School Board Meeting 12/8/22

001have two new faces up here with us we have Mr Marsh and we have Mr Wooster there are new school board members Mr Wooster is uh District Two and Mr Marsh is District Four and for those of you to still working with the names of those District Mr Wooster Newport District Mr Marsh Windsor District the old names okay and we would like to welcome them and uh to our school board and they are looking forward to seeing you all you all every month sitting out there okay thank you very much okay the next item on the agenda would be approval of approval of the agenda or amendments and we do have an amendment Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add one Amendment to the school calendar two second

002round of funding for the workforce Grant and three that's a three funding requests to supplement one thousand dollar bonuses okay you heard the motion do we hear a second Madam chair I'll second that we have a motion and a second at this time we will act on the motion please take a vote there it is sure um verbal hold up one second Mr Wooster just told me that he has an amendment as well to the agenda so we're going to hold off on voting and we can do all of the Amendments at the same time Mr Cunningham uh gave us three amendments and it was second by the Mr uh call it Mr Wooster Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to place revised draft policy IA instructional materials which

003prohibits sexually explicit content or inherently divisive material from being used in instructional material as part of a student's curriculum on the agenda for first read have a question of Madam chair do since that's a another in addition do we have do I have to resend these no no well what you can do is I think what's happened under parliamentary procedure is that there's a vote there's a motion on the floor there's discussion Mr Wooster has made a substitute an amended motion so I think we've if you all vote on you you all can vote on um Mr wooster's motion separate first okay and if that passes then it becomes the agenda then you all can vote on the agenda okay so you can make two votes the first would be the vote on Mr Wooster

004which appears to have been a um substitute motion to add to the agenda to add it to add to the amended agenda the only issue is we've already started voting on amending the agenda but so we want to put you you can have multiple amendments you vote on yes yeah you would vote on each Amendment uh attorney pack what we're going to do the first amendment that has already that's on the floor the first motion is on the floor now we're just going to go forward and vote on that one then we're going to come back no no no you would vote on Mr wooster's motion first okay yes all right and just uh Madam chair I'm I've got a couple questions for the attorney um I may have a motion as well for an

005amendment okay okay and Mike my question is um related to public hearings versus public comments uh this evening if we have this we're having this public hearing tonight on um ship and rezoning is it a public hearing at the rate at the meeting yes did you all advertise it as a public hearing pardon me what did you did you advertise it as a public here yes it's advertising public hearing mess theft would you step forward uh to confirm is Miss Briggs they have a public a CIP and it was advertised as public hearing right okay yeah I just want to make sure I have the facts right yeah okay so Mike my question is we we have the public hearing tonight the school board has yet to discuss either one of those issues in a

006work session um would we be able to have a second public hearing uh later of course okay yes okay I appreciate that then I will I will not be yeah nothing prevents the board from having as many okay public hearings and input as it wants okay Madam chair I will not be asking for an amendment all right thank you Mr Wooster will you please repeat your emotion again so we can have it like a lot of things have come up since you made your motion so okay I moved to amend the agenda to place a revised draft policy IIA instructional materials which prohibits sexually explicit content and or inherently divisive material from being used in instructional material as part of a student's curriculum on the agenda for first read Madam chair I'll second that okay

007we have a motion and a second any discussion okay I would like to let you all know that I'm going to be giving an update on that particular most item in that motion when we get to the policy on the agenda the policy section on the agenda and that update is not an update that's coming from Isle of Wight County Board policy is coming from the state directly from the governor him uh Department of Education okay uh we were in the middle of voting on because some people have already voted on the motion I made correct did it come up on a computer yeah oh yeah so that was okay so no problem then I was just worried about being on one motion or being in the middle of voting on one motion and then

008another uh being added but if it's been closed out then no problem okay it appears that Mr Wooster was attempting to do a substituted motion to add an additional item on the amend amended agenda so I think the proper course would be to vote on his motions but he wants to add an item to the agenda to the amended agenda okay I just want to make sure we do it the right way so okay so so now we just yeah make sure make sure the record is correct for for um for purposes of the minutes okay we're going to do the verbals on Mr booster's motion okay so Mr Wooster I just want to make be clear because we want to make sure the minutes is correct is it your motion is you is it

009your motion to add an agenda item to the motion that Madam chair had made earlier my intent is to add to the current agenda tonight in addition to that right so so Madam chair the current motion on the floor is to to is for to add three items to the agenda and my understanding is that your emotion which would be proper at this stage would be to add a fourth one to Madame chairs um propose three additional items is that correct yes okay make sure that make sure the motion is phrased that way okay but that's what I said from the beginning and then he changed me and told me we had to vote on them separately because that's what I was thinking that he wanted to add another motion to another item to the

010three that we already had making it four items it's it's much cleaner that way okay okay all right so now instead of four items added to be a the agenda to be amended we're adding instead of three we're adding four thank you okay so we're going to be voting on four items versus three all right I'm going to take a verbal vote Mr Marsh yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs times yay Mr Cunningham yay and Mr colic yay okay motion passes thank you very much it's like a little while we got here all right the next item on the agenda we have motion to go into closed session Madam chair I like to make a motion to go into uh close meeting a closed meeting to review the Personnel report and addendum posted on board docs

011under Personnel tab number 18.1 as authorized by Virginia code 2.1 there's three seven one one a one for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Isle of Wight public schools for employment contract changes transfers supplemental contracts and deletion and resignations of Isle of Wight County Public School Employees uh and uh to move I move the that the school board going to closed session to discuss Lemon versus Isle of Wight County School Board and short versus Holly uh and all of White County school board as authorized by Virginia code 2.2 -371187 for purposes of consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual litigation where such consultation in open meeting would adversely affect the litigation posture of the school board Madam chair I'll second that we have a motion at a second this time we will

012vote yeah I don't think I'm joined because I don't it's not coming up for me you're going to fix it while we're in all right Mr Marsh yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yay Mr Cunningham yay and Mr colic yay okay we will go into closed session Madam clerk do we have anyone to join us in a closed session this evening okay thank you at this time we're in closed session thank you that was nice [Applause] sometimes challenges arise when you [Applause] Miss per year is the back that was nice [Applause] sometimes challenges arise when you least expect them [Music] foreign thank you good evening and welcome this is the uh you we at this time we will reconvene and we will get certifications of resolutions of compliance Madam chair I'd like to make a

013motion uh the closed meeting was conducted in Conformity with the provisions of Virginia freedom information act as required by section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia and certify that only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting reprisals were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in Emotion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard discussed or considered and Madam chair second that motion okay motion passes I see three well five five years thank you motion passes okay next item on the agenda is where we all can participate because I will welcome everyone that has joined us tonight for our regular board meeting this is our last board meeting for this particular year the Year of 2020 2022. um as I always uh say at the beginning of our meeting when

014we open the meeting Isle of Wight County Schools we're always preparing students for college career and life thank you for coming out and Welcome to our meeting next on the agenda we have alawite Achievers with Mrs Len Briggs no hot ledge oh I'm sorry I've just jumped it sorry Miss Briggs we will have Pledge of Allegiance at a moment of silence led by Mr Cunningham I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all moment of silence please thank you now we have Mrs Briggs good evening good evening good evening thank you the vision for Isle of Wight County Schools is to create a learning environment that will enable every child to discover his

015or her unique gifts and talents the Isle of Wight Achievers section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts our first honoree tonight is from Smithville High School Liz defleury won third place in the Virginia school boards Association 11th annual student video contest the contest challenged high school students across Virginia to create a 30-second video around the theme of rising above Liz's entry forging ahead to rise above highlights how students are developing skills to solve challenges the contest gives students an opportunity to create thought-provoking videos individually in a small group or as a class project videos were judged on how whether while they addressed the topic the quality of the production of the video as well as the depth of thought

016and creativity of the video the contest was open to Virginia Public High School students and one entry per School Division was accepted the first second and third place winners were announced during the bsba annual convention in November de Fleury's entry is posted on our YouTube channel and we're going to show it in just a second so while Mr cooperider cues that up I also want to say Liz recently created graphics for an internationally used foreign language educational website called Help Me versus digital okay thank you defleury developed multiple illustrations to be used for trivial night an interactive trivia game that can be accessed by teachers and students through the website when trivia night is officially launched her Graphics will be on display for a worldwide audience and on top of that I mean if it

017couldn't get any better she I just understood she Liz you got your acceptance letter into VCU School of graphic arts today [Music] so let's see some of Liz's work Mr cooperider if you could go ahead and start this video that was nice sometimes challenges arise when you least expect them [Music] that's when tenacity confidence and a strong Vision come into play with a little hard work and determination anyone who Forge ahead empowering and inspiring others to do the same Virginia Public Schools never giving up and always Rising above that's awesome and we congratulate Liz and Liz if you want to step over here I think Mr Elliott's going to get a photo but I also want to add that's a true story with what happened to field hockey the net broke the the post broke

018and one of the students who takes welding repaired it so the girls could keep going so that as they say inspired by a true story that is a true story and we thought it was a great idea for Liz to do that and we're very very proud of her and by the way she also did get third place last year in the vsba contest so she's on a roll yay [Applause] next we're going to introduce our rise award honoree the rise award which stands for recognizing inspirational School Employees was created by Congress in 2019 to honor classified School Employees such as clerical School nutrition Health Pupil Transportation and custodial staff who provide exemplary service to students and their communities Virginia invites School divisions to submit a nominee from from which two state level winners will

019be selected to continue to the National level this year Isle of Wight County Schools selected Lisa per year as our Rising as our rise Award nominee per year is being nominated for her exemplary service to the students community and culture of the school constantly going above and beyond the Call of Duty she does work at Westside as an instructional assistant I think she's got her support her Entourage here today right West Side there we go [Applause] um as an instructional assistant for special needs children Miss Perrier Works directly with high need students in support of their learning she provides additional resources to students when they're in their general education classrooms special education classrooms as well as when they're in resource classes such as art music she helps students during her assigned history and math time

020with small group testing and direct instruction she's also amazing during whole group lessons by reminding students to stay on task and offering additional help she's a true definition of a team player um we created a video it used to be with this program they wanted you to submit a video and this year they said they just had a written nomination but we love doing the videos uh we have you know our secret weapon of Mr Elliott and he has put together an outstanding video to honor Miss Puryear and to let everyone see just how special she is and important she is to West Side Elementary and all white County Schools so Mr cooperider whenever you're ready Miss per year is the backbone of West Side Elementary she is also the heart as soon as she

021walks into the store she always has a smile on her face she always greets every single student off the bus with a smile a hug a handshake a high five Miss per year I have to say is the glue she's the glue when it comes to students his bed students comes to her house house Julia she holds everyone together keeps everyone together helps the teachers helps the students snap our fingerprint Miss for you I need you to do this she's right there doing it she is able to fill in any position if the teacher position is it covering for a classroom an encore class she is always there she is amazing she touch Hots she loves the kids she is she have tremendous amount of patience she also helps the kids believe in themselves that

022they can do their assignments their projects that they need to do and just become like lifelong learners Miss Korea she's an amazing teacher and she helps with a lot of people she makes you happy and um she can help you whatever she has whatever you um have to do if you're stuck learner she can help you with a lot of stuff she's nice and she's sweet and she has a lot of patience when she's with us if we don't understand something and we get frustrated she helps us and she doesn't get mad she basically it was almost everybody in the school she really puts all of her emotions into her into her help not only do the students rely on her but all employees here at West Side rely on her if we need anything

023we go to miss per year she's well loved she love all her colleagues she'd do anything for anybody if one of the colleagues need to talk just need somebody to lean on who do they go to miss per year even when I was a teacher here at Westside and even as a principal you definitely are the foundation of west side and we love you we couldn't imagine West Side without you every time I'm with this part here it's a good memory she's one of those employees that she's the backbone [Music] well we do without her as far I love you she is truly an amazing educator an amazing person an amazing woman [Music] we are so proud of Miss Puryear and so now she is our nominee the state will select two and like I

024said I'm glad we get to honor her and recognize her and the I mean the kids and the staff just tell the story so I also would like to say she's a a proud graduate of my classroom Smithville High School so yeah you notice I didn't throw the year out there miss purrier we keep that yes that's between us okay congratulations Lisa [Music] all right next we have our seniors of the month we actually going to backtrack and recognize our Smithville High Senior the month from November he was unable to be with us then so the senior of the month from November for Smithville High School is Garrett Holly and Garrett's going to join us up here and I think Miss Getz that will go to him Garrett who serves as the Battalion commander of

025the Smithville JROTC Packer Battalion was recognized recently with the Legion of Valor award for 2022. the award was presented to Holly by Lieutenant Colonel retired Rich Ronaldo a distinguished service cross recipient only one Cadet and approximately 4 000 Cadets participating in JROTC as honored with this prestigious award Garrett is a member of the school's National Honor Society and the rifle team and he's received numerous Awards including the Special Forces Award of Excellence and Superior Cadet award he also served on the JROTC leadership academic and drill teams he's active in both his community and his church JROTC instructor Lieutenant Colonel badoin stated in my experience Garrett is in the top one percent of the cadets I've ever observed or instructed after graduation Garrett plans to attend Brigham Young University on a JROTC scholarship excuse me on

026an ROTC scholarship and serve in the U.S army as an officer after earning his degree and we congratulate Garrett on his accomplishment very good and here we'll have you go over here Mr Elliott we'll get a quick photo and while he's doing that I'm going to move on to December unfortunately our wins are a senior of the month is unable to be with us tonight but we still want to recognize him and he has an invitation to come in January so hopefully he will do that as often times these students are very busy the senior of the month for December from Windsor high is David Wooten David strives for excellence in his classes and works to inspire those around him he never has an unkind word to say about his peers and will volunteer to

027help others without a second thought David has overcome many obstacles and has chosen to continually look on the bright side he is willing to stand his ground on issues that may not be deemed popular and takes class discussion and activity activity seriously quote David is one of the kindest and funniest young man I've ever had the pleasure of teaching he always brings smiles to my to the face of those in the class and myself he is reliable friendly and responsible and he's going to do amazing things in life and that comes from Mrs Halstead the government teacher at Windsor High David plans on attending a four-year College to obtain a bachelor's degree in Psychology and ultimately become a licensed psychologist and we congratulate David foreign our senior of the month for December from Smithville High

028School is Noah Harris Noah is an active volunteer in her community she volunteers at Studio 17 as a mentor to the younger dancers she also volunteers at her church as a youth leader and teacher Noah is Smith Ohio's Bayport representative and is an excellent role model for her peers here in the building she always has a smile on her face and does not hesitate to help her classmates or teachers when called upon quote Noah has a work ethic that is highly commendable she is very organized dependable and always on time she takes her responsibilities seriously and has high expectations for herself and that comes from Mr comeek economics teacher Noah plans to attend either Liberty University or Bowie State University after graduation and major in business and we congratulate Noah [Music] foreign we'll have you

029go right over there and once again Mr Elliott's going to come up to get a photo oh and if there's any family here that wants to come up to get a picture as well or even hop in the photo there we go come on here we go is this an exciting night come on you're welcome come on there we go and while they're doing that we're going to move on to our final honor tonight which is the ABCD award each quarter we recognize one of our support staff members who has gone above and beyond the Call of Duty anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations a panel reviews the nominees and selects the quarterly winners our 2022 2023 second quarter ABCD Award winner is Marcia Palmer in-school suspension instructional assistant at Smithville Middle

030School Ms Palmer [Applause] stand right up here in front Miss Palmer and face the board um the nomination for Ms Palmer stated the following assess has a different meaning at SMS usually it is referred to as in-school suspension Miss Marshall Palmer is recognized for I'll show support the beginning of the year there are a lot of extracclerical Duties that are required without having to be asked Miss Palmer asks how can she support others Ms Palmer graciously sees the need and acts upon it the ISS instructional assistant Ms Palmer should not only be recognized for working with students to correct disciplinary issues but as I'll show support instructional assistant she builds relationships with the students and colleagues to develop a family atmosphere which helps to make Smithville Middle School a special place as part of Ms

031Palmer's award she is receiving a 50 Visa gift card thanks to the generous support of bluebird Bus Sales of Virginia she is also receiving a personalized plaque created in the Smithville High School maker space and we congratulate you Mrs Palmer [Music] thank you [Applause] and as Mr Elliott takes her picture I'll tell you that that concludes our Achievers for December we want to thank all of our honorees for coming out tonight and for their family members and friends and guests who join them yes ma'am Miss times um I have something I would like to say normally uh I would like to recognize an individual tonight I really don't know if they're here but I'm gonna do it anyway uh this individual uh since I've been on the board has always been there no matter what

032if um if I call upon the individual they are always there willing to help with a smile I have never seen that individual no matter what we asked of that individual they have always been there doing it with a smile and that's very important because I don't know in life sometimes you ask people to do things at the last minute and they'll tell you well I can't do that even if it's their job to do it they would tell you well I have to do it another day I can't do it today we never get that from that individual so I have decided I always uh say that you know I look at this individual and I know uh family of the individual I uh well I I don't really I'm trying to choose my

033words because I really want to surprise the individual like I said I don't know if they're here I'm looking over the audience but not to make this too long tonight I would like to recognize land Barlow Briggs [Applause] nope good thing real good well deserved you don't need you and I don't want all these always [Applause] [Music] [Applause] next on our agenda we have special presentation and that's eye on instructions the first one will be Windsor High School students and staff are just the students we need an extra chair just pull one up from right behind your young man the first row just pull it right up thank you if you want to I guess I don't know um good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Kramer um we're here to talk

034to you about Miss Chapman's floor culture class at Windsor High School my name is Victoria slick my name is Autumn kalis uh my name is Carson Pierce thank you and we're going to tell you a little bit about what we do at school and Miss Chapman's class we get to create our own flower arrangements and we get to choose and give to the staff members and Windsor High School some students say I felt good because of their reaction it made me happy to see that it made their their day better during The Fall season we created floral pumpkin Arrangements maybe Charizard and flowers and we made arrangements and put them in pumpkins for Veterans Day um we helped create Bud vases for Smithfield Middle School's veteran celebration luncheon and we chose red and white carnations

035to resemble the flag of the Victorian style handbook called a news gay is used to ward off bad odors if we made these we made these for the staff at Windsor High School they're not used to ward off bad eaters anymore that's what they were used originally for air just for decoration now and to show our appreciation yeah we explored several different cultures and studies of floral arrangements including the Japanese style Ikebana which has three separate parts that represent Heaven man and Earth and the foliage we collected outside of Windsor High School in the woods at the back of the school in the fields and then we made our own Arrangements in class another quote that a student said was flowers can give off positive energy and give people happiness it feels good to give

036someone something you made and the reactions are very exciting it made me feel good I learned that flowers make people have emotions and show kindness another quotation said it's a simple gift for flowers can brighten someone's day I was happy when I presented it to teachers and my friends because it I felt like it brightened their day for the school Fall Festival that we had in October we helped Miss Chapman decorate the gate outside of the school we use different materials for fall including mums hay bales and pumpkins for homecoming we got to create bouquets and um corsages for the homecoming court and we also got to experiment some with the white carnations that we had we took blue food dye and we turned into white carnations into blue to represent our school colors and

037another thing that we did with our extra supplies that we had Ms Chapman allowed us to create corsages for our friends and us for our own homecoming dance and we got to show off our work in the homecoming parade for our homecoming court and around you you should have your own nose gay or tassimazi that we made in class throughout the last couple of days um everything we did as a class together by hand so we hope you enjoy them and do you have any questions you saw beautiful you all are doing excellent work there I see now you're going to be giving some of the local businesses some competition as a matter of fact the floral arrangement that I gave Mrs Briggs tonight the uh class did that for for me as well thank

038you so [Applause] and I appreciate this I really do and but what I want to do now there is another young lady that does a lot for me and that's Miss Jessica because the gentleman here they all have spouses and they can take their corsages too I have a husband and he's not going to want it Jessica Jessica can wear this tomorrow while she's walking around doing school jobs okay but thank you all very much I appreciate it here you go Jessica [Applause] okay and while they were presenting I'm I would like to recognize that our Sheriff clock James clock came in to join us momentarily is he still here oh he just stepped out okay but a sheriff clock was here thank you okay [Laughter] while they're taking the pictures of Smithville High School

039and staff can come forward we have the culinary arts these are all the CTE programs in Isle of Wight County Schools oh okay Jessica you're not gonna get this [Laughter] yeah right thank you have a good day thank you very much really this is Chef horn and his students good afternoon Madam chairman School Board my name is Joseph gray I do not attend Smithfield High School I attend Windsor High School right okay I'm sorry my mistake because I forgot you all we wanted to represent both kids tonight okay but it's all right um I am a culinary one student and over summer break of 2022. experimenting in my grandfather's kitchen um really inspired me to cook and started so I wanted to do culinary and um yeah it wouldn't be possible what we did during

040Thanksgiving without Chef or the rest of my classmates and I'm really appreciative of them here in the first slide we got one of my close friends Natasha she may cook um cook green beans right and um we make homemade stock with bacon fat and herbs baked from scratch and then next we have Nick Fenton and Robbie making peanut butter cookies and I'll let Robbie explain how the peanut butter cookies went hmm um hi guys I'm Robbie uh so I work with this guy Nick and so something great about coronary is that you get to meet people that you don't really think that you're gonna like so okay that sounded really bad that sounded really bad okay so Nick likes a lot of things that I don't like and I like a lot of things and

041Nick doesn't like and so something really cool that Chef horn does is he puts you with a bunch of different people like 24 7. so you have like your friends in the class and you also have the people that you don't really hang out with in class and so Nick was one of the people I didn't really hang out with too much and so during this Thanksgiving project I really got to spend some time with him and so for one of his projects that he wanted to do he wanted to make some cookies and so he made some cookies and actually really got to know him and he's I can call my buddy now so that happens like a lot in the culinary program I met a lot of people that I I really didn't

042think I would like but now I can call a lot of them my friends so um something great else about the culinary program is is the teachers and so Chef Warren and Chef Hagin are two absolutely phenomenal teachers and they do so much for the students and also something amazing like this where we we help make Thanksgiving dinner for over 100 families so all right so this is where all the work came in we produced over 2400 sweet potato biscuits 105 apple pies and 105 pecan pies so we would roll out all the dough and then we would take it we would slice it on and put it on top of like all the pies we would brush them we would say flour we would take sweet potatoes and we did all that and so

043we made so many batches the first few were kind of fun but after that I cut you know foreign and then afterwards we put them all in the freezer and we bagged them up and we had it individually write the date on every single one of them so that was fun um and so this slide right here family um the the picture that's in the center right there we took a bunch of boxes about 105 boxes and so we filled every single box with all the food that we had and so our project's name was helping hands so we would take our hands and we would paint the big part Brown and do multiple colors of something else and so we would take our hands stamp them all four sides of the box and then

044we would draw on them and so we would write like little encouraging messages like draw turkeys and stuff and uh we did all that and we thought it was going to take a couple days but we knocked it out pretty quick 45 minutes yeah it was fun uh and then um Chef Hagen right there who's in the top left is there working with Joe they're slicing turkey and bagging it up we had to take turkey I'll put in the bag wait on the scale and measure it to exactly like two pounds so a lot of prep went into this but I think the end result was just absolutely amazing and amazed us feel really great inside about what we did so something a little bit okay I want to talk just a little bit about

045the few of the folks in the slides here Jaden Richards in the center as also Windsor high school student he was supposed to be here tonight and had a conflict last minute and was able unable to join us I've become just enamored by this this gentleman's work ethic he works to the bell every day Windsor has to leave a little bit earlier because they have to trans you know transport back to Windsor high school but what really strikes me about Jaden is he has to say hello and goodbye every day he will not start until the good the hello and goodbye that's just his thing and I love him for it he has become one of those folks that has touched just about every piece in the Box um what can I do Chef I

046mean if I if I say hey I need this I mean he is running to me I'm just so happy to have been able to spend time with Jaden I'm very proud of him I can't wait to see what he does next um top left you'll see our freezer completely packed like we said we fed about 105 families so each box had to have one of those items sweet potatoes in that in that picture right there you can see collards and quartz all the pies and bags we got to a point where there wasn't really any space left in the freezer luckily that was the same time as we were starting to pull out and pack boxes and it it all worked wonderfully um just crazy how it all came together Chef on the bottom

047there Chef Hagan just a great personal friend of mine and I'm so proud to work next to him every day we made all of that bread from scratch so we made stuffing for all of our boxes it started with the bread like Joe said we made stock and and while we're going through and I'm going to brag on these two a little bit while I've got the chance we're making all this food for 105 families for the first six weeks we were eating all the food that we produced right so all this food's going in the freezer and the kids are like what are we gonna eat which I'm proud to be able to feed them um so I challenged them with the concept I call family meal and if you've ever worked in a

048restaurant or work fine dining like most of my experience is that was a part that I look forward to each day and was sitting down with your with your staff your co-workers in Breaking Bread kind of getting prepared for the shift and and putting it all out there what are your fears what are your well you know what went well today what could we have done better and so these two often would be in charge of family meal and so while we're doing all this hard work to drop this food and the lapse of folks that really need it we were still teaching other type of competencies other type of skills and techniques together as friends and then we got to fellowship at the end of the day and just it's just incredible so I

049I thank you both for all the hard work on the boxes and family meals and efforts like that it's Nick fitting in the top right just smiling on the bottom right here two these two girls did so much on our on our production but this particular photo is uh we're all pretty much done with production and we were feeding our teachers we did Smash Burgers one day so we have toast as our point of sale qdaddies and cure use it in town so our students get some real life Hands-On training on some applications right here in our community so we sold all of our Burgers we sold out 50 Burgers and Fries I mean it looked like Chick-fil-A in there y'all I'm not lying like everybody was doing their thing burgers are coming off they're

050going in the bun they're putting them in the box they're stapling the bag receipt to the bag just incredible we were able to donate 441 dollars back to our United Way fund for our school by doing things and feeding our teachers so I'm very proud of that effort as well go the next guys look at that she'll take it back over again so as you already know we spent over 200 pounds of protein 2 000 pounds of protein um 210 um pies 18 bushlets of collards and 600 pounds of potatoes four 48 loaves of bread and 30 gallons of gravy and as an experience that's receiving all the family's care I'm glad that all of you of Smithfield can appreciate what we worked on and I'm glad that took um grow as an individual and

051as a culinary student I it's y'all the people of Smithfield that we truly care and we have our Hospitality to share for and I couldn't be any thankful thank you thank you oh yeah okay so our picture on the right says Helping Hands uh that was like our checklist so we had our 105 turkeys we had about 105 turkeys we had like 105 pre-packaged things of turkey that we made um we I think it was like 80 hams that we sliced up and made bags of ham sweet potato casserole had mashed potatoes gravy green beans collards dressing sweet potato biscuits apple pie and pecan pie so we would take all that stuff it in the Box we took up like the Box we folded it up taped it over and we shipped it off to

052everybody and it's uh I mean just seeing everybody work together was just was just awesome so um just want to thank you guys for letting us come up here some of the remaining boxes were sent to Windsor High School I was also in charge of that division giving out to parents in Windsor as well so it wasn't just Smithfield that was like covered it was Windsor plus that but that's all oh thank you just don't talk about a little bit how it came about the kids had this idea at the beginning of the semester of we wanted to help some folks in our community and we put the goal there we put the goal together and um just kind of went after it we knew that this feat would not be easy we set out

053to finance this with selling our meals and kind of working on that budget well we started making a few phone calls I used to work for Smithfield foods that was my first one they graciously donated 120 hams I found myself speaking with Jennifer Williams another amazing employee at foods and she works with a group called women's connect here locally and they were able to donate about forty five hundred dollars to our cause so just instrumental and let us doing this principal vice principal Jessica White ottman help us fill out an obici Grant we got another five thousand so just like that it just fell in our lap which was incredible because we didn't have to use instructional phone funds we were able to do this and give back to the community and teach that piece

054of giving while we're teaching all these wonderful lessons so really happy that it all came together and I believe Foods is ready to do it again next year so I'm very happy for that the next slide is uh Miss I want you to meet Mr Nick Fenton I wanted to be here tonight but we we shot a video of him instead Mr Nick Fenton is comes from Brittany Connie's class who's one of our transitional students that is trying to go out and get him a job at qdaddy's and like Robbie shared with you he comes in and works with us once or twice a week and we open up our kitchen to him and let him do his thing so I'm going to play this video for you I think the next one's going to

055play it nope any idea how I play Mr group Rider let's use the picture all right then well um Nick and I basically kind of went over what we were doing on the whole um presentation in the background it's hard to see in that video but he baked some cookies we talked a little bit about that and that's what you have in your box today so if you see in front of you you have some chocolate chip cookies that our kids made this morning until like I said took all the calories out for you another little project that we started last year was just kind of putting little kind blurbs out into our building so every day and I brought it with us tonight but we took our bus tub and took it to the

056art room and they painted a packer blessing box for us so as we're going through and trying to lift people up that need it because we know some days are more challenging than others so if we knock on here's what I'm going to tell you I can tell you all the best teachers in Smithfield High School when you ask the kids hey who you want to take a box to you know those folks I know they're connecting right and and they get to Sprinkle that goodness around and put these little kind words um Marissa Bel conduct is one of the people that leads our team and dropping these little notes of positivity so we taped one to each one of your boxes I hope it lifts you up I can't wait to have you all

057out and and feed you soon I know we were able to last year and and our students are very excited to have that chance again so thank you so much for having us tonight we'll look forward to seeing you next time thank you thank you thank you [Applause] okay well they're taking their photos we're going to ask uh whro group to come up Mr Burch Schmidt Schmidt Mr bird thank you chairman times Dr Kramer members of the board thank you for allowing me to speak with you tonight my name is Bert Schmidt I'm the president CEO of whro with me is Elmer Seward he's my vice president of Education I come to you because you are one of the 21 School divisions that literally own the license to whro we're founded in 1961 by two

058School divisions and over the years we have grown we were found in his home room one which is what wh are the hro stands for Home Room one we provide you every year an impact statement I know you've received this report I come to you every couple of years just to give you a quickie summary of what's in that uh that report I should know everything I mentioned to all these Services we provide are something that the school requested what we do is we bring 21 schools together we create services that meet the needs of all the school divisions and we save taxpayers Monday at the same time rather than doing it 21 times we do it one time through the station then make these services available free of charge to our divisions sometimes the

059free Statewide sometimes they're offered at a price for for none for non-divisions so some of the services we offer there's the coverage maps if you wonder these are the divisions that own the license to whro first off you may be familiar with emedia VA it's a free service for every Pro public private homeschooler in Virginia uh we it is a repository of digital learning objects we have Partnerships with national organizations like the Smithsonian Library of Congress we have Partnerships around the state with local organizations throughout throughout Virginia uh everything's correlates the Virginia standards of learning there is filtering allowed in local school divisions and it is free to everybody we've had contract with the Department of Education for about 10 years with this service again it was requested by the schools about 10 years ago

060and it has grown last year it was used over 2 million times by students and teachers in Virginia we do a lot of professional development for your teachers you can see just a sampling of what we did last year um we do most of these tend to be Zoom lessons the things that all seem to move to zoom lessons we used to do a lot more in person but people because we had served such a large geographic area more and more being done via VIA Zoom online courses we're really known for our online courses we've developed 28 online courses you can see the list there most of them are high school a few Middle School courses and we're adding even more courses as we speak some more courses are in production uh right now again

061all those courses were requested by the divisions because these courses are meant for students we want to make sure it appeals to students and we create a student Advisory Board these are students from K-12 around the the region to kind of let us know if we're kind of hitting the Mark if we're if we're creating courses in a way that is engaging for them and so they've been very useful as we modify the courses to make sure that they are engaging for for our students a couple of years ago the uh the governor's office asked us to create the state's first African-American history course we did that in partnership with the Department of Education and a Governor's commission we were not involved in the curriculum we just built the course because we do that think

062of us as the manufacturer of courses we make courses and we give them to you you put them in your learning management system and you use your policies whether it's fully online flipped hybrid whatever your policies are the courses can be modified based on your needs but we manufacture the course and we give them to you for your policies and they are meant to be used with teachers these are not teacher in the dependent courses we do a lot of things within the environmental space in fact we are creating now an environmental science course that will be available for the next school year one of the fun things we've been doing if for some of you you may have remember Schoolhouse Rock if you're of a certain age like me and nowadays we've created two

063series a health beat series focused on health issues and most recently a green Beats series and I think I have to click this to make this play but here's a sampling with an entertaining show a colorful then interesting lessons and engaging interactives in games the whro environmental van experience is much more than a great collaboration with the Virginia Stage Company it is a highly immersive and memorable way for students to become the environmental stewards of tomorrow we actually received a number of national awards with this program integrating our our Green Beach series which is kind of animate using local animators with local musicians using technology through devices having our vans that go out we have a well I'll talk more about the Vans integrating this all together and again it's free to all of our

064schools so love to have our folks come out work with your students in having really this is meant for K-12 or K-5 uh teaching them around environmental issues we love to celebrate smart kids we do that number of ways with the PBS Kids writers contest we've been doing for about 15 years or so kids write and illustrate the story it's for K5 they send their stories in we have a panel that judges them and then we create TV show with the awards and the kids get to read their story and we animate their their their characters and their stories and then we hang those stories in our hallways throughout the building for the full year so it's really a fun series the spelling bee we've been doing that now for 15 years local school divisions

065do the Middle School B 6th through eighth grade your competition is local you send your school winners to whro's Regional B which will happen in the spring the winner of the regional B goes to the National Spelling Bee and one of these days we'll get a winner so we're not there yet but we're gonna get there every year the kids are better and better at spelling and some of you may be old enough to have been in the great computer challenge we've been doing this for 37 years we on the campus of ODU we have teams of students from divisions around the region they compete in various software programs and languages there's Awards there's a whole it's a whole weekend experience both for a junior division elementary school then the senior division middle and high

066schools been going on for 37 years Miss Martha reads during the pandemic you know before the pandemic we used to go out and read last stories to children we have an extensive early early childhood uh team they will go out and read stories we have a literacy van and we would go out but pandemic hit you couldn't do it so Martha raser who runs that department decided on her own to start this Facebook live read a story actually the stories that the kids wrote in the writers contest so these are stories written by first through fifth graders and she reads them it's been so popular 6 000 views every week that we now continue that even though the pandemic's kind of behind us so Martha Reeves has become a very uh interesting program for us

067as I mentioned we have three vans that go out into the region we have a literacy band we have the new environmental science fan and a stem van again just give our our shop a call we'll come out again mainly for our youngest students K one two um but they come out they're familiar with all the characters we have lessons plans we work with your with your teachers it's a wonderful experience it's something to really get the kids excited about the lessons they're learning and as board members you care about your return on investment and I will mention that the return on investment we worked with the school superintendents periodically to make sure this calculation is done and they buy off from the calculation on page 13 last school year you spent 15 800 receive

068return uh return on your investment the 488 thousand dollars with that I'm happy to take any questions not bad Mr Marsh uh Mr Schmidt yes hi thanks for coming out tonight sir my name is Jason Marsh um I want to preface my following comments by saying I've uh I've done quite a bit of research in reading into whra oh and specifically the e-media Virginia application um and there's a lot of good stuff on there last year I personally and a couple other parents from the school division had some issues with some of the media and the materials that were presented on emedia Virginia um we were told that you guys were working on a filtering system and you just validated you said so yourself and uh I was pleased to hear that so I I

069was anxious to see what you folks were coming up with when I was reading through your impact statement the other night I actually logged on to my child's fourth grade clever account which is an Isle of Wight platform and I pulled up some material that I think are non-app non-academic and uh would like to talk about how to get that filtered out if I can yes I might be able to answer the question quickly because I was alerted to these few learning objects we are now modifying that because what happened is some learning objects from National providers are meant as teacher resources yes sir so what happens is the metadata doesn't list a grade because it's not meant for students our filtering didn't catch that and so we were not filtering out teacher resources elementary

070school so what you saw were really teacher resources not meant for students we have since gone in in today I think and have fixed that so if if it's a teacher resource there filter out from elementary school so excellent all the things you mentioned that you highlighted we looked at I said why is this in here and that's why it was just nobody's been using the filtering so when you brought it up to us we spotted the air and we fixed that sure and I recognize that there's a lot of probably moving pieces and you're always monitoring right so I appreciate that okay any more questions for our guests thank you very much sir and we look forward to seeing you again next year thank you very much take care at this time I we

071have um well we're going to give the guests a chance to leave we have public input on a capital Improvement plan foreign UPS yeah I'm sure we did um um Mrs um Whitlow our clerk will give you the directions and she will call the individuals to come forward thank you and this is going to apply to the next three um sections of the meeting for anyone speaking um whether it be on the capital Improvement rezoning or just on an agenda item so this applies to all three sections 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

072delegations 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 ward 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 all right first we have Patrick Bloodgood it's good good height uh Madam chair esteemed members of the board Mr Dr Kramer excuse me I did not mean to demote you Dr Kramer uh my name is Patrick Logan as I said uh I am a Carrollton resident uh I am the Smithfield Middle School PTA board president and Dad of two girls currently attending Alouette County Schools tonight I

073come to you in the capacity as a dad um my girls are both athletes my eldest has currently been playing the JB field hockey at the high school and my as well as a soccer club player is aspiring to be a JV player coach um my youngest is also a club soccer player also aspiring when she gets old enough to be playing smooth soccer for Smithfield um as I've been traveling around with my eldest uh daughter going around to the different fields I've I've seen different facilities and I've noticed a stark contrast in the facilities that we um that she's been playing field hockey is in particular is played on turf fields unless of course you are now currently playing at Smithfield High School they are still on grass playing field surfaces field hockey is

074also played during the same season as the football team on the same field football is extremely hard on grass Services especially if any precipitation tends to fall you have players engaged in blocking they are playing they are using cleats they are digging into the soil they are creating divots Mounds uh and they are literally tearing up the field the same field that the field hockey team has to play on where the ball is literally rolling on the field over these Mounds in these divots and it is uh causing a deviation for the ball to go when it hits these different adverse conditions the same is not said for many of the fields that these girls are playing on within their particular um competitions they are playing on turf fields the other thing that these fields

075present at Smithfield is it is an injury Hazard you have potential for rolled ankles sprains this is true for the football players and the field hockey players who are not necessarily paying attention to field conditions which are trying to chase a ball with a stick paying attention to what the ground is like uh this also applies to the Smithfield High School band who also has to march on the field as they're going around they're not looking down they're looking up at the conductor the band The the band major the other thing about this is the field hockey uses different schemes for marking the fields the coaches have to go out and remark the fields or the the athletic staff have to go through remark the fields and they have to remark the fields again for

076football this is also uh true for the other different sports that use the field soccer lacrosse the fields at Smithfield High School are heavily utilized more so than the the fields at Windsor there are more Sports being played on this particular field in this particular Stadium than down at Windsor me the one thing I want to just uh to to point out and stress is that I think it would be a a good use of County funds to apply those to to upgrading the fields the older fields at Smithfield High School to give them a turf field conditions which would be more appropriate for the level of sports that are playing on those fields with the amount of sports that are also being played in the field thank you thank you all right next we

077have Renee Roundtree Madam chairwoman members of the school board Dr Kramer my name is Renee Roundtree I live at 405 rural door knock in Smithfield Virginia I'm on the Town Council of Smithfield I'm also the current Smithfield athletic booster club sponsorships chairwoman so when I ask you for money sometime you can be nice to me because we help support the athletic clubs and debate and the scholastic bowl at the high school all those are included I'm here this evening with my daughter Taylor She's the sophomore at Radford University studying Elementary education just came home today from exams so she's looking to be an educator in the county in two years so I'm producing new teachers for you uh uh I also am the proud mom of a son Graham he's a junior at Smithfield High

078School and plays football and baseball for the Packers I attended the nominal group process that was held by the division October 11th at the cafeteria at Smithfield I did give my input at that point to assist in the prioritization of your CIP I believe when children have world-class facilities they'll participate in greater numbers on our sports teams something to be proud of right and when children participate in sports teams as well as debate and Scholastic Bowl that's good for them and their development it's good for our community at Smithfield High School currently we cannot host trackmates our athletic fields do not drain appropriately and as the previous speaker mentioned it is dangerous at times this season I went to all three away game well we had six awake and we only had four home Varsity

079games this year we had six that were away I did attend all of those particularly attending the uh matches that were held at the Sandy B Warner Fields again three times I went there this year when we were playing games against uh schools from James City County and Williamsburg I was left wanting more their facilities are fantastic and I know they do share between the different schools but their facilities are fantastic and they are turf so I think those Counties have gotten together certainly and pooled their resources and they're providing adequate fields for their children and I think our children deserve the same please prioritize the new Turf athletic fields in the capital Improvement plan appreciate your time Tiffany Walker I have some pictures foreign good evening everyone my name is Tiffany Walker and I'm

080here as an shs band parent and a band booster I've shared some pictures for you to reference while those that come up to speak for the band um give their presentations it's very disappointing that band has been placed eighth on the list of importance we have a pre-k program currently we also have a CTE program and they've both been poured into heavily and producing some great results I can't say that for the band the band room is needed to be renovated for years so much so that in 2019 talks began within the board and we and were Revisited through the 2020 board meetings quoting on November 3rd 2020 Times article the school board is expected to finalize its long-term capital Improvement plan in November to make the band room large enough we would need to

081knock down the wall between the band and chorus room further down it stated that dampening panels would be a temporary solution at best as it doesn't address the fact that the current band room is too small for the number of students in the program it's now 2022 and the band room is still too small for our students our students do not have room to properly learn and there's not enough room for the band to practice as a whole after school the decibel levels are very high the panels are not working we need a decibel study done for the director and student safety the closets are full there's a water fountain that cannot be used because it pours water onto the floor one of the closet doors has a temporary lock installed it's been temporary now

082for three years the exterior door is not properly secured I'd like to ask that each of you go to the school and see this room for yourselves during classes and during practices when students are present you will see it is not sufficient for this program to be maintained and certainly not to grow we are told the capital Improvement plan funds are awarded to those programs that impact a great amount of students this room is used every single day for class and some weekend days as well it's also used almost every day after school for practices those countless hours should count for something please look at the list of items and consider the time those spaces will be used by students and help make this band space better our students work hard and deserve to have

083a space that is fully functional many of them choose to continue music Beyond High School Let's help them be career ready as well it's a school night and many of our band students work everyone who wanted to be here could not but please know that our band families and band students want to see this happen and we really would love your support for that thank you so much for your time thank you Volbeat Boykin Boykin good evening board Dr Kramer our new members um well I'm here to talk about the cost because a lot of these things are really nice but they cost a lot of money um one good example is the current estimate on the West Side new Intermediate School for grades five through seven for approximately 700 students is at a minimum

084minimum 64 million dollars now I'm told by an extremely reliable sources that this would result in real estate taxes going up from 85 cents to a hundred to 94 cents which doesn't sound like a lot but as the citizens pull out your tax bills or if you make house payments pull it out and see what you're paying do the math you're going to be paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year more in taxes so just consider it we need to go from what we want to something to whatever we can't function with that just unlimited spending tax May or pay or money and keep paying exorbitant taxes is going to hurt a lot of things in this County and it hurts a lot of people and no offense to Dr Kramer because I

085think he's an honest and honorable man from everything I've known met him and heard and that he is here going to try to do the best job he can so this is not directed at him no employee of any agency in this County should be able to spend two hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer money without the approval of a taxpayer represented board and spend it over and over and over and over again if they want to as far as we understand if Dr Kramer wants to spend 200 200 000 on a subject Monday 200 000 on a different one Wednesday two hundred thousand on a different one Friday he can do it and if he wants to do it every week throughout the year he can do it personally I want my representative to have

086some say so and now that electronic communications are Allied between board members and to have meetings I don't see any reason that can't happen it's just crazy to give anybody no matter how much you trust them that kind of authority and the one thing that we all should be fighting for in November November of 2023 and I'm going to be lobbying for it with any connections I have in Richmond the Board of Supervisors and the bill is going to be introduced again to add a one percent sales tax to Isle of Wight County and it will be up to the citizens in a referendum and that one percent will go to the schools a committee it passed the Senate last year failed in committee this year and when we start putting out please support this

087bill well I'm sorry in this legislature which comes in on January 13th not the election 2023. so in January when we start saying let the citizens decide I support the one percent tax with the money to go to the schools and that spreads the cost of the schools out amongst everybody and just not landowners but please when that bill comes up we'll be putting it out we'll be putting out what committee and the members it's going to and we need people to support it thank you thank you Kermit bugs good evening board members Dr Kramer thank you for this opportunity to speak today I am coming bugg's father of two children in the Isle of white school system I can come before you I'm in reference to the facility upgrades for Smithfield High School's outdoor

088athletic facilities as a 20-plus year high school and college football coach I've been in many athletic venues almost all of them have been converted to field turf at Penn State University the University of Connecticut Old Dominion University we have field turf fields the practice room this allowed us to practice and inclement weather without destroying the grass we also rotated Fields during the preseason to save the grass at Norfolk State University at Lockhaven University we practice at a stadium because it was field turf grass is costly to maintain the upkeep was seating lining watering and cutting is very expensive tasks if I'm correct you are currently Contracting the lining and the seating of the grass currently the correct lawnmower to even cut the grass is costly with field Turf the lines are permanent and all you

089need is a brush and a sprayer to go in the back of a gator to disinfect and stir up the pebbles in the rubber the work-life balance for Coach Doolin and the coaches is greatly diminished due to the time they will have to be at the school just to maintain grass fields field hockey as stated earlier is a sport that has never played on grass at the Collegiate level we are putting our young women at a disadvantage playing this sport on grass having soccer also takes a toll on the grass as you have four teams using the field during the same season thus the grass cannot be properly maintained to a high standard we even had to bring in portable lights as we hosted regional soccer playoffs last year we're now closed chasing the bar

090as many of our neighboring communities and competitors have upgraded their fields and tracks even compared to the other end of the county our track and Press Box is inferior we should be set in the bar in this community I would even like to see a Turf practice field for the teams to rotate on this would allow teams to still be outside even if it's a little wet this facility looks the same as it did in 1980 when my father was coaching football in Tricare at Smithfield High School Madam chair Mr Worcester do you remember that this Press Box is an embarrassment the bleachers on both Sidelines need to upgrade and with this track having bare spots on it we could never host the Smithfield invitational track meet as we did back then that was such

091a huge Money Maker for the athletic department I hope that you will consider upgrading our facilities I hope you even consider looking into putting lights up for baseball and softball as well as the practice fields daylight savings and winter Cuts in the practice time for athletes and coaches to prepare yes I understand the cost of this but you will be putting out in the front end and saving on the back end things that touch our students daily should always be the Forefront of our educational goals when you have great athletic teams the morale of your school and Community always becomes positive these upgrades will benefit our community as a whole and we strive to continue to have that morale and spirit our community deserves this and the hope that you can provide this for them

092I hope you will consider the outdoor athletic facilities and your Capital Improvement plan thank you thank you Jason Henderson good evening board Dr Dr Kramer my name is Jason Henderson I'm the boys soccer coach here at Smithfield High School I would like to speak a few minutes to support the turf field in stadium upgrades I want to get on the CIP today see to me getting a turf field is not about getting it because everyone else has one it's because we need one for our student athletes to have accessibility a flat surface is vital to play on and practice is one of the most important things in soccer with the weather we have in Virginia playing on the grass field is impossible to keep nice because you're constantly tearing it up unless you stay off

093of it with a turf field we could be able to train 365 days 24 hours a day and it could be rented for other community stakeholders and some of you guys know that I would train a lot so after we hosted the state championship in 2021 during covert rules which the highest seed hosted the state event they made a rule stating that only teams that had turf fields could ever host a vhsl event from there on which means that we will never host each a state event unless we have a turf field that includes any of your sports that play on a football field football field hockey soccer being a math teacher I'm all about percentages 25 of the school would be directly impacted as that's how many students that we have try out for

094sports that play in track and field or deal with track and field 95 percent of our students will go to an athletic or academic event that will deal with our field and a hundred percent of our students will access this field during physical education time during the school day in closing I've been a coach and a teacher in this County for 18 years for the last two decades we've talked about Turf and Fields in this community in 2005 we could have gotten a turf field for a little less than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the longer we wait the more expensive the initial turf field will be yes there are maintenance costs that go along with the turf field but the original cost is the most expensive at the college level most colleges

095play with Turf nowadays same goes as the professional level I know your job as a board is a difficult one so please consider our student athletes and give them what they deserve thank you thank you [Applause] Lawrence Leslie good evening good evening I didn't know about the five-minute rule so I'll do my Auctioneer speech this time okay Madam chair board members Dr Kramer good evening my name is Paul Leslie I live at 22 22 for Spady Lane in Smithfield been here 14 years I'm a retired Navy Chief just like one of our board members at uh congratulations and welcome um I have a master's degree in aeronautical science specializations in aviation system safety and human factors I'm a certified Safety Professional and currently work as a safety and quality assurance manager for U.S Navy um

096I've served our community for the past six years at Smithfield High School boys JV soccer coach I'm a sister varsity coach and uh I've I've coached in several clubs throughout Hampton Roads before I came to Smithfield for Virginia Rush VIP um and now as coach with Smithfield soccer club I'm kind of greedy with that because I'm trying to help develop our students student athletes for the high school as well while I'm there um but most importantly I have a daughter who graduated from Smithfield High School in 2017. I have a son who's a senior and my younger son is a freshman at Smithfield all three of them are soccer players now I would like to thank each of you for the for what you do for the Youth in Iowa County I've watched board meetings

097I've watched it read the news watched the news I know often it's a thankless job sitting on that board okay I understand that but next to being a teacher I think it's one of the most important jobs you can have in our community so thank you guys for doing that so you think I'm going to stand here and say hey we need turf field I mean we heard my predecessors and whatnot but I'm not going to say that what we need to do is we need to bring our athletic facilities at Smithfield High School and Iowa County into the 21st century that's what we need to do um the bleachers have mismatched corroded Hardware on the guardrails the seats near the Press Box are scary as they Bend and give because many of the support

098beams underneath are bent the surface of the bleachers and walkways and steps get quite Slippery When Wet there are no handrails to help visitors climb the roads safely for better viewing options those are hazards that we're exposing to our high school students their young siblings their parents grandparents great grandparents and all visitors of Smithfield High School into Iowa County the Press Box is dated and is disrepair and the stadium lights are in front of the bleachers obstructing the view of the many fans okay who have paid twice for admission once with their tax dollars and twice at the ticket at the gate to get their ticket at the gate okay and they all want to watch their student athletes compete the track has loose patches small potholes and gravel all the way around making a

099hazard for athlete and taking it out of consideration for track home for home track meets when we host sporting events at home we bring potential customers to our counties restaurants and stores so the negative impact is more than just on our student athletes it's affecting our entire County the game field doesn't properly drain after a significant amount of rain and the southwest corner becomes a slushy mess for days after downpour many times our soccer soccer assistant referees must invert their lines due to the slippery conditions at that corner which detracts from their effectiveness because they have a distinct areas of responsibility on the pitch as you well know Smithville High School men's Varsity soccer won the 2021 4A state championship on our home field that's the only good thing that I could think of that

100covet did because it's the only reason why we played that game at home our County does not have facilities worthy of hosting a vhsl state championship tournament anymore coach Anderson just spoke of that speaking about 2021 Championship many do not know that coach Henderson and I were on the field hours prior to the game stomping down mud uh mold tunnels because they create slipping and tripping hazards for the student athletes the Jefferson Forest coaching staff and administrators requested to move the state championship game to another location because of our poor field conditions again Copa was the reason their request was denied my players have reported to me that other team's players make Sly remarks about the poor about our how poor our community is because of our our conditions of our Athletic Complex the parents

101understands reported that opposing teams visitors have also made negative remarks about the poor field conditions to get the current grass field in proper condition it needs to be crowned the drainage needs to be repaired it needs pesticides to eradicate the moles I can email you guys the rest of this sorry I tried I tried thank you guys thank you [Applause] Gordon Holloway Court Gordon Gordon foreign members of the board thank you for the opportunity my name is Gordon Holloway I live on Church Street I'm accompanied today by my wife Deborah I have two children in the school system a middle schooler and a high schooler both of them are student athletes and uh they're very active in the Sporting Community as a parent of students in the Isle of Wight County School System I can

102tell you that we have a fantastic faculty student body and the opportunities their kids have in front of them shouldn't be limited by the infrastructure in the facilities when I think about all the things that we need to provide our children and our students there's a lot I'm not here to argue against anything I'm simply here to argue for the turf field the cost of a turf field is expensive up front understand that the cost to maintain a grass field is expensive in the long run the ROI either way is expensive and it's those numbers are what they are I'm not here to talk about that I'm here to talk about the ROI the return on investment of their children they deserve to have facilities that allow them to exceed facilities that allow them to

103be competitors they shouldn't be limited by the conditions of the field currently they can barely play the scheduled games in the district because the field will be destroyed if they did any more than that they certainly can't practice on them as a result the practice fields are worn out as well so there's a lot of reasons to look at the positives of a much more adorable field a tour field it gives them the chance to play as the coaches said in others all the time all year round day and night poor weather warm weather hot weather cold weather doesn't matter as a result more opportunities for our children more Sports you can have lacrosse right now it'd be hard-pressed for this school system to expand the sporting groups because of the lack of facilities matter

104of fact uh like others have said you can't even have a track meet so I really would like to see an investment in the children an investment in our student athletes what they gain competing going head-to-head with their friends with competitors inside the school district the camaraderie that they develop as as young people on the team it's something that really really should be invested in and to deny and and not look into that as a possible expansion and Improvement I think that would be something that we in the long term would wish we have done years ago so the opportunity to expand our Sports to enable our kids to have more time on the field all the lessons they can learn all the opportunities that they will share together on a tour field is a

105good investment so I hope you all consider uh that is an option I think it'd be a wonderful thing and again the Isle of Wight school system the athletic department has produced not only competitors and contenders but it's producing champions and that can be improved on with more opportunity in the tour field I believe gives us that opportunity thank you thank you thank you Patrick Doolin all right hey good evening guys uh good evening Dr Kramer Madam chair uh school board members new guys happy to have you out here uh my name is Pat Doolin I live at 103 Wilderness Lane I am the father of two students in Iowa County schools and I'm also the current athletic director at Smithfield High School uh I'm here tonight first off I appreciate you letting me talk

106but I am here tonight to discuss our Athletic Facility upgrades okay uh compared to most all of the schools in our district our facilities are bottom of the barrel okay are it's not even close it's sad to say that our facilities are not something our kids are proud of we hear that often from other people said it from other teams that kind of thing and it's just our kids should be they should be proud of where they come from and they should be proud of where they play their their games okay I was hired as the athletic director in July I've done my best to get it going in the right direction uh and we're going we're getting there we just need you guys help to get it get get it going to the next

107step okay uh our track it has potholes it I mean there's we it it's embarrassing okay for us to host a track meet is like coach bugs said it is a money maker we can bring we can host track meets all the time if we upgrade our track okay our bleachers Mr Wooster they're the same ones you sat in in 1986 okay uh it and I say that as a joke but it's the truth okay and our bleachers like like uh coach Paul Leslie said or are there are safety hazard guys we put uh biggest uh I think we had uh 1800 people at our king sport game this year and as an athletic director my eye was on the bleachers the entire time just because I I was I was that concerned for our

108our fan safety um our Stadium Field which is used by numerous Sports it's used by field hockey it's used by football it's used by uh boys and girls soccer okay you say those but they also have JV teams so all of these teams play on our field and the wear and tear comes our field is is is by far the worst in the district okay we have we have potholes we have mole holes we have sprinkler heads that that that leak constantly uh all of that can be cured with a turf field okay now I understand the the price tag with the turf field uh but as Gordon Holloway mentioned it the grass is just as expensive in the long run okay uh a real mower is what you need to cut a grass field

109okay costs fifty thousand dollars okay that it that that is something that that would add to the uh the cost of of maintaining the grass uh our sound systems uh our sound system at Smithfield High School sounds like a clock radio I'll be honest with you guys it's not it's not very impressive uh and the fact that we don't have lights for our baseball and softball fields is something that we really need to address uh we can't we can't host games past uh 6 30 in the spring because you know daylight savings time in that uh our facilities don't reflect the amount of finances we have in this community okay um our facilities should be something that our kids are proud of most districts in this area have gone to turf or will go to

110Turf okay uh Williamsburg James City County plays on Turf York County Hampton they're uh they're converting darling Stadium over to Turf all Suffolk schools have gone to Turf recently in this year Beach Schools so Us in New Kent are the only schools in our district that do not have turf I've spoken with the New Kent athletic director and interp is something they have on their radar so for our kids to be on on par with the rest of our district in in the rest of the area we do need to invest long-term in Turf with the heavy price tag up front Okay I asked you guys to please consider this and and do what's best for our kids give our kids something to be proud of and thank you guys for your time appreciate you

111thank you Tracy Parker good evening Madam chairperson Dr Kramer board members my name is Tracy Parker I live at 107 Mimosa Court Smithfield Virginia and uh I'm a 1987 graduate of Smithville High School um currently I'm teaching at Smithfield High School and recently I was afforded the opportunity to be the new head football coach and obviously I'm here in favor of the turf surface for athletics a lot of individuals have come up here spoken to your reference to the benefits the cost and and um you know they kind of stole my thunder but I will stand before you and say that our facilities have not changed much since 1987. as a as a student athlete who uh matriculated later on in college and played Athletics in college as a result of my opportunities here in

112Smithfield I would just like to see other student athletes to have the best facilities to pursue those goals as well um I would like to also add that it is very very important that we give our our student athletes the ability to train in preparation for a competition Because the actual Act of competition is probably the the least important part in reference to what actually goes on the competition is where we actually play and the community comes out and celebrates but the preparation to play having the ability to to have a surface that we can actually prepare for our competition is what's important for these young student athletes thank you for your time I appreciate your patience and uh you guys have a good evening thank you Rebecca Jackson good evening Dr Trey sorry Dr

113Kramer Madam chair members of the board my name is Christy Jackson I am a teacher and coach at Smithfield High School where I coach two sports um field hockey in the fall and softball in the spring um everybody before me has mentioned the field conditions the safety issues the benefits I want to talk to you about field hockey and I appreciate that so many people have mentioned field hockey tonight because it isn't a sport that tends to get overlooked because not a lot of people know about field hockey um and specifically I want to talk to you a little bit about our field hockey program at Smithfield we compete in what is arguably one of the hardest most competitive districts in the state for field hockey um the Region 3 State Championship consisted of two

114teams from our district um Tab and pocosin out of the nine other teams that we compete against five of them have been either state champions or Runners up in within the past decade or so um it's it's a tough district for us when I took over the field hockey program two years ago there hadn't been a lot of success for several years before that um and a lot of that has to do with the fact that below the varsity level there were no feeder programs coming into it um but that's changing we've changed that in two years our girls who hadn't ever won a game in their entire High School career now have six wins and 30 plus goals under their belt and no that doesn't make a winning season however it's progress um we're

115changing all of that we um we now have last year my first year coaching you know we had to piece together enough girls to field a varsity team and I had two eighth graders acting as managers because we didn't even have a JV team to put them on in the last this season we more than doubled the size of our program we had fully rostered JV and varsity teams and when I say fully rostered I mean there were some nights where we had more subs than we knew what to do with um and like the infomercial guys like to tell you but wait there's more we've also started a hockey club um between Smithfield High school and the middle school where both seventh and 8th graders can come and learn the sport the basics of

116the sport and practice them throughout the school year so that when it's time to move into that High School level of competition for tryouts that summer they already have that basic understanding of the sport because like I said it's not a very widely known sport others have mentioned field hockey is almost is never played on grass fields never like anywhere you go to any field hockey matches out that aren't Smithfield High School home games and it's going to be on turf um you know we also have in another feeder program that we're working on building in is a Parks and Rec program that will feed into our program um all of this combines to say that over the next several years our program is going to get stronger and better continuously um and it's going

117to get more competitive every other team with the exception of New Kent in our district that we play against plays on turf fields and I don't know about other sports but that actually affects play in field hockey the ball moves differently on a turf field it requires different techniques different body positioning different types of passes and strokes and no matter how great our program grows to be we'll always be at a disadvantage playing it those with those other teams thank you foreign Larson Madam chairwoman members of the school board Dr Kramer thank you for your service I know you have a difficult job got people asking for money it's not so easy I appreciate the time my name is Brian Larson the father of five Isle of Wight County students two are now alumni my

118daughter Julia was the president of the National Honor Society last year and is now a freshman at JMU daughter Sophia is a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University was a member of the 2022 State qualifying girls team so got of the of the five I've got four who played soccer um one also runs track he is a sophomore this year at the high school so I've got very much of a very I guess some interest in the soccer fields um being at the highest quality because of they've got actually two more that are younger as coach Bloodgood said a little earlier got one on his team they are aspiring because she only eight but one day we will have a turf field for her to play on I guess one of the things there's so many

119things have been said and I don't want to repeat all those things you've heard enough of the arguments I've been a staff member in the administration at Christopher Newport University for 20 years when I first got there in 2000 and um two Christopher Newport university did not look like it does now in that 20 years what has changed was our facilities with the facilities change that is what brought different students that is what was instrumental in raising our GPA and sat standards because people are attracted to something that is beautiful if you talk to Paul Tribble who was the the Visionary of that University and the change he will say it's the things that inspire people to Greatness that's what what causes that and it it built a swell I will say that in the

12020 years when I ask visitors why why Christopher Newport it's so beautiful here you know we don't want that's not going to make a student a better student to say you know it's beautiful but that's what drew me here and then oh by the way yes you have excellent academic programs and all the things that we want them to want but that's what draws them and so I would encourage you to consider that even something like a turf field it's not just the field and the quality of the field it's the appearance of it you walk into the stadium in Williamsburg and you see that field and it's beautiful and it makes you want to come and be I always love going there I ask that you just consider what the upkeep or what the

121excuse me the Improvement plan for the stadium would do not only just for soccer and football and field hockey on the track but what it would do for the community one minute and what it would do to inspire people to Greatness just I've seen it happen at Christopher Newport University I think it can happen here and continue to improve thank you so much for your time I appreciate your consideration thank you Stephen Cyril foreign ER and uh Dr Kramer members of the board I am very happy to be here this evening I am Stephen the band director of uh Smithfield High School repeat that again Stephen Stephen Sorrell the band director of Smithfield High School thank you um well uh first I do want to say I want to extend uh my thanks to you

122for involving the um the expansion of the Smithfield High School band room and part of the capital Improvement plan that's long overdue in fact when I first came here from upstate New York and I first saw this band room I said wow this is a this is a very small band room for a high school and I'm not sure if they thought they were thinking of a rock band when they were designing it but they weren't thinking of a concert band um but when I was at a different facility just this past weekend that band room was almost twice the size of our band room even the orchestra room they had taken into account the size that the band is and our facilities we wouldn't be able to host any programs we would not be

123able to host any events because we just we just don't have the place to put any students and currently the all the equipment in that band room is what's taken up most of the room just because there's not enough room for it we have stuff that should be in storage closets that's just in the band room because there's no other place to put them on top of that we have a lot of climate issues in there as well if it's cold out it's going to be cold in that band room if it was humid it was just humid yesterday and I do not deal well with humid weather and it was humid yesterday and the kids come in when it's cold and they say hey it's cold in here and when I'm in there it's

124warm in there when it's humid and when we have hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment in there in a climate that is not properly preserving them you're going to have damaged equipment it's not going to last as long in fact whenever I play the marimba which is essentially a bigger xylophone it's Out Of Tune because the climate's not properly preserving this instrument when I was just changing the bass drum heads I put the head on the drum is no longer round so I wasn't able to tune it properly and when I am holding classes in there there are kids every day in there and for the larger classes it can get crammed and if you've never been there first it'd be amazing to hear some of the music being produced by our students it's

125phenomenal but you would also see that they're packed in there especially during marching band season when we have more students in there we can't even make room for the auxiliary to work with us just because it's a safety hazard so I was very happy to see that this is on a capital Improvement plan but then I see it's very last it's it's the least of our priorities but the thing is there's going to be children in that building tomorrow they're going to be in that room they're going to be in that room next week and they're going to be in that room next month and they're pretty much going to be there for a minute all the time every day this year even over the summer so I implore you to make the expansion of

126the band room a higher priority thank you thank you foreign [Applause] Tristan Walker good afternoon um members of the board it's nice to see you once again and I would like to talk about the band room and the size of it I mean it's really cramped in there I mean even I when I go in there when I put my stuff away when I get in there getting ready to play it's very cramped in there and everyone says that it's cramped and it's hard to move around in there sometimes and I just hope that this will be your number one priority thank you thank you [Applause] Charles schieler hi my name is Charles schieler thank you for having me back I was here last in September at a board meeting where I reminded the board

127that in November of 2019 the board had passed a renovation plan for the band room and I'd had two questions which was what happened to the funds and when can we get started to date I have heard from no member of the board I have not gotten an answer from the administration I've spoken to the superintendent at least two other times as he came came through the school and he's asked for patience so he could research the issue and I think I've been pretty patient but to date still have no answer to my questions but what have we been doing since despite the lack of support we're in spite of that we've gone to three competitions we have uh been a big part of our community we are the community band for Smithfield okay this

128week alone we have two concerts a parade and that's just between now um and the 16th we did the Smithfield tree lighting ceremony we have relationships with the VFW and they invited us to play for the Veterans Day ceremony which we did we'll also be expecting an invite to play for Memorial Day we've played in downtown Smithfield at the Farmers Market we are the community band our facilities are lacking they are too small the the air conditioning doesn't work properly it's hard to maintain morale for the students when they know that there's nothing is going to get better there as a parent and I have a daughter who is a senior at Smithfield High School she's the drum major she met her final goal this past year when we were invited to show our Packer

129Pride at the Norfolk Grand illumination parade and she led the band that night that was one of her major goals but as a parent is I feel it is my job to make sure they understand that in this world there's only a few things that really matter that's your name because you get the base your reputation on that and your word it's what I teach my children all of my girls know that okay they live that because I live that if in fact the board approved a plan to renovate our band room in November of 2019 I would hope that all of you would have that same standard one minute and keep your word because it is your reputation that goes with your name that your word is based on we thank you for your

130time and consideration thank you [Applause] Greg Varner good evening good evening thank you for allowing me to speak Madam chair and the rest of the board Dr Kramer um I am a dad of of a high school Junior who is in the band and in she is a drum captain of um of the of the band itself my name is Greg Varner I live in Carrollton and I'm also um vice president of the bamboosters club and I would like to ask you all to uh all of the um remarks that have been made about all the different things with the sports and and band I do not envy your job at all I know that this is a hard decision to just determine what to do I'm asking you not to think of not to

131try to figure out something new but just do what had been asked and agreed to a couple years ago and I find it really hard to know what could have happened that made that made that go away if there is a plan and approval from the board I ask you to go back and look at that and and and honor the commitment that was done back then um every single person that has spoken tonight has had valid reasons for spending money and and in correcting and making world-class facilities and I I know that you want that as well I feel I feel like that you do um every one of the sports every one of the band members all these groups need that and yet I can't help but think if you were to promise

132the football team this year that they're going to get a new turf something like covet happens and two years later they don't get it how would that react how would that go down in this town probably not very well and I would just like to ask that that you would consider reconsidering what you've already said that you would do and I appreciate your time thank you thank you that's all for the capital Improvement public input for public input on Capital Equipment thank you very much and being that this was a public input for the capital Improvement the I'm going to open it up to the board to speak on some of your remarks and personally I would like to start first because many of you came up and you referred to Mr Wooster myself because

133we're graduates of Smithfield High School I have always sat here and said I had kept Isle of Wight County School to my heart because of that I've invested in this County this is my County my birthplace I'm still here and I'm here doing public work in this County it's important to me and I've heard some of you all come up here tonight and I'm glad we had this input because this is the first I've heard it of course I just heard a couple people refer to November 2019 none of us this board were not here but we are that what that you have here now okay we will find out what happened to those plants but what I really wanted to say is I'm embarrassed just sitting here as a graduate of Smithfield High School

134class of 1975. no it's not the Smithfield High School that we see today on Turner Drive I graduated from the high school on James Street downtown Smithfield but we have always been proud Packers and to hear parents to come out on behalf of their students tonight that traveled with them to away games and to say that they're embarrassed when they're cut when they come back home I can just imagine how the students are feeling because I am embarrassed sitting here tonight as a board member and I think this is the first time I've ever had to say that since I've had this position it's really embarrassing to note I've heard about the turf it has come up I have actually made some statements some time to people so well I don't know where the priorities

135are as far as our budget but listening to you all tonight I hear the other side of that story and that's what we asked for I'm going to ask the superintendent if he would get a committee and that committee could be made of course of his staff as well as some of the athletic department as well as parents put a plan together where we can take this plan as a group just like you came out tonight and presented to our Board of Supervisors because they will be the ones that we need to go to to get the extra funding to do all of these activities turf fields expand the band room these things are needed yes I have seen the Smithfield High School band room and honestly it's not much larger than the band room

136that when I was in the band on James Street in Smithfield Smith for high school it's not much larger and this is the 21st century the people in the community I guess if they could see the facilities they would be embarrassed to I want our students to go out to be and I want them to be proud of Smithfield High School when people come to visit them I want them to be proud to say this is my school you are welcome so Dr Kramer will you please look in this for us and many of you came up that many of you but some of you came up here tonight and you actually said you had an opportunity to meet with Dr Kramer so you know he is a man of his word Dr Kramer will

137work out a plan get this committee together come back to the board and we will take this if it's not in our budget which are it's not at our budget for this year we will take this to the Board of Supervisors we will go with you and explain to them the importance of doing this for our young citizens of Isle of Wight County Schools thank you very much excuse me managing um we have one more person signed up to speak we had one more I'm sorry he was looking for the list that wasn't out there so it had already gotten okay Mr Lewis Edmonds thank you uh Louis Edmonds Windsor um chairwoman time to you took some of my thunder but that's okay uh so one thing I will say there's a reason why we

138should do public hearings separate from school board meetings we've spent an hour in the school board yeah and this should have been separate but it is what it is um my concern is we heard a lot of great things tonight my concern is is that this board doesn't have a lot of information to go off of at least from what I've seen other than what has been presented tonight uh and that's to be blunt it's poor staff work but it's not a hit on the staff per se because the staff doesn't have people who know a lot about athletic fields and everything else so the idea of putting a committee together bringing in experts from other places that to me should have been like step one in the capital improvement process this has been a

139bit of a Meandering thing I think we've done this a couple of times now I don't even remember when Capital Improvement started but we had in fits and starts and it's been a painful process um so there should be I I hope that there'll be more information for this board to to make a vote on because frankly um I don't think you could vote in good conscious for or against anything that's on the capital Improvement plan because there's no compelling return on investment arguments that have been made good you know the turf field there are a lot of good things we heard tonight there's a lot of economic impact in everything else there's also some safety concerns there I have no idea which way that should be balanced and everything but all of that needs

140to be presented uh so that you can make a good decision and then so you can effectively influence the Board of Supervisors who ultimately are either have to increase taxes or going to take money from somewhere else to do that uh what I will anecdotally speak on a couple of things is uh as someone who went to West Side for five years I think because they kept moving it from elementary school to a middle school and everything else and that was 25 years ago it's about time to retire she's she's uh given us uh plenty of time my concern with building a new west side is the location I am very nervous that we are going to be Pennywise and pound foolish on this by building west side and the Smithfield High School Smithfield Middle

141School campus and that's going to have Downstream effects on everything else so everything you heard tonight about athletic fields and everything else well guess where that school is going to have to go where all those practice fields are because there's not a lot a lot more room over there so I'm very concerned about that I'm very concerned that eventually we're going to get to the point and you know we're not there yet when we talk about rezoning but eventually we're going to literally be driving kids past one school down to the southern end of the county because we're not being wise about where we put schools I understand the cost savings but that we're going to pay for it in the end and and I hope that you can convince the Board of Supervisors to

142make a smart decision on that um because it's also going to impact traffic is already terrible there it's going to be a lot worse when you throw a third School in there anybody who has gone by any Elementary School in this County and had to deal with pickup lines and everything else one minute it's going to be bad so I hope that uh everybody here will come out make the same comments that you made tonight those comments have to go in front of the Board of Supervisors and then I hope that this board can use a committee put together a good quality package to influence smart decisions by the Board of Supervisors thank you thank you see okay thanks okay uh we have board member Marsh would like to say something so uh I appreciate

143everybody coming out tonight and uh Madam chair I agree with just about everything you said I think that a committee is a good idea but uh I I speculate that part of the reason we had so many folks show up tonight for the tracks and the turf and the band is because they were so low on the list I'd be willing to Gander that if Westside Elementary was number eight on the Sip we'd have been flooded tonight with people that were pushing for West Side Elementary so the point I'm trying to make is as Mr Edmonds alluded to there's much to consider I think we probably all agree that if we could pull out a Magic Bag of Money and buy AstroTurf or a Synthetic Turf for both of our high school tracks and build

144a brand new school and fix all the traffic problems and build a whole new band room and take care of all of our wants and needs we'd certainly do it but it's incumbent upon us and the community to get together and rack and stack and prioritize because we don't have that magical Limitless bucket of money so my suggestion is before we start performing committees is to get together as a board and sit down with the folks that put together the proposals and really dig into exactly what the individual feedbacks were and how the administration came together on reorganizing those priorities and then once we kind of get into the sausage making then we form some committees that's my thoughts um no doubt if we formed a committee for Synthetic Turf tonight we'd have some well-versed

145qualified people to come up and tell us why we should do it and why it was advantageous but I think that would be a disservice to the other items that are certainly in need as well and so that's my thoughts on the matter I I think we should take this in a pragmatic approach and really dig into it and make sure we're making the right decisions and I yield my time okay actually the reason I asked to do the committee is because of the fact it's an instructional need some of these people came out tonight and they were talking about the instructional aspect of it that goes to Dr Kramer we need to get something going immediately if it's going to impact on the students instructions uh especially the band piece the Committees that I

146was uh asked Dr Kramer to form would consist of his staff the parents as well as students and anyone else you would like to uh be on that committee we just went through uh an activity earlier this year we're compiled of a group of people from the community parents staff and students and we work well together and we came up with what we needed to do we need and going forward if we had that same committee we have a lot of people here tonight that spoke I'm sure some of them will some of the parents would be willing to volunteer to be on that committee they could come back to the board with their information present it to the board and this is when the boy can sit down I feel and discuss what they

147have presented to us and we can take it forward to get the funding for it and that's that was my idea of doing that at no time we can always sit down as a board and discuss it but I still want them to do that committee and come back and present to us as a whole but I I don't have any problems going over everything that everyone presented to us tonight I heard them and I hurt you I really hurt you okay it hurt I'm hurting right now to know that this is going on in Isle of Wight County this is not a poor County and it should not be going on and if if more citizens out there knew that this was going on I think they would be up here too speaking before

148us even right next door to West Side we have a community state of the art play area for the students ball fields for the students but we cannot do that well it's not for the students it's for the Youth in the community but we cannot do that for our students this is a county this is not the town doing it we can come together and get the funding to do to do the repairs to the ball fields to do the repairs to the band room instructions must go on it's very important and that's where I am with it anyone else like to speak it's Madam chair I want to kind of echo a little bit what Mr Marsh said you know the the board has yet to have a work session to discuss the ship

149and we haven't provided any guidance to the school system on how to proceed with the Sip and if we have a committee we should be providing some direction to that committee on moving forward with a ship so I think we need a work session to pull the board together discuss what the priorities should be in general terms and then the committee would move forward specifically but it's not just going to be people saying this is what we need folks we need written justification on everything that we want to put up okay I'm one that that's going to read that and I hope the rest of the board would and the Board of Supervisors we want to know exactly why uh for for instance the turf field should be number one so that we can argue

150that in front of the Board of Supervisors if I can't argue it I can't support it now I learned an awful lot tonight from both the band and even more from the sports and I tell you if we had an unlimited amount of funds this would be an easy you know very easy decision to make but folks we need to be able to argue what the needs of this school system are for Capital Improvements so we definitely need your help with that and I think that's going to come starting with a good work session for the for the board which everybody in the county would be welcome to come and watch and of course we'll be asking lots of questions of the administration and hopefully of a lot of people involved in the various aspects

151that we have listed on a potential sip Madam chair thank you thank you Mr colic and I can uh sort of answer you on going to the Board of Supervisors I would say two words health and safety we heard from the band about the temperature in the Band Room Health we heard about we heard from the athletic department about the unsafe Fields the tripping aspect goes off safety that's the most important thing is to keep our students healthy and safety that is our motto to keep them healthy and safety and that would be my argument going before the Board of Supervisors to keep the students safe and to keep them healthy anymore Mr Wooster good evening I've had a few people reach out to me earlier today through email um requesting the same thing as

152far as the astro turf everybody has some very valid concerns and very valid reasons in my opinion but uh as Madam chair just pointed out our main concern is safety and the people I responded to and I've stated in previous meetings before I was sitting up here one of my main concerns is the safety of the students on an AstroTurf or artificial grass surface there's been several studies done which it does show depending on which study you research between a 16 and a 29 percent increase in lower extremity injuries mainly ACL injuries um I've got a medical background of 37 years so this is a major medical concern to me now I'm still researching that as well as reaching out for personal MD opinion so I'm not forming an overall resolution on it as of

153right now but there is concern for you know artificial turf creating lower extremity injuries in higher instances uh I don't know if anyone has researched that on your own uh the people I did respond to I attached links to the articles that I have researched as well um being newly elected up here I want everybody to know I've got an open door policy I want to hear from everybody your comments your concerns your complaints whatever the case may be so that's pretty much all I've got on that aspect Madam chair um what I want to talk about is uh what Mr colic who just stepped out uh was saying we need a work session that's going to help us quite a bit on making a decision because we have to come up with criterias on

154you know why something should be at the top of the list or why it should get pushed to the bottom uh Granite safety is a major issue uh we just got to come up with criteria I mean motivation morale obviously the band is not uh motivated looking at their band room obviously the uh sports teams are not motivated looking at the facilities that they're playing on all of this needs to be put down on certain criterias on what we need to look at and and really uh the safety and health is the most important but we got to look at other things too so if we put a work session together within the next couple of months then I think we can sit down as a board and come up with the criteria we need

155to make some decisions and then yes get a committee I mean you can start your committee now but you you don't know where what we're looking for really and we really don't know what we're looking for so once all of us the five of us get together make a decision on what we're looking for put that down on paper then we can take it to the superintendent and then he can do his work and bring the people together but we are going to need everybody's help with this this is not just the school board figuring out what the county needs this is everybody working together we have to work as a team we have to get together and you have to get with us that's going to make this happen and then all of us

156have to go to the Board of Supervisors just like uh uh chair time said we all have to go to the Board of Supervisors I want to see the room so full that people have to go out in the hallway that's how you get to them that's the only way we're going to make this happen because money is tight that's all I have okay thank you madam chairman I just interject the timeline I think is a concern Dr Coleman would you come to the to the podium so whether it's a committee whether it's a work session we take our directions from you the board to whatever you tell us to do we will do but I do want to be mindful of the very tight timeline we are on um so Dr Coleman um would

157you be able to share some light on when we would need to do this yes sir in previous years we've always turned the CIP in in January to uh February February the latest so that the Board of Supervisors have time to actually plan put together their CIP from all of the other existing departments because of course the school CIP is just one of maybe seven or eight that they have to combine and through that that's when they actually put together a another comparative list to find out what is the most important in the entire division items that we put on the CIP might go against the fire truck might go against the ambulance might go against something of that nature from a overall Board of super approach so this year the Board of Supervisors have

158changed the I guess you said the timeline so they have pushed it back to more of the March uh yeah the March timeline so it did push it back maybe a month uh I apologize a month now uh me and the County Administrator have been in contact and I will try to you know of course push it back as far as I can for us to get all of our ideas together so we could have the work sessions that we need to have to get the public input that we have but there is a timeline of early 2023 to have our plan to the Board of Supervisors so that therefore they can start to plan on the bond referendums that they would have to do in order to get the items pushed through on the

159CIP thank you Dr Coleman and so Madam chair I would recommend um getting with you and with members of the board so that we can back map uh to determine um when and how we do this so I again we take our direction from you but I do know that we have a pretty tight timeline in terms of turning this around and getting input from the community we've done that I want to remind you of that as well we do have some initial uh input from the community but if you prefer us to convene a committee we certainly will do that but I do want you to be mindful of the timeline constraints that we are dealing with okay all right I just want to make sure that I'm understanding everything and from what I've

160gathered the rezoning comments and proposal that's going to tie directly into this and we're going to get into that to the next agenda item that's the next but um whether or not we build a new West Side Elementary school is going to have a direct impact on all the rest of this so it it's got to tie all together if I may I would say yes and no I I think west side is certainly going to have an impact but there is an immediate decision that we're going to have to make uh prior to having a discussion about West Side we need to have this discussion regarding Hardy and Carrollton more immediately than a little longer term regarding a new website if that's what you're referring to if I'm hearing you correctly excuse me a

161second Dr Kramer we asked as I recall we had the joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors when will we we plan to have another one when are we asked to do it during the beginning of our budget session or near the end I can't recall the exact time but as I was wondering if it's possible if we could schedule uh another joint session work session with the Board of Supervisors to address some of these we actually have made that request of the uh Board of Supervisors I think they are amenable to that we just need to determine uh against the dates and times okay so I think the last time you and and um and the County Administrator worked out the dates sent them to us uh several dates and we just uh yes

162chose from that Dr Coleman and I will certainly have a conversation with County Administrator uh Keaton and uh look at some times when we can get back together as uh Board of Supervisors and Board of Education joint and I feel if we have that meeting and uh come together both boards coming together jointly there is a possibility some of these things maybe we don't need that committee they may decide from that meeting when they go back you know hey this is something we need and the priorities again we take our directions from you so I can't I cannot say what they're going to say but this is why I prefer the joint beat it there we can all talk together at the same time I think we just would need to determine what the joint

163meetings look like and what is the what are the expectations from that meeting right right and Madam chair I think we should schedule our work meeting ahead of a joint meeting with the oh we can still do our work meeting as a matter of fact I was looking at next the 15th of December because we need to meet immediately I don't want to leave it over the holiday and then you come back after first year I don't know what we're going to be coming back to what if I was looking for the 15th I know west side is having their music that night but we can meet at the central office it's just going to be our bullet in our conference room it does have to be public yeah yeah we're going to have it

164public it still can be public the central office you know have we done it before well if if that if more people would like to come out to our joint meeting not joint meeting but uh school meeting our work session yeah then we can have it in another building we find out one that's opened that night but I'm just saying west side is not available because they're having concert here that night we will ask our board clerk Mrs whitlowder we're looking at dates and locations we can work on that please absolutely and the date will be the uh 15 15th next Thursday yeah that's perfect thank you madam chair you know what let's let's just in case the 15th is not doable let's look at about two different dates just in case we don't have

165too many because they're going to be closing the following day shutting everything down for winter break big and really any any day that week any day that week is that good for everybody no okay Madam chair may we may we may we ask our clerk to look at some dates and available and we'll get back with you and certainly that will be publicized and made public if I may ask that okay thank you that'll work okay thank you very much okay the next item on the agenda let me get to that we're going into 12-2 I got it public input on the rezoning do we have any speakers again do we have any speakers for the public input on rezoning hearing none we'll move on to wait Madam chair is it a sign up no

166he just phrases here huh he raised his hand oh okay I thought we had to sign up though Urban growth in Cartersville district and when it comes to these things you usually ask for any speakers from the floor excuse me a second Mr degroff Dr Coven uh could you but we can't close the door because uh just close one of them and leave one open because the noise in the hole thank you Mr Groff having said on the school board for 13 years between 95 and 2013. rezoning is a necessary responsibility of a school board it is not an easy thing to do because you are going to catch crap from every point on the compass because I don't want my child to change schools but you have to do that in order to efficiently

167utilize all of the spaces available throughout Isle of Wight County school system in the nine schools yes it will require some unusual transportation of students but that's the problem with a rural County and people don't grow up in nice little groups that fit in the existing schools and that's my only comment I want to make to you be prepared for an interesting time but It ultimately comes down to utilizing the facilities to maximum efficiency thank you thank you any more speakers hearing God at this time we're gonna they sign up I came in late okay so I'll be very quick and uh I just want to say that I appreciate the rezoning it you know haven't reviewed it it's logical it makes sense it's something you have to do it's always easier when you're telling

168people hey I'm sorry you've got to move to a brand new school so take advantage of that but I appreciate it and appreciate the work on it thank you thank you very much Mrs at this time we need a 10 minute break thank you recess very much for accommodating us uh we've completed the public input on rezoning we we're moving to item number 13 request to speak on a j agenda items herb DeGraw Madam chair board members Dr Kramer herb de Ross the Hardy District correction they resume me that's a live minority District in Smithfield but it's really cargo anyway uh I have already sent you all earlier this afternoon about uh 5 30 my extended remarks and it has one to highlight a couple of them here this evening and basically share times with

169all of this stuff that's been going on over the FFA policy naming school facilities and it's up for second read tonight why do you still have the wrong version of policy FFA on this agenda for the second read why have you placed the 11 March 2015 version of policy FFA on the agenda which is the wrong one instead of the correct one of 11 June 2015. when you were chair of the board and voted on it you're violating Virginia code 22.1-253 decimal 13 semicolon 7 B the law of States each local school board shall maintain and follow up-to-date policies all School Board policies shall be reviewed at least every five years and revised as needed you Vice chair Cunningham and other previous board members didn't maintain and follow the up-to-date policy of FFA on 8

170September of this year when this board voted to name the CTE school facility after the previous superintendent by voter four to one because my representative Mr collect voted against it you didn't use the policy FFA from 11 June of 2015 that you as then board chair and other board members voted unanimously to approve so chair times the motion and or vote from the state September meeting needs to be rescinded now to correct your mistake and that of the other board members in the naming of this school facility after the previous superintendent question did you as the chair have the school board attorney review this evening's agenda and the attachments including policy FFA for a second read for this meeting I asked this question because during the 13 October board meeting this year my member Mr

171colic was concerned that nine policies had the word shall that was redlined to be removed from the language of policies and then miss Briggs asked council's a question about the policies and he stated I didn't review all these policies or any of them but based on what you all were telling me the shall in that sentence really makes no difference I don't think it makes a difference from the one example Mrs Briggs just told me well council's statement Drew criticism from a citizen who stated during the 10 November meeting that he should be fired by making a statement of not reviewing the policies I mean reviewing the policies from talking to Mr crook is council's job right so Mr fact have you reviewed the agenda and attachment which includes policy FFA for today's meeting would

172you please nod your head yes or say yes for citizens to know that you have done so or not because this policy that's on the agenda tonight is not the one of 11 June 2015. it was voted on unanimously by board share times Perkins Wilson Easter and Ely on the 11th June 2015 that's documented in those approved minutes so folks I hope that we will put this thing to rest and that you will direct and intensive investigation and the perpetrators of who bastardized or messed up this policy gets corrected and disciplined thank you merry Christmas everybody and have a Happy New Year Heidi Schwartz ah good evening and congratulations to our new board members first I'd like to recognize policy FFA on the agenda for the second read since the discovery of the incorrect or

173fraudulent document in October Mr Wooster and I met at central office and I understand a lot has taken place unfortunately most most of my foia has been extended past the five days so I don't have much information to provide I was also told I will receive some of the foia later but much of it will be redacted due to attorney and client confidentiality so with that I'm either hoping something will be shared tonight publicly as much as possible or that the original document will be put back in place and that you move to set the CTE renaming to under what should be the correct written policy that should be current I'm confident that true transparency will take place in the end for the public with the attempt to rename the building for what appears to

174be personal reasons regarding the emedia VA app from whro I'm going to give a different perspective than what was provided from the president the board was emailed my points and concerns earlier thank you Mr Marsh for responding to me it was nice to finally have a response after two years from my Windsor District vet or a rep I'm still yet to receive a response from our my chair since Miss Carr has left the position many of you are aware that this was one of the apps that 75 percent of parents that spoke up last year disapproved of and the first paragraph presented tonight it states that emedia Virginia is a One-Stop shop does this also mean that second or third apps have been presented to you for comparison and a cost to the board does

175this app align with your own rewording Miss times of the klb process and purchasing of instructional materials has it been vetted for materials that and I will quote from your policies listed on Iowa County School's own website shall be considered for their educational suitability and should not shall not be prescribed because of partisan or doctrine approval a disapproval these are your own words in your own written policies of via White County Schools as you read through the bracket packet it states on page four under student devices the digital learning team is committed to delivering content that includes inclusion Equity Justice and diversity principles does this align with Equity or does this align with e01 page two speaks about fuzzy search engine for when words are misspelled or mistyped I'm hoping that this is not overlay

176into the built-in filters for elementary students though there are still concerns for our higher grade levels when they're not offered any other viewpoints but this One-Stop shop the last page is itself highlights multiple one-sided viewpoints I'm sure this will be presented well it was already presented in a positive way but my experience in the last two years that these apps are not I'm looking forward to the board moving forward the questions items that are placed in front of them that looks through policies and aligns them with what citizens of Iowa County as a majority are working towards not rubber stamping policies that come before them because of the bear bear requirements we can do better thank you thank you Lewis Edmonds good evening again I'm also speaking on policy FFA uh last month I pointed

177out multiple or a variety of different types of violations of Virginia code specifically with the Virginia Public Records act that I felt like depending on which scenario what actually happened which we still don't know what actually happened uh one way or another there was probably a violation of the Virginia Public Records act I've not gotten any kind of response to that other than the general form letter you get for hey thanks for participating at the school board meeting what I didn't know at the time was the October 20th Memo from Dr Kramer to the school board which essentially acknowledges the validity of the June 2015 version of FFA so there's a couple things I don't understand uh since this memo acknowledges that there was a An approved version on June 2015 I do not understand

178and that language is not what's on the posted version from June 9th 2022. I don't understand why is it still posted why is it still part of the agenda the staff knows that it wasn't the right version so I I can't fathom why we're still using it we're still presenting it um you know like I said Dr Kramer had this memo on October 20th so when the school board met in November you had additional information you could have shared with the public you chose not to why did you not do that it's clearly a public item a public interest item um so you knew back in June that this policy had exceeded this five-year periodicity of reviewing uh policies I'm not that worried about that piece what I am concerned about is why did you

179sit on that policy until after the CTE resolution vote in September before you brought it for the board if you knew it was already five years past periodicity why didn't you bring that to the board in June for review and uh and wait on it after the vote the other piece is a question for this board is is the electronic School Board website is that the official public record for any actions that the school board took before September 2018. if so is that what you use to find the previous policy and if not what is the public record for any actions that this board took before September 2018. now having searched ESB I will tell you there's a quirk to it and it's just a an algorithm Quirk so if you search for quote policy

180FFA you're going to get I believe six responses four responses or six responses and it's only going to go to the March 2015 policy so maybe that's where the mistake came from I don't know because you haven't given us answers however if you search for FFA you're going to get I think 12 responses eight of which are tied specifically to FFA and it includes the uh the May first reading and the June 2015 second reading when um so my biggest question that's unanswered out of all of this and this is the question that I'm begging you to answer because the memo doesn't address it is if you if according to the memo the staff didn't know about the June 2015 version then how did the date of June 11th 2015 end up on the bottom

181of the memo of the policy memo that you posted on June 9th it's impossible that you didn't know about the June 15 policy that was approved if you put it on the bottom of the memo it's it's I can't I can't fathom how that is so please rip the Band-Aid off answer the questions so we can move on I'm tired of every month I got to dig a little bit more and find a little bit thing else come back up here in front of you just rip the Band-Aid off swallow your pride and let's move on thank you [Applause] that's it Madam chair thank you oh wait Reverend Williams no wait never mind you're at the end just kidding I'm sorry about that yes we are finished with that part of the meeting thank you

182item number 14 board members committee reports and information right now I'm gonna ask uh student reps to give their report comments and reports from their prospective buildings so they can move on we're getting laid into the night and I know you probably have homework so we're just doing great we're always doing great um the basketball teams both boys and girls are doing really good right now they just had a win last night I think the boys won 69 to like 23 against Southampton which is really big because we hardly ever went against Southampton our rival um so they've been very happy about that um we've had lots of practicing for the play they're doing The Adams Family I'm not sure on what date but I can find that out at the next meeting um well

183I mean I have some personal growth look that's what I can share with you so most of you know I'm a senior so I've started my college applications and I've been accepted into Radford which is where I'll be attending next fall congratulations congratulations and I also just wanted to welcome our two new board members Mr Martian Mr Wooster I look forward to getting to know you thank you very much okay Samantha um one second Kylie is wins a high school senior Samantha Smith High School junior um so we're doing pretty good um our basketball season's going very well uh we just beat Surrey so that's really exciting because they're a harder team our abandoned chorus concert is next week so that's very exciting they've been looking forward to this and practicing since the beginning of

184the school year so this is really big event for them um band is playing in the Christmas parade so that's that'll be really exciting but that's really it but welcome I'm excited to work with y'all and that's it and now you all can leave please thank you very much and we will see you next year thank you oh yeah okay at this time board members committee reports I know Mr Wooster and Mr Marsh really don't have any um committees there on just yet um or any information anything you want to share you haven't done anything have you okay all right let's call it uh yeah the only thing I'd like to um say is about the vsba conference that we went to um it was really done well this year I went last year wasn't

185as impressed this year I think it was really done well in particular the legislative session I learned more in that session than in anything else at the conference so pack if you would give some kudos to Stacy for me they did a wonderful job and you know for anybody that is interested or a couple comments I wasn't here last month last month November 10th was the Marine Corps birthday and on November 10th of every year I go to the Marine Corps birthday celebration I have never missed one in 42 years so I'm not not going to miss one uh wasn't going to miss one this year and definitely won't miss one next year since next year it will be a public holiday thank you thank you well I think I was going to mention the

186fact that I attended the conference at Williamsburg as well as well as Mr Cunningham Dr Kramer and some of his staff uh Miss cats Dr Coleman and did any other staff members attend oh Jessica I forgot that the clerks because they have their own session and it was very informative also I had an opportunity this week to meet with new board members I met with Mr Wooster I think it was on Tuesday afternoon along with Doc with Dr Kramer and I met with Mr march on Wednesday and um I had to give you those dates because I didn't want you to think we were I met with them together okay and that's about all I did I was I did uh this month other than some other things with staff thank you [Applause] Financial we

187have Mr Chris Mr Todd Christensen Madam chair school board members the financial reports today I have uh I want to introduce a couple of individuals of course you already know Mr Todd Christensen he's been helping out uh in the finance department for the past month and um he's also have been present he also presented several different Financial reports beside him we have Miss Christy pepper Miss Christy pepperhead is the finance Finance consultant that we hired to finance Guru consultant that has come in and has truly helped us to get things on track and to start moving forward so they will be presenting the financials today we have Miss uh Mr Christensen and Mrs Christie pepper pepper thank you yes good evening Madam chair Dr Kramer members of the board uh you have the financial reports

188the check registry detail summary um the facility usage agreements um in front of you and we're happy to answer any questions that you all may have at this time Mr Christensen I do have two questions uh Mr Marshall no recognize I recognize Mr Marshall I apologize I did not and then we'll have Mr Collin good evening I know we're tired probably tired of my questions too but I feel like we got to get through this um some of this is for my own personal edification so bear with me on the financial summary could you tell me what encumbered expenditures are and Mr Christian I don't know is acceptable I mean we can do this later but these are some of the things I've I've questioned in the past um on the check registry again we've

189got 33 400 and some odd dollars for Bank of America credit cards and we have 23 600 some odd dollars on Amazon credit cards um Dr Kramer I know that we're working on getting a CFO and we've already discussed these are some of my concerns um moving forward I would request that we make that a priority I don't know the answers but I think we can do better as a whole being a little bit more transparent something I'd like to discuss and entertain later on and I certainly don't want to beat up on Mr Chris Christensen or Miss Christie uh because I know we're not there yet we got a ways to go but I want to be vocal about my concerns moving forward um one last thing I noticed we paid seventy two thousand

190dollars last month for substitute teachers is that a normal occurrence I'm going to ask uh our HR is Mrs Sullivan available yeah um yes so I can say anywhere from forty thousand to seventy thousand um seventy thousand is on the higher side for us in a month um so our current bill rate that we pay source for teachers when there is a substitute out is a hundred and seventy one dollars in some sense per an employee or per teacher because they only fund our teacher positions we don't have IA Subs that come from them um and so in kind of doing a cross-reference from year to year on a daily basis in 2021 we had anywhere from 28 to 40 teachers absent in the district um and in this year we're looking more at numbers

191of 40 and 50 a day and I will tell you December is higher than what currently on the daily rates we're trending higher this month than we have so far in September October and November of this year I do kind of keep an eye on where those are coming from the majority of the believe is it personal is it sick care for a family member and we're doing we're in sick flu season right now and you know the majority of our leave is coming from that those like I would say about 90 from sick leave thank you Miss Sullivan and just from my mouth to your ears as I get a little bit more familiar I'll be asking a lot of questions so don't take it personally and yeah yeah I'm happy to give any

192data that you want on that as well we have lots of reports we can pull for you perfect thank you thank you madam chair uh Mr Christensen uh one thing I look for I couldn't find a food service receipts where do we capture that information the receipts themselves are going to be oh no continue the receipts themselves are going to be kept um in in files we have files of all the those specific receipts they wouldn't be included well what I mean is how do we catalog them in our financial reports or do we I looked and I didn't see him yes sir I I it's kept you know it's a separate fund it's fund 300 that's that it's kept in I I don't believe that those numbers are included in this specific report and

193one thing that we can do is actually start pulling that report of course you already know Chad Wills is a food provider there's a separate report that we actually run that's something that has never been asked to actually provide that but that will be easy as Mr Christian said easy to start running a report concerning Food Service receipts per month if that's something that you request of um Dr Kramer of course okay thank you um and the second question is we have income coming from a warehouse that we sublet to a company a local company um where is that captured it should in my mind it would be in November in the facility usage report but I I don't see that because I know that's additional monies we have coming in yes sir that amount

194will be captured um within one of our Revenue categories I don't off the top of my head know which Revenue category that is I'd have to check the report yeah if you could get back to me when you get a chance on that because I'm I'm interested now thank you and for a clarification point I just want to ensure that um that we're not thinking that it's a true Revenue coming in of that sort I do know what you're asking Mr colic but there is more funds leaving concerning the warehouse than coming in I just wanted to ensure that we're on the same page and that you wasn't missing okay yeah if we can talk offline later thank you okay the incumber funds you ask about are all the pers that have been done by

195all departments they are they are registered on financial reports as encumbered anytime you do a PO that encumbers funds and that shows in is it munis in munis as an encumbered funds that this is what may be spent out of there now the POS may not be the exact amount but once you enter the PO as an invoice it sends all the excess Revenue back into General funds I think one other question you asked Mr Marsh I want to make certain that we respond and that was I think Mr Christensen was prepared to answer that uh I think you ask a question about the Bank of America and Amazon uh specific uh receipts would you speak to to that Mr Christians yes sir uh so the detail will show you a general Amazon or Bank

196of America entry as you alluded to so this report that's that pulls from munis and it pulls from a general description line that's where that instructional materials um sort of uh generic information will come in from so uh it it's limited in the amount of characters that that report will generate in so for instance an Amazon purchase typically a bookkeeper is going to purchase 20 to 25 different items at one time so it would be impossible to detail every single line within those within this report of course we do have records of all of that at central office it's about a stack this big every month of Amazon and Bank of America all the individual receipts but for this specific report it's pulling from a generic item which would say like instructional material because you

197can't actually input anything more than that into where it's pulling from a muteness but there are records like you could there's individual receipts I went through them myself because I was curious and they they do exist and you can find them but this specific report does not it's pulling from a generic category thank you sir just just to be clear I'm not trying to point any kind of malice on anyone I I don't think anyone's out there running a charge card up for something we don't need my request is that in the future we at least work and discuss on a way so that the average taxpayer pulls up the monthly Financial reports for November and I see that there's 33ks meant from a credit card and all it says is either instructional materials or

198a PO number that doesn't really tell me where my money's going that's just as an average taxpayer that was me for months ago now I'm up here in one of my duties as a board member is to approve the budget and so I'm really interested in what we're spending our money on and again it's not because I think someone's burning up a credit card I just want to know where the money's at so that when we go to the Board of Supervisors and we have to beg for more money for a school and Synthetic Turf I can look the board in the eye with a straight face and say we're being as Frugal as possible and using our money wisely that's all I'm asking for thank you and I think as Mr Christensen mentioned uh

199board member Marsh we can certainly show you those receipts and you know so we welcome you as you and I've had numerous conversations already in in my office so I welcome you uh to come in so that we can literally show you uh some of those receipts and I think that will give you a better indication of how the school system uh the School Division uh is spending the funds uh of the public thanks doctor are there any more questions for Mr Christmas and I miss Mrs powerful thank you very much we appreciate it okay Support Services Dr Coleman um we have a couple more items on the financials yes sir it's one of the items we added Madam chair right that's why okay we got it yes sir funding requests and supplement 1000 voters

200okay at this time we need it oh yes ma'am so this is a um a request for the board it's an action item and for the uh allocation of sr3 fundings uh requested to supplement the one thousand dollar bonus okay that's an action item so thank you uh Madam chair I would like to make a motion to approve the allocation of 304 660 dollars and fifty cents from Essa three funds to cover the additional costs not covered by state allocated funds for soq bonuses of ensuring that all employees active as of November 30th except for coaching positions only employed by division as coaches substitute positions tutors and adult education supplemental Physicians receive a one thousand dollar bonus and that the funds cover the employee or employ your portion of FICA FICA excuse me FICA deductions

201to be paid on December 15th Madam chair at second that have a motion in a second at this time any discussion yes ma'am just for the public can someone explain for the people watching what exactly does 304 thousand dollars is coming from in other words in plain language what is sr3 funds sr3 was the money the federal money that was allocated um as part of the uh covet relief so it's for um a number of different items but it was part of that Federal Grant excellent thank you anyone else will discussion floor I'll take a verbal from you Mr Marsh I can yay motion passes five zero thank you very much Madam chair may I just note as well for the public These funds are coming from Federal and State dollars uh and not from

202local funds so just wanted to note that all right yes thank you Dr Kramer next we are moving to second round of fundings for the workforce Grant yes ma'am so uh previously I had brought to the board the first round of funding for the workforce Grant this is uh done through our nursing department it's uh grant that they applied for and were awarded for a first round of funding they opened that Grant up for a second round of funding and we're fortunate enough to be approved for another amount of money as part of that Grant so we are coming to the board tonight as an action item to ask that you um moved to approve the second round of funding in the amount of eighty six thousand eight hundred and twenty eight dollars and request

203allocation from the Board of Supervisors for that amount okay that is an action item okay Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the second round of funding for the workforce Grant an amount of 86 828 and request allocation from the Board of Supervisors to the admin attendance and health category a second Madam chair I'll second that I have a motion on a second on the floor any discussion hearing none we will take a vote okay oh passes fives thank you very much next on the agenda we go to support services 16.1 support services update yes ma'am Madam chair school board members I'll be going through the support services update first of all I'm going to just touch bases on the digital mapping It's the final draft of the digital mapping all maps

204have been sent out to principles for the final overview so that once the principals give us a heads up that everything is correct then we can move forward with finalizing all of the drafts and one thing that we're depending on with the new security Emergency Management Specialists will coordinate the rollout of that position I mean of the actual Maps so as soon as we get everything in place that individual will give the expertise into moving forward with that schools and local emergency agencies will all need access on common training with the match of course the map system will be available not only for schools but for uh EMS services and law enforcement Services also so we'll be more of a division wide training so to make sure that we're all on the same page with

205the digital mapping any questions concerning digital mappings yeah Madam chair I do have a question all right uh what platform are these maps on are they on paper or on tablets or and correct me if I'm wrong Mr Christian they're going to be on um uh if you want to call it uh software computer I mean it's the same system that a law enforcement agent would have in its car because they will be receiving the maps and they can pull down the maps in a school if there's an incident occurring that they need to figure out exactly what position that uh Intruder would be are they three-dimensional by chance three-dimensional perfect thanks they're actually uh you can do them both digitally and and print it out you can do them in both capacities and they

206read the same way as well great thank you any more questions concerning digital map all right next what you see a picture of is the Smithville Middle School gym floor repair as you know that um uh repairs are going on underway right now and I'm just going to switch to the next that's the picture of what was going on of course construction has bypassed us and it's it's moving forward right now now the damage was caused by moisture what we believed at the time was from under the floor once the floor was ripped up we did not find any source of the moisture there we already know that it wasn't a roof leak or anything of that nature so now we're looking at the weep holes along the side of the building because something caused

207the moisture on the floor and we're still investigating that project schedule be complete over winter break and um as you already know it's typically a summer project but the floor was in such a disrepair that we uh decided with the principal um along to just to move on and um fix the floor now now um one thing we do thankful is for the Smithfield Middle School administration and staff for all of the flexibility they use the gym on a regular basis so for them to go without the gym for a month month and a half that's uh that's extremely extremely flexible for them to do that so we thank them for that and of course we thank Liberty life who signs on for yearly leases and there was no issue with them not using those

208particular areas at that time also safety of students staff and Community is our top priority while we do the gym floor over there's any questions concerning the Smithfield Middle School gym floor right next is the Cartersville awning update because of the awning of course you know this has been going on for at least maybe 18 months and the the issue was the insurance the insurance of who's going to cover the cost of the awning once the incident did occur Insurance process has finally been has has actually been finalized now and the contractor has been selected and the contract is working with the county right now to get all of the permits needed for the awning there's a lot more permits needed for the awning Madam chair uh Mr Coleman what was the incident incident was

209uh I'm going to say 18 months ago between 18 months and 24 months ago a delivery truck uh one of the trucks with the higher tops like a U-Haul uh 24 footer it uh hit the awning and knocked the awning down any more questions concerning carsville awning update right the main distribution frame the MDF project this is more the technology project I'm not going to go into all of the details that you see here but what we TR what we did was the MDF uh think of the room in every school that has all of your computer mainframes and you know um networks those rooms get extremely hot so what we try to do is put split not only put split units there to keep those units uh keep those areas cooler but we try

210to connect those with the generator so it's even if the power goes out um those computers can be kept cool at all times that's the easiest and quickest way to put it the details of course are on the board for that and um in the mbf rooms you know containing very sensitive very sensitive temperature equipment if one of those rooms should go down that's millions and millions of dollars so we just wanted to make sure that we reinforce that to ensure that that doesn't occur that night yeah all right in addition to the the split units which Dr Coleman is correct about the generators is another um sort of separate but uh linked part of this project and so that would allow for of course when there's a power outage for those networks to continue

211on because they are supplying so much security cameras HVAC internet almost everything on these days is running off the network so these extra generators we're putting in are going to really work as a great backup for us in addition to the split units that Dr Coleman talked about Madam chair I do have a question on the generators how long does it take before they kick in the generated Smithville High School Middle School complex is um it's the instant one as soon as everything yeah as soon as everything goes out I guess when I say instant maybe five seconds okay is that enough time to keep the computers and everything running yes there will be enough time so you don't need an UPS or anything for that and Mr Cooper was was very much involved in

212this project so if there was anything that that needed to be added in to protect this equipment I'm confident he would have fit he said that I already have them so beautiful okay thank you all right okay upcoming request for proposals where of course we have the the custodial Grounds Maintenance and Fire Systems proposal coming up in January well it actually expires in June but we're going to run that proposal in January February time frame food services will be in the same time frame of June and we will be running that RFP for uh January February now both our LPS will go out early 2023 and of course the selection process will occur in early spring now the committee members will include Central office and school-based Personnel for these two different rfps are there any

213questions concerning those two rfps Mr Coleman how do you guys advertise it okay so your food service RFP is advertised through a central um what is it yeah yeah through Eva and um it is directed by the USDA so that RFP is actually it comes along with a template and comes along with individuals that you know when we push the information out on Eva then that's pretty much the the basis of that now the custodial grounds and maintenance fire system we do not only an Eva advertisement but would last the last RFP we did we did a website um a website advertisement also sure yes is there a reason that we group custodial Grounds Maintenance and Fire Systems into one category into one RFP there was a reason why we did it uh four or

214five years ago yes there was a reason why that did occur and I was looking for more of a um I guess you could say the lower cost and the lower cost was to ban those resources and get the most bang for a buck in that sense that was the reason for doing that uh with five years ago would that still today be the best value um well we're going to research that we're going to research every option and maybe breaking them out in singularities could be better but we will definitely research all options for that it'll be dependent on the proposals and what the committee determines but it's certainly not a mandatory that those are groups together you can itemize them out you can group them together it's it's at the discretion of the

215ultimately the school board I mean how we want to uh to itemize those out and what is makes the most fiscal sense yeah one second please um I know of quite a number of companies veteran owned companies that do custodial or they do grounds or they do maintenance and so that I think it would just open the gamut up even for even more companies so we can really ensure we get top quality contractors right coming in no I was just going to share that we're looking at that exact thing great right thank you Dr Kramer any more questions for these gentlemen no more questions this concludes the support service and operations update okay okay all right all right new Hardy construction status play all right this will be one of the last videos that you're

216going to see for the outside of new Hardy um this video is cut a little bit shorter because we only could see but so much at this time we have the wing I think it's Wing a and just the center needs the roof on it after that you won't be able to see too much on the outside the exterior of the building as you can see right now that is the gym and the auditorium right in the center of the screen all right and that it will be the two-story Wing the elongated narrowing right that will be the two-story wing for new Hardy the site will be cleaned well the site will be starting to be more straightened up and cleaned up once the roof gets home for the individual to start bringing stuff inside

217and that's when you see more of the parking lots start to be laid down on the East and the West sides of it if you look in your upper left at this time you'll see the bottom of the a water tower and that is to shut the water tower right now and for those who didn't know the water tower is tied into the new hearted project when the water tower is complete the school will be complete and you have a nice clear picture of old Hardy at this time all right and like I said next time you might have a video for the interior or more pictures for the interior of new Harding are there any questions concerning new harder all right we have Mr Cooper at our technology request thank you good evening board

218this is a request to sell Surplus equipment for technology we bring this forth around this time of year every year in order to dispose of old and damaged equipment that we have gathered throughout the year and the list is provided to you on board Docs yeah Madam chair I do have a question yes okay um are these sold in Lots or are they sold in individually so community members can purchase them what's the process so they are sold in Lots We Gather bids from many companies and then we have sold them all to one we have split lots and sold them to multiple companies the reason we do that is many um one being they're purchased with specialized funds Grant funds that have to be deallocated in certain ways okay others is there's damage they're

219old the batteries are bad so the amount of time it would take to refurbish equipment and the amount of money it would take to refurbish equipment to sell them to community wouldn't justify those few that we could do that for thank you Mr cooperator yes sir any more questions for Mr Cooper Rider hearing none this is an action item so we need a motion okay uh Madam chair I'll make a motion to approve the request to sale Surplus items with Data Destruction guarantees as presented second I don't have a motion and a second on the floor at this time we would take a vote yes okay motion passes five zero thank you very much Mr Cooper Rider at this time you're next tech security equipment and Grant award yes ma'am so uh every year I

220let the board know early on in the school year that we have applied for a grant and this year we were once again awarded an award I believe the amount was 217 600. and so we request uh the board to request the Board of Supervisors to appropriate the funds all right you hear the report coming from Mr Coop brother do you have any questions hearing none this is an action item so we need a motion all right Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to approve an amendment to the 2022 to 2023 technology budget and authorize the superintendent to request Appropriations from the Board of Supervisors and amount of 600 dollars second Motion in a second at this time we take a vote [Applause] motion passes five zero thank you very much thank you

221thank you Mr Coop Ryder next we have reallocating facilities space based on need and Madam chair as our staff prepares to present this item I'd like to offer a few uh introductory comments if I may so we actually just had a chance to see uh the new Hardy uh Elementary School and the construction that is occurring uh that new construction gives us I think a one-time opportunity to both save the school division resources money as well as it provides us with an opportunity to acquire additional space for both students and staff although I do not desire to preempt their presentation but they're going to share why we're doing this and I'd like to share with you what we're asking for so that we can be very explicit so we're asking that we retain a portion

222of the existing Hardy building the current building the old building if you will and that's going to allow us to repurpose that building for various uses so that is the ask that we not do anything new but just allow us to retain a portion of that building so that is the what and they will provide context as to why we're asking for that and uh after what I'd like to provide a few summary comments before uh your question so Dr Coleman Mrs Getz and Mrs Sullivan all right thank you Dr Kramer first I'd like to start off by talking about the reallocating facility capacity based on emerging needs it's not a new idea it's something that we've been doing in the division for the last five years that I've been here the room that we're

223sitting in right now was the same out ideology of real reallocating facility capacity and one time this was more of a stagnant Rune with the bleachers I guess you can say the auditorium seating in it it can only be used for one purpose and that purpose was for just Auditorium looking straight forward now we were having an issue with the Board of Supervisors meeting and the school board meeting being on the same night and a lot of times we would have to have school board meetings at various locations or would have to go to the high school they have it in that Auditorium so what we decided to do was reallocate the space that we're sitting in right now and once reallocated now this this space is used by students almost daily and this space

224is used by professional board professional development for all of the staff something that we did have before and also this space is used for school board meetings as we're sitting in right now same space the same space worked out and no cost to the taxpayer and that's what we're looking for the idea that we're about to show will be no cost to the taxpayer no extra cost to the taxpayer that's one thing I wanted to get across and we just have to keep in mind that the demolition of um old Hardy it's a small window you know we have to make a couple of decisions when you know no need to rush but at the same time keep in consideration that the demolition is scheduled and any sort of repurposing or reallocating has to come

225along with new permits permits takes time so I just want to make sure that we get that set across thank you yes all right first let's look at the iwcs warehouse we've had a warehouse since um and their warehouse lease is now coming to an end June 30th 2023. now the warehouse space that we're currently leasing is 11 000 square foot and we want to point out that it is one level and the current use the main focus is the confidentiality of the records now you know records we have school board records Human Resources records special education records and several other different several other records now the records need to be kept between one and ten years various different options there and some are permanent records some need to be kept for life where do

226we store these at with iwcs doesn't control their own Warehouse we will always be at the segregation of uh of another source and giving us um space and confidentiality for that also of course we need space for the for furniture sometimes when we switch classrooms over from school to school or equipment cool now one thing I want to keep in mind is the current coals for this Warehouse because you know nothing is free the current cost for this Warehouse monthly is 4 466 dollars monthly four thousand four hundred and sixty six dollars monthly is the current cost of the warehouse one thing that uh we do is we do sublease to we do sublease the other half of the warehouse out for twenty five hundred dollars a month I do want to point that out

227but still it's a it's a a cost that the school system is accruing that it wouldn't accrue if it had its own warehouse now in this warehouse for us there's no shelving and of course there's no climate control which when you're talking about fouls when you're talking about uh confidentiality in those files and keeping those fouls for a long period of time that gets into an issue it gets too issue I think everyone can understand that foreign needs what do we do what are we looking for we're looking for something more of the 9 000 square foot area three levels of storage shelving climate control the key secured access control and of course a cost that we can afford something that's right there something that once again not going out spending a lot of money

228when we actually looked at warehouses and the costs the one cost was by architect was proposed at 1.4 million dollars that is um that's the warehouse plus buying the land and getting everything situated of that nature the lowest cost was a steel building and that was at 670 000. once again there was two calls uh seeked out for a 9 000 square foot building plus once again the forklift and the shelving and everything divided up to be warehouse space so those are the savings that we're looking at by keeping the building keeping the wing at Hardy that we have right now um with the with the forklift of course that would be used for the three levels of shelving storage that we will have in that building now let's look at another need of the

229division the status of central office central office has been um in the module for 18 years it was a um it was a 15-year I mean 2004 was when we actually moved into the building and we've been there for 18 years for many years the county um have had it in the CIP and it was at the CEO in the courthouse in the grounds can you speak to that a little bit more prior to moving into our current central office we were divided up there were offices at the courthouse there were offices at the transportation buildings those were that's where instruction was housed and the finance department was at Windsor Elementary that proved to be very difficult to meet and plan and work together and so the vision of the time was let's get everybody

230together in a temporary solution until a permanent solution could be done and this is where we still sit in our current central office right so what do we have right now coming through central office is maybe 120 visitors or employees daily that is a lot of foot traffic on the building I think we all know that the building is a little older at this time and we have had issues in the past what we believe that is reducing the the footprint of that building can actually extend the life of the building once again trying to make sure that we allocate space so that we can save these areas for longer life um there are no storage capabilities at the current central office and limited conference space 29 personnel and 23 separate office separate offices and

231there's no room for growth now I wanted to mention 29 personnel and 23 separate offices so so all of the uh so you can get an idea of all of the activities that's going on Mrs Sullivan is here and she can talk a little bit more about human resources and the challenges that she has yeah absolutely so from I think from a confidentiality standpoint obviously in Human Resources there's conversations being had um where there there's privacy needed um in so many of our positions but especially in Human Resources um and in our modular unit the walls are very thin which creates either um the actuality or the um perception that conversations can be heard amongst staff members um and so we want our space to be a place where staff feels comfortable and confident and

232being able to come and share concerns um and their thoughts without having to worry about others overhearing conversations so that's definitely a concern of ours additionally we do a high level of recruiting at central office it's difficult for new hires to find it's often interesting to have to explain that they have to drive around the back side of west side and to come to the modular building I don't know that it speaks to the rest of the facilities that we have in our school Division I think when their first impression is coming to central office it definitely doesn't speak to the quality of the working environment that we hope to provide our teachers and staff within the buildings and so I don't know that it's the best representation of the rest of the facilities that

233we offer in Isle of Wight and I'll add another major disadvantage that we have is just the limited space for for meeting areas we have one large conference room and I know for my department this often proves a difficult task because other people want to use that conference room there's other departments there it's not just instruction when we have disciplinary hearings if that conference room is being used we have to crowd into a small office and we're often find ourselves trying to fit you know five six people in in a very small area so the additional meeting space is really something that we need fine and just to pinpoint it one more time this has been on the CIP in 2015 2016 2017 2018 was speaking of the CIP early and how the Board of

234Supervisors they have to really concentrate on what's the most important thing at that time and central office is something that has been moved back to a 10-year span for about the last I would say 10 years and um we we understand that at central office we understand that the students come first and that's one thing that we support fully is putting the students first so one thing that we looked at one thing that Dr Kramer was really trying to focus on is what can we do to reduce costs if not minimize cost at all and also get what we need get what we need to actually move around and that that is the proposal to use the existing space as a solution retain the gymnasium wing of Hardy Elementary School I do want to make

235that very clear it's not retaining the whole school it's retaining the gymnasian wing of Hardy Elementary School and renovate the space for storage and administrative offices it's several different uh reasons why we're going to try to hold that particular Wing now one thing is that the windows on that Wing are only eight years old if you remember correctly there was RFP that went out that those windows um eight years old the HVAC system on that Wing is only eight years old um um the lighting at Hardy Elementary School was replaced by ameresco so once again that Wing is only eight years old so looking at that and looking at moving in once we did the uh once the new hearty demolition started and we had to actually go through the permitting process for asbestos that

236Wing did not have any asbestos in it so it's a lot of different benefits to saving that wing and of course it provides more space for meetings and could there's a lot of different options on the table I don't want to get anyone to jump to conclusions but just thinking about moving technology to the current Co once again that reduces the footprint and of Co so you can keep that for X number more years but at the same time it gives space back to Smithfield High School Europe want to talk about Smithfield High School in space yeah and I'll just briefly add you we're pretty much out of additional classrooms at Smithville High School so if we want to look at expanding programs such as CTE we need to find additional space this is maybe

237a solution for that all right so once again it's a three-fold at this time now this is a picture of how far of the location as you can see the existing portion that we're talking about trying to renovate well um uh reallocate with the space it's 17 000 square feet and the existing Co is maybe eleven thousand five hundred square feet it will be 457 feet away from the uh furthest wing of new Hardy so that is a drawing of that now this will not be something that was starting new from there won't be any new payments or anything of that nature to try to architecture this out and uh actually get permits because this was in 95 completion phase once it was taken off of the new Hardy design so when the new heart

238of design was was being ran out it got to the 95 percent completion range and this was the schematic there so going back and talking to the Architects and going back and talking to Khan and uh Heartland construction it won't be as costly as it would be starting all over from scratch trying to do this foreign bird's eye view of it broken down you have the gymnasium and you have 10 class I mean yeah 10 classrooms and each classroom is uh we're around about a thousand square feet maybe 1100 square feet and the current offices and Central offices 150 square feet so a classroom of this size can be broken down in four or five maybe even six different office space and it's still larger than what the office spaces are at uh central office

239the current central office and also of course one of these can be broken down into two if not three different conference rooms also and once again confidential foul storage foreign so in terms of reallocating space based on the emerging needs that we see this is the presentation and this is our proposal and I'll take any questions that you have at this time if I I may just interject very quickly to sort of punctuate the presentation thank you all very much I think you're very thorough and very thorough and very compelling uh so just to sort of reiterate we need a warehouse space for our sensitive documents as was mentioned uh Human Resources Student Records Finance should not be in a least space they should be in our warehouse space we believe that we have space

240that again can be repurposed doesn't cost the taxpayers any additional dollars if you were to not approve this I would be coming back to you saying we need to build a warehouse and as was mentioned that is going to be in excess of a half million or three-fourths of a million dollars and above some of the quotes were received so for approximately a million dollars we would have to build the space we don't need to do that additionally we gain space for staff with the existing space we have in the modular unit we have but now we would have a brick and mortar space as your superintendent I am not going to ask you to build a central office when the students needs exceed I think staff needs but with that building we don't need

241the spend money on constructing a new building we can spend a fraction of that cost to retrofit that to meet our needs also as was mentioned this potentially would give us student space as well we talk about the need for more CTE I think we are all in agreement about the benefits of CTE well this allows us to have space potentially to expand those offerings so we think that this is a win-win for the division for our community we can spend far fewer dollars and get far more from this request so with that board members we respectfully ask that you approve our request to preserve a portion of Hardy Elementary the existing Hardy Elementary for the purposes mentioned thank you very much Dr Kramer and staff for which you heard I'm going to say their

242plea do you have any questions for them anyone have any questions we welcome your questions we know excellent presentation it's almost like you've prepared for the questions that are coming listen I support it at the end of the day if you are telling me that we're going to in the long run save money pull a proposal that's been kicked down the road for years off the Sip and redistribute it towards the students I'm all for it but I got some questions is there any costs associated so if you stop or change the demo plans today does that cost us money changing the cost of the general plans now that's a two-party question if you when you say change it okay let's say that we stop all I mean well you just clear the building and

243leave the gymnasium Wing if you leave the gymnasium Wing right there that's a clean wash it's a clean wash based off of the monies that were going to be used for demo and based off the Mondays that was going to be uh used to take it away just it's a clean wash but in order to occupy the building there is a cost to it now those costs Guardian don't go ahead okay those calls are a little dependent because of the fluctuation that's in it um and when I say fluctuation you got to think about the Dominion power issues that we're that we're that have been seen lately and when I say Dominion power issues when building new Harley we proposed that it was going to be 40 to 50 000 for the Dominion power electrical

244to be ran to the building and it ended up being close to two hundred thousand that is a gigantic difference I um so with those fluctuations what is proposed at this time and the individuals that uh get to receive the quotes from were very very hesitant to tell me and they said that they pushed pushed the issue as high as they could it was going to be between 350 and and 500 000. those were the estimates between those two but once again if you you know I'm a I'm a Optimist and if everything goes well it could be a lot less now where could I pinpoint that I don't want to pinpoint that at all you know but it could be a lot less than that just to save the building and have it ready

245for occupation so so in plain language if we save the building we have to re-outfit it from classrooms in a gym into office space and storage we're looking at roughly on the high end approximately half million no that is to get the building up and occupyable to to divide the rooms up to customize it to get it I think that what you're saying is to get it to um a high standard to move forward in the building is that what you're saying yes what's it going to cost the taxpayers to take it from what it is today right and make it something that you can move into though okay then then once again this will be 350 to 500 000 something that we can move into to customize it into office space to customize it

246into all of those different spaces will be have I mean will be higher now do I have a cost for that no because I was waiting on you to to if you decide that this is something that you want to do that's when I was still investigating the cost for dividing the classrooms up to um you know customizing the uh confidential break room I mean not break rooms confidential storage areas and different things of that nature if I may add as well and Dr Coleman so the initial prices the cost we've received it's still lower than the cost of building the warehouse because again if we say no to this we are going to need a warehouse for our Personnel files our HR files are Student Records they must be housed under our buildings in

247our buildings building being a warehouse so that cost again still is higher than the total cost for the retrofitting of this building and I just want to add this one thing that I did forget to mention is probably the biggest thing then we do have the funds to cover all of the calls oh yeah yes because of the school construction funds that were actually allocated directly to the division and these School construction funds are allocated to division it cannot be used on instruction it cannot be used on uh several other things that has to be used on um construction not instruction and those are State funds correct those are State funds that are not local funds so once again it doesn't cause the taxpayers any money to take over this building and get it form-fitted

248to what we need at least the taxpayers in Isle of Wight well yeah and the other option Mr Marsh um we had a joint meeting with water supervisors and that was when we the day we made the decision to build uh Hardy Elementary and to go forward to build a West Side Elementary as well it doesn't didn't say the construction just say to Bill well you know we under construction now with Hardy well in that same meeting it came up because we brought up the uh about the Construction of central office well we sort of came up with the idea well since we're going to be building west side which we thought maybe we would be in that process right now the central office could move over here in this building and utilize some of

249it and of course the Board of Supervisors the county would take over this building and utilize it for whatever they want but the central office was going to use part of it as you see West not west side is not in that is that is in the future but we don't know where in the future okay because that's not our decision to make and so this came up and like I said we uh we have to relocate all of our records files that we have leased out because that's coming to an end uh uh to build a storage facility like Dr Kramer said it's going to cost a million dollars just for the storage facility with this we will get the storage facility we need as well as the central office that's all I'm going

250to say for the million dollars for the million dollars okay as well as as well as additional space for students so I still support the proposal but I'm going to speculate now that when it's all said and done we're going to be about a million dollars to make that space move-in ready I'm just speculating everything's expensive aside from the classroom in Smithfield High are we are we getting back any other classrooms I know we've got I.T that's in Smithville High are there any other classrooms that we're going to get back because I know uh carrollton's capped West side's full you know so are we getting anything else back I think with this proposal at the what we're looking at currently that would be the only space at this moment that we see we would be

251able to get back potentially right and that's potentially three classrooms at Smithfield High School okay Dr Kramer instead sorry okay this is an action item so we need a motion okay uh Madam chair like to uh make a motion to proceed with investigating the cost of reallocation of facility space based on division needs second Adam Trail second it no she already did oh but you're asking for a second all right floor Miss uh colic if you would like to second I will withdraw my second no okay all right my second state said we have a motion on the floor at this time we'll vote thank you [Music] Mr Cooper Adam well you know Mr poops you gotta take that slide Dana okay he's getting ready to take it down it's five five zero is passed

252thank you very much thank you hey we have a next we have a report from the superintendent because of the lateness of the hour I will submit my PowerPoint as my update okay thank you I'm sure everyone appreciates that right school board meeting next we have 17.2 school board meeting um States and you were all passed those out come on you have not had an opportunity to look over them I think Mr colic was probably the only one that may have had yes Madam chair um we looked down at November 9th 2023 that is the night before the legal holiday Veterans Day and I would like to change that date so that the employees that are typically here till looks like almost 10 o'clock tonight will be able to leave for their holiday uh when

253I get out of the regular work day November I would I would recommend change it to November 16th remaining honestly meeting why from the 9th to the 13th well the staff will will they well we're going to have school on tonight there's an after-school people generally go on uh start their holidays there'll be no school on the 10th and I know the problem with the 16th miss the colic November and December are those dates we can't play too much with dates because of their holidays for us the only thing with that next week we will normally go to conference that week in Williamsburg we can pull it back to Tuesday or Wednesday that week but see this year we were there on Wednesday okay no I'm talking the seventh or eighth instead of the ninth

254oh okay yeah I I just can't do that that's not an issue but I I don't want to play around with that that next week yeah I just can't see the staff stand till 10 o'clock and then starting their their holiday weekend so we're gonna say what uh November 7th let's look at the date first make sure it's a Tuesday either yeah it's good for me uh Wednesday the day before yeah Dave Wednesday the 8th okay November 8th 5 p.m okay thank you thank you okay this is an action item so we need a motion sure go for it Madam chair I'd like to motion to approve the 2023 school board meeting dates with the change uh in November from November 9th 2023 to November 8 2023. okay and then a second on the floor

255at this time we'll take a vote that was a second foreign okay motion passes five zero thank you very much next we have the amendment to the school calendar oh what's wrong pardon me oh yes um Mr colic made the motion Mr Cunningham second yeah okay thank you all okay all right while she's fixing that we're going to move on to the next item which is amendment to the school board calendar um I think that came about because we had um and I want I guess I apologize because I was probably the board member that was out here uh voting on that calendar last year and you know we didn't look at it to see that this when we when they were coming back from winter break this year uh of January 2023 that New

256Year's day was going to be on a Sunday so therefore uh it's really not a holiday for them although the students were not planning to the students were going to be on a vacation day uh coming back that Monday we had the staff coming in for a work day so at this time we would like to amend the uh calendar to reflect that the staff will also have Monday the 2nd as a holiday foreign state and federal government is doing the same no no I'm just giving you a reason but we need a motion you get the year wrong in here I moved to make January 2nd 2022 a staff holiday 2020 2023 yeah I moved to make January 2nd 2023 a staff holiday second we have a motion and a second to um amended

257calendar for staff holiday at this time we would take a vote oh hold on I'll go back and say it we have a motion to make January 2nd 2022nd a staff holiday 2023. on here it's a mistake thank you okay 2023. you did the same thing we read what we had on here it's a staff holiday I will I will say it to make it correct again we have a motion to make January the 2nd 2023 a staff holiday all right let's vote on yeah mm-hmm motion passes 5-0 thank you very much all right now we have 18 one Personnel report and that was discussed and this whole session we just act on an action item did anyone have any questions for Sullivan if not when you get a motion oh Madam chair I'd like

258to make a motion to approve the Personnel report and addendum as presented a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk if anyone wants one second we have a motion in a second to approve the Personnel report as presented at this time what you vote please foreign thank you very much next we have 19.1 meeting minutes field trips and financials adoption of the consent agenda any questions any concerns if not this emotion item an action item Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as a tax and presented a second wait mission on a second to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented at this time take a vote foreign passes for one of stay thank you okay next item on the agenda is 20.1 policy

259IIA for first read and I would like to read something policy IIA Senate bill 65c 6 5 6 was enacted by the general assembly in 2022 and signed into law by Governor yonkin to ensure parental notification of an instructional material containing sexually explicit content as defined by state code the exact language of the law states two very important items available to each School Board model policy for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content the provisions of this act shall not be constructed construed as requiring are providing for the censoring of books and public elementary and secondary schools the code 22.1-16.8 for those that would like to read the entire text the guiding principle for the policy as stated by the Virginia Department of Education under the guidance of superintendent Velo

260is to empower parents to exercise their rights to decide whether their child shall have access to material that contains sexually explicit content the vdoe states that local policies should reflect confidence and parents to make the appropriate decision for their child respect the parent decision making the vdoe guidance notes that each parent has the right to make decisions concerning their child's education and accordance with custom faith and value respect parents rights to protect their child's innocence by ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and the right of a parent to choose non-explicit instructional content and related academic activities for their child without penalty the goddess for vdoe regarding this policy clearly states that this shall not be construed to require or provide for the censoring of books and public schools the

261law is about par rot notification and parent choice if the policy has changed to completely remove or ban materials that meet this definition you have removed parent choice you are saying to all parents that parent choice is good for me but not V and sending the message that you do not believe a parent our parents should have the ability to make decisions for what's best for their children I ha however will support our parents to make those decisions now are there any more concerns with item policy IIA for first read what I just read is State this is not Isle of Wight County policy this is directly from State Madam chair for clarity before we get into that what what that last little paragraph you read was that part of Senate Bill 656 as well

262pardon me that last bit that you read was that part of Senate Bill 656 law it's about notification yes ma'am where was that cited from well okay so that was not six five six that was that was you that was me okay I just want to be clear yeah yeah yes ma'am because in that paragraph if you notice I read you know personal right down there you know right that's what I was asking I just wanted to be clear yeah but everything else was from State okay okay any questions Madam chair yes in the video e model policies when they were put down or put forth it plainly states in there that all school boards must adopt those policies at a minimum however they can be more comprehensive the revision of policy IIA is just

263that it serves no purpose of banning books by any means what it serves is to prevent or prohibit inappropriate material for being in our schools in the first place and I know you're speaking of Parental rates I don't know any parent that is in favor of any type of sexually explicit or inappropriate material being displayed they still have the option it doesn't change that it just means that material will not be there any other material it follows the same policy where you can review the material you can choose to remove it nothing changes yeah I would I would agree with Mr Worster on that if we do have library books that fit that description if we're not allowed to remove them I think they should be put on a back shelf somewhere and parents would

264need to send a note send authorization and for the child to read that particular book um but I don't believe you know using our scarce tax dollars to decide what books we're going to buy is discrimination when we make a decision to buy this book and not that book that that is just a clearly the best use of our taxes um so it's it's not um uh what's the word for it hmm censoring a book just the fact that I don't purchase a book doesn't mean I'm censoring censoring it and it goes that way for the school system too we have so much money to use and we need to use that wisely okay this is the first read so you have a month and next month when we come back a second oh I'm

265sorry this is the first read next month we come back and have our meeting it will be on the agenda for second read at that time we've all you've washed your opinions if you have more uh opinions we will still have more discussion on that and we will but only the difference with the secondary we will vote on it and if you're against it just vote against it those before vote for it and they will go from there is that fair okay miniature married the because this was uh an amendment today to include the actual policy currently is not on the site so um it has not been uploaded right on board docs right all right so so Madam chair just because I just don't know what's the process for getting uh Mr Mr Moose's

266proposal up there and uploaded what's the timeline for that so folks that are out there looking can get a look at it I'm sorry would you repeat your question process in the timeline for getting the proposal posted just next agenda Mrs uh Briggs foreign how do we get that posted in the board docs is that Mrs Briggs purview that is correct yes I can post it that's fine link post on your policy I don't know legally uh with it being first read but not actually being available the night of a first read that might be more of a legal question but as far as adding it that could be that I guess the what's unfamiliar about all this is historically at least from what I've seen vsba comes out with recommended changes that comes down

267you hang it and it goes from there but this is unique yeah because Mr Wooster himself has made those changes so do we need to make sure that's vetted through legal how do we do this yeah typically with policy if it's something that's not coming through our vsba policy services then it like if we create a local policy that's not one through vsba we send it to Legal because we want to make sure whatever language we have in that policy doesn't go against anything in state code state regulations and we get a legal opinion on that as to whether we can then go forward then we put it on the agenda to come before the board for first and second read yes sir and is that something we need to take action on as a

268board to get legal review or is that just asking to do it we could just ask for legal request because this is a first read okay just want to make sure I understand the process and Mrs Briggs am I correct this policy was actually the recommended policy from Viet from the vdoe was voted on and approved in our at the board meeting last month correct yes that's correct the the video he came out with a model policy the vsba then drafted um excuse me revised their existing policy IIA and sent that out to all of their policy the divisions using their policy services that was placed on the October board agenda for first read and approved in November second read so we we do have the revised one in place right now we're working off

269of that one that helps no please go okay I just wanted to add that if anybody needs them I do had hard copies for everyone here okay I'm out of the chair I do have one question this is more for pack is it legal to call this the first read and not have it on the site for the public to see I think that is more so than I think that's more of an implementation and practical question I don't think it nullifies it okay as being a first read the law requires that it it be made publicly available if it's available publicly right now that satisfy the law when the law was written it doesn't contemplate that it has to go on your website now constituents May complain that it wasn't put on the website

270so they don't have it available ahead of time but that's a matter for the board to discuss from a legal perspective if it's available right now as is being discussed and and Mr booster has made the statement that it is available for public if they want to come up and get it that's what satisfies okay thank you very much okay any more questions concerning I okay all right 20.2 agenda item policy per second reads FFA any concerns yeah Madam chair Madam chair if I may Mrs uh Briggs is prepared to provide some comments on this policy before questions if if we may all right okay thank you okay thank you madam chair board members Dr Kramer I think it's important to provide a public update on the history of policy FFA first for those that

271don't know I am a policy geek I love policy I love that it spells out what we can can't do based on the boards intent and or the law call me crazy but I really do appreciate policy regarding our policy FFA our attorney Pat contacted me before the June board meeting to see if there was a policy in place about naming buildings for people I was actually asked the same thing by Dr Coleman a few weeks earlier I had searched our website then and I searched again and found no policy if there was one it should have been in section F under facilities development I even searched our Google drive folder with the latest word versions of all of our policies and found nothing I'll let them both know I could not find any policy

272about naming facilities on the day of the June board meeting when the board was supposed to vote on the resolution to rename the career center for Dr Thornton Pat got in touch with me to say his colleague had found two policies on our website that had a reference at the bottom to policy FFA naming school facilities I checked the versions of the policy page and found no FFA had ever been posted on our website I checked the Google drive folder no FFA I check board docs no FFA I went back to the old agenda archive ESB which is still linked on our website and searched FFA I got a hit I found the March one and assumed and we know what that means that was the correct one there was no record showing it was

273ever deleted or appealed so apparently we had this policy that had never been posted online since 2015. now that we found the policy pack and I knew we needed to post it and make sure we were following it the policy was immediately posted online the policy clearly stated that the public needed to provide comments on any renaming a vote could not be taken in June the board made the announcement and the plan was to vote on the renaming in July as far as I was concerned we had corrected a situation that could have been a problem we had a policy that wasn't posted that specifically addressed naming a facility the chapter on FFA was closed in June but it wasn't state law requires school boards to review all policies at least every five years we

274have a spreadsheet we use for tracking the dates of our policies so we know when they are approaching five years once again to make sure we're in compliance with the law and policy when FFA was discovered I had to add it to the spreadsheet with a date of 2015. it was well beyond the five-year review period we had a lot of policies to update due to changes in the general assembly and several that needed to be reviewed including FFA at this time in the fall FFA was just annual policy when it appeared on the October board agenda members of the community found two versions of the policy in the 2015 agendas one approved in March and one approved in June now as pack mentioned earlier it's very rare to have policies come up and be

275approved twice in a matter of months when I did my search in June of this year I did not see the June 2015 one at that time I wish I had for those that have been following this closely they may wonder why the March policy had a June date Mr Edmonds just referenced this earlier now remember I closed this chapter on FFA and truly the way my brain works it's like check that box move on so I had checked that box in June I went back in to see what had happened and I truly don't remember the exact details to remember something that was rather an what my brain thought at the time was just an uneventful event what I think I did was I went back in and as Mr Edmond said when you

276do a search you know a lot certain things come up on one search and certain things come up on another I believe when I did that second search to figure out the date June popped up I didn't open the attachment I didn't open the policy I had no reason to think there was a second policy that had come up now when the members in the community brought this to my attention and I looked at it I realized there were two different versions in March and June interestingly enough the policy that was approved in March was not the revised one that came back up in May and June that the previous March version came back up so that was an error that occurred in 2015. secondly this whole situation happened because I was trying to do

277the right thing post a policy that had been non-existent for seven years so people don't think we're hiding anything and review a policy that's outside the five-year required window for review now if nothing else I I feel better I hope others feel better knowing the history of this and getting this out in the public for those that don't meet know me I have been with Isle of Wight County schools for 34 years I grew up here I went to school here I live here and my kids went to school here and I take tremendous pride in my work I'm sure there may be people who don't believe all of this stemmed from a simple mistake well I can't change that but I can tell you that none of my actions were done with any intent

278other than to comply with policy and I don't know if pack has anything to add to this but I'm happy to take any questions you may have for me about this any questions for Mrs Bruce Mr Briggs thank you very much I appreciate you know everything you've you know been forthcoming um with all of this I do have one question in this I'm not sure if it's for you or for the lawyer but now that we know there was a different policy voted on on June 11 2015 then is being presented to us for second read shouldn't we being that should be the policy in place and shouldn't that be the one we should be working with that's correct okay Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we put the June 11 2015

279policy on for first read in January I'll second that we have a in a second to put the I mean repeat that again Mr collection yes Madam chair I make the motion that we take the June 11 2015 policy FFA and place it on January's agenda for first read okay I'm gonna take a verbal on this one oh yeah let me discussion you did you have a second you second it but I just asked him because I thought she was trying to write it down so before we vote on this there's just a few things I want to get off my chest because I know this is a hot topic for a lot of folks a lot of people are looking uh Miss Briggs kudos to you for clearing the air on that um for

280those that are still listening and it's late you know I've I've worked with you for probably a year and a half pulling foyers and this that and the other and you've been nothing but professional with me the whole time um you know it happens it's water under the bridge so how do we move forward um as it stands and as I understand the situation right now uh the board has previously voted to name a CTE billing after a policy that was not valid correct that's correct the board relied on an incorrect version of an operative policy thank you sir that said I too Mrs Briggs Emily stickler for policy military guy live and Breathe by policy as a board I object to the notion of being able to pick and choose the policies that we

281follow we've been advised that a school board has the authority to waive their own policies I disagree with that it may be an option but I don't think it's right how can we hold the superintendent and all of his staff accountable to policy if we don't follow our own policy um we're going to put this policy up for second read next month and we can first read next month and we'll figure out what we want to say on that policy we'll have to vote on that um I've read both versions I'm sure all of us have in my opinion there's good reasons why a School Division wouldn't would refrain from naming a building after an individual that was not deceased um you know I I don't know Mr Thornton that well but God forbid he

282went out and did something and it was bad you know so that reflects back on the school I think in my mind that's why you would refrain from naming a building after someone who was still living you don't know what he or she's going to do in the future so I think we've all got some stuff to chew on um as it stands right now I I think and this isn't an official motion but I think the right thing to do is to consider rescinding the vote until we get a policy in place he just put a motion I'm not making a motion I'm just discussion I know we do have emotion on the floor for the policy to the policy I I am I am just floating the idea that we as a collective

283board consider rescinding the vote to rename the building and so we have a valid policy in place because I don't think it's right to pick and choose which policies we follow and as of right now that vote to name the CTE facility after Mr Thornton was on an invalid policy that's where I'm at and I yield the floor because you just said the example you just gave you said if we named a billion here the example that you just gave us Mr Marsh you said if we name a building the policy says the building is I'm just going to Smithfield High School is the building the campus itself on the campus of Smithfield High School the building we have oh we have another building there on that campus that we named after Dr Thornton which

284is a facility it's not the whole campus which is Smithfield High School okay but I understand what you're saying he wants to rescind everything here tonight not look Madam chair um if I may um I just want to make sure it's clear that the June 2015 policy actually says you cannot name a building or a facility correct um so when the board was relying on the previous version of the policy was which adopted in March 2015 that policy says I I I don't remember I believe it was a school building it cannot be named and in that in that particular situation the board said that the CTA was a facility and not a school building and that's why I was named but under the June policy both are prohibited so I just want to make

285that clear in Miss times just just to be clear that's that's why I said I'm floating the idea I don't think it's fair to make a motion to rescind the vote of the renaming until we have voted on a good policy okay because that's the semantics that we have to work out and then once we get a policy in place if our policy says no facilities no buildings no whatever then I would move to rescind that vote that's fine that's fine yeah yeah I agreeable I agree with that no no his motion was not to rescind the renaming this motion was to um instead of you have to start all over again meaning instead of acting on the policy tonight FFA we're going to wait and send it back to the June January meeting 2023

286okay I'm gonna be a first read for a first read yes ma'am that will give us time to discuss it as a bullet and then maybe February bring it back for a secondary right okay so that's what his that's what his motion is okay all right so we have a motion on the floor at this time okay if there are no more concerns we'll take a vote can some what was the motion I just I just want to make sure okay the motion on the floor was to take the policy that was adopted on June 11 2015. yes and placed that for first read in the January meeting January 2023 meeting okay okay all right I'm gonna do a verbal did we have a sec who's the second it is both of us did but

287I'll take it okay all right so I'm gonna take a verbal Mr Marsh yeah yay Mr Wooster yay Mrs tynes yay Mr Cunningham yay and Mr colic yay okay thank you motion passes five zero thank you very much next item on the agenda request to speak knowledge into items in accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens schedule 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 should be given to

288the 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 Heidi Schwartz that's a tough one to follow um well tonight there was a lot of a lot of questions and a lot of discussion out in the open which was good to hear discussion should be hard and should be had um it's not a beauty pageant up there and I I realized that I do have some friends on the board um and and I've had discussions with them over the years but those friends and I have not always agreed eye to eye on some things and um and I know that I'm not always going to get things that I want to the men that are up there

289that are my friends are are logical and not emotional men's and I appreciate that um I hope that tonight that the discussions made from the band members will be heard because they were pretty much outnumbered by the football and track people and I hope that their funds from the CPI from 2019 are found some items I like to see come about over the next couple months are um consider running the meetings for citizens to speak on the agenda and citizen items earlier in the meeting I'd like to see the position place for a tie vote on the school board because there should be one the situation that took place during my special meeting should never happen to a citizen the Thai vote should never happen I'd like to run for that position if you guys

290decide to to do that I'd like to see more guidelines more clear changed for open citizen input if a school board member position becomes available within the requirements of a point appointing one to avoid issues that we had last year with the appointments maybe open forums and town halls for Citizens and Records not be destroyed for those that were interviewed so that words that are stated to support ones during school board meetings can be verified later in true and factual finally I'd rather see a more better recorded medicine minutes on citizens and agenda comments they seem not to be very accurate and it's hard to kind of and nothing against you Jessica but they're just they're not you can't tell what citizens actually said um all these would be a great start along with kind

291of going through some of the policies like like like were mentioned tonight a couple things I just want to add um in regarding to moving the um the Technology Building I actually had someone message me and said that the technology building was just built three years ago at Smithfield High School I'm not sure if that's correct or not but someone messaged that to me and they had concerns because hundreds of thousands of dollars were just spent on that and um they said this because the lab was built here at west side and so they kind of knew that that was going on and they hate to see another hundreds of thousands of dollars spent again and um then put maybe into modules and is that going to be a permanent situation when there was hundreds

292of thousand dollars just spent there then there's gonna be hundreds of thousand dollars spent there and is the technology going to be put into modules that aren't permanent so where are the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars going and then I was we emailed tonight by the county in regards to Isle white be safe anonymous online reporting not sure if everyone knows they got that as a parent I have a little bit of concern just regards to the whole Anonymous my son a couple years ago was made a report on we went through a lot to get him cleared and it ended up being the kids that reported him did lie so I just want to make sure that when this anomalous stuff gets reported and it does find out to be

293a lie how do the children that do report the LIE end up being accountable for so I have a little bit of concerns with the email that went out in regards to that because as a parent that did have something that was false put on my child and we were investigated how does that impact in that situation so that just kind of came up tonight too appreciate that thank you that's it Madam chair thank you third at this time we'll move on to item I apologize I'm so sorry Reverend Reverend Willie Williams sorry Mister Williams four hours I'm sorry Rebel Williams please forgive me we don't have the sign-in sheets [Laughter] okay I love you too Madam chair and board members Dr Kramer and yes Miss Jessica you are forgiven I come tonight to ask

294the very basic question of the current board School Board and my question is what are your intents what are your intentions some of the intents of the new school board has been noise throughout our County and neighboring counties it has been always that the new school board plans to get rid of the current attorney School Board attorney the current School Board intends to block the naming of the CTE program in honor of Dr James Thorne as you have already seen tonight and they further intend to force Dr Theo Kramer into resigning as superintendents I remind you as well as myself that these intents have merely been noised about throughout various communities I believe that some of these intents have been printed in the local newspaper and where there is smoke there is fire and so

295I am disturbed by the fact that I see smoke created by some board members who intense intense or ill will intents exists because they like the skills ability and training to that's needed to to promote a valuable educational system not for once have I heard any of the new board members say anything positive about promoting educational policies and goals in Isle of Wight County all I've heard is destructive intent one minute I remember watching some dogs in the neighborhood who would chase out the cars I often wonder what they would do with a car if they caught it they certainly would not have the skills ability nor training to drive it but then I watched the action of a few dogs who successfully caught up with a stop car and all they were able to

296do were make attempts at destroying the tires on the car most dolls have a living kind and gentle Spirit or less trained to be mean spirited aggressive and destructive the old school boy had a loving kind and gentle spirit They promoted positive educational policies and goals for Isle of Wight County if you the new Isle of Wight County School Board follow through with what has been nursed in our community we need not wonder what kind of spirit you have your actions will speak louder than your words anybody else okay that's it Madam chair at this time we'll move on to agenda item 22.1 boy comments thanks thanks Madam chair ah for some positive comments since November the 9th I have lobbed a barrage of questions that Dr Kramer Mrs Whitlow Dr Coleman Ms Briggs not

297so much yet Mrs Getz Miss Sullivan and Mr cooperider thank you all for being extremely accommodating and helping me get on board to where I'm sitting here today uh thank you you're all are doing a bang-up job and Mr Kramer you got a good team so thank you um this afternoon I was doing a little thinking and trying to figure out what to say so I started looking at the Isle of Wight County School strategic plan because that's our guiding principles right so I'll quote something from the Strategic plan family engagement and it says Isle of Wight County Schools will engage and cultivate mutually supportive partnership Partnerships to bridge the gap between school and home support students well-being enhance Real World Learning and broaden opportunities for all students one of the reasons I'm sitting here

298tonight is because I did not feel as though the parents and citizens including myself of Isle of Wight County we're being accurately or appropriately represented in our views beliefs values or concerns regarding our children's education we are all unique with varying points of view what I believe people in general have more in common than not as a board member I believe it's important to not only solicit the public for inputs but to actively listen and engage with all constituents regardless of her own personal beliefs no one person has all the right answers and we're not always going to agree not everyone's always going to be happy but we've at least got to be willing to listen to others point of view and be willing to have a conversation as an elected official that refuses to

299do this in my opinion is failing to do his or her most basic purpose and that's to represent my name is Jason Marsh I've got a wife and two kids in these schools I live in District Four Windsor and I will work to represent my phone number is 757 -353 -7706 and my email address is J Marsh at iwcs.k12.va.us thanks rooster the comments well I can't follow that one [Laughter] um as I stated earlier in the meeting as a newly elected representative I have an open door policy I want people to feel comfortable reaching out whether it be by email by telephone that was my job I worked 48 to 72 hour shifts so if I'm on a fire engine or an ambulance it might take a while to get back but I will respond

300I want to hear the positives the negatives the concerns the complaints everything now am I going to have answers probably not will I be able to make a decision on my own definitely not that would be a board's group decision to make any decisions or changes however um it gives the citizen the confidence that somebody is actually listening to what they have to say now whether it be something as simple as just listening pointing them in the right direction following the proper chain who knows um it may be something that the board does have to make a decision on as a collective whole but that being said I am here to represent the people um I want to thank everyone that supported me during my campaign and those that voted for me to put me

301in this seat I made commitments you know during my campaign on my platform I have no intentions of deviating from those commitments and if I do please call me out on it thank you [Music] Mr Cunningham oh yeah okay um all right I just wanted to talk about the students because that's why I'm here um last Tuesday I went to the uh at Smithfield High School I went to the fall Sports banquet um there were a lot of kids that did great things there uh made honor rolls uh and played Sports I mean to make the AV honor roll and to play sports at the same time that's an accomplishment so uh uh hats off to all of them uh coach Doolin who is not here now he was here earlier uh he was like

302the MC because he is the athletic director but that was the banquet was great um also I went to the uh Smithfield High School chorus concert they had at St Luke's that was on last Friday night they did an excellent job they also had a concert on uh Saturday two of them on Saturday now if you haven't seen one of their concerts at Smithfield High School uh Mrs West is a uh not band director but she's the course director she is just great and uh you have another chance tomorrow night at 7 pm at the high school auditorium go see that it's it's gonna be great I already know I'm gonna be there so that's all I have oh I'll just say happy holidays okay thank you you know it's a lot of stress up

303here but you know what we're a team we don't agree with everything y'all don't agree with everything we do but you know what it's a holiday so let's let's just enjoy thank you that's all I got thank you let's call it it's getting late so I'm not going to say too much but I will say I probably spend more time on a telephone talking with parents about their children in the schools than I spend at these meetings and more often than not I've got to send them over to see the superintendent or advise him to go back and talk to the principal or their teacher you're not going to see all of this stuff you know with us dealing with the students in this meeting we do that outside the meeting and we do it

304quite a bit but I really want to end this on a positive note tonight so I want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year thank you and I guess I'm the last one okay I I'm going to try to make it short but I have something I would like to say uh this is my year in review and your tongue has no bones but how you use it can break a heart I endured senseless and derogatory statements from a few locals this year I just hope I will be able to leave it here in 2022. the negativity and the bullying must stop I had a couple of things that have happened to me this year that really took me to a place I would never want anyone to be one

305school board was made up of four black people it took me somewhere that night when someone stood in front of us and said that all right number two if you hire a black African-American superintendent the whites in this County are not going to like it and we'll probably get rid of them in January of 2023. and just last week Mr Cunningham Michael Cunningham and myself recall a piece of blank by a local that normally comes before us in our monthly meetings but positive things were said about the other three board members it put me some kind of way now that was the negatives energy in 2022 this is the positive I want to leave with you someone recently asked what I like about being on the school board the Kramer asked the question the first

306day of school seeing the smiling faces of the little babies when they enter the building as students for the first time and at the commencement of Windsor dukes and Smithfield Packers observing The Smiling Faces of the graduates and their loved ones at those moments I know that Isle of Wight County Schools educational team will do or have done their best okay to the Isle of Wight County Educational team Michael Cunningham John colic Dr Kramer's Coleman and Dr Thornton and I included Dr Thornton because half of the year I did work with him all staff parents citizens and most of all the students job well done thank you for helping to accomplish many of the major duties as a school board member by completing the budget process developing a strategic plan graduating over 500 students retiring

307a superintendent and also hiring and Acting Superintendent defending ourselves in court with positive outcomes hiring and esteem superintendent updating CIP and updating policies we have successfully done all of these major duties in 12 months while maintaining a healthy and safe educational environment I personally appreciate each of you for supporting me doing those interesting stressful and sometimes tedious moments and and months please know how I appreciate all of you and hopefully you will continue to be a supportive successful educational team again thank you very much and to everyone happy Hanukkah Merry Christmas joyous Kwanzaa to all this holiday season I wish you three things I wish you peace I wish you love and I wish you Joy good night good night meeting is adjourned