflicts with your job it's a weekday s okay primary yeah Mr chair I move to a point Mrs tynes is the primary for the CTE advisory committee and Mr rooster as the alternate second night okay Mr Cunningham yay Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yay Mr Wooster yay and Mrs times yay foreign and that is it with the reorganization portion of the meeting am I correct uh okay so next we have board member committee reports and and for other information if any board member has a report to give tonight is it a report no unless you do that the Committees that we just volunteered and signed up for that's normally what we do the reports unless we do some extracurricular things like we'll visit a school or something okay okay let's go for it

162you can do it now if you want to if you did it in your official capacity all right so although I am not on an official committee last week I am now but last week on January 5th I had the pleasure of touring Windsor Elementary I got to walk to school with Mrs couch and uh I'm here to tell you that that's the first time I've walked inside the skin of a school during school day in years and it is different um uh one thing I noted and I've already discussed it with with uh Mr Kramer Dr Kramer is at the RO system had a leak on it and it had been on a work order for two years uh and I also learned that during those two years of that leak they had to

163have tiles replaced on the floor twice so that that was a that was an attention grabber knowing that it took that long to get a piece of equipment fixed um and then on January 6 I actually actually took the day off and I started my day off at 8 A.M over at Windsor high school and then I shipped it over to Georgia Tyler middle school and then I went over to Smithfield High School and then after that I had the pleasure of meeting with superintendent and some of his staff and Mr Cunningham we had some good meetings in the afternoon but uh Windsor High School again I walked in there at 8 A.M and since my kids go to elementary school and school starts a little bit before nine when I walked in the building

164at eight I didn't even realize school was in session it was quiet it it was calm it smelled good it was welcoming and I was it was like a breath of fresh air I met the principal assistant principal she they toured me around the school I was in there for over two hours I got to see the CTE students in action the shop class in the back where they built the tiny house I got to see the um the uh cosmetology lab that was neat walked through every wing of the school um met met coach the instructor of Athletics that was enlightening and one of the reasons I went over there is I wanted to see Windsor High School firsthand because there's been so much talk and discussion about funding for stuff wrong on the

165other end of the county so as a district 4 rep I wanted to start in my backyard and so that's what I did um I went over there one of the things I wanted to see was the band room in the high school and lo and behold Windsor High School doesn't even have a band room they ship their students over to Georgie Tyler and they share the band room with the middle school I had no idea uh that said the Georgia Tyler Middle School band room is pretty top-notch but they also both both schools share the same band director Smithfield High school and the middle school so that was that was an interesting surprise I was not aware of um I learned the Windsor high school track is in bad shape there's chunks of the

166surface missing tennis courts need to be resurfaced so this this is all stuff I'd heard before but I wanted to hear it firsthand and that's what I got um all in all I had a good time at the high school and then I ran over and I saw Miss luck at the middle school and you know she didn't have anything to complain about and it was another it was a welcoming event I was in and out of there I saw the gym which is phenomenal um the one thing that caught my attention is when I went to the art room I noticed that they've got a brand new Kiln that's apparently never been used so when it was installed it was installed contrary to code so there it is we've got this brand new Kiln

167that the Art Kids cannot use so that's something that I'd like to see looked into moving forward um after that I shifted down to Smithfield High School on the way I picked up Mr Wooster we went over there and completely different fill different schools night and day um I didn't get the meet principal cuppy she was tied up and being in there for 15 minutes I can tell she's probably a very busy lady um I did meet the assistant principal Mr Williams um I got to see my first fight so one thing you'll learn about board member Marsh is I you know it is what it is I've heard rumors about discipline issues in Smithville High School well I saw it firsthand was not impressed what I was impressed with was the quick response from

168Mr Williams and several other staff members a little I call it a fight it was a quarrel a discussion amongst a handful of kids it was like they swarmed in and then the teachers washed it out immediately so there Mr Wooster and I were hanging out in the middle of the school what do we do now so we saw the band director we went over there and I checked out the band um and yes it is cramped it is run down um and dire need of some maintenance but what really struck my attention because I've heard so much about humidity issues in the Smithfield High School band room what we noticed immediately was in the overhead of the band room was the air conditioning intake Caked Up I'd say 3 16 quarter inch of junk

169so it is not surprising to me that there's a humidity issue in that room the AC can't breathe and I'm no HVAC Tech but I suspect that some maintenance would alleviate some of their issues in there um that's that's the big part of my visit and what I did notice a common theme and again I've already discussed this with superintendent but the common theme from all the schools that I visited was maintenance trouble calls take too long there's constant issues and complaints with cleanliness of the schools because the janitorial services are understaffed ground maintenance shortfalls what really caught my attention because we're talking about new new athletic field turfs and whatnot both Windsor high school and Smithfield High School apparently weak contract Field Services to take care of those fields yet both of the coaches

170at both of those schools are out there on mowers taking care of these fields so the question becomes if we're paying for it why are our Athletics directors out there on lawn mowers so again something else I think we need to look into that's all I got Mr chairman mayor suggests giving the lateness of the hour that our student Liaisons be given an opportunity to share their reports so that they can go home and do homework certainly please so um Winter's been pretty quiet lately we haven't had a whole bunch go on all of our sports teams are doing pretty good but personally I have a chance to meet with Dr Kramer and talk about some stuff that's been going on in school Samantha was there as well and it was really nice because prior

171to that I hadn't had an opportunity to speak about things that have been going on um Smithfield's doing pretty good um our basketball team's doing great this season so I'm really proud of that um like Kylie said we did get to meet with Dr Kramer which is really nice um since we got to go more in depth to what we talk about in meetings so that's pretty much it okay thank you ladies please please well I've had a lot of time to think about it while listening to everybody and personally I really don't think that we can learn an environment where people aren't challenged there's I mean you all get challenged at every meeting so we get challenged every single day and like when it comes to sexually explicit content I've never encountered any of

172it and I'm in high school and my mom has had the opportunity to opt out of family life courses so that's been happening since middle school that's never been something that didn't happen and most of like the sexually explicit content that does become a problem is in basic books that we've read for years like years and years that have probably been read when most of you were in school um one thing that was taught to me as a kid was you need to get out of your comfort zone to grow so even though some things aren't comfortable to talk about does not mean we shouldn't be talking about them and that's just my opinion on it along with what Kylie said with the explicit things that y'all think are in books I don't really see

173it personally um but I I think we need to be uncomfortable we need to have these conversations because when we do go to college and we have Socratic seminars we're going to be put in uncomfortable situations and that's just the way the world is sometimes it's uncomfortable and we got to deal with it so okay okay Mr Worster okay I'm just going to keep this very brief due to the time of the evening but I'm going to probably mirror a bunch of uh Mr Marsha's talking points I had the opportunity to meet meet with principal Brennan at Carrollton Elementary School just a couple of days ago first impression walking in the door spotless clean smells great very inviting okay I was very impressed with that I spoke with Mr Brennan we had a great conversation

174toward the school building looked at the different classrooms I looked at the Hydroponics that they're working on takeaways from that meeting as far as traffic patterning they've got an excellent traffic flow situation for pickup and drop off at least when I was there everything was working smoothly now he did say sometimes it can back up onto new townhaven Lane but I did not find any case this time um one thing that is holding true straight across the board um dealing with work orders uh when I asked him about you know work orders being completed what type of timeline is he looking at um roughly about three months out on work orders uh according to Mr Brennan since September 26 2022 there are now 28 outstanding work orders that's one thing that I take note of

175um if we're putting in work orders they need to be completed the HVAC issues they're having it's inconsistent temperatures someday some days it's 78 degrees in the rooms other days it's cooler um and again I said I'll keep this short I asked the question If Money Was No Object what would be the main thing you want for your school that he responded with a reading interventionist and a math interventionist in order to get the students that are testing below grade grade level up to a grade level that stuck out in my mind um it's pretty much all I have for Carrollton right now like I said I'm going to keep it short for the time of the hour okay if nobody else has anything we will go on to the next topic which is the

176financial presentations foreign good evening chair members of the board Dr Kramer um happy to discuss the financial presentations with you all for the month of December um before we do that I did want to take the opportunity just to highlight one aspect we did recently complete our audit in conjunction with the county and just wanted to give you a very brief kind of one statement overview of the findings of that so that everyone is aware of that information the audit found that in the findings there are no material weaknesses reported findings or questioned costs in the financial report of Isle of Wight County Schools so again just a very brief overview so that you all are aware that the audit did conclude and that was one of the major takeaways and if I could also

177just add in I want a big thanks to the county the county staff came down and helped us out as you know they've been without a CFO for a couple of months and the county staff came down and we worked together hand in hand for for weeks at a time in order to prepare um one thing that uh of course Mr Keaton the County Administrator and Stephanie Humphries did we owed him a big thanks for everything that they did to help us come through this audit and to find that there was no discrepancies of that matter one thing that we are doing is looking forward to some of the lower areas that we could work through we're going to actually work doing some cross training and some other activities of that manner to get us

178up to a little bit above standard but we all looking at uh filling the position of CFO before we really take a stance from that expert opinion to move forward in that area but just wanted to thank the county for allowing us to use their personnel and finance to assist us in coming out this audit um 100 clean I Dr Coleman would it be possible to get um the CPAs from RFC to come out and give us you know a quick rundown of you know how they went through the audit and the things they found because I actually do have a few questions to make sure that in the next year any of the things any of the hiccups we had we don't have those particular hiccups yes that's a that's a great point I

179will be reaching out to miss Humphries and see if we can align it of course the Board of Supervisors send the audit team down so we don't actually pick which company audits us the board of supervisor send them down and they ordered us so I'm just going to reach out and see if I can align them to come in and do a presentation yeah I apologize school board thank you find out yes sir so again if there's any uh questions on the facility usage check register detail summary or large ticket items I'm happy to feel them at this time I I got a couple questions for you and I'll try to keep it quick uh let's see here large ticket items we've got uh 85 500 for badge readers and that's uh Mid-Atlantic I believe

180and then Mid-Atlantic is also on the check register for a total of four invoices of a hundred and forty thousand nine hundred fifty dollars just from my own edification what exactly did we buy was that for badge readers across the division or handful schools or what yes sir and I believe Mr uh cooperider can get into more of the details on that but yes sir it was for a number of different schools and I'll allow him to speak to exactly what was purchased there good evening Mr Marshall uh so the 140 000 was 105 000 actually for Smithville Middle School that consisted of 73 badge readers as well as 32 with the refer to as gateways which allows those bad researchers to talk back to the main system there was also 35 000 to Smithfield

181High School and the I'm approximating these numbers it's much more detailed I have those written down if you need those which totaled 140 000 that was the total well that was the remaining totality of the segm Grant from the FY 22 school year are we still outstanding or in other words are we still trying to get bad readers in other schools or is that get us where we want to be uh so this is the completion of the award from fy22 FY 23 was awarded about a month and a half two months ago which was Georgie Tyler Middle School and we are also planning on adding these into Hardy Elementary School which means all of our secondaries will be done the new Hardy Elementary School we've done and we will begin installing or attempting to

182install these in further in elementary schools good Mr chair if I may um although Dr Coleman stated we certainly will ensure that you be given an opportunity to have a presentation on the audit so if that's the wish of the board will work on that and we'd like to take the opportunity to thank CM here uh Board of supervisor Grice and so is Dr Coleman stated thank you and the other supervisors for supporting us during the audit at that time we were a little short staff you met the staff that we've hired this evening but at that time they were not on steps so again thank you Board of supervisor Grice and your colleagues for your support okay is that it for financial presentations or if there's no other question no more questions we'll go

183on Support Services then all right we have one project that we really wanted to highlight um you heard of from the from different parents and teachers that came up last week and last month and discussed the Smithfield Middle School gym floor so over Christmas break working with the principal and working with the companies and the maintenance company we do have allowing them to come in and work on the floor and Outside Agency of course certified to do gym floors all of the work is now completed this is the gym floor before completion and um putting down their wood and different things of that nature the first picture was for the bottom the secondary laminate now this one is the actual flow going down and this is the completed gym floor at Smithfield Middle School now

184nice okay and the key that your course that we look for in the finance office will be the warranty information and I'll just let you know that the warranty for both materials and workmanship for the refinish flooring of this project for a period of time of one year to begin upon the date of substantial completion so we will be paying very close attention with the punch list if we should find anything wrong we have one year warranty and we're going to take full advantage of that for the Smithfield Middle School floor is a one-year warranty standard the one you want to use standard okay it's a standard same short okay yes quite any more questions concerning that project no I do have one question on Support Services in general Dr Coleman yes sir just on

185the tracking of work orders you know do we have a mechanism a status board if you will you know on work order so we can see from day to day we can look and see you know what's outstanding how long something's been outstanding Etc right we do have a work order system that is in place um we've had uh to make a lot of different modifications with that system over the last five years when working with the vendor that we have been working with for the last five years so there is something in place and when we find a lapse in the work order system like I'm kind of being told right now that's when we go back and investigate to find out what's going on what's wrong where's the downfall uh where are we

186missing Gap set so there is a work order system in place and um I guess it's time to review that work order system to make sure that these 28-day work orders are the ones that's been out since September they need to get filled and to figure out exactly what's going on so I can give you a better full report once I look into it a little bit deeper thank you yes okay now we're going to talk about transportation all right oh once again I want to go over help out with this Transportation uh Fleet rotation and Improvement plan one thing that was always asked of us when it comes to transportation is where is the plan where are we going to how are we keeping all of the vehicles on the road how are we

187planning for the future as you already know that gas prices and prices on materials have skyrocketed with this what are we doing to make sure that we are doing the right thing economically but at the same time making sure that we're safe so I've asked uh Mr Sullivan and Ox Mr Blackwell to come forth and show you the plan these two young men had a plan together they are tracking everything and I just wanted to give you a little tidbit of what's going on some of the items that they have here will be in the budget other items um you're going to find that are a little bit more expensive that I think that we need to go another route and how we're planning to fulfill our need to get the transportation to play apartment

188up to par all right go right ahead Mr Southern or Mr Blackwell good evening everybody um right now what I'm gonna start off with as far as our Fleet rotation and Improvement plan um right now I'm gonna give you just some details of our current status of Transportation um right now Fleet Services is now fully man for the first time in 10 years um this has already resulted in a 32 increase in repairs and maintenance compared to the fiscal year of 2021. um also we have out of white you know WCS vehicles have met or exceeded all video e 45-day inspection requirements for the first time in two years um transportation has begun developing and implementing in-depth mid-year driver training to sharpen the skills of all professional drivers with emphasis on identifying small problems before

189they become big problems um some few critical information that will be needed um according to the video e the maximum lifespan for a conventional school bus is approximately 15 years or 300 000 miles my fiscal year of 2024 um Ottawa County will have 24 buses that will exceed the 15-year lifespan with the implementation of the fleet Improvement plan or proposal we will be able to correct future deficiencies and I just want to pause right there to ensure that you understand that the buses are working at this time but as you can see based off of regulations 15 years of 300 000 miles we have 24 buses that have passed their lifespan so that is what these two gentlemen have to do get us back up to par get us back where we need to be

190give us a plan so we can move forward go right here currently we have a letter of intent to preserve five buses for leasing from Sunny Maryland um and that total costs four to five buses would be roughly a total of six hundred forty thousand four hundred seventy dollars I do have a question on that and you're going to hear me harp on this you know forever is I'm a big believer in competitive bids because competitive bids usually lower the price a bit um that we go to Sunny America excuse me did we go out with a request for proposals or did we go directly to Sonny merryman in this case study Merriman will be part of Eva would it be that is correct if you're part of evil and that is the Cooperative contract

191and um I don't know if you know a lot about a Cooperative contract but the Cooperative contract is a lot of times uh Eva it's a source for a lot of competitive bids so you take a lot of uh let's just say you're bidding four of us you will go to Eva Eva has already bid on buses through the competitive bid seal bid process based off of guidelines but they've done it already for you so they have already touched bases with 10 different companies and they've already found the best price and they're offering that best price to everyone in the state of Virginia so by going to evil using Source well or Omnia one of the contracts what you're doing you are still doing the competitive bid prices but you're going through an individual source

192that have already done the process for you so anytime you speak up you hear of a Cooperative contract agreement we always find one if it's not evil Army and we already know that's already vetted but we always send that to the attorney to make sure the attorney sees it make sure it's in guidelines what um with with the uh Virginia and then we just move forward with that Cooperative contract so in this sense uh Murray weather yeah Murray men it was part of uh Eva contract so we did go through the process good question hey gentlemen so I'm curious 640k to lease five buses is that is that right is how long that is going to be for five years and uh I'm sorry go ahead sir yeah um just to ensure you're saying that's

193not 6 40 a year is that what you're thinking I'm just trying to figure it out okay so I'm going more into the lease exactly so I'll I'll throw you with a barrage of questions and you can answer them however you see fit go ahead sir um do we lease all of our buses are we just trying to lease a set now question one um how much per bus for for per year I guess it says five years for five buses 640 000 so I mean I can do the math why are we opting to lease by by outright okay so to start off so the individual purchase for each one of those buses is 128 000 and we're looking at five buses so the lease program that we are being offered is actually a

194purchase program at the end of the lease so once we've completed all of those lease payments we own those Vehicles so it says lease but it is the lease to buy and there's no additional payment when we're done with those lease payments foreign oh no there's always interest so so I'll I'll ask again why lease instead of buy why would I lease to own and I think of it in layman's terms why would I go to rent to own a new TV instead of just go and buy a TV typically the price is a lot more than we can absorb on one fiscal year that's why this year we're going to go ahead and initiate the lease just so it's not much strain on us and the first lease payment is actually going to be

195used with the sr3 grant so that first payment is going to be 260 000 and it is all coming from the sr3 grant so that will be nothing from our budget for the next fiscal year in the long run is it more cost advantageous to buy one outright and take the hit up front or to lease it it's always going to better be better not to pay for the financial institution to support you so yes buying out front is the way to do it if you have the monetary means to do so so what are we talking about how much difference is there I can get those numbers for you I'm interested I mean we're looking we're at least I am looking for ways to trim the proverbial fat right so if we're spending more

196money up front the lease a bus it's at least worth entertaining the eye the the notion or having a discussion if we can save some money absolutely at the end of the day I've got to go back to at least one of those gentlemen back there and say hey we need money for some school buses so and just to throw this out here and pay us um of course um down the buses 100 124 144 per bus we usually pick up two buses per year two buses per year it's kind of what got us into the situation while we're 24 buses over the 15-year span because we couldn't keep up how many buses we have about 72 about 70 buses yeah it's a 70 buses so that's what happened started falling behind in order to

197catch up we started leasing buses because we can lease some five at a time to pull five down at a time to try to catch up so at one time members of the Board of Supervisors they do know we did have a lease program and at the same time trying to buy buses in order to catch back up but as you can see right now we're still behind by 24 buses at this time so they'll give you a little bit more background information concerning why we use leases and how we use leases foreign I have a question my question is under the leasing agreement are we responsible if anything happened to the bus during the time we're leasing it like you know mechanical things or whatever like you do with cars you can take it

198back to them in there take uh take care of I guess replace any parts yes ma'am that's correct and it is actually the same warranty regardless if you lease or if you buy outright Sunny Maryland will provide us with the exact same warranty during that period of time so they'd give us a warranty during that time right and during that time we still provide all the Maintenance and Service just as required by the manufacturer all right um Mr Marsh a little background on Isle of Wight County Isle of Wight County is one of the school districts in the state of Virginia where our buses cover lots of Miles lots of miles we went down this road before to see if we could actually Source it out but because of the knowledge we have across this

199County daily it wasn't beneficial so we have to continue to lease and buy that's just a little background it makes perfect sense I mean we're running them all day long right last question I promise 15 years or 300 000 miles are we the I wrote it down somewhere the buses that have surpassed that is it a mileage or an age thing or just a combination typically it's going to be age however we do have some that are approaching 300 000 miles most of the ones that at are close to 300 000 are somewhere around 18 to 19 years old okay okay y'all ready for her all right we have a couple of more slash just to touch on already all right so this right here is our Fleet Improvement proposal it is a three-part proposal

200the objective of course is to uh make sure we're providing the absolute best equipment if we can go into we can go part two is fine okay so the critical information here is uh we need to establish a consistent replacement cycle for our vehicles I propose that we adopt a replacement cycle 15-year lifespan with our iwcs vehicles um right now we utilize 55 conventional type c school buses and 14 special needs buses so right now 55 conventional school buses 15-year life cycle that's going to be 3.6 around up to four buses per year that we need to purchase for conventional buses and then the 14 special needs buses at a 15-year life cycle that would be just approximately one bus per year special needs that we need to purchase every single year right place um

201next one right there it should be in that Excel document right there yeah so this here is the uh the organization of all the vehicles we have now in this first slot that shows the buses that need to go to auction uh in the upcoming year most of these are approved we still have a couple vehicles that are uh pending approval we can go to the next slide and just want to point out this is the information when Mr Sullivan and Mr Blackwell came to me and start talking about buses and bad new buses this is the information I requested because this is the information that you need to make decisions school buses for auction light duty for auction All Buses buses with AC all light duty special needs buses special education technology Co CTE

202Vehicles Athletics Fleet Services carrier all of the information from transportation is combined to give us a reading on exactly what we need and this is how these two gentlemen came to the layout that they have read just want to point that out are there any questions concerning the layout or their plan at this time no I've actually been looking to find something like this in in the school system so I commend you guys for putting this together if we can use this type not the particular Excel spreadsheet but this type of spreadsheet as much as possible for tracking different things I think it would help tremendously Mr Blackwell tremendous job thank you all right next we want to just make sure that you see the budget comparison go right here Mr Blackwell so as you

203see from last year 2021 um the total for the first those first three months of October November and December we were at 92 compared to now for this year we're at 121 as far as field being used um that's an increase of about thirty thousand dollars right there due to the fact that when you talk about propane and Diesel those prices they fluctuate but diesel has increased a lot and tremendously right now um so what I'm what I'm looking at right now is that for make sure your school budget that we make sure we can allow for an increase into that fuel line for fuel and our consumption hasn't changed it's just the prices yeah wow yeah very good so right off hand you're seeing a 300 000 increase just in fuel and transportation right

204so uh and that increase as you already know was a flat budget at last year so once again we're going to be looking at this very carefully getting into the months of April uh May and June for this year just a heads up what what is it looking like are we going to be in the red when it comes to fuel I asked us a few months ago when I was on the other side we spent a lot of money on diesel fuel how are we looking on the budget well at this time well we'll go right here well compared to last year's we were only um had a revised budget of 372 000. um so right now what I'm proposing is to make sure after I did my calculations for including summer school and

205for the entire year to go to from 372 000 to 670 000. so um then that's for next year so looking at the remainder of the year is going to be close we're going to look at it again in February and at that time and that's why we're having this presentation now to let you know where we stand at because the request is the action item is requested go to the Board of Supervisors and do a new presentation do this same presentation for them so they can understand exactly what we're doing because we might need more money for fuel we might need an increase in funds for fuel and if we need an increase in funds for fuel I just want everyone to be aware of what's going on months prior just generally speaking because

206I own a diesel truck and I got a gas car and I got propane in my house so propane generally follows the price of a gallon of gasoline there and about diesel fuels all over the place these five buses that you want to buy propane or diesel diesel why it's more efficient it's more cost effective and cheaper too all in all it's cheaper to run a diesel bus as compared to the propane it is cost of ownership is much lower okay all right go right ahead all right so uh this is a Fleet Services budget request um currently Fleet Services education repair line it has not been increased since 2017. matter of fact in 2017 it was a hundred and seventy thousand dollar or a hundred and seventy thousand dollars and then it was decreased

207in 2018 to ninety three thousand dollars uh and uh right now all parts have dramatically increased for absolutely everything unfortunately everything is built outside of the United States and most of these parts that we're trying to get for these vehicles to keep them on the road as they age are becoming more and more difficult to obtain so right now we're looking at uh ninety three thousand dollars a year in our general education line and we would like to increase that to 250 000 per year you're going to maintenance per month the increase what do we have for the maintenance about 20 to 26 a month well one thing that uh the increase in maintenance per month and the items and materials that are used for that um when Mr Sullivan first got here and we

208started going through it and he said he's running out of funds and maintenance and asking him why how you know we've had the same budget for a while and didn't think about every year everything increases and we haven't increased since 2017 so at this time in something as simple as buying tires something that Isle of Wight was doing for years we buy retreads because that's the cheapest tire but Mr Sullivan came along he showed us that not buying retreads and buying a tougher tie a thicker tie or something of that nature it won't last six months like a retread will but it will last two years so by extending the lifetime of those parts and of those of that equipment we're actually saving money in the long run but it is an upfront cost so

209we're trying to change over right now it's all part of the fleet service and the transportation plan overall we're looking at just based off of increases in Fleet Services and uh fuel close to a six hundred thousand dollar increase in transportation and the six hundred thousand dollar increase in transportation still does not touch the fact that we have 24 buses that are 15 years old or 300 000. miles over so I'm once again that's why I wanted to make sure we brought this to your attention now how much of the budget have we used so far this year at this time it's sitting at 51 percent for transportation budget what do you think about it 70 probably about 70 right 70 yes okay thank you 70 expanded all right so as you can see this

210is and this is an action item and the action item is free if you give me one second important to um it's a chair I like to make a motion to present before the Board of Supervisors concerning Transportation future plans but um staff questions yeah uh we've got it first and excuse me we've got a motion and a second and no discussion Mr Marsh if I may and I'm just trying to keep up because you've lobbed a lot at me yes sir I looked at this presentation earlier this week and there was a couple two three slides and now I'm seeing a lot so it's a lot to chew on um if I'm following everything correctly you're asking for six hundred and forty thousand dollars to buy five new diesel-powered buses and I mean you're

211all asking for an increase in your maintenance fund from 93k to 250k so it's two separate requests am I following that you're following but we're looking at ends one more request we have a fuel increase of 300 000 we have a maintenance increase of what is 100 was it makes a thank you somebody back here and then we have the bus purchases for this year this year is 640 000 of the five buses or we can go into a lease program at least those buses and let that cover over but that is what we're asking for this year okay so moving forward over the next five years that's when we're looking at closing the gap on the 24 buses that are over and the plan that we presented would be a purchase of more buses

212every single year remember we're talking about four buses a year if we can go back to the slide four buses a year in order to catch back up to where we need to be so that is going to be an additional um of four times an additional six hundred thousand so what you're looking at is maybe 1.2 million okay yeah I came up with closer to 1.4 okay 1.4 million thank you and we can we'll go right ahead okay so that is what we're we're looking at at this time and that's if we want to go with the plan that the facilities supervisor and the director of trans the coordinated Transportation has put forward go back up to two you're going down too far but it's a little aggressive it is aggressive and there there

213are no easy decisions here no not at all I I I want to make sure I'm asking the right questions and enough questions to make an informed decision absolutely and I'm not sure that I'm there I do want to know the price variance between a lease versus an outright purchase that's something I would personally like to know before I say one way or the other and as I understand all this you want us to take action tonight to approve you to request 640k no two beats a bus no you uh take action at night so I can present this plan in front of the Board of Supervisors to let them know exactly what I just let you know that in the next up coming months we what we might need assistance in fuel and in

214fuel and in parts so I didn't want to wait until May and say hey I need more money I need 300 000 I need it now we need to go so I'm trying to be proactive letting you know ahead of time that this is coming up so let's just be proactive make sure we get all of our ducks in a row so that's what I'm asking for the action item to allow us to go before that might get entertaining does anybody else have any questions comments I personally don't see any harm in going and briefing uh the supervisors I'm still there's still a lot of money to come and give us 15 minutes to you know to think about I'd like to get copies of all all the slides and everything um so that we

215can still analyze it even though you you know if we vote for you to go and talk to the supervisors we still have some background that we can follow up on so when you come again we are better prepared to ask questions yes sir thank you okay so there is a motion on the floor it's been seconded we have had discussion the clerk will take the vote and it is passed you can go talk to the County Supervisors on this issue yes sir thank you and Mr chair we will certainly provide you with additional information it certainly was a lot and the need is real and I think you would concur with that but it is clear that we need to provide you with additional information so we will certainly ensure that uh Mr Sullivan

216Mr Blackwell and Dr Coleman will find time and we'll have whatever meetings with it's a work session or whether it's bringing you in one at a time or two at a time to have that discussion we'll certainly do so thank you all right thank you thank you thank you gentlemen okay next uh Dr Coleman's gonna share information on the new Hardy all right this is going to be an old video and I'm going to cut it off right now all right so what you're going to see in the new video um if we have time to put that up is going to be um Hardy as a whole and the roof I was talking to the contractors uh over the holiday season I know they were receiving questions I think about a couple of them

217a couple of board members receiving questions concerning the roof and the last conversation was that it was going to be all Dragged In meaning the roof was on and everything is ready to go for them to start doing inside work well over the holidays I believe that you remember there was a big windstorm well when the Windstorm hit it did affect Hardy uh in that line but it was all of the outer shell of the roof and it wasn't inner but they did have to take time maybe a week and a half to put that portion of the roof back on uh from the wind damage there's no permanent damage or anything of that nature so it was ready to roll uh from there so just just a quick video what I'm going to pinpoint

218here is just the roof going back on and this video was taken just yesterday and um the water tower and it was some questions concerning the water tower and uh items of change orders concerning the water tower but remember that the water tower was an add-on it's not really um driven by the school it's a it's almost a set almost a separate project over there so I lean into the water tower but I'm not really over the water tower in that matter no bro I'm going to the bottom all the way to the bottom all the way to the bottom all the way to the bottom all right uh take that one to the right and to the left to the left hand left to the left there we go all right so that is

219the phase now remember that this will be the last outside aerial photo that will be taken from here on this point on we'll move to the inside of the school we'll start filming the inside of schooling and category what's going on there this is the view of the administrative wing on your left and going to the cafeteria and gymnasium and Auditorium now looks a lot different from when we first started moving to the back side you have the water tower in your upper right and you will see the art room right in this little cubby hole here this is the art room right now it has the plywood up and it has the gallery Windows that's going to be out looking upon a little grassy area of trees different things of that nature we're looking

220directly at the two-story portion of the building top and bottom floor and of course the last Wing that's closest to Hardy right there and I'm just going to let it roll all the way to the front so you can get a good view of the front of the school where the Bus drop off will be all right and as you can see the date this was just yesterday all right that is the wing and that is the front of Hardy we're seeing it right now moving right in there as you can see the driveway is going right there where they have the big tank set and that is the view of the administrative offices and I'm going to stop the video right there are there any questions concerning new Hardy or any portions of it

221right now while we'll be moving inside this time all right if there's no questions thank you okay next uh Dr Coleman's gonna present and request approval of a right away for Columbia Gas uh Financial gas pipeline all right this would be an action item I'll um I'm seeking approval for the right-of-way for Columbia Gas of Virginia and natural gas pipeline at Hardy Elementary School this is granting Columbia Gas and easement a 5451 foot feet of four inch pipeline betterment to existing a two inch pipe 520 feet four inch pipe uh and 70 foot trenched two inch for a pmm service line this is uh for the completion of the gas line at new Hardy so once you sign this this will be the easement granting them the authority to put a pipeline on our property

222at this time so they need this to proceed without this signed off document they cannot proceed to um continue with the pipeline in order to provide heat and gas for our schools okay I do have a question it's just out of curiosity but why wasn't the easement taken care of before Construction well before construction when we first started you know the property first was owned by the county the property was deeded to us as soon as the construction started now when the property was deeded over to us um when okay with the pipeline coming in they knew where the pipeline was going but not exactly it had to be architecturally designed of exactly where it would be so you know two feet off here 20 feet off there and then we'd have to go back

223indeed this is a very specific assessment so if we're off so it waited a little longer before we actually did this very good thank you yes sir Mr chair I moved to approve the gas pipeline easement for the natural gas pipeline at Hardy Elementary as presented okay we have a motion and a second clerk will take the call of the vote okay it has passed yes sir next is the furniture order for new Hardy Elementary School right this will be action item motion to approve ordering Furniture in the amount of one million 230 767.51 for Hardy Elementary School to ensure Furniture is in place upon the school's opening are there any questions concerning this I do yes sir oh Miss times please okay um no I actually do have a couple questions yes sir um

224so we're going to be taking a lot of the furniture from the old Hardy School we're going to be taking yes we're going to be taking all of it yeah yeah the clay no just classroom Furniture right yes um and then we have some furniture over there at Hope Presbyterian in the warehouse yes sir we do have furniture at the uh in the warehouse okay so is the amount you're requesting here which I still haven't had been able to go through um is this the totality of the additional furniture that we're going to be asking for for Hardy elementary school before it opens in September yes this is it this is the the final this is the final uh order for Hardy Elementary School okay and again the same question I asked before that this

225obtained through competitive bidding all of these items are purchased on a Cooperative contract Cooperative contracts yes sir and that will be attached in the uh foot it was the attachments on this particular area okay later on offline you know I need a little more education on this yes sir thank you no problem at all yes so I just to get it out there in the open because and I spoke with Dr Coleman this afternoon because I was trying to wrap my head around this so keep me Honest Doctor Hardy Elementary was bid or budgeted for approximately 37 million dollars 36 yes sir 36 million dollars of that 36 million dollars it's already been budgeted this request for 1.2 million is a part of that 36 million it is it was a set aside for technology

226and furniture from the very beginning so it is not an additional request it's part of the original budgeted request yes sir okay so I did not understand that all that said after looking at the list some of it I could decipher some of I couldn't is there any fat to Trump do we really have to buy new trash cans for an entire school do we really need to buy new book carts and don't get me wrong I would love to open the doors on that school and have it beautiful and brand new and span everything matches from top to bottom but if there's fat we can trim think we need to look long and hard at it it's just my personal view we've got buses to buy we've got fuel price increases we've got maintenance

227price increases there's across the board everything costs more now today than it did last year surely we can all agree that prices inflation everything costs more so I think it's it's it's our duty to make sure that we look at this long and hard despite what the architect said to make sure we can't trim some fat I'd like to respond to that if I may oh go ahead I'm Sorry Miss times this is a budgeted item and um staff board members everybody we trim this is the trimming okay and uh these are uh youth that's going to be entering this building in September a brand new building with old dirty trash cans old dirty desks no no all of the other schools we've opened in Isle of Wight County we furnish them with new furniture

228okay we're not going to stop and put old things in Hardy Elementary why carry the negativity from one building meaning probably the roaches who okay termites or anything else coming from in the woods to the new building we would like to prevent that okay thank you I'm sorry Mrs Getz well said um we did look at all of the furniture at Hardy um there is some new furniture There are some new student desks there are new student chairs there's new um stem room furniture that we had just purchased right prior to the pandemic that furniture is in good condition and we are moving that to new Hardy we did have to purchase some additional dust because new Hardy is larger than old Hardy and you're going to see it's you know teacher desk the teacher

229desks are in bad bad shape and Hardy very old you would not want to move that rackety furniture to a brand new beautiful building um you know teacher desk cafeteria tables um office furniture those are things that we felt needed to be replaced for the new school and and yeah trash cans are some of them yes for the last few years since we've been thinking about building Hardy as well as West Side here we have not really been purchasing things for them like we've been doing for the other buildings so some of that equipment is very old but we're trying to hang on because we knew we were going to eventually get into a new setting where they could get some better things I've just got one quick question for you um is it safe

230to say that any tables chairs desks filing cabinets whatever the case may be if they are still serviceable are those being utilized in the new party some of them yes others that went the new school is going to match and I may this might sound frivolous but it is going to be a brand new building and so we want the furniture the Furnishings to match and not have a bunch of mismatch like it currently has I think that would really hinder what the appearance of a new school looks like you've got millions of dollars to put into a new school and you walk in and it's nothing but old Furnishings so I I don't know that that's the route that we would want to go what we will do we are taking what what we

231can and then we're adding to that we would also look at any furniture that does look pretty good in good shape and repurpose it to other schools and then there is going to be furniture that is quite honestly ready for the dumpster so I'll just get one more question based on that the furniture or Furnishings that you would not be taking with you what is your intent for those are they going to be auctioned off are they going to be sitting in a warehouse somewhere collecting dust right what would be the intent for that that's a good question it's going to be auctioned everything that we have that we pull from that building is going to be auction of course a lot of things on the old Hardy will be demoed and recollected some of

232the AC units if not all of the AC units that we're using because those are brand new um the water fountains the different things of that nature a lot of the technology that's on that still be used but the furniture itself it will be auction it will be brought before this board inventoried and put in place into auction based off of what goes from there then we can decide what we do after the auction if it doesn't sell then we can decide did it answer your question yes like you okay any more questions or comments I'm ready to make the emotions it's a chair I would like to make a motion to approve ordering furniture for the amount of one million two hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and sixty seven points 51 cents for

233Hardy Elementary School to ensure Furniture is in place upon the school's opening we have a motion and we have a second second yep go ahead and take the vote okay that passed five zero next we have the donation of the Smithville High School scoreboard it's an action item Dr Coleman we'll present the information yes sir this is concerning the Smithfield High School school board there was the that was donated by Smithfield foods to the Smithfield booster club and at this time based off policy we need to make sure that we take it to the school board in order to be accepted into the school from the booster club for the SAS it is and also the monetary value I do want to let you know Smithfield food has sent over a contract with the contract

234in the the foul for you and that contract has not been sent to the attorney yet um I know that the policy and some of the the um the terminology on in our policy that the contract's supposed to meet we're literally waiting to see if the board was moving forward before we sent it to the attorney but if you'd like us to do it the other way that's fine also but um so we are in uh we we do have the knowledge that it's not in compliance with the policy of how it needs to be lined up but once again we're waiting to see if board approval was going to occur and then we're going to send it to the attorney to match it up to send back to Smithfield Foods so that we can

235we can move forward I promotion to approve the donation from Smithfield foods for a scoreboard for the main Athletic Field at Smithfield High School with an estimate value of thirty five thousand dollars their second I'll second do we have a motion and a second is there any discussion Mr chair that the only issue I would have with that uh is the word estimated and if if it goes over 35k uh who's going to cover the rest of the money we'll go back to Smithfield Foods okay our example if that's what we're going to do and we know we're going to get the money a Smithfield Falls is a company that has always support us always supported um education in Isle of Wight County if I'm sorry I didn't mean it and if if it goes

236over to 35 I don't think they're going to have an issue to give us a little extra okay over the booster's the extra okay okay that that answers my question now Mr chair just for the sake of saying it out loud we've already talked about this I think it is my wish that we file the policy to the letter so that when we draft up the official contract and send them over to Smithfield Foods along with a huge thank you I just want to make sure that our contract is in compliance with our policy yes sir and that's that's the way we'll do it from here on out I will send it to the attorney before bringing it here to ensure that we're aligned in that in that Arena instead of the other way okay

237and who signs that on behalf of the school system uh based off of policy you would have to sign it you would have to sign this particular project okay very good yes sir then I will make sure it while the eyes are dotted and T's across yes sir okay is there any more discussion if there's no more discussion we will take a vote very good five zero next we have the report from the superintendent Mr chair I assure you that I will be briefed by did not present at our previous meetings but would like to acknowledge the individuals I met with over the past too much actually uh I'm not sure who's advancing the slides I was going to get Dr Coleman thank you sir so uh first slide once Mr Ryder is able to

238catch up there we have it uh The Isle award we as we mentioned earlier we've been uh issuing Iowa Awards each month in November I didn't present it would like to acknowledge the names of the individuals who received those Awards uh Mr David Jones a bus driver Chef horn and Hagan uh Mrs Dana and and Mrs Sandy Carr in finance for all of their support and I saw this gentleman here Deputy uh Alex Jones and Stephanie Jones still here I'm sorry Johnson the other Jay so I just stepped up he just stopped up that's all right um and the next slide um December the individuals who were acknowledged Miss Jeannie Coleman Mr Mark Ruffin Mrs Stephanie Humphries from the county and Miss Amy Howell so they were the individuals who received the Isle award in

239December next our student advisory uh very proud of this group actually I'm meeting with them again tomorrow and they are advising me on major issues as pertains to the budget uh Safety and Security so we are getting the perspective and the input from our students and next we have our Support Services I had the opportunity with Dr Coleman and other staff members to meet with our Support Services mainly our bus drivers and and Food Service workers and they too shared their thoughts recommendations and concerns with us and next I had the opportunity to meet with our students at the New Horizons Governor's School for Science and Technology who are over who are taking uh these advanced classes over in Hampton and we are funding this and these students all have internships with major entities in

240the Hampton Roads area they also were invited to come to one of our board meetings in the future to share with you what they're doing next our Isle of Wight County Schools teacher of the year Miss Courtney Wooley was surprised with the fact that she was the I don't know white teacher of the year and uh we're very proud of this young lady and next uh this is a tradition unfortunately I wasn't feeling well during this time so I've missed this but our central office staff dressed in holiday attire and distributed candy canes to all of our elementary students uh on December 15th and they also stopped by our middle schools and our high schools to bring season greetings to the administrative team so thank you team for representing in myopsis next uh huge thank

241you to Ms Mrs Lynn Briggs and Mr David Elliott for the annual report I know that some of you have read the annual report because you actually uh gave me some questions pertaining to the annual report so thank you Mr Elliott and Miss Briggs great job with the annual report and last I along with a few of our staff members had an opportunity to attend the Virginia Association of school superintendents uh conference this week actually and we had an opportunity to hear updates are from the 2023 General Assembly also see that there is the state superintendent Dr Jillian Balo so it was a great opportunity to hear directly from State officials uh some of the some of the initiatives that are pending uh so that concludes my update thank you for giving me the opportunity

242thank you and the next subject is um reallocating facility space based on needs uh Dr Coleman sketch and Miss Sullivan and as they approach this is a continuation we were asked to provide numbers and we have done that uh so Dr Coleman Mrs Sullivan and Mrs Scott take it away all right so as Dr Kramer stated now we will provide the numbers for the ideology of moving central office to the uh Hardy School all right so first of all let's look at the central office at Hardy and the estimated renovation calls this estimated renovation calls is first of all let's look at the blue box we're looking at the architect fees the architect fees is what is going to be needed so that the Architects can draw up the uh all of the items that

243you see on the left so parking lot earthwork utilities estimated ought to be 225 build uh wall veneer and rework and provide new electrical feed rework for that what is needed for fire alarm system mechanical systems the general conditions subcontractor Bond cost uh the insurance business license different things of that nature so what this price is is an estimated cost of once the demolition occurs leaving those two wings at Hardy Wing a and Wing B leaving and then what we call uh waterproofing it in meaning building an entrance for that these costs also goes into permitting ensuring that we have drawn up everything perspects so that we can go right down to the alawi courthouse so we can get the permits done and everything goes directly through so as you can see Wing a fifty

244six thousand dollars 250 256 dollars and Wing B is 81 663.10 you might wonder why is there a difference between Wing a and Wing B wing a is cheaper because if you remember Wing a was included in the 90 completion of new Hardy as it said wing B adding that on that you have to do the artist had to do that from scratch they had to come all the way up with all of the Power all of the sewer everything all the connections that's why Wing a is cheaper than Wing B when it comes to the architect fees are there any questions concerning the estimated renovation costs of the bear School left there classrooms the same um HVAC at that time the same no remodeling done at all okay go right here 137 000 to

245pay an architect to plan out 585 thousand dollars that's not necessarily move-in ready that is move-in ready yes you can move in and when you said move in ready move in and everything is divided up and everything is already laid out different things of that nature you know move in this school actually you know of course you already know the school exists as it is right now we have students at the school at this time in those classes instead of students being in those classrooms we will be in those classrooms now when it was drawn up on the specs it was all drawn up to be demoed so going back now and lining up the cost of let's just take for the parking lots the earthwork and utilities and mechanical the power at Hardy runs

246from the farthest wing all the way to the cafeteria so once that is demoed the power has to be re-ran by Dominion different things of that nature so yes to answer your question is uh similar to when we built new Hardy I think the architectural cost was uh I forget it was I don't know five six hundred thousand yes to yeah do that I don't really know the cost right offhand but yes that is the arc check your fees Architects get a lot of money go to school here are there any other questions concerning the estimated renovation calls for Bear Hardy and I just want to continue to say when I say bear Hardy it's what the students are in right now it has lights it has HVAC it has working bathrooms different things of

247that nature that is bearhearted any questions concerning that not yet he's got you covered okay all right now these are the proposed Renovations the proposed Renovations once again I emphasize that was moving in uh the 585 as is now the proposed Renovations each bathroom will cost thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty six dollars uh to redo that means to take out the Pre-K toilet and put a grown person toll so that means um to redo the bathroom different things of that nature so with that we're estimating out it's 20 rooms 20 bathrooms in that section that we're looking at so to rework that that's going to be 272 520 on estimate classroom Renovations that's taken 10 of those 20 rooms dividing it up and when I said divide it up take it all the way

248uh 10 one classroom into four different office space and take it all the way to the ceiling and the permits around to make sure that we have lights water and everything that's up to code and then of course a garage door installation on the back of the gym for the warehouse it has a door but we need a garage door for deliveries and different things of that nature which brings that grand total to 667 520. now when you're looking at the blue box savings for eliminating demolition costs that's a hundred and ten thousand so it doesn't offset everything but it is an offset by Saving because you know it already was calculated into the 36 million it was calculated in to demo the entire new Harding no I mean I apologize demo the entire party

249so by not demoing those two Wings is a savings of 110 000 that can offset a little bit so we we're looking at it as offsetting those calls for the architectural fees any questions on the proposed Renovations at this time so we're talking 1.3 million dollars at this time that is 1.3 million dollars the peace I don't really like is the plus or minus the mystery yes yes and there's no for demolition at this time there's I can't get a solid you know the pipes pipes the wires absolutely I you know it might be 111 000 or might be 105 000 you know it's I you know I can't get an exact on that so I do apologize no no my big thing that I'm looking at here is best value yes sir so and

250one of the questions that I've got is how many years are we going to expect this building to support us in the capacity as a central office is it going to be another 50 years right you know or is it cheaper in the long run to spend two million dollars and build something brand new that you know that would be a better value for the county so these are these are questions I've got yes sir next slide all right now the cost of renovation at holiday total estimated cost is the okay that's everything laid out right there absolutely it's everything laid out yeah we can come back to that one all right this is the one Hardy renovation now Warehouse savings what do we need in the warehouse what do we need in the warehouse

251now renovating Harding will provide a savings when it's a savings approximately one million let's look to the right let's look through the graph here the building calls for a uh 4 000 square foot Warehouse would be 670 to uh was 1.5 million just for the call so I had to dig in deeper had to dig in deeper so when looking at the cost of a bare bottom steel building and that's what we're looking at a steel building it was going to be 700 000 now then we had to find land is probably going to be at the annex you know down there with the bus shop so just to clear all of the old trailers and off I already got estimates it's going to be 70 000 grading everything out getting everything prepped Full Construction

252forty thousand HVAC on that steel building because it has to be HVAC control with humidity uh humidity control of course 42 000. of course if it's going to be a records room just like our previous one it needs a backup generator um installation for the walls because once again we're talking about a steel building different things twenty thousand and then it's the odds and ends that we were needing anyway things that we were going to need we were going to need a forklift we're going to need a forklift anyway we needed a forklift at the Warehouse that we were in and we never really gained that we had a and we had a forklift that we're sharing with the high school but we're going to need a forklift and then of course shelving the cost

253of shelving if we do move forward with Hardy into that old gym area of course we're going up 4 000 square feet down we go up we can increase it to probably eight to maybe even ten thousand square feet going up so in the shelving that we looked at was 38 000 industrial size shelvings and of course the division will save 25 000 a year in current Warehouse rented uh rental costs that was going out everyone knows it was really maybe 48 to 50 000 but we're subleasing it out and that extra cost offset it down to 25 000 a year you know based off of that and getting into um Hardy if you can go back well I don't have any other slides no I don't have to go back to back there just

254um um it can save space in other areas of the division also and just as a reminder as we talked about last month um the advantages and why we want to do this um Smithville High School as we've talked about has no more space um if we are able to move technology out move technology into the Hardy building that would gain us approximately four classrooms we might be able to look at additional CTE expansion I know we've just added a math teacher so we do need the space at Smithville High School it also would bring everyone Under One Roof we would be moving technology into there being all of instruction all of special education could be there so we could all be together which does make it easier when we want to have professional development

255meetings and so forth speaking of professional development it would give us space for that right now we don't have room for professional development when we want to do professional development we have to come here and if classes are here we have to boot them out so that would give us space to be able to have PD at our building as well as meeting rooms um and then lastly this would be something that we would have to definitely look at what the years are but it could be something that we could then pull central office off of the CIP which has been there for years that's a great point additionally as we talked about in the last presentation this would give us the ability to have more confidentiality of conversations confidentially of confidentiality of Records it

256would give us more access to conference room space where we can meet with multiple people where they feel like their privacy is honored and it also gives us the ability to have a nice front when those Renovations are completed to welcome our new hires during the recruiting process to show them the investment that we put in our employees not only when they're in their school buildings but also the employees at our central office as well so and one thing I did forget and I thank Miss gas for bringing that up entire central office will be Under One Roof bringing technology in and um all the other departments in Under One Roof so what are your questions concerning um CEO moving to Hardy at this time is the backup generator I understand why you want it

257you want to maintain climate control classes and you mentioned this afternoon because of the records yes they aren't in climate control today no they're not they are not is that backup power going to be for that whole building the backup power based off of 15 000 is it more than just climate control for a records vault um that for the warehouse yeah the warehouse if we build a new warehouse this dead Warehouse right there it would be for the whole Warehouse okay I got it okay I think at the end of the day it's almost it's almost a wash we're looking at roughly 200 000 difference right I mean that's when you get right down to it when you get right down to it a million dollars to build a new warehouse and stay where

258you're at or a million two to convert that building into a new facility if I can add board member well uh Marsh I think you're absolutely right in terms of the dollars it's probably a wash but looking at what we're going to gain I think is fairly significant and I think your point is well taken as well uh chairman a colic and that is looking at the lifespan I would venture to say that the lifespan at Hardy repurposed is going to be far greater than where we currently are um so yes it is going to be a wash in terms of the dollars but I think at the end of the day there are significant gains that have been articulated by Mrs Getz uh and Mrs Sullivan and Dr Coleman and Mr Marsh um in

259in the past there were discussions when we met with the Board of Supervisors that there is a possibility once the the building of the new west side That central office May occupy some of the old west side so still would be the same thing even if they came over here they would probably have to do some of the same work and that was just a discussion it wasn't anything concrete the other option was to build new Dr Coleman where's this money coming from the the uh for the new Warehouse well is the government the new Warehouse do we do we have to go to Board of Supervisors for it okay no no we don't have to go to the Board of Supervisors for that money at all um I know Dr Kramer has touched bases

260with you a couple of times of course if the Board of Supervisors would elect to assist us we welcome that but we do have the money within budgeted funds we have the fund yes we certainly we can look at some dollars that we have uh we perhaps could look at so yes we think we can bring back to you an option in terms of uh paying for the renovation uh repurposing of old Hardy it was a drop dead dating on this that you absolutely have to have a vote I'll tell you building a warehouse just said it doesn't go the way to move into Hardy building Warehouse is going to take at least I would say four to five months depending upon who you're dealing with and what you're actually getting because we can build

261a warehouse right now and get a backup generator next year at the same time but if we want to keep old Hardy now that is going to be um I think I'm sorry if I can very quickly I think the construction company needs to know as soon as possible so I think we're looking at two deadlines one if we are going to build a warehouse we're going to need that to do that very soon because there's work that has to be done if that is the route we're going to go if not uh then looking at the construction or the renovation of old Hardy they were planning to to demolish that so right now we're going to Pivot and change course uh I would venture to say we need to do that as soon as

262possible so I don't think we have the luxury of being able to delay this vote so the reason I ask I just I kind of feel like we're being put you know back into a corner and I don't like that right and over the last year many spending things have come up I've felt that way um and that's why I asked okay if we don't need to know immediately tonight I still want to go and take a tour of the of the old Hardy of where the this the demolition is going to take place where the construction is going to take place you know and and what's going to go on I'm just personally and I don't know what the rest of the board is I'm just I'm not comfortable going either way at this

263point okay I do want to add in there just as you stated um it's going to take three to four months for these permits to work its way through the permitting process that is based off of the new hearty Now new Harley was a lot bigger it was a lot bigger exercise but to avoid the work through is going to take a couple of months three to four months for the work through the permitting process down at the accounting now I mean maybe they can rush it maybe you know I don't know the ins and outs of that but on base it it's going to take three to four months but to go through um may I say something please just share with the permits I'm hearing where Dr Coleman is coming from we probably

264had a backlog from covet which they probably caught up the county but with all of the um developments is coming forth now I think we need to start getting those permits in so we will not be delayed we would like if we're going to go forward with this project I would like to have central office staff in place when the students come back to the old I mean the new Hardy elevation in September certainly and and every every moment we delay it's not going to get any cheaper because the price of building materials has gone up this is what happened when we wanted to Bill Hardy the new Hardy Elementary there was a delay which cost us more money and I I really don't want to go there because we need a warehouse where we

265are housing of um records and things now we have been given a date that we need to have those things removed from that area by the end of June now where are we going to put them out there on route 10 someplace because you know hey they've told us we have to move so this is January due to math uh the procrastination you can procrastinate continue to procrastinate it's costing the taxpayers money to procrastinate although we have the funding now but we may have to go back if we put it off we can't continue to put everything off I mean Dr Kramer just told us the funding is there now well what I was saying is it's not so much putting things off is getting information at the last minute well this they presented it

266to us prior to tonight it came up last month and um we had an opportunity to ask questions during that time if we had some concerns about it as a matter of fact we voted to go to send them forward to bring us back what they brought us tonight and they have done their homework so give them credit for doing that oh I do I do absolutely but we still need a little bit of time to digest some of this I don't need any time because I'm not a slow learner Mr chair um if I may yes I actually agree with Mrs times on this one um we don't always disagree but I agree now I have asked a load of questions with Dr Coleman at the that this meeting the last meeting and offline

267uh my personal view is I think uh these three fine folks have done some some good homework on this and and for me because the price is negligible one way or the other I I don't see any reason not to go forward with this it's my personal View okay any more discussion if there's no more discussion I think we've had a motion right now we didn't we didn't miss the chair I would like to make a motion to approve the relocation of central office for 820 West Main Street to 9 9311 Hardy Circle second okay we have a motion and a second have a vote okay so we had four years I abstained um basically because I personally don't have enough information to uh to go either way you know I don't disagree with anything

268you should but I just personally don't know if that's the best value so okay we will go on to the next and that is Carrollton rezoning board um tonight we are asking for action on the Carrollton rezoning um before we do that I'd like to just review with you miss Briggs and I what we have done up to this point and just share some of the feedback that we have received so the areas that we're looking at that are currently zoned for Carrollton would be Wellington and Gatling Point North Gatling Point South are the neighborhoods that we would are proposing to rezone to Hardy be approximately 75 students that would be moved to Hardy starting next year some of the things that we've done we've sent the information to the parents the Carrollton parents to

269say hey we're looking at rezoning this is what would happen we sent them a map we have Mr Brennan posted the information in his newsletter for several weeks to let parents know this was coming um we shared Miss Briggs shared the information on all social media to again try to reach out to parents we presented the plan at the November school board meeting the plan along with the map of the rezoning last month you had a public hearing which I believe we had a couple of people speak on the rezoning Tuesday night we held a q a session at Carrollton Elementary and we invited all parents to attend and we shared the proposal and we answered their questions I will say there has not been a ton of um concern and I will share what

270the concerns have been namely it's hard to leave a school you love so change is hard but parents did understand where we are with capacity at Carrollton and how we are trying to reduce the capacity and this is a way we can do that the other other thing that was brought up is the current third graders at Carrollton right now they would go to West Side as fourth graders it really does not make sense for those students in those areas those neighborhoods to go to Hardy Elementary for one year and then go to West Side Elementary as fifth graders so if you're a current third grader at Carrollton and you live in Wellington or Gatlin Point North or South you are going to go to West Side as a fourth grader next year other than

271that and I'm gonna let Miss Briggs jump in anything that I've missed no the the feedback was was fairly limited as Miss Getz said we had people that spoke in favor of it they said the The Proposal was very logical they felt it was very well thought out I think they liked the geographical boundary The Proposal that we went with which was Jones Creek which makes it very clear where that boundary is going to extend and um it's been very it has it it's been very quiet okay what's the um otherwise called the capacity but the percentage of fill for each school they're each going to be 60 70 85 percent full yes good now so um with this rezoning it will drop Carrollton from in the 90 range yes down into the 80s at

272hearty it will bring it up into the 60s and west side oh West side's full it doesn't really change West Side um because West Side currently has the fourth graders yeah um that would that left Carroll Carrollton they currently have those and so we're saying we would still keep the same lesson the fourth graders here at West Side it would not change west side for for next year it would not change the year after it would reduce some at West Side there so Carrollton today is roughly 90 percent 93 okay approximately yes if we do nothing how long before we're maxed and and I'm not condoning a trailer mobile classroom any of that right I want to know how much time we've got if we do nothing and then if we drop it from 90

273to 80 percent capacity given the current forecast and I understand those fluctuate how much time does that bias what are we looking at what throw some numbers at me it's hard to answer and I think we need to do a little bit more research for that exact answer but I'm going to tell you this three years ago when we looked at this plan we were moving the Carrollton Carrollton fourth grade was going to stay there so it was Carrollton was going to be pre-k through four Hardy was going to be Pre-K 3-4 right now we cannot keep fourth grade at Carrollton there's no room so in three years approximately maybe a little bit more the plan has already changed because we don't have enough room at Carrollton to keep the fourth graders and I would

274add uh Vice chair Marsh students are already in less than ideal situations in terms of classrooms uh I think you can attest to this that we have students who are in rooms without Windows um and this gives us a chance to provide some balance otherwise we are going to be in a situation where Hardy is going to have significant room and Carrollton is not at 100 but it is full and this gives us a chance to provide some balance for both of those schools at least for a time period And I want you to know we are I I understand your point and we are really looking at we're working with the county we're looking we are working with them very closely we're going to be providing you with some more information on building capacities

275we're working on it it's coming thank you Miss cats and I I actually applaud you for this is hard for me to wrap my head around you're looking at different schools at different grades and you're trying to use different forecast models this is a lot to wrap your head around um now um my question is where is more to projected growth in the current in in the new zone for Carrollton or Hardy where where are we looking at that because are we going to revisit this in a year or two or three years uh well we I don't know that we can say that we know that there have been several developments that have already been approved that are dormant right now that whenever they kick in and they can kick in any time that

276now is going to create an impact that's one of the things we have to look at is we can see the counties student population generation tool lets us know what's the predicted number of students coming from any proposed development so we're working with County data what we don't always know is when does the start button get pushed on that development and then when it gets pushed on that development usually it's in phases so how long is that going to take we do know that in the the new Zone there are several developments that are already either approved or very actively moving forward one that's been approved in the town of Smithfield is the Mallory Scott farm development off of Battery Park Road which is near Gatling point and Wellington that would now fall in the

277Hardy District good we also know that there's a proposed development behind the Sherwin-Williams off of Turner and 10 near Smithville High School with the new Zone that would fall in the Hardy District you answered my question yes we also have one in Smithfield The Grange at 10 main which if you've been here a while I'll call that the old Robert little Supermarket site that is being proposed to the town of Smithfield that would generate and we just got something from the the town on that that's going to be over 100 students that would go to Hardy so we think we've done a good job of getting some of those developments that are coming into the school that can accommodate them sure I I feel like we got to do something I know if I was

278going on a road trip I I certainly I'm impressed you know um any more discussion do we have a motion Mr chair would like to make a motion to approve the proposed rezoning plan as presented seconds you're good foreign and a capital Improvement plan with Dr Coleman Dr kale application good evening chair members of the board Dr Kramer so we're just here to update you with regards to the CIP um so at this time the recommended priorities that we shared with you over the last several months construct the new school improve school security construct our Fleet Services building at bus garage upgrade the Smithfield High School and Windsor High School track and football fields expand our CTE facilities look to improve and add Universal pre-kindergarten for all students upgrade our Smithfield High School and wins

279our high school baseball facilities and renovate the Smithfield High School abandoned chorus room so we've shared a little bit with you about each of these projects and why we have put them as our top priorities for the CIP and at this point so um over the last so just a review of the timeline one more time for those people that might be tuning in we've had our input survey from the community we've had several in-person feedback sessions we've asked for Community input again via ranking of those priorities and we've brought to you the CIP information from the community and from us and so we're at that point and we held a public input in December so at this point we are ready for you to to have some discussion and determine what your priorities are

280for that CIP so that we know what information to bring back to you and I understand that there has been a work session scheduled for next week and so we'd be prepared to answer any questions you had at that time perfect thank you and next we have the appointment of compliance officers Mrs Sullivan so um for those of you who are on the board uh in I think it was July or August you might remember we had this appointment of compliance officers then um so we did need to go in and update the compliance appointment letter just because Dr Kramer had come on when the first letter was issued to you it was when Dr Coleman was still the interim and so we wanted to update that and because we had made it an informational

281item here at the board meeting we wanted to do that again since there was an update to the letter you'll see it stated on August 22nd that was the date that Dr Kramer came into his position um the only other Edition that we made was that we've been clarified in it it's always been this way but that I'm the compliance officer and Title IX coordinator and Colleen loud is my alternate it didn't Define her specifically as the alternate so if I'm out of the office or unable to take the Title IX complaint she's available to take that complaint any questions for me okay thank you next Dr kale provide information on the athletic trainer provider I hopefully will be Queen of the short presentations tonight um so I'm here just to present you with some

282information around our athletic trainer contract back in November Bon Secours notified us that they were terminating their athletic training program and so we had 60 days to find a replacement provider for those Services athletic trainers are present at all of our Varsity home games all of our practices they work with our athletes to make sure that they are safe and and moving forward with their Athletics in a positive way um so we when we got this announcement we started looking for other providers we got um input from I used both the athletic directors and I met with Centerra we met with CHKD and we met with Riverside so some of our largest Partners or largest medical providers in this area that have athletic Training Services they each provided us well CHKD said went ahead and

283emailed us and said they would be in excess of a hundred thousand dollars which was more than what we were already paying so we didn't pursue any additional time from them but Sentara also gave us a quote and Riverside gave us a quote we selected Riverside and the amounts are I believe you have a copy there in your packet for what it will cost us to continue their services for this year and the contract will continue through 2025 June 30 2025 and that then it terminates at that point and we start over I am so sorry I did not realize you didn't have them um so it'll be thirty thousand dollars for us for the remainder of this year um our previous contract that's very much in line with what we were already slated to

284pay for this year and then moving forward would be a 75 000 annual cost again these trainers travel with our team they are they are at all of our home Varsity events they work with our athletes and some other advantages with Riverside will be working with them with our CTE programs they've just built a facility here so they're in good proximity for our kids and they were able to retain our athletic trainer at Windsor High School who has been in place for a long time and has built a great relationship with our community and they have already staffed the Smithfield High School position which would have been vacated with the end of the bonds course contract so we are already ready to go any questions thank you chair um so we just needed to officially

285announce that our work session for um the CIP is going to be on January 19th here at west side in the auditorium at 3 30 PM okay everybody get that it's gonna be next Thursday the 19th at 3 30 p.m here that's a work session for the CIP Capital Improvement plan okay next on the agenda is the action on the closed session items we've got two Mr chair I motion to approve the Personnel report as presented a copy of which can be obtained from the school board Clerk second okay we've got a motion and a second do we have any discussion there is no discussion let's go ahead and vote okay that's been approved next item Mr chair I move that the school board extend the timeline to consider and render a decision in Personnel

286case number j a n Tac two three tac01 by 60 days from today's date I'll second that and there's a second so we have a motion in a second is there any discussion there's no discussion the clerk will take a boat okay I'm gonna do a verbal on this one Mr Cunningham yeah Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yeah Mr Wooster yay and Mrs time yay okay next is the adoption of the consent agenda Mr chair I move to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented second it is there any discussion hearing none um we've had a motion and a second let's take a vote now one one thing I'd like to do on a consent agenda is we have had within the consent agenda a number of donors so I just want to recognize

287those people very quickly Tori Marine the Women's Club of Smithfield the cars we were working Club the veteran exceeded the Women's Club of Windsor Mr Raymond low the Isle of Wight Christian Outreach belcher's Paving the Women's Club of Smithfield again penential Rescue Mission William M cage Library Trust Bayer crop science Smithville foods and the Women's Club of Windsor again I thank everybody for their donations to our schools next we have policy updates and revision policy IIA secondary Mr chair um in light of all of the visitors we had tonight in all of the speakers I would like to recommend that we table policy IRA revision policy for a later action we have a motion to table policy IAA do I have a second second we have a second is there any discussion yes I do

288have a discussion yes um last evening I think it was about 10 o'clock I received this I received this email from a former administrator in alawi County Schools and um which they're still active in our community I'm not going to read the entire email I think all of you received it but the most important part of that email was section five and I would like to read that your role as a board member is to listen to support Educators and to ensure that our students are successful prepared for whichever path they may choose when they leave High School whether that be College trade school the military or joining the workforce it is important to keep the success of the students and the Forefront of your mind to create strong individuals who can think critically by

289choosing to be on the school board you choose to support our community which means supporting families and their children by putting your trust in the educators the experts on these subjects and listening to all stakeholders all parents before making your decision you will be proving that you truly have the best interest of this community at heart and they also requested that we table the vote on this policy until further study and conversation is completed thank you for your service to our students and that is from administrator Rebecca m Mercer and after saying uh reading that I would also like to go further we heard and I'm so proud of all of these students that came up and spoke before us tonight some of them honestly did better than the board members could do and I

290have always been a supporter of the students in Isle of Wight County because I'm a product of that I'm here tonight because teachers taught me the things and that revised policy that sin we cannot do in November I voted along with some of my colleagues on this same policy that's the policy I was probably the teachers used when I was a student let's just say that because it was open they could teach us they taught us the best they could I'm sitting here tonight and this is not the only board I've set on I've sat on Regional boards local boards and I'm sure I was there because of my education and not a white County Schools I myself as a board member is no way in the world that I could vote I could vote

291tonight take action and I could not vote for this and if it comes up and nothing has changed my vote will be named I'm not voting for this I would suggest these young people that came out tonight they asked us to form Committees of the of the educators of the parents and of the students let them sit down and look at this policy um they are intelligent enough to write the policy for themselves okay with the teachers with the educators that's what we just did with our strategic plan it was consisted of all those people and we need to do the same thing for this policy because I see where it's going it's no way it's no way I can vote for it the way it is and that's just my say thank you thank

292you Mrs Titans yeah I'll go last see okay whether we agree on policy I or not everyone here has got to agree it got us a good turnout and participation tonight now with that being said over the past few days I have received a total of 21 emails pertaining to policy IA which is on the instructional materials the majority of the responses that I received were in support of policy IIA as written a breakdown of those emails there were 12 that were in support there were nine that opposed it and out of those nine six of those emails were in opposition due to misinformation the main issue that I have seen from the emails concerning policy IIA is the concern and I must admit legitimate concern um that students will lose their AP programs that

293is not nor was it ever the intent of the policy um I can't remember I may have responded to some of you in this room while I was campaigning for the Isle of Wight County School Board my platform was very clear one of my goals was to remove sexually explicit content from our schools I made a commitment to the citizens who elected me and I will not waver in that commitment we did not make the definitions pertaining to sexually explicit content or inherently divisive content sexually explicit content is defined in Virginia code 22.1-16.8 and the inherently divisive content is defined in Governor yonkin's executive order one we did not arbitrarily create definitions we took those from those sources with all of this being said I'm not opposed to modifying the language in policy IIA to

294provide a clear understanding of the policy and benefit everyone what I will not deviate on is the commitment I made to the citizens who elected me that's all I've got it's the chair uh uh I met a clerk how many people came up and spoke tonight uh on agenda items 30. it was exactly 31. okay so so I counted only five were that were in support of uh uh I a so out of 30 we had five who were in support so that means uh 25 were not in support so we do need to sit down with the uh uh Administration teachers students and and just discuss this because this affects the whole County I mean really the whole county is going to be affected by this all children are our future I have a

295son at the high school and I don't want uh I don't want us to censor what he gets because he will be going to college he wants to go to college and it's a lot of other uh students out here who want to go to college or even go get jobs or go in the military but but the thing is we can't send them out there naive I mean they got enough sense to know what's right and what's wrong they get that from their parents so uh if we're doing what we need to do at home it's not going to be a problem with what they get and I can tell you I can I can tell you they are there are filters out there on the tablets or uh whatever the kids have the

296students have they can't go to porn sites I mean they cannot go if if somebody wants to show me give me a call and show me on a school tablet how they can go to a porn site then uh make that happen I'll meet you at the central office you show me that and uh Mr cooperider you can be there too because you're the man that makes sure that that us kids don't get the wrong thing so uh so I wanna I wanna prove to people they want to tell me something I want to prove to them that uh I'm not saying you're wrong but I can just tell you you can't you can't go to those sites you can't tell me you can go there but you got to show me if you can

297show me then you've done something to your computer and I don't know how to do it but anyway that's all I have Mr chair give you the floor bye Mr Marsh so this is a big deal right it's a big deal and it is a good turnout and I'm glad people are watching it wasn't all that long ago I was out there doing the same thing um the irony of it all is that 68.51 percent of District 4 voters voted for me because I promised to clean up and get rid of sexually explicit materials and inherently divisive social justice ideologies and there's a lot of semantics involved in here in in obviously there's some subjectiveness misunderstandings on the spirit and intent I I don't speak for anyone but myself but I think the spirit and

298intent of this policy is to make sure that we don't have kids opening up tablets and accessing digital apps that have sexually inappropriate materials and and I acknowledge that we have had successful progress in establishing filters on our digital apps and that's awesome we wouldn't be having this discussion right now if it hadn't been found prior to today is it there today I think most of it's been weeded out some of it's still there um the trick is going to be trying to figure out how to get rid of the curriculum or instructional materials or whatever you want to call it that falls into the category or the definition of pornography and it is out there in some books and and I acknowledge that what's appropriate for an elementary school kid is different for a

299middle school Age kid as compared to a high school Age kid I get that but at the end of the day if you're not 18 years old you're a minor so I will not condone providing anything to a minor that falls within the definition of pornography in the story and and I've seen the books I've read them I was up here last year reading excerpts from the books they're out there um so that's going to be the trick for the explicit part of it and then when it gets to the inherently divisive content I mean again I think what was missed here and I'm going to read the definition not all of it just just a couple words here inherently divisive content means advancing any ideas in violation of blah blah blah we heard 25

300people say it tonight keyword I think is advancing we're not saying we can't talk about racism we should talk about racism it's a real thing we're not saying we shouldn't talk about the Holocaust we should we're not saying we shouldn't talk about the Japanese internment camps and all those things are all valid points I think we all agree that learning about those topics is is crucial because as I heard several people say tonight if we don't study history we're doomed to repeat it so we're not saying let's not study history what we're trying to do with this policy is to make sure that we're not separating kids under an ideology or a notion with the intent of putting guilt on one person because of the color of their skin or their sexual preferences or putting

301or labeling someone is oppressed because of their skin color or their sexual preference we had a discussion in closed session and and we were talking about how to address people of different skin color you know when we get to the point where we talk about one another it's just people instead of saying Dr Coleman is African-American and Mrs Getz is a is a white female you know we're all just people so when we can get to that point that's where we need to be and I think I think that's where we all want to be so the spirit and intent of this message or this this Spirit intent of this policy is to make sure that the teachers aren't pushing any ideology are they doing it today probably not and if they're not doing it

302guess what executing the policy is easy the tricky part is going to be getting this policy word Smith in such a way that one of these young men up front can pick it up or pull it off the website and read it and go huh that makes sense or a parent or a teacher or anyone who looks at it can read it and go I understand and that's going to be the trick and that's the challenge that the board has and I'll let it rest at that but I would agree that the policy needs work and I give up the floor Mr chair I just want to make one statement sure I guess I've been up here the longest and on the bullet Mr Marsh they made him a a mistake in your comments it

303wasn't a mistake what you did you repeated something that we discussed in closed session that should never happen again okay that's why we call it closed session first I want to say that I am glad so many people came out especially those who disagreed with the policy we can listen to people who agree with us all day long powder shelves in the back it really doesn't do anything when you come out and you explain why you disagree with us on something we learn from that now the intent as Mr Marsh said of the policy you know was not to remove any of the classics was not to remove any of the books that we're aware of that you're using right now okay the words sexual intercourse is not sexually explicit okay period it's not is

304it appropriate for a second grader no is it appropriate for a high school student when he's reading a novel certainly this there's not an issue with that and that's kind of where we were going with this we didn't get it right that's fine we'll work on it hopefully we'll get some good input from the community from somebody AP staff from some of the central office staff even some of the students you guys really did well I was especially impressed and I know she's still here the president of Smithfield High senior class um we can alert we can learn from you all but I want to make sure that we do not have ever and I'm talking three five years down the line that nobody ever introduces any type of graphic type of sexual books into

305our schools we know they have them in other cities around here okay Virginia Beach has one in in middle school and I won't go into any description of it but it is not something that any Pride would want their kids to read so they do exist in schools so it's my opinion that we should have a policy in place so that doesn't get introduced into our schools but we do need to do it right because we've got a great school system here we've got a great AP program which is the biggest thing to be one of the biggest concerns and we are not going to do anything to jeopardize that program for any student in this County now or in the future so um I don't know if we've had a second on Mrs times

306we have so if nobody else has anything to say I think we should go ahead and vote on tabling um changing the Strat policy confirm the motion is motion to table IIA for a later action yes can we get a date or a time frame for that yeah that's probably a good idea I mean we have these kids these kids have them out there when you come back and instead of her I'm actually ready to do an action Mr chairman in what way perhaps we should amend the sitting emotion seating emotion the standing motion to say We'll table it for further discussion at the upcoming working session on 19 January yeah we can say that I mean can you repeat that I'm sorry Mr chair I moved to table policy IIA for further action and

307to be included on the agenda for the upcoming work session January 19th 19th 2023. now there was a motion on the floor so so there's a motion to men so vote on the motion of men first and then and then a second motion to to actually vote on the motion that's what I was going to say all right there you go that that's what we got to do well what it sounded like happened was right so what sounded like happened was you have emotion on the floor he made a motion to amend that motion which he can do yeah and you can all get to the same end and and then and then and then it's just easier and then we get out of here earlier I think that's all what you all want to

308do exactly and you get to the same result so vote on his amended motion to amend your emotion and then vote on your motion got it said it again I didn't get it which is an amend which is a motion to a menu emotion right so are we so I'm talking all right the motion that uh Miss towns made in our second it has been amended so we're just gonna have one vote or two two votes oh because you haven't voted on his amended Roger that so the first vote will be for Mr maresh uh no Mr Marsh A's um Amendment the the motion to amend your emotions okay yeah we're ready okay let's do it I got it all right so Mr Marsh your emotion was too because they said we're gonna put yours

309first table policy III for further action to be included on the agenda for the January 19th work session okay we're gonna take a verbal Mr Cunningham yay Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yay Mr Wooster Mrs times yay okay so now that motion is now you take a second vote to to approve and my motion the original motion was to table policy i i a for further discussion which has been amended they add the date I missed the Cunningham second okay Mr Cunningham yay Mr Marsh yay Mr colic yay Mr Wooster yay and Mrs times yay now okay I have okay that policy IA is tabled policy FFA for first read what was that typically I'd like to start reading these but not tonight in the late hour so now we have the request to speak

310on non-agenda items any individual speaking on a topic I'm related to an agenda item make contact Miss Whitlow board clerk prior to the meeting individuals may also sign up the night in meeting prior to your request to speak on non-agenda items section during the meeting do we have anyone yes okay all right 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 person speaking are asked to be specific State the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they

311should 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 closed session all right first we have Richard Rogers and later on we have a Richie Rogers and that's probably the same person so I just want to make sure okay um next we have Heidi Swartz you don't know my height yet foreign I'm going to kind of repeat something that was said but thanks Mr rooster um for rewriting our policy and filling the school board meeting for one of the first times Mr colic for allowing everyone to speak last year we would have been cut way off um Mrs tynes appears that you uh you kind of listened to the citizens tonight when over the last two

312years especially during mask and parent choice you chose not to listen to majority unfortunately I also watched you tonight um a few times be disrespectful to the three men sitting up here and um and I also watch those three men respectfully bite their tongues it's not really what I first came up here to speak to but oddly enough I did not know that Mr Marsh or Mr rooster went and did some tours to the schools but this was brought to my attention by some parents at Carrollton Elementary uh there's been understanding that there's been ongoing HVAC issues um at least in the first grade Hall and maybe in other Halls too but the first grade Hall there are three classrooms that are freezing and one feels like Asana last year portable AC units were brought

313in as an AC unit died today I ended up reaching out to some other parents and I found out that classroom temperatures were at 66 degrees Monday they were at 54 degrees this is an Elementary classrooms Monday if you remember correctly Windsor high was closed due to HVAC issues at Carrollton Elementary was open in classrooms with 54 degrees in their classrooms how are the year you know we're providing Windsors to shut down but Carrollton is still open last year Smithfield High School was shut down in the gym due to HVAC um issues during the winter how do you expect teachers to teach and students to learn in an environment that is that cold and sometimes in sauna-like conditions my understanding is that Dr Coleman has been working on the issues since he's been with Isle

314White County but that's a number of years it doesn't seem like this is a new issue but it issues that's been going on for about five years it's a shame that parents are reporting to me I don't have a student at Carrollton Elementary I have nothing to do with Carrollton Elementary but they're coming to me because they know that I'll come and I'll speak out um possibly they're not even getting portable heaters or portable AC units they did get a couple last year but they need more they're asking if maybe by even tomorrow there's some way they can get portable heaters in the classroom because it's cold uh they're asking like how do they expect small children to get a proper education in an uncomfortable conditions and the teachers to provide this I myself couldn't

315certainly imagine being in a room with 20 or so uncomfortable first graders I can imagine that would be very difficult and then to be teaching them I can't imagine that central office would not want to be sitting in 54 degree weathers I'm sure they would shut down but yet we're expecting teachers to teach and children to learn in an environment like that so I'm just bringing that to your attention because it was brought to me and they know I will stand up here and speak about anything so here I am bringing it to you get them some heaters get them some AC units that was brought to my attention thanks dick greice good evening I'm dick Grice I live at 415 Muirfield I'm in the Smithfield District this evening I applaud what this board has

316sat and listened to it is now recognizing that they need additional work on the policy 2A some of the conversation however I found extremely interesting in that the mission statement of the school was addressed multiple times to prepare our kids to go forward members you just received a report card not long ago that report card talked to sols in the number of students that we have not performing at grade level in math and reading not once this evening did I hear anything about that discussion and what you're going to do about it the second thing is that I'd like to bring up is there was a comment made and the reason I know this is I'm a trustee of the Hope Presbyterian Church where you rent space I don't remember any discussion about fencing off

317areas or putting HVAC or anything else in that facility to make it a warehouse that you would like to use for your files I also know for a fact that the reason why you are leaving in June is because you wrote rewrote the contract and only renewed it until June of this year so you're being asked to leave because you wrote a contract that said you would be leaving in June if you had written a contract that asked to extend that I'm sure that Hope Presbyterian Church would allow you additional time as you are transitioning to a new school you may want to take that into consideration oh last question our last comment was several people stood up and referenced the Bible this evening I think it's a number one bestseller maybe this is something

318you want in your libraries just a comment thank you Brandon and Courtney rice good evening I'm here to tonight to speak to you about a situation that happened to my daughter and family at carsville elementary school on January 10 2023. um my wife was my wife's reported an active threat after she was told by our daughter and my son that a student threatened to shoot her my daughter the next day I was informed by my wife at the incident which led me to contact Isle of White County Sheriff's office to see if it had been reported it had not this was now 45 minutes after the incident had been reported to school officials so I reported an active threat at that time and officers were dispatched to the school after arriving at the school and

319speaking with the school administration and officers about the threat and how it would be handled I questioned I asked the question what is your EOP for keeping children safe tomorrow I got nothing I informed them at that time my children would not be returning to the school until I am informed on adequate safety measures that are in place and I still have gotten nothing the next day at 9 35 a.m parents received an email from the school administrators that there was an active threat the day before this is alarming because the investigation wasn't finished and it was unknown that that this was a single child event at the time of notification was received children were already attending school and parents were not given the opportunity to withhold their children from school this should have all

320been a part of a proper mitigation of a threat covered by an EOP and should be concerning to the entire community the manner that this investigation has been held handled led me to investigate on my own what safety procedures and protocols the county has in place on your website during my investigation I came across the ottawait county 2022 school safety survey within the survey our numerous alarming details and I will briefly cover just a few and these few that I am going to cover have a percentage rating which isn't clearly defined in the safety survey so the first one being on page four question six 100 of Administrators have not attended a Department of Criminal Justice Services SRO and or administrator basic course page 11 security strategies section states that zero percent of staff and

321students have been trained and run hide fight and also only one percent have been training on how the barricade doors page 25 kinds of training requested by our administrators Mental Health Training has been requested by 25 of the administrators specific threat related topics you have been requested by 11 percent one minute page 26 biggest challenges to the threat assessment team 28 is determined the level of threat and I'll go past the rest these are only a few of the alarming concerns that I have found I would like to request a focused meeting on procedure and protocol for the safety of our schools and I would like to also ask you this one question do you feel you can keep children safe adequately with their procedures and protocols you had in place currently that's all I

322got Jake fails Kylie Hilbert Bridget Giles Angela Schwartz Charles haskett Luanne Scott Elijah I'm sorry Smith sorry Sarah fails Ryan Mack David Adams foreign I thought the mass conversations were long holy smokes guys uh David Adams Windsor District um congratulations chairman colic and vice chairman uh Marsh Mrs tynes and Mr Cunningham thank you for serving those roles in uh 2022. um this is a lot to go over here so I'm going to focus on one thing first the CIP I know the unfortunate event that happened in Newport News can't happen here oh maybe it can I I think we should prioritize the CIP to move the security measures to the top of the list burying our head in the sand and pretending it can happen here is a Fool's errand um the safety of all

323our children should be the number one thing if they're on the bus if they're in the school it doesn't matter so hopefully we can make that happen I I don't want to see metal detectors I'm not I'm not proponent of that but there has to be something we can do to be proactive in a very reactive environment um to the policy IIA I'm a bridge builder I've talked to everybody up there I think at least a little bit I want to find common ground where we all agree um Mr Marsh she said something just a second ago what is appropriate for a second grader and what's appropriate for a high schooler I think we all agree is is completely different my son's 12 goes to Georgie Tyler middle school and he's having conversations I'm not

324ready for a 12 year old to be having but but it is what it is um is is rape a good topic no but should little girls understand what rape is what consent is yeah as a parent I don't want to have that conversation I'm uncomfortable there but to uh to kind of amplify what other people said where we're uncomfortable we're going to grow we're going to come to a consensus we're going to figure that out I applaud you for voting to table it until January 19th um the problem with that meeting is it's at 3 30. how many people are going to be able to make it to that meeting so I implore the people that might watch this afterwards email your representatives on this school board with your comments the last thing I

325want to talk about is I heard a lot of people attacking what you guys have created um but no one gave you a head I would have put this or I would have put that and that's what I'd like to see come from the community you guys are doing and Mrs times I apologize you're doing what you can with the information you have but we need to give you something um uh I know I said that was my last thing but it's not inherently divisive especially when it's tied to an executive order doesn't make a lot of sense to put in a policy in my opinion because when the state executive changes and it will what then how's the policy going to be written um if you are trying to and you you very clearly

326articulated what your intent was we want to block this explicit language or this explicit content be very specific in your policy leave no room for ambiguity we're blocking this this and this then people can't come to you with reductive arguments and say well what about this and what about that no it's not in the policy we're not trying to block that um I've rambled on long enough this has been a long enough meeting thank you very much and thank you to the support staff for everything you're doing foreign next we have Lewis Edmonds so first of all Mrs times I want to start with this real quick your comment to Mr Marsh was completely out of line in August you stood up that you stood right there and the Chairman's seat and you lied about

327the interviews that took place for the appointing people interviews that took place in closed session so it's one thing to talk about closed sessions another thing to lie about it and then on top of that this organization destroyed all the records in violation of the Virginia Public Records act um so I couldn't even prove that you had lied in in that uh closed session and this board has done nothing to address that since I brought it up in uh in September so I think you're a little out of line with that you're it's hypocrisy and it's disgusting um so moving on to uh tonight's uh comments and everything else you know uh I agree a lot of the students here that spoke tonight extremely well spoken and everything else um there's some interesting things that

328kind of came out of that though uh you know this is a county that reliably votes UH 60 40 towards Right cleaning politics um all of the students here tonight not very much of a diverse opinion that was in line with not a very diverse opinion from the Educators and I find it really strange that almost all of the speakers if not all of the student speakers came from Smithfield High School AP classes uh what are the what are the Rubes down in Windsor in the southern end of the county what are they doing like do we not understand what you're trying to pull here so I just find a little odd that all the student comments came from the Smithfield High School and we have AP students at Windsor and not a single one

329came from Windsor a little strange to me but we'll leave that there um you know I I'll be honest with you I'm not a big fan of censorship um I do think the policy does have some some rough edges that need to be worked out um if I was to recommend a policy I would go with at least as a bridging thing uh you know we could do what I refer to as the times Doctrine the times Doctrine is if it's so disgusting that you wouldn't let a parent put it up in a school board meeting to be displayed to the public and you tell senior staff that you're protecting the public from that material probably shouldn't be in the school system so we can apply the times Doctrine until we can all get together

330and apply a more feasible policy um the last piece that I'll talk here so I am somebody that you know quotes does the work I read a lot I like to be informed fully informed so I'm all about having hard conversations and tough conversations as long as it's age-appropriate and it's it's in the right environment so brought a couple things from my uh Library happy to share them uh so one book is how to be anti-racist so this book has gotten a lot of attention and everything else students should read it there are ideas in here if you're going to read this though then you should also read also from you know a a black educator from Thomas Seoul the Quest for Cosmic Justice both books are about social justice you will get two very

331different opinions from two very similarly lived experiences that's what I am worried about you know uh we talk about you know transgender stuff and everything in the schools and you know making sure those students are safe and everything else how many teachers are bringing up irreversible damage and a lot of stories about uh people that transitioned and then they detransosition because they realize that they've been LED astray again there's two sides to every story and if you want to understand what a lot of this was tonight I highly recommend The Madness of crowds written by a gay man and he talks about the gay agenda and other things so happy to let anybody borrow them the only thing worse than censorship is presenting one side of the story and treating it as Undisputed Truth thank

332you Jasmine Johnson Laura Fletcher I just um have a little uh catch-up list as well I appreciate your time and your allowing me to do this first of all again regarding the censorship thing I I thank you actually for bringing that so that we can have this conversation the whole purpose of this is not distance or books I'd like for the young people in the room to understand that I would never I'm not interested in censoring ideas there are topics though that are weighty issues we've already said that and these are things that parents should be involved in we don't need our children carrying a lot of this on their own and it's wrong for educators to think that somehow they can block us from that or that we don't deserve to be a part

333of the conversation and whether that's what they mean or not that is how it's being presented so one thing I would like to suggest is that there really needs to be a literature committee some sort of a committee teachers and parents school board members maybe each School Board District could rep could have three parents elementary middle and high school that would participate in this board then they could be responsible to share with you their representative on the board what's going on and we would just have a fleet flow of information flow of information that's because what we want to do as a community is create safeguards some sort of guard rails we have we have youth that are going out of control whether it be drug drug addiction suicide child trafficking things that we've never

334seen before in these numbers and we must address it and the very best place to address it is here close to home and we can do that together as a community my other concern is I just want to say this it's it's very alarming as taxpayers and citizens to hear our elector elected representatives want to rush to vote it's very alarming my money my savings is going out the door right now I understand y'all's is too and I understand that we have building things going on that we planned before we knew how the economy would turn I'm not faulting that I am asking you though to consider every cost every decision that you make right now because we've elected you to be good stewards of our funds and in light of that I'd like for

335you to also then consider whro because what came up in the i1a is really a problem because they're doing a lot of teacher training and that was evident in their last presentation to the school board one of their things brought up 18 who professional development sessions were offered in 2021-2022 the top two topics were social emotional learning creating connections and building resilience and Equity DIY practice tips for creating Equitable classrooms in 2022 and Beyond those are things again that go directly against the executive order of yankin what taxpayers voters in Virginia do not want because it is divisive it does not honor civil rights it is wrong and the thing is is we have the cyclical pay system with whro where everybody feeds in and they control so much information coming into the schools it

336absolutely needs to be addressed Mr Cunningham is the representative whro I hope you'll really consider that because what they're bringing in is not always good wholesome content and I hope you'll consider teacher training in light of these concerns thank you Kieran Smith hi I just want to be really quick I know it's really late I just want to address a comment that was made by citizen tonight and by our new board members and I thank you for serving on the board I would never do it in a million years it's a nightmares but I want to say so everyone's making this assumption that Mr Worster and Mr mush were elected because of their stance on removing explicit and divisive material from schools I want to say that the people everybody in the County votes for

337the school board not just the parents in the of children in Isle of Wight County Schools most of my neighbors colleagues friends who don't have children in the school system have no idea what's happening in the school system you know they don't know what the current issues are they don't know anything about it if someone walked down my street there's only three kids in Isle of Wight schools on my street and said do you want pornography in schools every single one of them would say no that doesn't translate to the policy that was presented tonight and if you told them this is what it would be they would probably say no so you can win majority of votes in your District but that does not mean that you win the majority of votes for the

338parents of Isle of Wight County yeah I think there's a lot of reasons I know people voted for you too I don't want to go into specifics but it's not necessarily because of your stance so don't think that you have a mandate because you won and that's the only reason you won okay that's all I want to say I just wanted to put it out there and just just think that there are other reasons why people voted for you okay a lot of it is a lot of my neighbors know your names because you were campaigning and your names and signs were seen with our current Congress representative you know they don't know you they know nothing about what you stand for but they know your needs and if you go in to vote who

339do you know on the ballot I'll vote for the person I've heard the name of that's all I want to say thank you tonight [Applause] that's it Mr Richard okay next we have board member requests and comments I Mrs times go ahead and turn on your mic it's actually came before me in December staff member in one of the buildings here in the county had some concerns because when they are hired through HR they have an option I think maybe 10 months 12 months whatever you know contracts well in previous years if most of the teachers are hired on a 10-month contract they had the option if they wanted to to have some of their funds uh set aside from their monthly checks so while they are home during the months of July and August

340they can receive a check well I guess that has changed over the years well um it came to my attention that there's possibility there are some staff members on those 10 month contracts would um well well this would like to see that done again and I just would like to see staff you know maybe they can report one I don't know what it changed I just found out it has changed because I thought it was still the same yeah if we could find out the feasibility that Dr Kramer that would benefit staff members absolutely yeah it's certainly something we will look into absolutely okay that's that's my only request because the the individual this is the third request they have made of me because they live in my district so I said I will present

341it to the board tonight and maybe staff can look in to find out what happened and if it's something we need to address and go back to that because I guess if they're hard on a 10-month contract they have the right to be paid for 10 months if they want to or they have the option if we have the fund set aside for 12 months Mr Worster you have anything to say I've got nothing Mr Marsh and Mr Cunningham not now okay very good I just I've just got one thing uh for next month uh Dr Kramer you and I talked a couple months ago um about what I want to comments that um supervisor Grace made what are we doing for um the kids that are not up to reading level so we still

342looking at that in another month as I shared we'll have staff provide a presentation in the coming months yes perfect thank you okay and we are done there so without any further Ado and it's uh pretty close to tomorrow this meeting is adjourned