School Board Meeting 9/8/22

001good evening at this time i would like to open the monthly meeting of the yala white county school board today is thursday september 8th the year is 2022 alawite county school board meets for their regular meeting at westside elementary school unless otherwise noted and we are always preparing students for college career and life at this time we will have a roll call mrs dial mr vines mrs tines here mr cunningham present and mr collins present okay thank you next on the agenda approval of the agenda and amendments or amendments madam chair i'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda uh to add the following adult breakfast and lunch meal price increase okay we have a motion do we have a second madam chair i'll second that all right we have a motion a

002second on the floor at this time if there are no discussions we are have a vote okay okay i got it now motion passes three zero thank you okay next we will have a motion to go into closed session madam chair i'd like to make a motion to uh going to close close meeting number one to review the personnel report and addendum posted on board docs under personnel tab number 17.1 as authorized by virginia code 2.2-371181 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of alawite public schools for employment contract changes transfers supplemental contracts supplemental pay for additional classes slt summer planning stipends and resignations of alawite county public school employees number two to discuss the assignment promotion and demotion of specific leadership and administrative positions in central office as authorized by virginia code

0032.2-371181 number three to discuss or consider religious exemption for for one student as authorized by virginia code 2.2-371182 that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record concerning a student number four to discuss two requests for early admission that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record concerning students as authorized by virginia code 2.2-371182 and number five to discuss lemon versus alawite 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 an open meeting would adversely affect the litigation posture of the school board and madam chair i'd second that okay we have a motion and a second at this time we will take a vote this okay motion passes three zero thank you at this time

004we'll go into closed session madame chair i mean madam clerk do we have any one person that would like to speak thank you bye yes okay at this time we would have certification of resolution for compliance i'm sorry i'm sorry my mic was off at this time we will have certification of resolution of compliance chair i'd like to make a motion the closed meeting was conducted in conformity with the provisions of virginia freedom information act as required by section 2.2-3712-d of the code of virginia and certified that only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements 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 second we have a motion and a second at this time we will

005take a vote motion passes 4-0 thank you at this time i would like to welcome everyone who's joining us today for our first regular board meeting for the school year of 2022-2023 alawite county is always preparing students for college career and life today we have some special guests in our audience as well as on our podium with us we have delegate waxman would you like to stand sir we also have guests from border supervisors uh mr dick rice mr grice would you like to stand so they can see you okay mr mrice represents the smithfield district uh we also have former state commissioner steve bowman with us this evening [Music] we have our former superintendent dr thornton and mrs thornton and if i missed anyone that came in later i am very sorry and of

006course we have all of the citizens of alawite county as our special guests and our staff on the podium with us this evening we have our special guest she has moved up many of you probably recognized her last year sitting with us but she was our junior representative last year kylie sharp now is our senior representative and she attends windsor high school our representative for smithfield high school which is junior this year was not able to attend tonight kylie [Applause] thank you very much now at this time we just before we get uh turn things over to mr cunningham i would like to say this week we lost one of our very special someone that was very special to all of us and many of you probably have heard but mr alvin wilson one of

007my our former board members passed away tuesday evening and uh of course this afternoon this evening around lunch i'm sure all of you know now that queen elizabeth ii passed away as well so this um during our devotions of today we would like to dedicate our moment of silence in their memory thank you mr cunningham you ready yes pledge your legion of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god an individual with liberty and justice for all moment of silence thank you okay at this time we will have a special presentation with mrs lynn briggs good evening you have your mic on sometimes it's not good to be first okay um good evening madam chair board members dr kramer tonight i'll present to you the resolution for renaming the career

008and technical education building located on smithfield high school campus whereas since dr james d thornton began his tenure as superintendent of isle of wight county schools he has made many positive contributions to the isle of wight county schools career and technical education program and whereas under dr thornton's leadership isle of wight county schools redesigned the career and technical education program to provide students with authentic hands-on experiences in state-of-the-art facilities and whereas in 2019 the career and technical education building located on the campus of smithville high school was completely renovated under dr thornton's leadership to accommodate new and expanded course offerings and whereas the award-winning career and technical education program continues to enhance and expand on each child's unique gifts and talents to ensure every child is college career and life ready and is dr thornton

009retired from isle of wight county schools effective june 30th and whereas the isle of wight county school board wishes to honor dr thornton for his contributions to the career and technical education program now therefore be it resolved that beginning september 9th 2022 the career and technical education building located on the campus of smithfield high school shall be known as thornton career center thank you thank you mrs briggs the board you've heard what mrs the resolution that mrs briggs presented to us this evening um what is your pleasure madam chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution renaming the cte building second we have a motion and a second to rename the cte building smith high school at this time are there any discussions i don't have a really discussion but i would

010like to say something i can remember when dr thornton came to us i think when i got to meet dr thornton it was the year 2015. and i um as you would meet a new superintendent and i was bored chair at that time i mentioned to dr thornton that uh i wanted him one night were as a matter of fact i picked him up we drove out to the uh pity prudence building for first meeting there and i mentioned to him that i would like to see him do something as far as the enrollment of the students from alawite county going to the pd province program at that time we shared a program with the city of suffolk and i told him that alawite county schools spent a lot of money for our students to

011go there but a lot of them refrain from going because they wanted to take the academic classes that were held at their high schools and by doing if they went to pd prunes they would miss out on a lot of things as fellow as well as some of the social activities in their buildings and at that time i had no idea that dr thornton was had the vision when he came here he he thought through things and it was his vision to say hey why not put the students back on their campuses and that's what he did when i first heard about it i said wait a minute we left the campus and put him over pd proofs but i waited it out and when i found out where he was going with it i

012was amazed yes and dr thornton he got the funding for that building not from where we normally go to get it which is the board of supervisors but he got it from one of the major industries here in alawite county which happens to have been smithfield foods and we are proud of him for doing that and smithfield foods if you know anything about them they have always they have left their legacy as well as luther's family all over alawite county and especially in the smithfield the town of smithfield smithfield high school is located on the outskirts very close in the town of smithfield turner drive and we are thankful for dr thornton for doing that i am proud of the cte program that we have in alawite county many other school districts have come over

013to visit our cte program not just the smithfield high school the whole cte program and he spread it out smithfield high school wins a high as well as um the campus of windsor elementary school if you're not if you have not been out to visit the farm please make an appointment and do that uh again like i said i am so honored to be a citizen of alawite county when people come here to visit what we have to offer our students in alawite county schools dr thornton from me thank you very much as a citizen of alawite county thank you at this time [Applause] at this time if there are no more discussions from the other board members then we will take a vote okay the vote is three yes one night motion passes thank

014you [Applause] if it's okay at this time we'd like to invite dr thornton and his wife mary up we have um two signs one represents the plaque that will go on the outside of the building and the other shows the lettering and we would like to get a picture of the thorntons up here with the board in the background if there are no objections okay if you want to we can go down and take a picture [Applause] thank you oh protocols so [Applause] so okay next on the agenda we have the capital improvement plan public input um okay can you hear me okay again the next on the agenda we have item number 11 capital improvement plan public input madam chair yeah school board members dr cramer madam chair if i could address the board

015concerning the current cip would it be possible madam chair yes you may thank you thank you i'm out of chat i wish to give you an update on the current status as approaching the cip trying to do research and ensure that we're meeting the needs of the out of the population in here in alawite if you can just bear with me while i go through this now the 2022 us construction calls trends for july 2022 calls index forecasts a 14.1 percent year-over-year increase in construction calls about a year in 2022 as labor material and costs continue to rise now escalation should stabilize to the 2 percent the 4 percent range in 2023 and 2024 on par with historical averages now overall cost inflation for materials is expected to begin lowering by the end of 2022

016so at this time we're still in the mist in star loring based off of the us construction cost trends and largely returned to typical levels by the mid 2023 now however given the large number of construction inputs that goes into this category many of which are often subject to ancient international risks and tariffs such as sanctions calls for some materials may remain volatile now all out of all items on the cip has been affected now in order to capture all the inflationary changes that have occurred over the past fiscal year we need to ensure that all items on the cip has cost adjustments associated to them to inform you the current cip that was posted for public input tonight lacked those adjustments and the priority list that will be proposed in order to ensure the

017community has the most updated information to make decisions on i request the board doesn't take action but utilize 16.6 the cip area for informational only if this is granted we will be we will start we will incorporate community meetings concerning the cip for the school division to elicit more ideas concerning community and school needs the process that we will follow will be the following and these are some potential dates monday 6 pm october 3rd 2022 there will be a community meeting for the cip this will be held at westside elementary school tuesday at 6 pm october 4 2022 there community there will be a community meeting for the cip at windsor high school if people are unable to attend they can provide their feedback through the contact us link on the web page going to

018the capital improvement plan button on that page thursday 6 p.m october 13 2022 school board meeting at westside now this will be for the first presentation of all the information gathered from those other meetings and put into a presentation style to present to the school board for public input moving from there thursday at 6 pm november 10 2022 school board meeting will be at westside elementary school this will be the second presentation for all of the public input and this will be for the cip approval december 2022 the cip will turn will be turned into the board of supervisors for funding options so madam chair members of school board if allotted if we can just maneuver that to be informational and then this process will be implemented as proposed so i just want to throw

019that i want to make sure that you know that before we start the session chair times may i add to that yes dr crane so as dr coleman stated we need to make adjustments to the information in the cip we will also have multiple opportunities as he stated for citizens to provide input either in person or online we will also have public input at board meetings prior to approval i realized we have people who came out tonight to speak on the cip and we're keeping that on the agenda if you still wish to make remarks tonight however in light of the change we understand that some people may wish to hold their comments until an adjusted cpa cip is available whether tonight or at a later date we really do appreciate hearing from you with

020your thoughts and concerns about the cip and as dr coleman stated when the dates are official we'll certainly have those dates uh posted and advertised to the community okay thank you dr kramer okay at this time i would like to open up the public uh speaking at this time if we have any speakers on the cip i would like to open up to the public in accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific state the issues for the board's consideration and

021attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting okay do we have yes any hold up i think you mrs whitlow i think you jumped a little ahead of me okay right now i want to ask the people to come forward with capital improvement plan remarks only that's on the agenda true this is the sign-in sheet for that for the capital improvement okay thank you all right all right first we have heidi schwartz if you choose to wait and you have signed up you do not have to come up tonight you can just opt to do it at those

022dates that mr coleman gave you and wait to the updated um version of the cip so i guess i'm confused so am i only speaking on cip because i signed up we'll see this so am i speaking on all my agenda items this is just the ca go ahead mrs schwartz if you choose not to speak on the cip tonight and wait until we have the special public hearings that's fine but you if you choose to do it tonight yes but you will be speaking on the cip as well as as well as any other agenda items you choose to speak on but you will only have four minutes to do all of it okay so this is my time just to speak yes on the agenda items on all the agenda i know okay

023it sounded like it was just capital improvement items well um well hold up hold up we have opened the floor for capital improvement items mrs schwartz if you would like to speak on the capital improvement items at this time just capital improvement please do that as soon as we get everyone that wants to speak only on the capital improvement items we will open up again to speak on any other agenda items other than capital improvement madam chair um mrs schwartz has signed up to speak on capital improvement yes and that's what we're open up for and as well as the other two areas so what i'm saying is i would come up three times okay so she'll come back up to uh you will come back up once we open the next agenda item up

024for regular public for the regular regular public speaking of agenda items mrs sports okay right now just capital improvement got it okay so capital improvement all i was going to say is safety for our students should come first before anything else and it didn't appear that way i'd like to see it re reworked and make safety first that's it on my capital improvement thank you business sports next thank you leave reverend williams i'm not sure if i should wait till later or speak now but it's on my heart now to speak uh so i'm gonna do uh just that good afternoon madam chair and alawite county school board we greet also all of the schools leaders and community stakeholders challenge everyone address to use our capital improvement plan as an opportunity to showcase unto the

025world what community leadership are to look like some of some of you may remember the movie sister act one and two and how ruby used a community choir to change the social system of an entire community she used the choir as the vehicle to change the community in management we call this transformational leadership i'm asking all of you to become transformational leaders by using our cip as a vehicle for change whether we admit it or not our white county and other towns cities and counties need some deep spiritual soul healing we need to approach our educational visions and goals in a more inclusive way to do this we must first bring healing to the wounds caused by divisiveness for as long as i can remember this county has always had some members who would use

026symbols or whatever means possible to keep us divided and i am afraid that our cip capital improvement plan has always supported and promoted the symbols of divisiveness through the use of a dual school system it is not economically nor spiritually good nor feasible to have to high school for just a handful of students the only thing such a dual system can do is make bitter rivalry between the northern end of the county and the southern end and we the taxpayer ended up having to pay the cost for such bitter spiritual end the removal of promoted symbols from our cip will bring spiritual healing to our community we can become a beacon like a world-class school board and community which other communities who may be blind to such supported divisiveness can use as a benchmark for

027transformational leadership through the use of cip i am calling on our school board and all all stakeholders to search our cip that we may ensure ourselves that we are not unknowingly supporting symbols of any type that might possibly be promoting divisiveness when we have done this you will see that our county will begin to work together for the greater good more inclusiveness and spiritual healthiness thank you for your attention thank you okay next um next we have mr glenn little madam chair board members thank you for this opportunity this evening to speak on the capital improvement plan i'm i'm gonna lay a little bit of background and share my concerns on that uh based on a couple uh recent events that uh as a taxpayer really bother me because to me based on what went

028on with the outgoing superintendent's severance package was not showing good stewardships of my tax dollars or transparency of the board's actions when thank you to the uh windsor weekly excuse me mr little i don't want to uh i have to interrupt you because you need to stick with the cip plan i'm laying the background for my concerns to the cip as i stated in my opening statement madam okay okay i'm sorry you can go on okay thank you thank you all right so and then only through reporters and freedom of information act does it come out what really went on okay with the expenditure of our tax dollars okay and then as we find out uh when we hired the new superintendent a good salary which to get the right expertise you need nowadays but

029i was quite taken aback with the uh perks package and wow i don't dare again i don't call it good utilization of our taxpayer dollars for good stewardship of my taxpayer dollars okay so with the capital improvement plan with the amount of dollars that are at stake there okay it concerns me that there will be some real uh concern for good stewardship and good utilization of our taxpayer dollars and transparency so that we don't have to find out after the fact what went on in a closed door meeting or through the newspaper or freedom of information act and also that we don't even run into some huge cost overruns and contract problems as we've seen in recent history with some of the other large construction projects that went on in the school system in the

030county okay which was not a good utilization of our taxpayer dollars for the benefit and improvement of the education system for the students and our futures thank you thanks all right next we have mr mark wooster good evening madam chair board members dr kramer first i want to state that i'm glad that the cfp is currently in review it does pretty much change everything i had to speak about tonight there's a few things i want to touch on though the main thing i was going to discuss was the 2.4 2.4 rounded million dollars proposed for the artificial turf for the smithfield high school after listening to previous board members you have made several statements as far as the bus garage being run down and in need of repair any money of that amount would be

031generously used to retrofit the bus garage provide an improved safer working environment which is conducive to a more proficient operation now i don't know if the astro turf or artificial turf is going to remain in place on the new proposal but i just want to point out some things it was published in the smithfield times division-wide isle of wight county schools they've seen a drastic decline in sol testing results from 2018-2019 reading has a 73 pass rate which is down from 80 percent math is a 61 passing rate which is down from 83 percent and science is a 67 passing rate down from 83 percent to put it in perspective reading has a 27 failure rate math a 39 failure rate and science has a 33 failure rate now we can all pretty much agree

032this is a direct result of the coven pandemic and lack of in-person instruction but my question is what are we going to do to get these students caught up instead of requesting funding in that amount for artificial turf i would recommend requesting funding for special programs which could possibly benefit these students and improve their sol proficiency now with that being said i just want to point out a few articles i do have on the astroturf should it remain on the cfe in 2019 a study by cleveland based university hospitals featured data from 26 high school trainers during the 2017-28 athletic season it reported 953 injuries 368 were on natural grass while 585 were on synthetic turf the study also found that upper and lower extremities as well as torso injuries occurred more on synthetic turf

033than natural grass the sports most vulnerable to the injuries were football men's lacrosse rugby and girls and boys soccer led the way also in 2008 an article by the hospital for special surgery which is ranked the number one orthopedic orthopedic hospital in the united states one minute their article states the coefficient of friction which relates to how sticky or grabby the surface is and how much force it will take for a planted foot to slip for surfaces with high coefficients of friction such as artificial turf this requires a large amount of force in these surfaces in which players place their foot it gets caught in the turf studies have shown an increase in the incidence of acl acl injuries with surfaces with a higher coefficient of friction so based on everything i presented if it

034does come back into cip for the same amount i do oppose that spending because i do believe there are other more important and pressing issues that could be spent for i want to thank you for your time and have a good evening thank you i'm going to follow the order and i'm a band booster member as well for smithville high school i'd like to start by saying that our new principal mrs cuffey has been an amazing support for the band program and we appreciate all that she has done to help keep this program running we also appreciate everything that mrs hatton the band director for smithville middle school has done to help us with band camp and our field show with that being said they cannot do this alone we need you the board and

035you our new superintendent to approve funding for this program now not in 2026 this is the funding that we were promised back in 2020 where has that money gone our students are using damaged instruments harnesses that are not made to be used with the drums that we currently have drumsticks that are taped together because they've been broken from so many students using them over the years the padding for the drums are shredded falling apart and being held together by rubber bands and in some cases being duct taped together just so the metal won't cut into our students shoulders and stomachs our band room does not have consistently working air conditioning it only works a few hours a day a few days a week and we have lights in the classroom that have been out for

036some time with no signs of being fixed we also have doors inside the room that were never replaced and a temporary lock was put there instead there are paper trails for all of these items mentioned that we have submitted for months and some for years these students represent our county schools they play in our town at festivals and farmers markets they played at convocation for the teachers board and superintendent freshman orientation football games graduations and many more events they have done this all for the last seven months with no director they have done the work on their own time they showed up this summer when we were finally given approval to use the school building for practice and band camp and they've been amazing with what little resources they have our students had a long

037term sub last year that was nothing more than a monitor she had no curriculum and our senior band students taught the younger students they should not have had that burden we are now in the same situation again already this year students shouldn't be writing lesson plans and teaching other students especially when the school is paying for a substitute our new substitute is appreciated however she is not qualified to teach band excuse me mrs walker yes uh we would rather you stick directly to the cip plan that's what we're discussing right now uh some of your things you're going into is about it is they're instructional and if you want to voice your opinion on the instructional things we have another period for that sure i'll just finish up with please take a look at this

038plan and make the adjustments so that our band students get the funding they were approved for over two years ago so that this program can get back on track if you push this vote off until december now we will waste more time for our current band students almost a full year of requests and needs will go by thank you for your time thank you okay if we have others that are planning to come forward please restrict your remarks to the cip plan the items that were only on the cip plan if you want to make further input and remarks about instructional things we have another period on our agenda for that thank you very much all right next we have mr charles sheila board members thank you for letting me speak tonight i too am

039with the the band boosters and i'm a fan parent my daughter is a senior at smithfield high school she is the uh a the drum major and my concern with the c c i cip is that yes approximately i'm sorry in november of 2019 there was approval for improvements to the band room that were approved by the county as well as the school board okay plans were drawn up and submitted to the school board and to the superintendent for those improvements um and i guess i have two questions one where did that funding go if it was already approved it was actually published in the local paper parent uh just asking to reconsider the priority of the the funds and the cip for the band program i think that the musics in this community music

040programs excuse me are at a turning point being new to the town everyone knows that uh smithfield high school has a great band but not everyone in the town knows that um they're going through some real adversity i think you've heard a lot about it already from some of the other parents but if if the county values smithfield's music programs you'll take some action soon because i think that this is a critical moment for those programs thank you for allowing me to be thank you okay last we have jasmine and tristan and if if before you leave if you could just jot your address down for me and just hand it to me at some point just so that we can you know send a letter okay are you students from smithson's midfield high school

041okay good afternoon members of the board um i'm tristan walker and my name is jasmine johnson and we are i'm student leaders of the smithville high school packer band and all that we ask from all of you is to please fund the ban thank you thank you [Applause] okay that's it madam chair thank you very much at this time if we do we have any more speakers on the cip plan at this time all right hearing on this portion of the meeting is closed for cip at this time we will move on to request to speak on agenda items other than cip plan because we just did that so if there is an agenda item tonight that you would like to speak on other than the cip plan this is your opportunity all right in

042accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific state the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting first we have miss heidi schwartz mrs schwartz before you speak your time won't start yet okay i just wanted to make sure we

043are going to have another public session to speak this particular portion of our meeting the one we just had was special a special portion to speak on cip plan only this is one we normally have on our agenda to speak on any agenda item that we have tonight on the agenda later in the meeting we will have another public meeting up uh speaking of session where you can speak on anything in alawite county schools whether it's on the agenda or not okay thank you very much okay okay we start mrs swartz now okay so i had cte renaming on mine but that's passed but i was going to say don't do it i'll move on to the hampton curriculum which is on the agenda for it's within the budget items i saw that it was

044repurchased again for sixty thousand dollars i was wondering why because it seemed like it was a bad initial purchase i had no idea that it was an annual renewal purchase did you know this miss times last year when it was sold to the board members a year ago and it was approved on the agenda is a the jhcde for deletion tonight um i'm just wondering if we're stripping away more parental guidance and knowledge when we're taking away the parental rights for signing for medication it seems also that it conflicts with the second reading adoption of the jhce in the jhce it states with the written consent of students parents to seek an eval for medical practitioner for psychotropic medication but then you don't need parents actual signature to administer drugs so i'm wondering why we

045need permission to seek for the drug but we're not going to have signatures for the drugs moving forward people are going to think that it's great that the doc doesn't have to send over when sally gets an ear infection for her antibiotics moving forward but when sally's in high school and sally now is encouraged to have her pronoun now to be a he and mom and dad aren't aware of being told that the school is now calling sally say dick she can now have hormones even prescribed to her by her physician without the parent's knowledge and the school can administer this without the parents signatures hormones um then what are we going to do you know three five ten years from now when we're dealing with the psychological issues because sally was just a tomboy

046so i'd like to know why we're not going to have parent signatures on prescriptions that are going to be given at the school level on the school board budget there's been no mention of our previous chief financial officer resignation on may 9th this took place after he was told by dr thornton that his contract would not be renewed after june 30th and it would look better if he just resigned was this board told this were you told that he should just resigned by dr thornton were you told that mr kemps didn't want to be resigned he didn't want to be resigned i've had a discussion with him he didn't quit and if dr thornton told you that he simply resigned he lied to you excuse me mrs schwartz that's not on knowledge oh it's in

047the budget it's it's on the school budget because i'm coming back to that makes you wonder why miss trollinger came back as the chief financial officer and it's not been announced she's she finalized 91 000 and if if i run over time i'll do this more at the end so going back to the school on budget because all this is on the budget uh who's handling the budget um who's been handling the transition of the budget because mr kemp's met with dr coleman before he was forced to resign but mr coleman is um evidently doesn't have to fill out you know tr um what am i trying to get back to because now you interrupted me i hate when you do that um this brings me back i guess i'll just finish this up because

048now i'm like every time you you interrupt me i lose my train of thought so i what i want to know is why miss trollinger has not been presenting to the board of supervisors or the to the school board at the meetings all summer long in regards to our budget yeah there's a lot of questions that need to be answered with our chief financial officer so i'll finish up at my next time okay next we have mr herb de graft that copy of my remarks went to y'all in an email earlier tonight yes sir i'm herb de groft madam chair dr kramer welcome to wake county i live in the uh smithfield area but i'm in the carsville zone a little bit after the fact but the scuttlebutt name on the street is totally unflattering

049for what you've done in naming the cte facility after dr thornton because from day one as the iwcs superintendent he created an adverse work environment and in seven years got rid of boku staff it was left a school system and did this help iwcs's epic academic ranking to go from 16th in 2015 among school divisions in virginia to 44th in 2019 dr thornton really wasn't deserving of having the cte building named after him for multiple reasons literally 27 of them that were in that email essentially and i'll go over some of them here has a history of violating his contract oath policies regulations and laws taking discriminatory actions against african-american students and staff in my opinion in my opinion filing false information and documents to include the standards of quality compliance report and the iwcs

050facility capacity report multiple absence from the school board meetings as set forth in his contract failed to provide an iwcs curriculum aligned with the virginia standards of learning for our teachers to teach in accordance with virginia school law and policies for all seven years denied ce teachers their lawful right to have an unencumbered planning period what don't we understand about the word unencumbered people hiring individuals who did not meet the minimum requirements of the job postings denied african americans principal positions any directorships that were qualified for the positions unlike the other folks who were white that got hired or promoted into these positions and this even caused the alawaya naacp chapter some concern jeopardizing the safety of students and staff by defying the state marshal's orders by installing night locks on all the school doors

051failed to provide school resource officers in all the schools when there's plenty of money to do so complete mishandling of the student lunch debt to the point that private citizens and businesses had to assist with the financial issues created an atmosphere of mistrust with the board of supervisors at the point that they've held back one and a half million dollars initially from next year's budget deleting a foia protected records signing his name on contracts where the school board chair should have signed he's not a school board member wasteful spending a taxpayer money and believe me in my opinion as a former iwcs board member for 13 years i know how money can be wasted in the school division dr thornton didn't comply with the smithfield foods and their wishes to construct a multi-purpose pavilion with

052the three million dollars that they gave the iwcs board and he spent 95 000 to send himself and other administrators to resorts look the list is almost endless but remember a person to have a building named after them has to have had their actions be beyond reproach dr thornton's actions noted do not the cootie raw was the transition appropriation golden parachute that dr thornton sandbagged a marine corps term the school board and gave him 87 thousand dollars more than he should have gotten per policy gcbd it's real slap in the face of every alawite taxpayer and the honorables henry bradbee georgie d tyler and joel bradshaw what would they think and say if they were still alive when the school board names the cte building after somebody who didn't deserve it board majority you've engaged

053in a pirate victory thank you next next we have mr lewis edmonds good evening louis edmonds windsor i'd like to first start off with passing my condolences to mr wilson's family and also to mrs couch's family with the untimely passing of her father mr tommy darden who was truly an icon of the alawite community last month during the first read of the sro memorandum of understanding i believe mrs times and mr colic brought up some concerns in the language of the mou regarding a principal or school administrator being able to step in for a parent or guardian if a law enforcement officer needed to question a student about a quote urgent matter i share their concern i didn't see any changes in that mou so i hope that that's brought up and discussed tonight the

054term urgent is too vague i hope that this scenario can better be defined my mind goes to something along the lines of immediate threat of life or serious bodily harm such as loss of limb or vision something of that effect the second item i want to bring up is tonight during the consent agenda you will be asked to vote on approving last minute last month's meeting minutes the summary of mrs times's comments at the end of the board meeting are incomplete at least in my case mrs times your account of the closed meeting interviews for the school board appointment was a disgusting lie saying that mr vines was the only person to bring up the children was slanderous against me potentially slanderous against the citizens who stepped forward to interview and also towards mrs carr

055who did not vote to put mr vines on this board however that's politics i understand why you would use mr vines interview to defend yours and mrs dowell's vote to put him on the board because he's done nothing since that you can defend after your comments i reached out to the foia council to see if i had the right to see the notes and documents that this board that those board members created during my interview they said i did and i asked for them i also verified with the library of virginia to ensure that those notes would have been considered public records they are public records required to be retained for three years so you can imagine my disappointment when mrs briggs informed me the records no longer exist therefore this ward has yet again

056broken the law you've either failed to follow the virginia public records act in retaining the documents or you've intentionally and prematurely destroyed the records which is a violation of foia to save me the time and you the embarrassment and potential mandatory donation to the virginia literary fund again of uh i suggest we don't go to court over this i ask that this board uh undergo additional public records training or public records act training and foia training i know that's a requirement for all of you when you come to the board but something similar to what you did after the 2000 uh the 2020 and 2021 a lawsuit that you lost something along those lines a public training i think would be appropriate also a way that we can avoid this in the future is i

057recommend you not exercise your legal foia exemption to conduct future appointment interviews in a closed session you're welcome to do them in an open session i highly recommend you do that and then we don't have these problems in the future thank you for your time thank you you have any more all right last we have mrs tracy ruitt all right good evening madam chair board dr kramer my name is tracy ruit and i'm from the carsville district as the board knows and many community members are aware though i'm sure it though it seems some have forgotten it is due to dr thornton's vision the division's career program has grown so much more than what we had before he arrived i want to highlight some contributions which were put into place under dr thornton's watch separating

058from the prudence center which allowed more isla white county students to participate in the program and reallocated over 700 000 per year the division also received a three million dollar donation from smithville foods towards the cte program we now have a partnership with liber who has donated tens of thousands of dollars worth of welding equipment to the welding program we also have received 25 000 dollars in a donation from ferguson corporation who are now a partner with students as well as the community members have benefited from the renovations done by our building trades program such as the hobbs house the division has an affiliation agreement for our nursing program for students who wish to enter the medical field we have now the little sprouts program which not only aids the community but also our students

059who wish to go into the education field and this brings me to the land lab which brings experience to students looking into the this field of work it also provides students elementary students with field trip opportunities within the division this list by no means covers all of the accomplishments the division has and will continue to benefit from as a result of dr thornton's term with us in iowa county but just the few items i have listed in my opinion show the community has received more bang for its buck during dr thornton's tenure and only confirms the board made a good decision on renaming the building the thornton career center board protocols state that board members are to support board decisions and i can say as a carrsville resident i am disappointed this did not happen

060during the photo shoot and then the last thing i want to say is that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones when it comes to discriminatory actions thank you okay thank you that's it i'm chair all right thank you very much thank you to everyone that came out tonight to speak on agenda items at this time i would like to recognize uh supervisor board chair mr jefferson he came in a little late but thank you mr jefferson we had already started thank you very much for coming out tonight to join us [Applause] all right the next item on the agenda is board members committed reports and information do you have any committee reports okay all right um i uh really don't have uh committed reports but i did uh participate in some webinars and i

061shared that information with other board members and this week of course you know we had the opening of schools in alawite county and board members some of them we all were invited to show up at the schools along with a superintendent and his staff and we really enjoyed first day of school was with some of the students myself i uh was at smithfield high school and here at westside mr cunningham was midfield high school and hardy and mr colic i think he did all of the schools on his end of the that was windsor high uh georgia tyler wins elementary and carsville and i would like to thank all of them mr vines and mrs dowell as you know they were working at the time during the hours of the schools and this is why

062they were not able to join us and visiting the schools but they have they visit the schools during the summer thank you very much also while this week was one of excitement and joy as schools welcome students back to a new year it is truly a sad one for our community on tuesday evening september 6 mr alvin wilson who served as the haughty representative on the alawite county school board from 2015 to october 2021 passed away mr wilson was a long lifelong advocate for public education and for making decisions in the best interests of children we appreciate his years of service to the students families and the citizens of alawite county to the wilson family the alawite county schools sends their heartfelt condolences at this time madam chair if i may would also like to

063add that we would like to acknowledge the passing of the parent of one of our principals mr tommy darden passed away on monday september 5th a lifelong resident of the county he and his family were proud farmers and shared their love of farming and farm life with people across the world his daughter ellen couch served as serves as the principal of windsor elementary we extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of mr tommy darden and mr alvin wilson two giants of the community who left a tremendous legacy and who both will be deeply missed thank you madam chair at this time i will open it up to the other board members if they would like to say anything about mr wilson or mr darden well i wanted to say something about mr wilson

064uh i met mr uh alvin wilson back in 1998 when i moved here to uh smithfield he actually was my barber and a lot of you who know mr wilson know he had a barbershop but i went to the original one i guess it was the original one day on where the uh what is that down by the wharf where dwarf is now you know i will miss him he was a trustee at my church emmanuel baptist uh church here in smithfield was on it's on the outskirts of smithfield he was an active trustee a very very nice man very nice man he was he was a true christian i mean he was there uh before he got sick he was there at church almost every sunday i mean if he had something else he

065had to do he wasn't there but when i see him he said oh i miss you or or whatever but such a good man such a good man i remember beginning up every year he would say something to motivate the the families and the students that of the members at emmanuel baptist church and at the end of the school year he would always congratulate the students who graduated and some who were moving on to college he say positive things to them and uh i mean he he'll definitely be missed he was a positive influence on this community and definitely a positive influence on me and i wouldn't be on the board now if it wasn't for him because people came to me and said hey uh mr wilson he's ready to step down what you

066like to do the job and i i mean how could i turn it down people came to me but this is about mr wilson he will be missed definitely will be missed and my prayers are going to the wilson family i just pray that they have strength when they're going through this time and uh i would definitely be at this room whenever i mean whenever it is i'm going to make make sure i'm there and i know the board members who know mr wilson or knew him truly will miss him so thank you anyone else like the speak one being a native of alawite county when i saw mr wilson again he was very instrumental in my life he was there when i was receiving my licensing ministry and i moved away and came back

067home and he encouraged me and uh he would always say i've known you all your life you can't say you know me all your life because he was older and i would laugh every time you say that oftentimes going to a barber shop but when i became a board member he encouraged me and he told me to stand and remember the children okay mr collett i actually didn't know either one of these fine gentlemen i've heard a lot about them uh when we first moved to alawite being a transplant myself um but i'm just going to keep them my prayers and mr darden i know you know i know his daughter like all of you do and to see the caliber person she is i can just imagine what type of uh man he was

068but i'm be keeping both families in my prayers and thank you okay and on a personal note with mr wilson um as mr college said i did not know mr darden that well i've had the opportunity to meet ellen and work with ellen since she became principal here in our county and again like mr college said she is a very she's an excellent uh school administrator but on as far as mr wilson a lot of things you know people don't know uh about certain people mr wilson directed me into my first teaching position which was in charles city county he saw me one day and it was uh i think it was like june or july most of the time most teachers have signed a contract or they know they're going to get a contract

069and my first major in college when i graduated was sped they did not have during that time in the uh 1980 a lot of school districts really did not have a whole lot of classes spec classes at that time maybe one or two so i um i saw him one day very quickly i'm gonna get through this and he said do you have a job no because we didn't have any spare teachers to leave this year in syria but he said i was talking to one of the principals in charleston the other day they needed one here's his number call him i called the gentleman they had me to come in the next day interviewed me he called me the uh the third day and said well this was three days now and said you

070have a job if you want it so my first three years of teaching was on behalf of mr alan wilson because without him i never would have known about that position also mr wilson some of some of the things that you may not know about mr wilson mr wilson was an educator here in alawite county he taught in the wizard district before he went on to become an administrator he left us to become an administrator in surry county he retired in surry county and after retirement there he went to north carolina and became an administrator there and after so many years there he retired in north carolina he came back from north carolina and came and that's when he joined us on the school board in 2015. and the one thing i will always remember

071about mr wilson whatever we did or what action we did or whatever we had to say whether it was an action or not any procedural anything mr wilson would always ask the question how will it benefit the students and i will just leave that thought there mr wilson was an educator that believe in the students thank you very much are there any staff members out there at this time would like to say something we would like to okay all right at this time we'll move on to the next item on the agenda financial report thank you this is charlinger madam chair school board members financial report for iwcs first we want to take a look at the check registry and the large ticket items as you'll see it's all items thirty thousand dollars and up

072we'll start off with the new horizons regional education tuition for search students 123 955 dollars seven immediate holdings power school renewal ninety seven thousand two hundred seventy five dollars and eighty cent hampton school hampton city schools curriculum renewal sixty-five thousand seven hundred fifty dollars cdw llc for the device charging carts forty one thousand five hundred and twenty dollars and last the e-plus technology for the firewall renewal 346.10 that includes the large chicken items based off of the check i registry for based off of me okay next madam chair i'm going to bring the financial summary to let you know where we stand it at this time by wcs stands encumbered year-to-date for the same period last year we're at 14.3 percent excluding the grant projects and today we're standing at 17.4 so we're 3.1 above

073uh we were at last year but we're still in a great place for monitoring and keeping funds throughout the year and making sure that we distribute them in the right areas lastly madam chair i wanted to make sure i introduced the facilities usage report once again we budgeted 250 000 in revenue and at this time we have a estimated total fees here today 46 200 and six dollars so above i mean well below but we're moving right toward the 250 000 that will budget are there any questions at this time concerning the financial avoidance you all have any questions or concerns for dr coleman thank you dr colton okay tonight the fy2324 budget calendar it is an action item the calendar lists the important i items by date due dates within the departments and due

074dates to you and to the board of supervisors we have included some tentative dates for work sessions those dates just want to call them out are february 16th february 23rd and march 2nd and again those are not even though you're going to vote on it tonight those dates are tentative at this point right we'll certainly set those sperm as this process goes forward and i'll entertain any questions you may have any questions for mrs challenger at this time and for those of you in the audience that do not know mrs trollinger is our financial director at this time rachel trollinger and she is present here tonight at the meeting okay at this time we have a action item to approve the fy 2324 budget calendar as presented by mrs trojan we need a motion madam

075chair i'd like to uh make a motion to approve the fy 2324 budget calendar as presented mr a second we have a second that we will approve the fy 2324 budget calendar as presented at this time no more um if we do not have any discussion we will have a vote okay the voters four zero motion passes thank you next on the agenda we have the property casualty renewal for the fy 2022-23 that's an action item as well yes ma'am the um we currently have our property and casualty insurance with vacore otherwise known as virginia association of counties and this is just our annual renewal the renewal not only includes the property and casualty casualty insurance but it also includes our workers comp okay thank you any um questions or concerns from mrs rawlings all

076right hearing none this is an action item we need a motion better chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the property and casualty insurance as presented second we have a motion and a second that will approve the property and casualty insurance as presented at this time we will take a vote motion passes vote 4-0 thank you very much thank you next on the agenda we have support services mr todd christensen good evening madam share members of the board dr kramer i'd like to provide a support services update for you all at this time so the first thing i wanted to highlight was the uh transportation department did have their in-service here a couple weeks ago leading up to school great opportunity for our transportation department to join in some fellowship develop those team

077dynamics which are very very important in the transportation department we don't often think about that especially with our drivers and mechanics but they are really working together um every single day it's absolutely a team effort also it was a great opportunity for them to our new leadership mr kyle blackwell andrew sullivan to establish their vision for the transportation department and moving forward they've got a lot of fresh ideas very excited about the energy they're bringing to the table as well as to get our uh drivers updated on all the most recent safety procedures policies and making sure that we're ready to go did want to just give a quick shout out to our transportation department we know that the first few days of school is always has some things that we need to work through

078but um and the cinder blocks did not help but our drivers really work together and um were able to get the job done so big shout out to them we're looking forward to a great year in the transportation department thank you next up i wanted to highlight some of the renovations that have been done this is here is at carrollton elementary school carrollton elementary school just turned 30 years old but when you walk into that building it really looks fresh and new it's a building you can tell that there's a lot of pride that's taken and maintaining that building but the front office was an area that did need some updates so we were able to get in there get some fresh new floors in there that's that wood laminate that has become really popular

079it's very very useful these days as well as some new furniture for carrollton so um we're able to get in and get that work done over the summer and um get them some new furniture to kind of match the uh the feel of the rest of the building so excited about that before we move on from carrollton i'd be remiss if i didn't mention that the mechanical piping work did finish as expected on time and then it was a mad rush to get ssc in there the cleaning crew to get those floors waxed huge thank you to the staff for being flexible with us because we did want to get in there and get those uh rooms attended to and the halls attended to give them the same attention that the rest of the uh

080areas across the county got and we did need the staff's flexibility to get that done so thank them for working with us and thank you everybody who was involved in getting that work done over the summer thank you and last up i just wanted to um give a shout out to our division crisis management team so we were able to partner with them to welcome schools and students back not only did it provide that extra layer of security which we're always thankful for but really having those members of law enforcement emergency management there to welcome students be a friendly face build those relationships it was a really a huge step they were able to take we had members of the division crisis management team at every school across the county welcoming students back this year

081and just continuing that effort that we have to work with them and our law enforcement emergency officials throughout the year and beyond so thank you to them for for coming out thank you and uh before i move on to um take any questions you all might have i did want to also just mention that we had a really productive meeting today with our food service contractor chartwells myself dr coleman some other manager members of the executive team were able to meet with their senior leadership talk about the food service we know that inflation as well as the supply chain complications are definitely impacting the food service uh however we want to make sure that our food service employees are um treated fairly and compensated the way that we want them to be so that's some

082ongoing efforts and conversations that we're having with chartwells very productive meetings today and a huge shout out to all of our food service employees as well i'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have at this questions thank you mr christian thank you um you're gonna be the next one on the item are you are you gonna yes ma'am okay we have um we have this guest going to join you okay ma'am that's the mou yes so this is the uh this is the sro sheriff's office mou that we brought to you for a second read it is an action item um so we will turn it over to the board madam chair members of the board dr kramer i know there were some concerns raised about the mou and i'd like to

083take a moment to address a few of those in most instances sros are not involved in the investigations that happen in a building that is left up to our administrators to conduct the investigation and to administer the discipline however there are times that it becomes necessary to involve an sro and it is our practice and it is how we train our administrators that if they need to involve an sro in an investigation that they pause the investigation they contact the parent of the students involved explain what is going on and invite that parent to come in to be present during questioning now i will say many times the parent does choose to come in but there are instances the parent decides not to come in and in those cases the administrator will sit in during

084the investigation but it is not our practice that we allow you know sros to question without calling the parents now i do want to point out the one thing in the mou it says that matters of urgency may require the principle to be present during the interview if the time does not allow for parents and guardians to be present in our training this is met these matters are of safety issues imminent safety issues such as maybe there's a weapon that we believe is on campus those are matters where we cannot for the safety of staff and students we cannot wait to contact a parent and we would move forward matters of urgency would be determined by the building administrator the law enforcement sro whoever is there at the time and oftentimes central office is consulted

085as well so it would be a joint effort determining is this an urgent matter that we need to move forward if you have any other questions i'm happy to answer those thank you mrs yes ma'am and mr collect i know the two of us we uh voice our concern on that mrs getz had an opportunity to explain that to mr cunningham and myself the other day at the uh gender review meeting and i um as i told her then i was glad she had that opportunity to explain to me and she was gonna she her plans were to come and to do that tonight as well and i was satisfied with what she told us okay i would appreciate um if we put something there so matters of urgency and then example given and a

086couple of the examples that you put because i hate to see you know a year two years down down the line somebody that's an sro is not familiar with this and maybe a principal who's not familiar with this say well there's a matter of urgency because the buses are coming okay something that's really not an emergency um and and my biggest concern like i i said last month is infringing on the students right and also were to serve in the absence of a parent or guardian if we could put something there uh some verbiage if requested by the parent if the parent can't come or can't make it you know i'm i'm all for them saying hey if an administrator if this particular teacher could sit in there for me i'd appreciate it i think

087it's still too for me it's too open-ended okay any more discussions about that concern okay at this time this is an action item uh we need a motion to go into agreement with the sheriff's department on the mr mou on the second read oh madam chair uh mr college brought up uh something should we oh what's on should we wait on this since you want to add something because if we yeah this should be table to a later date until we can add whatever mrs colic and the rest of us agree should be added and and i believe it's it's more clarification than anything else it's not changing the essence of the mou it's clarification okay so if you would like to understand what you're saying mr cunningham by mr colley we can table it

088if you like but we could also vote on it with the clarifications added that mr colic just presented would you like to do either way his choice is up to the board how you all like to go forward but mr collett since you brought it up how would you like to go my preference is to table it add it in there and bring it vote on it next month okay madam chair mr colleague i'm i'm happy to take a look at the demo u and make the revisions in red line for your review okay okay thank you at this time i appreciate that at this time we will bring the uh sheriff mou for the second read back to the board and hopefully we will be able to do that at our next meeting okay

089which will be uh october meeting thank you thank you mr collick thank you next item we have new hearty update that's dr cohen here's my favorite part madam chair board members dr kramer new hearty update i guess i just hit it [Music] oh there we go all right as you can see the overview of hardy at this time you see the roof that's on the auditorium and the cafetorium now and moving into the flood roofs of the administration offices and the cafeteria itself or where the food is being prepared this is the site view from blunt's corner looking on to old hardy so you can see everything's coming together the installation on the outskirts of the building and the and the flappers going around to the wing e since the last meeting you see this

090lots of construction has been completed at this time my next meeting we were looking for all roofs to be actually put on the building and we'll start moving inside i do not want to say that we're ahead of schedule right now but we're moving at a very fast pace june 2023 we're still looking at completion of the building and moving in the drone shots are moving around now you can see just the edge of new harding i mean i apologize of old hardy and the closest area of new hardy to o'hardy once again is going to be 15 to 13 feet away from the old hardy complex that will be demo we're looking at the two-story section of new hardy the the horizontal portion right there and all the way back to the front this

091is a very good view of the interior once again and the administrative sections of the building or the main office and the vestibule that is actu that is being added on construction what they're telling me is if we can get the roof on before bad weather starts to accumulate then we can move right through that time period so that is the rush right now to get the rafters in and the roof on so we can continue to move at the pace that we're moving to make sure that the school is ready and as always if you go by the school today even though there was september 5th it probably is extremely different at this time with the pace that they're going to build a new harding oops are there any questions concerning new hardy the

092status at this time yes i have a question for you i think i brought it up uh earlier this year i put the question out there it's not the new hardy itself but the existing hardy elementary the newest part of that building i was wondering i um i asked staff if they could possibly investigate to see if we would be able to save that and i was thinking about um maybe using it for preschool such as we have at um windsor elementary school that is very productive the little sprouts class and um if we could use it for that purpose and i i i don't know if you all are investigating that but i would like to see if that's possible because it's ver my understanding that's part of the school is very good structure

093and if we can use it and if it's not going to be in the way of the new structure why not just keep it that portion of the building and we could use it in the community as a preschool program which is in the program at winds elementary is independent but it's just housed in our building yes ma'am i will definitely investigate that right next month i will have more information for you i appreciate that dr coleman yes ma'am are there any other questions concerning the status of new harding okay thank you dr colton for your update at this time we have mrs uh denson coming forward with the new ho uh she has the new hardy brick legacy good evening madam chair board members dr kramer first i would like to say thank you

094so much for allowing me to come back to discuss the updates regarding the hardy elementary legacy brick program as many of you know hardy elementary opened in 1960 and has been educating students for over 62 years so the purpose of this program in this campaign is to honor the legacy and history of hardy elementary within the smithfield community so with that said we are inviting everyone in the community hardy elementary alumni teachers retired teachers to actually purchase a brick that will be placed in the columns of the corridor of the new building as mentioned previously the cost of the brick is 50 per brick at this time we will launch the campaign before the end of the month we are accepting cash money order venmo or credit card so we are also looking into other

095payment options but we want to make sure that we can offer all options for the bric program you will complete the form that we have here so as you can see there are lines under number one and there's 18 characters per line for your inscription after which you will enter your name and you will email the form to the name that's listed we also have the qr code for the vemmo account but there's also a link and the link will be on the hardy elementary website as well as the alawite county schools website that you can click if you would like to pay by credit card this form is required by all people who would like to purchase um a brick because we again we do need the inscription so it is imperative that you

096complete the form with your inscription and email it to the name or you may fax the form or if you want to visit hardy elementary before we move into the new building you're welcome to bring the forum and drop it off at school okay mrs denson thank you for your report um i know online if they do it online but where can they actually pick up a physical report are you going to have those in all of the school buildings yes ma'am we will definitely have printed copies at hardy elementary i can email copies to the other principals and they're dead they can definitely print them out okay um in case community members would like to go to the schools to pick them up okay thank you very much okay thank you so if you're

097out there you heard mrs jensen's report please participate in this project thank you very much next on the agenda we have the columbia natural gas services for the new heart dr coleman madam chair this uh this agenda item is for new harding it's a new gas line the old hardy had a two inch line and it needs to be replaced with a five inch line from columbia gas this line runs from smith field the production plant all the way out to hardy so that's a two inch pipe that needs to be replaced the overall total for this pipe replacement will be 405 138.90 once again that's 405 138.90 that's for the columbia gas uh for the replacement owner there i wanted to make sure i brought that to this board because it's over two hundred

098thousand dollars okay so i just want to bring that to your attention madam chair that that will be spent to pay for the colombian natural gas service for new harding are there any questions concerning it what's that price again 405 138.90 yes and i do know whenever constructions take place especially that large uh when they go in to do any type of uh changes they have to upgrade they upgrade because if you i don't know you i guess some of you been listening in some of the larger cities where they have not upgrade they've had issues with you know uh gas lines and this will take care of some of those issues they do the same thing with all of the utilities water lines gas lines whenever they have to dig and do anything now

099those companies normally will upgrade yes ma'am this is an action item at this time we need a motion are there well first of all any other discussion or concerns from board members not at all okay some action item uh again that price is one hundred 405 thirty eight dollars and ninety cents [Applause] madam chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the acquisition of the company columbia natural gas uh pipeline increase in size correct yes sir two inch to five inch from two inch to five inches at the amount of 405 138 dollars and 98 cents and that's for the new party elements for the new hardy elementary team 90 cents and 90 cents for the new hardy elementary school do i need to read that again do it for clarification okay madam chair

100i'd like to make a motion to approve the uh columbia columbia natural gas service uh new pipeline for the new hardy elementary school the acquisition will cost 405 dollars and 90 cents did you get that i got a combination the first and the second oh do we have a second second we have a motion and a second to approve the columbia natural gas services uh for hardy elementary at this time we will take a vote just check and make sure that motion is correct if you guys want to read the motion i typed in okay let's see it a second i can't see you it says motion to approve the acquisition of columbia natural gas service pipeline to increase in size from two inch to five inch in the amount of 405 138.90 for new

101hardy elementary school okay motion passes vote for zero thank you next we have item number 15.6 which is also an action item adult lunch prices dr copeland madam chair just this week we received the application for georgia tala from the georgia tower middle school for the national school lunch program and in order to receive the federal funding for the breakfast and lunch programs we have to approve this national school lunch program increase the lunches for adults not students are and want to emphasize the lunches for adults in the building teachers and staff will will increase from four dollars to four dollars and five cents the increase for breakfast will be from 2.25 to 2.35 so once again it's an increase for adults staff not students so what we need to do is approve the national

102school lunch program so we can start receiving the funding for um for the joy detail of breakfast and lunch programs okay you heard his report at this time she'd like to make a motion like to make a motion to approve the increase of the adult breakfast price from two dollars and twenty five cents to two dollars and thirty five cents and to a uh and to approve the increase of the dope lunch price from four dollars to four dollars at five cents okay you heard the motion we need a second i second at this time we have a motion and a second on the floor we will take a vote oh motion passes vote four to zero thank you very much all right next item on the agenda is report from the superintendent and at

103this time i would like to say we welcome dr um theo cramer to his first board meeting and dr kramer at this time this is your portion of the meeting where you take over thank you madam chair so first day i think i was as excited as our students going to school for the first day and this is my first day that was my first day tuesday here in isle of wight i had the pleasure of visiting all nine of our schools last week with the staff members prior to our students arriving and i've visited most of our schools this week as well and hope to visit all nine schools again this week i wish to thank every one of our teachers our administrators every support staff employee for their hard work to prepare isla

104white county schools for the return of over 5 hundred students on tuesday especially our transportation child nutrition and technology departments and ssc had buildings and buses ready to go our office staff school counselors nurses media specialists instructional coaches athletic directors have all played a role in the successful start of school a special thank you to carrollton elementary staff they were very accommodating as we were finishing up hvac work in their school during the professional uh development opportunities so thank you carrollton for your patience it was wonderful to see members of the school board along with mr jefferson who actually just left as we thank him uh from the board of supervisors at various buildings on opening day we were also joined by sheriff clark and members from the isle of wight sheriff's office along with

105windsor chief dan riddle and lieutenant jernigan the division certainly has a healthy partnership with local officials and with the community and it is absolutely my hope and my expectation that we will only expand those partnerships working together we ensure our schools will meet the needs of every child i deeply appreciate the tremendous support of everyone's contribution to a very positive start of the school year i also add that as many of us visited schools on the first day madam chair and board members we can tell you firsthand that all of the hard work paid off because our students were greeted with lots of smiles and support from staff and and others and yes we saw a few tears from our students uh and we also saw a few tears from our families and we understand

106that those of us who were parents um and uh mr colic was very instrumental in using his counseling skills specifically with one young man and actually was able to help that young man progress through the day so thank you mr colic as well overall board members i was extremely pleased with our first day and this was certainly exciting again for me as superintendent and with this great start i am very confident that we are going to have a great year so it was wonderful to have you all there with us and it was wonderful to have our community partners with us um we do have a brief video uh to capture us that captured some of the images from that day so if we can show that video at this time [Music] sing song when

107i'm walking home jump up to the top of the brown ding dong call me on my phone nice tea and i'll get my ping pong heavy [Music] celeste [Music] shining through the city [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] a special thank you to lynn briggs and david elliot for the beautiful photos thank you okay that was the first day of school dr crain that is correct that was all on one day the first day of school yes next we have the accreditation and data update this is still another report from the superintendent but mrs gatz will your mic is on it's off okay so back on there we go all right good evening again madam chair members of the board dr kramer i'm going to share with you the accreditation report and data

108update i have miss colleen loud our director of assessment accountability with me as well alrighty so each year we provide you with an update of our accreditation status um so this year is no different we are bringing that to you and this is related to the um our strategic plan the goal academic excellence so let me get going here on the first slide these are aggregate results so they are the overall results for sol testing in the content areas reading writing math science and history you will see on the left hand side in blue these are the state results and ours are in the teal and as you can see we exceeded the state pass rate in all areas for this past school year and anytime you have any questions just please stop me as

109we go on the next slide this shows state and division pass rates and it's important to note that we also are looking at pre pandemic so that 2018 school year was our last quote normal year um and then 2020 2020 and 2021 we were coming off that shutdown and then of course last year we were back full time there and you will notice that we're not far off then as from the pre pandemic we still have some work to do but comparing our scores this year to last year you will notice significant improvements i think all right let's dive a little closer and take a look at elementary reading these scores do not include growth these are the raw data this is before growth is calculated but we think it's a it's a good point

110to take a look at these scores before the growth and you're going to see state pass rates for grades three four and five those are on the far left of each of those sections followed by the pass rates for the division and then the individual schools again these are our reading pass rates and as you can see we really hold up quite well when you compare us against the state okay moving on we're going to take a closer look at math pass rates for elementary again these do not include the growth and these are pass rates for grades 3 4 and 5. again on the far left is the state pass rate followed by the division and then our individual schools and again we do quite well when you look at us compared to the

111state pass rates i do want to point that out which is really i think our staff is to be commended for this okay middle school pass rates again state far left followed by division isla white county and then the two middle schools now we'll point out science is an area that we obviously need to do some work on we already have a plan in place coordinators are putting that in in action as we speak we do in in considering why might our science scores have dropped science is is building so for example in grade 8 that test is made up of grade 6 content grade 7 content and grade 8 content so when you look over the multiple years of content and considering what was happening the last couple of years we're not shocked that

112this happened but it does tell us that we need to do more with helping the students in eighth grade for example review content in sixth and seventh grade so we do have a plan that we're putting in place mrs getz ma'am uh the writing i i looked at the science it looked like smithfield scored little lore than um georgia tyler yeah and then but but then with the writing it was reversed yes yes ma'am okay yeah because georgia tyler really it really dropped it like to like about 60 so i was wondering you know are we anticipating a better school there this year yeah thank you for mentioning that i did neglect to say writing is an area that we are also focusing on not only the science and i did neglect to say that

113we again do have a plan in place where we are monitoring and following writing um all grades but particularly those middle school grades where we do see that eighth grade test that's the first time they're tested it's eighth grade we do see that drop in in writing um we we have to do better uh so we have a plan in place to have students writing more and receiving more feedback from their teachers that's because it's it's like five percent lower than the states yes so it at least try to get them on level of state absolutely oh well we will i want them to just pass this but you know right now it's below it yes yep thank you yep these are combined rates for accreditation uh for all of the schools if you take

114a look elementary and middle these do include the growth scores which is used for accreditation i'll give you a second to look through those moving on to high school state is far left shs is in green and the gray is windsor high school and when you look at our high schools and their performance in comparison to the state we are really performing quite well in our high schools even through the pandemic i was also looking at the high school compared to your combined rate which is pretty much what elementary schools it's a little drop there but i guess teenage years the the slides you had just before the combine so high school high schools do not have the opportunity to have the growth calculations so that's why those are straight pass rates okay all right

115thank you and growth is a new indicator that has been used now by vdoe when determining the accreditation um so that's something new and like miss loud said high school doesn't have that opportunity okay good question now okay next oops next we have our graduation completion index and performing quite well there as well again there's always room for improvement but we are pleased with our graduation industry chronic absenteeism this is an area that we wanted to share because an area we need to improve on this is not calculated in accreditation this year because the entire state had extremely high absenteeism now obviously with covid we were still dealing with that lots of students absent because of covid um so that's why the state did not include it in accreditation but i will say we have

116a great plan in place for absenteeism chronic absenteeism and how to address that at the schools we did have training for our staff and we have begun the implementation of that new plan so i think we're going to see much better numbers but you know it's very important for our students to get to school it's critical and all of our schools are accredited so this is something to celebrate [Applause] coming out of the pandemic our staff has worked extremely hard to get students caught up we still have a ways to go but i think you can see we've really made good progress thank you for that and then really quickly i wanted to share just a little bit about our k-2 friends um talking about literacy that's one of the main areas that you hear

117concerns about what the pandemic has done to our early learners so i wanted to share a little bit of information about that with you so we use the pals and that's the phonological awareness literacy screening it was developed by uva and it is given to all k-3 students in virginia so on this slide you're going to see the kindergarten identification rates and when i say identification rates this means that you did not meet the benchmark so you are identified as needing intervention so if you look at 2018-19 on the far left those are the rates of students identified and looking at last year you'll see this year we really have made a lot of progress for our students so again coming off pandemic numbers were much higher things are looking much better now for kindergarten

118let's look at first grade first grade is definitely an area that definitely is is one that it hits hard it's a lot of content there students learning to read we do have plans in place that we are trying to boost those benchmarks so that we have less kids identified but it is an area that we are working on but looking from pandemic again we are showing some improvements still an area that we have to work on um and you know kids didn't go to pre-k during the pandemic they didn't have a pre-k experience we had a hard time filling our pre-k spots now we have people calling every day asking for pre-k and we're full and second grade and again if you look at where we were pre-pandemic to where we were last year to

119currently you see that we are really making gains still have room to go but we are making gains for our friends and next steps quickly new attendance protocol in place to address those chronic absenteeism we have a new writing plan in place that's already been implemented new additional resources for science instruction to address those science scores and we also if you remember we did apply and receive a grant where we have tutors in our elementary and middle school that are giving students even more time for reading and math so we're really excited about the things that we have planned and i think we're going to see some good results do you have any questions for me i asked mine okay any questions for mrs getz that's good it's hurting the test results in our students

120levels good okay thank you very much kids thank you and i have the next one so i'm going to sit right here okay excellent agenda we have zone transfer applications and on and non-resident reports and this information is pretty much only normally if you in public when we finish with reports we will allow you to get a report but tonight this is only for the board used because of the students information on it includes student information names and all thank you yes ma'am so before you have information for the students that have been approved as non-resident and out of zone students and we did distinguish between employees and non-employees because as you know we do allow employees to bring their students to school here free of charge but we wanted to see for you to

121see the the numbers of students of employees that we do have attending um in the schools that they are attending do you have any questions no okay thank you thank you next we have the annual professional development dr cal good evening grant here members of the board dr kramer i'm here to present a our annual professional development update um so last year we focused a lot on the introduction of the new growth assessments introduction of tier two and tier three uh interventions to really help those students who had missed so much during the pandemic we focused on the language of such essentials for teachers of reading and spelling um supplemental instructional resources so like hands-on foster kids to help really push that science and stem thinking for students get them engaged in the in the

122learning we did start and launch our vertical articulation of the coding and stem so that we can create those pathways into those cte programs we also spent some time relaunching our gifted instructional model to really engage more students in that gifted more rigorous instruction we did a lot of training and work and support with our special education teachers to make sure they had the supports and services and skills that they needed to be successful and help our students and then most importantly last year we did a lot of work around building and establishing the new iwcs strategic plan so then going into the summer all of our administrators and a lot of our central office staff and even some of you popped in for our threat assessment training so we're very excited about that we

123did a full day of title ix training to keep everyone abreast of the current regulations regarding title ix and then we held our administrative boot camp this summer as we do every summer where we focus on instructional leadership all of those curriculum and assessment updates management expectations strategic planning and of course team building and then last but not least our conducting and investigation training our new teacher orientation was a lot of fun this year we started off with a little uh cheering for all of our our new educators we're excited to welcome them over a three day period of time they spent time investigating and thinking about how they were going to create great and gritty students over the next year looking at the profile of an iwcs graduate how are they starting to think

124even at those lower levels about what that looks like for students as they enter high school and then into the workforce focusing on what is deeper learning what does that look like what are those critical thinking strategies that i can use to really get my kids thinking about different types of information in the classrooms and then also the instructional framework and making sure that they really understand what that looks like every day and and how to shape and form those groups during the student work period we're very excited this is a great picture i thought of all of our new new teachers and i think that miss sullivan told me that we had close to 80. whoa our convocation is always my personal favorite day of the year um we were excited to welcome dr

125kramer and to see our schools engaged in a little spirit challenge you can see coco there the big prize of the year um went to windsor high school this year post convocation we rolled up our sleeves and dug deep into curriculum and really unpacking that looking at the resources looking at the benchmarks and the assessments that we use to gauge student progress we focused on family engagement truancy and absenteeism as you just heard in this miss gets addressed uh career and technical education met and started to really look at competencies and how we are tracking and evaluating students progress in that area school nursing and then also our reading intervention that early literacy is always really important pre-service was jam-packed so when we started looking at the schedule we were like oh my goodness wow

126there's so much going on which is a good thing we launched some new library software we also focused on promethean training for those teachers that had promethean boards and we did that on two levels one for the teachers and their interactions with the board day-to-day and then also with our coaches and administrators to be able to support teachers as they start integrating that technology in their classroom we really focus in on that data-driven instructional piece and looking at freckle and waterford and no red ink a lot of those different resources that we use and teaching helping teachers understand how to use that data to drive their decision making every day so we also did a lot of work with special education focusing on their skills and how they are working with students i won't read

127all of these too because you can see them there but writing and literacy again and then of course our 10 protocol and title ix so there was a lot of different options and trainings that were provided for teachers during those two weeks of free service this year we are looking to focus really on that academic rigor getting students back into the swing of where we we have been and where we'd like to go professional learning communities and really digging deep in that instructional framework making sure that's present every classroom every day and using data to decide how that looks what are those small group rotations how are you grouping your students what is the differentiated lesson that you're doing with this group versus that group focusing on chronic absenteeism and then family engagement our classroom

128culture how are we making sure all of our students feel like they are included and welcome and loved in our classrooms and then also really focusing in on that recruitment and retention because as ms times said at convocation we want them to stay here until they retire right and that's it are there any questions yeah mrs kell thank you for your report but i just wanted to bring out that we have some talented students in alawite county schools the day of convocation smithfield high school band and windsor high school cheerleaders they performed and they did an excellent performance we also had a performance from a young man from windsor high school that sang the national anthem i forgot his name but mrs keller any staff member remember mrs mr trenton taylor mr trenton taylor needs

129to be on one of those national whatever american idol or whatever because he did a wonderful job and i knew you know that was probably his first time singing before you know teachers and staff and he stood there and he sang and he did not miss a beat i have seen people on national level miss some of the things in the national anthem thank you to all of the uh students that participated in the compensation convocation thank you very much absolutely all right now we will have mrs sullivan laura sullivan come forth staffing report and madam chair as i'm sorry no you're fine you're absolutely correct as mrs sullivan comes forward i'd like to make a few introductory remarks and remarks and to opine on this topic if i may for a few moments i

130am elated to share with you as ms sullivan will our incredible low vacancy rate conversely that means that the vast majority of our classrooms and schools are staffed with highly qualified educators we hear so much about the national teacher shortage in our country in our state and even here in our region and we in isle of wight have been able to avoid that to a large extent as we stated earlier i've met with our staffs last week before school opened this week with our students and one of the questions i asked board members of our new teachers was where you coming from and sort of why isla white and we are so fortunate other jurisdictions may not be happy with us because the large number of really qualified highly experienced individuals who are coming to

131us with 15 20 25 years of experience we are the beneficiaries our children are the beneficiaries of all of these employees and i think it's important to note that they said they're coming because of the reputation of isla white they're coming because of the highly qualified leaders we have and i extend to you board members and say that our challenge i think moving forward as well as our community is retaining these individuals the last thing we want to do is recruit quality candidates and then have and lose them so i will be working with mrs sullivan and meeting with our new teachers as well as our veteran educators have conversations about how can we ensure that we're meeting your needs so that as mrs uh as chair madame chairtine stated we'd like them to stay

132here and to retire from isle of wight so mrs um sullivan thank you and your staff as well for all of the work that you have done i don't want that to go unnoticed you and your staff have done an amazing job so uh a credit to you as well so with that please share any additional information you have thank you absolutely and i'm applauding her because i know we have some school districts right there in virginia when they opened last week had 400 openings in one school district thank you mrs sullivan well and thank you i definitely cannot take all of the credit and i would be remiss to not thank everyone from building supervisors and department supervisors our finance and technology departments who have done a phenomenal job in supporting us through the

133process of our new hires like dr kramer's shared we are at a 97.7 fill rate for our instructional positions um this hiring season we had 86 true vacancies so we had 86 staff members that left isle of wake county um or other vacancies from new positions and to give you a breakdown of that 40 of those were resignations from this past year 16 were retirees 17 were new or vacant positions from the 2020 or the 2021 school year and then 13 of those were internal promotions that created vacancies in teaching roles they were teachers and they promoted to a leadership role in the division of the 56 that left isle of wight we did send out exit interviews to all of those employees 13 were returned to us and out of those 12 did say

134that even though they were leaving education they would recommend isle of wight county as a good place to work for other colleagues i will be working this year to update our exit interview and allow for electronic completion in hopes of increasing our response rate to that to get that feedback um of those 86 vacancies as of today we are at uh we have had 75 true fills and in terms of we've had 75 people replace those 86 vacancies of all but five of the remaining 11 vacancies have been filled with alternative methods for example we have two secondary math one secondary history one secondary english two secondary spanish one self-contained special education and one gifted resource that are all being covered by reallocating our current resources or having a current highly qualified teacher teaching an

135extra block for which they are receiving additional payment for the other positions i do think it's important to note that out of the five vacancies that we have left over um those four of those were extremely late resignations for i think most of you are aware that we have a um general expectation within our region that after june 30th teachers do cannot leave contracts from other divisions to come to us four of those five remaining vacancies all happened after that date which meant no one in our region could apply for those positions and be awarded a contract without getting permission from their district to leave their contract because of the critical shortage districts are not allowing that the consequences are for that or that those districts will go after their teaching license and have it

136removed and so it's extremely difficult to fill positions after june 30th and four of our remaining five true vacancies are a it is a direct effect because we had teachers that left out of white after that date and those were generally from either they were being promoted or leaving education altogether and then there's the leftover position that one extra position out of that five is actually a split counseling position between gtms and windsor elementary historically split positions between two buildings are more difficult to fill um because they know that they're going to be in two different locations and so that is another reason when that's extremely hard to fill i do want you to know that of those five we are actively working to recruit to find highly qualified individuals for example i know with

137our one band position that we know is all of them are extremely important but that it currently is proving very difficult we did have some applicants that applied late all of them were under contract and we could not um offer that position but we are working on alternative methods to to look for support in that in the meantime another special note is that 10 of our new teachers are were actually former ias in our district and they were have worked on their teaching license and been promoted from instructional assistance into teaching which is a great pipeline for a school division and that's there to be commended for their hard work and reaching that goal and then we have the two counselors that are still open that split position and then a resignation at smithfield high

138school any questions for me very good thank you mrs sullivan if we have anyone in our audience that's visiting us tonight uh and you're interested in any of those positions that she said she has opening for right now please contact mr sullivan she will accommodate you maybe you want to uh like she said i ias did you never know get with mrs sullivan she sent your information to the state department you might you could be certified to be a teacher in the state of virginia thank you very much okay next we have the capital well we've already done that so we don't have to do that we're not going to be having an action on it tonight my mistake thank you 16.7 that's the bullying prevention month proclamation that's with mrs briggs good evening once

139again madam chair school board members and dr kramer the month of october is declared bullying prevention month from virginia school boards association and we have a proclamation that i'm asking for the board to approve and the chair to sign and just to read it for the record and for the public whereas school bullying has become an increasingly significant problem in the united states and virginia and whereas over twenty percent of the youth in the united states are estimated to be involved in bullying each year either as a bully or as a victim and whereas an estimated 160 000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade miss school every day due to a fear of being bullied and whereas bullying can take many forms including verbal physical and most recently in cyberspace and can happen in many

140places on and off school grounds and whereas it is important for virginia parents students teachers and school administrators to be aware of bullying and to encourage discussion of the problem as a school community and whereas the vsva has developed a model policy on anti-bullying to encourage positive behaviors and to eliminate bullying behaviors now therefore the virginia school boards association recognizes the month of october as the vsba bullying prevention month with the intention that the issue of bullying and its prevention be discussed in virginia schools and classrooms during that time and i encourage the board to approve this res this proclamation tonight thank you mrs briggs you heard the uh proclamation coming from mrs briggs and that is one of my uh uh i love to one of the things as a classroom teacher and an

141educator over the years i've always you know promoted those type things do not bully and i used to tell my students that all the time so at this time i would personally like to make a motion to approve the proclamation recognized in october as bullying prevention month in illinois county schools i second it we have a motion and all of all everybody wants one every second okay i think i heard the loudest second coming from mr colic mr vines one of them who wants to own the second it doesn't matter mr colic okay all right so we have a motion at this time we will take a vote and while we're waiting for that to come up the results if anyone out there hear any bullying going on in alawite county schools please contact the

142building administrator and let them know thank you very much the motion passes four yeses thank you very much and madam chair um at the october board meeting we will uh share some of the activities our schools have planned okay throughout the month of october all right thank you very much mrs briggs okay next we have new communication platform that is with mrs briggs as well yes i wanted to share with the board and the community that we quietly launched a new communications platform on our website called let's talk we actually use this platform in the spring to gather input on our strategic plan we only used it for strategic plan input at that time and then in may we used it again to gather positive comments for teacher appreciation week which we shared all of

143those positive remarks about our teachers with the teachers themselves so they got to see some some pray hear some praise see some praise from members of the community and their parents but let's talk is much more than that it is a way to make it easy for the community to connect with isle of wight county schools it's very easy for customers to reach us for us to respond and to get feedback on the customer experience [Music] one of the things i found is being in a small division a lot of times people wear many hats or their hats change very often and we often get questions so who's responsible for that now or i'm just emailing you because i don't know who it is but i know you'll get me to the right person well

144the nice thing with this let's talk program is people don't need to know who is responsible they just need to know what their issue is about and i'm going to show you we launched this very quietly in august and let's see mr coop writer was helping me here nope where am i going mr cooper here yeah he's about to do it i t oh here it is okay you got it okay perfect all right so we've linked this right on our contact us link so so that's they were emailing us there before anyway but now when they go to contact us they're going to see our let's talk platform we have a little introduction there and we tell them we will follow up with them within two business days they can search for their topics

145but as you scroll down you'll see we have common topics here let me get over here a minute okay and then we have of course we put our good news first if people want to share good news about students schools or staff we have a link for each school so if they have a particular issue for one of our schools they can click there and all of the principals and their admin teams are looped in on those we have an instructional section with some of our instructional topics student service issues operations and you can see right here capital improvement plan project so as dr coleman mentioned earlier we have that available if individuals are not able to come and provide feedback in person on the capital improvement plan and truly they can provide feedback anytime

146not just as we're looking at the improvement plan at this point in the year so you can see we have quite a few topics here and one nice thing about this is once again they don't need to know who who's the contact for section 504 for example or who's the contact for home school they have a question they can go click and immediately send a response that on our end we have set up who should get that response we can also provide information on the front end and i'll show an example of this for example school calendar on occasion we will get questions that will ask so when is spring break well our calendar is on our website and spring break is on our calendar but on occasion people just want to ask really quick

147and not have to go find it well right here in the information it says hey here's a link to our calendar we might be able to answer their question before they even ask it but if not they can complete this they can tell us are they submitting a question comment suggestion concern or compliment and they can tell us who they are what category they fall into and how we can follow up with them now they can hide their contact information from us if they prefer to keep it rather anonymous although we can still respond we just don't know who we're responding to they can actually not enter this at all and then it's completely anonymous now they won't get any follow-up because we have no contact information but it allows the community to uh communi

148to share information with us multiple ways it gets it to the right people they get responses quickly and on our end we get some awesome data as to how often we're getting communications how long they've been sitting there unanswered what's the progress on them customers get a feedback form when we close out the communication and they can rate us on how well we did if we fell short of their expectations we can follow back up with them and say how could we have improved your experience so i think this is going to be very positive for the community i can tell you it has received a tremendous amount of use with the transportation button the past two days with lots of questions and our transportation team has been staying on top of them and getting

149responses to parents now we do say we will get back with you within two business days we also encourage folks if it's an immediate concern please call us if it's an emergency we state there uh a matter of safety to call 9-1-1 okay so but we hope to provide you with updates throughout the year on how this is working for us and um and the feedback we're getting from the community and if you have any questions about it i'll do my best to answer them thank you any questions from mrs briggs all right love it thank you thank you very much so this is uh activated as of now they can go on tonight and activate this it is it is live now okay we just did what they call a soft roll out we

150didn't make a big announcement this is our big announcement but they have found it okay all right and and they are reaching out okay thank you mrs okay at this time we're gonna have come to the portion of our meeting where we have action on closed session items and we have i'm going to read the list of things that we did in closed session and that we need to act on first we have personal report and addendum we also have um early admissions that's with the student we have a second student with early admissions we also have a religious exemption and that was it thank you and on each one of those items we have to vote on them separately at this time we will take action on the personnel report and addendum chair i'd

151like to make a motion to approve the personnel report as presented uh a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk if the uh citizens would like a copy and we just need to include the addendum the personal report and the addendum and no done okay second that if you don't have any discussion at this time we will take a vote so motion passes yes four yes thank you next we have student ea is not student but early admissions ea 22-03 madam chair like to make a motion to not approve the request for early admission of ea 22-03 you have a motion we need a second second at this time we will take a vote did you always come up mine didn't come up there it is up now okay motion pac

152passes four years thank you next we have early admission two two zero z i'm gonna start it again early admissions ea to two dash zero four madam chair i'd like to make a motion not to approve the request for early admission of ea 22-04 we have a motion and a second at this time we will take a vote motion passes for yes thank you next we have religious exemption r e x scpt 2 2 0 1. madam chair like to make a motion to approve the request for rex sept 22-01 to be excused from compulsory attendance requirements as a religious exemption second at this time we would take a vote motion passes yay four thank you it was is it three i can't see this one oh there's one nay i'm sorry all right we

153have motion still passes we have three days one day thank you thank you for correcting me because i can't see that okay all right next we have the adoption of consent agenda that's meeting minutes donations and financials madam chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented second at this time we will take a vote okay motion passes four years thank you next on the agenda we have policy updates and revisions we have policies for first read and approval any staff would like to come up yeah the policy for fees um is one that you previously approved however the national beta dues have increased and so we are asking that you improve the increase from 30 to thirty two dollars for students at both high schools so this

154is why it's the first three because it's the first time we're hearing it right well you already approved this policy the only thing that has changed is a two dollar increase in beta dues so we're asking that you approve it tonight please okay all right thank you all right did you hear the report coming from mrs getz at this time we need a motion just looking at it okay i would like to make a motion to approve policies jn as presented we have a motion and a second to approve policy jan as presented at this time we'll take a vote actually what we're doing public uh that is a policy as mrs getz said that we had already approved but anytime there are any changes to the policies we have to come back and vote

155on it again in this instance there was a change in the beta fees of two dollars all right motion passes four years thank you next we have policies for a second read and approval madam chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the second read policies as presented second we have a motion and a second to approve secondary policies as presented at this time if you don't have any discussions we will take a vote all right motion passes 48 thank you next we have regulations and exhibits what happened someone walked up on here regulations and exhibits that's j-h-c-d-e then delete all right [Music] it's just information that was deleted there is no action on that it was just deleted from the policies okay now we get to the agenda item where the public has

156an opportunity to participate this is the um the public get to speak on any non-agenda items madam clerk in accordance to policy bddh-e presentation of information on any subject will be concluded at the discretion of the board no person will be recognized to speak more than once citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two persons speaking are asked to be specific state the issues for the board's consideration and attach a copy of your prepared remarks if you have prepared remarks they should be given to the board clerk please do not approach the board members any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in close in a closed meeting okay okay

157first we have catherine west i know she's here mrs wes in the audience and heidi's miss heidi swartz okay look mrs schwartz i don't want to interrupt you but i need to go out for a second i'ma come right back in that way i won't have to have a recess okay and i promise you i will follow up the tape and listen to your remarks okay pardon me that's up to the anyone you want to wait okay at this we will at this time we will take a 10-minute recess thank you what is at the podium thank you mrs schwartz i won't say anything else it's not one is the mic one that's not all okay what about here at the table for right now since we have a technical okay thank you we'll start

158with schwartz time okay um i did want to welcome dr kramer i failed to do that earlier during the confusion um so i did want to talk about the growth of the run funding i had someone that brought it to me it was one of the volunteers that helped out with the coaching she had stated to me that the coaches were given a 750 dollar stipend to volunteer and she was a bit concerned with it because well it's volunteering there's many wonderful things surrounding girls on the run but paying those who volunteer their service takes away from the whole theory behind the mentoring to these young women and the question comes up who provided the twenty thousand dollars to pay to the volunteer coaches was it the 501 c from the girls on the run

159or did this come from the aisle white county funding so i was told that dr thornton used the school's athletic funds for it this isn't hearsay but this comes directly from dr thornton to jason marsh who we know is running for the school board for windsor district and i believe that this needs to be a discussion at no time should an iowa white county taxpayer be funding a 501c prior to other areas of the schools not be funded just as we've heard tonight with the band and other athletics also transportation which came the year before in 2021 we found cost the district three hundred thousand dollars for fuel buses and drivers and the tuition for each participant was also paid from the athletic funds activity buses for our current athletics were cut a long time

160ago but could these a lot of athletic funds gone to this now move on to something else i'd like to set the record straight after hearing of many outrageous material missions of michael vines for those who are not aware of what a material emissions is its mistakes whether intentionally or unintentionally that would remove one from the ballot as i as one of the collectors from mark wooster i wish ensure i and others had submitted them correctly so i afforded woosters and dials signature forms with dial bean wooster's appointment or um opponent i found woosters with no material missions but several concerns on dial submission with one blatant material emission i know i would like to ensure that the number two newport district has the best candidate that follows guidelines to be placed on the ballot

161with this i have petitioned the isle white electoral board to either amend or add to their september minutes to correct their previous minutes in july where they listed that three signature package that were for it were vines dial and butler this appeared to start an unnecessary racial gossip war in the county by miss butler which i spoke to miss times about after our last school board meeting and i'm here to set that record straight in this public forum that vines was forged first by mr lewis and i floyd the next two which were wooster and dial and it was not a racial issue i had this conversation with miss times after the last school board meeting and i explained to her that she had the opportunity to also spread correct information if she chose to

162from what i heard this has not been done so i'm taking this moment here tonight and i'm looking forward to the aisle white electoral board to do the same to correct it the least we can do especially for our children is to provide the best and most qualified candidates to serve them with truth and honesty on another note i know you guys voted for the thornton career center but i believe his job that was his job and he was compensated for it frankly looking back i think that mr kemps has left his job and he left it when a lot of chaos has been going on and it was surrounding dr thornton's financial accident you have to wonder why thornton wasn't renewing mr kepsis um contract was he not comfortable with the blank exit amount

163that was written on his check we have mr ethan schwartz all right good evening board and dr kramer ladies and gentlemen i've come tonight requesting that our superintendent and board allow either myself to work with you or to have someone else work work with you to bring it the training called stop the bleed to alawite county schools you see i've been a cub and boy scout since i was in the first grade this summer i even earned my eagle scout at the age of 15. i also became a lifeguard at the age of 15 and i was born with medical condition that had placed me in a hospital settings most most of my life and my goal is to go into medicine and start that journey with the cte program here at smithfield high school

164i understand the importance of medicine and i have shared personally as a patient with emergency medicine i have been a min and i i've even administered some as a lifeguard recently my mother had a conversation with miss heinz after the last school board meeting my mom shared with miss tynes how i had discussed with my parents what i would do if an actor shooter situation were to happen at my school i've thought of what position i would take the plan of action i would do and miss tines told my mother that i shouldn't think think that way and it could get me in trouble and someone's might take my words the wrong way let me assure you that i that it's not what i have in mind myth times i plan to save my fellow

165students even at the cost of my own life if i have to at the same time i have my parents telling me that they want me to get out but that brings me to stop the bleed no matter how fast professional emergency responders arise bystanders will always be the first first on the scene a person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes therefore it's quick quickly it's important to quickly stop the bleed those nearest someone life threatening near nearest to someone with life-threatening injuries are best positioned to provide at first care and some of the victims in school shootings not not from the gun shots but because of the blood loss because it is not stopped in time the program is one step to empowering our students or teachers our custodial

166or cafeteria staff our bus drivers and so forth to be there god forbid we have something happen here in isle of wight i'm asking you as the board and as the new superintendent to help me bring this program to our district amazingly when reaching out to this program i was able to find it instructors in our area one of our candidates for the school board someone i even know mark wooster is a stop the bleed instructor for the military i don't know if he would be able to train civilians but i'm sure he could get us with in contact with the civilian rep if so please consider this this is not something i would want to come back later and say if only we had that training give us students the training and not allow

167us just to only be the victims let us be more than just survivors too let us be an active part in making our schools better thank you thank you [Applause] all right next we have miss martha jackson martha jackson district three uh chair times the rest of the board members miss kylie sharp uh dr kramer september 6 signaled the open day opening day for nine out of white county schools what an amazing day [Music] five years into retirement i thought the excitement would be waning i felt myself getting just as excited as the students and the parents five elementary schools carsville windsor hardy elementary carrollton and west side two middle schools smithfield and windsor and two high schools windsor and smithfield as we welcome our new superintendent we join in welcoming our community and schools

168to ensure that we will work diligently to ensure from our youngest to our oldest scholar with providing the very best education for all students in a safe environment when i went to school some 66 years ago right here in this building teachers used a bell to let us know when to return for recess we sang some little song that began like this school taking in i don't know where this song came from but we would sing it and then we would run to our teachers ready to begin work and work again my singing skills haven't improved much over the years i'll have to speak to miss cox jones to try to help me let me be clear we will insist that public education not be controlled by people who are concerned only with their own

169agendas agendas their own tax status and their own negativity we endeavor to be confidently optimistic no against them because of some schools being located at the southern end or another northern end we endeavor to serve as a cohesive unit we want to continue to focus on the on the total child successful schools support all students needs inside and outside the classroom to make them to help them become effective learners continued commitment to equity and access successful schools ensure that all students have access to high quality services and supports enabling them to set and reach high goals for learning strong supported teachers and staff we want to continue to have our teaching staff our principals and counselors last of all developing and growing relationships our tech gurus robbins and coop rider always make me feel welcome

170when i come into a building they extend chairs and do all sorts of things and tell me i can call on them for help let's keep the excitement learning and safety until the end of the school year june 2023 our students they are our best investment thank you thank you [Applause] next is mr greg varner thank you again uh as you said madam chair at the very beginning about being concerned for the prep the preparation of our kids for college career and life i do share that concern very deeply i am vice president of the band boosters club and i have a daughter who is a junior in high school in our smithfield high school i'm very proud of her of course and she is uh heavily involved with the band and i have been

171involved with the band as well the last few years we have i fear we have a disaster waiting to happen and that is going to affect scholarships it's going to affect what kids can do and not do you talked about how the band was did such a great job at convocation and what people may not be aware is that they have done all that without a band director they have done that with their own leadership and that's something that mr joel joyner instilled in to the band as as far as taking ownership of what they do and they they do it i'm amazed at what they're able to accomplish uh i'm a professional musician myself so i'm very aware of what it takes to do what they have done and if you were able to

172be at the football game the the show that they made they did that in a matter of three weeks which most schools take a month or more to fix that to to be able to do that they are also so i guess what i'm afraid is going to happen is that this year we do not have a band director as mrs um sullivan sullivan sorry about that and mrs sullivan pointed out uh what she may not know what y'all may not know is that one of the reasons we are having difficulty getting a band director is because we do have a reputation of how mr joyner was treated last spring and in his family medical leave and also his retirement and many band directors in this area they're a very close network of friends they

173they do not like the way mr joyner was treated and so they have talked about in the whole community about what has happened and i we and i know a lot of that was due to the last administration and mrs cuffey as has already been stated is doing a phenomenal job and i feel like that she is going to do as much as she can to support the band however with nobody wanting to be a part of of it because of a reputation from the past i feel like that we need to have one minute i feel like we need to have more funding to be able to offer a better salary to a new band director we need some more incentive if this was a coach for a football team there would not be

174any doubt in anybody's mind that they would offer whatever you could to get that coach to get the best you could get and our kids have shown that they need the best that we can get and that's my request to you to look into that thank you excuse me mr bonner normally i will not make a comment on any public comment but would you do me a favor please and make an appointment with uh superintendent dr cramer because i think he could share some things with you and we will also follow up with the letter okay okay thank you okay next we have miss emily rupert okay we have another speaker well we will take the next speaker until mrs rupert could come back okay this is laura fletcher good evening chairwoman times a gentleman

175of the board and dr kramer so we've started a new year but we have a lot of things unsettled from last year and frankly even the year before that i'm just here asking critical race theory where do we stand with removing all equity diversity and inclusion and negative initiatives from our curriculum and classrooms i'd love to have an answer miss tines i would i would love to have a meeting with the superintendent and uh get a letter from the board i'd love to have any response from the board for any of the issues we brought continually to these meetings i'm wondering about the ipads and our concerns with that that all that there weren't guard rails and protections and that there was just this open conduit of um garbage that our children could access through

176those systems has any progress been made with that i'm wondering about the questionably questionably appropriate even pornographic literature in school libraries where have we gotten with that have we made any progress with that are those removed from smith hill high school or the other schools have we created a process by which we review the books that are in our library have we made any effort to include parental input in any of that discipline in our schools where are we going with that i know we have uh significant issues since the pandemic i know it's hard i would like to hear as a as a taxpayer as somebody who cares about families and these children i would like maybe a 10-point plan on what we do how the parents buy into that what's expected of parents

177when issues come up i think that could be maybe the smithfield times would carry something like that i'm also concerned and have not had any response to concerns about transparency in the budget that we had last year what are your plans to provide a clear understandable account of spending and the isle of wight county schools bud budget documenting expenses for the citizens of isle of wight county we have not had an answer mr collick thank you for your no vote regarding naming the cte building after thornton that man was never responsive to us he was uh he he ran this place as if it was his own little kingdom and frankly much of the school board fell right along with it forgetting that they don't work for the superintendent they work for the citizens of

178iowa white county there should be a very uh i would like to see a good working relationship between our school board and our superintendent but there should always be some tension you don't cave to what the school system wants you to do you represent the county and the people and for that matter all this garbage coming down from the department of education and the virginia department of education i challenge all of you to have the courage to stand against it it's ridiculous just give me a minute because i've lost my thing dr kramer welcome we all want to see you succeed we need accountability for the benefit of our children and our community many in our community however are a little wary your hire came a little fast granted we needed a school board we

179would like to have had a little more public participation we would like to have had those decisions made by a board who didn't have two appointed members are not unelected so there there's an issue with that but if you come in and you support our children and our families and if your stand if you're strong and buck whatever the department of education brings down that is anti-family anti-parent anti-good for our children we will support you 100 percent as we will board members that's tough i hope we can flip this board except for mr collick who's been responsive to parents thank you miss emily rupert okay miss janelle johnson hello um this is totally out of my comfort zone okay so first of all i just wanted to say condolences to um the wilson founder of

180the dartmouth family i didn't know knew of the darden family because of the farm and my kids they were on the farm and they had their fun they picked the pumpkins but i knew mr wilson i did know mr wilson i just graduated from surrey um he was there slowed down in the hallways he knew me i found out he had a barber shop when i came when i had a son and i went in there and i was like wait that's mr wilson and he literally knew me and i was like wow i was like okay but uh besides and all that um i did graduate from sarri and um i had the opportunity to be part of the band and um i wanted to play the saxophone but at that time my mother

181uh thought it was a bad idea had a cousin that didn't work out so good so she wouldn't give me the funding she didn't have a lot to go around or anything like that so i wound up being a flag girl we had um a lot of uh support from our superintendent um dr penn at that time and um we had activity buses and you know it was just things provided that made it available for my me to be in the band because i wouldn't have been able to be in there my momma worked all the time and um you know it's it's hard to actually be able to do all those things when you're trying to get you know my daughter she's in the band and um currently um you know we had to

182make payments on her trumpet and it was just just a lot that we had to do you know to get her to you know be in the band and i i'm oblivious to a lot of this i did learn a lot by coming tonight this is actually my first one being here but um i just started to stand up and i'm just going by what i was told that you know funding for the band might not be into 2026 and being as she graduates in two years i really hope that is not the case because they do need a lot of things and i know we i couldn't have got through it when i was in high school if i didn't have it um and you know i currently can't do as much as i

183want to do i currently work two jobs i had to get off early just to come here tonight and it's just that you know hopefully i know it's a lot of things need to be done i know we need a band instructor and i just i notice all the board i apologize for all the bashing you know and all that things going on i didn't come up there for the i'm like i said i'm oblivious to ever i know it takes a lot of work and a lot of time for people to come here and do this and now hence all to all of you and i know that we're going to get something that's better and get it done i just hope that it's so much sooner than the 20 in 2026 because she

184will be out of school she would not be here she would be somewhere else and we want our students once they graduate we do want them to come back and give to our white community and um you know if they haven't had the pleasure she only gets to be a student for two more years and then you know she's in the world she's working i hope she gets something better than me you know i just hope she goes out and do a lot better than i could ever do but you know i'm just they they've done an amazing job they've been on tv they did the jazz thing where you know it was on channel three news and you know they they do really good work they are working so hard and i just hope

185that you know we can just get that funny drama thanks for coming appreciate it and madam um chair and thank you all for allowing me to be up here and talk have a great night thank you jasmine johnson tristan did you want to come up with jasmine good afternoon once again um i would like to talk about what mr varner said earlier um we really need a band director pretty badly because we can we need we can learn new stuff we can learn brand new jazz songs we can bring learn brand new concert songs and have tons of concerts to have fun with and it will be greatly appreciated to hopefully we can get a band director soon hello and when it comes to funding and things like that and just in general at our

186band we don't just see ourselves as the smithfield high school band we see ourselves as a band for the community and we love to give back to community to go out and without funding we can't do what we want for the community and so it's kind of hard for me to talk up here um so it would be great we appreciate it if we could get funding for the band and then we could go out and do things like competitions as well and we can support and represent our white community and say we got here because of them and yeah so it would be great we appreciate it um if we could get funding and i appreciate all that the board does thank you so much for your time and letting us come up here

187for all you do thank you very much [Applause] and we have miss tiffany walk tiffany walker okay hello again thank you for letting me speak again um in addition to my previous comments about our band and i do want to say that our band is not just our instrumentalists our band also includes auxiliary which is flag dance and majorettes as well our students had a long-term sub last year she had no curriculum and our senior band students taught the younger students they did a phenomenal job but they shouldn't have had to have that burden we're now in the same situation again already this year students shouldn't be writing lessing plans and teaching other students especially when the school is paying for a substitute our new long-term sub is greatly appreciated however she is not qualified

188specifically to teach band and she cannot sign off on our band students items that need a director's recommendation or signature our band parents are running this program after school with other part-time help but in school our students are not getting the curriculum that they need our previous director offered to be the long-term sub until the new director was appointed but he was denied the opportunity to do so our calls are not being returned about that situation i've waited a week so far myself for a call mr joel joyner was a tremendous asset to our school our community and our students he is greatly missed he can fill in this gap if allowed he was the heart of this program and we should be utilizing that resource to take care of our students until a new

189director is hired our current students are missing out on scholarship opportunities banned assessments that will help them get into college and other opportunities that will help them get a career in music i hope we are heard tonight and that our immediate needs will be met dr kramer it sounds like you will be willing to meet with us so that we can discuss this further and we really appreciate that our students want to be in this program they gave up part of their summers to be here for band camp knowing that we didn't have a director they want this they need this thank you so much for your time this evening we really appreciate it thank you thank you i think i think that's it i'm sure thank you and um when i asked mr barner

190was it to meet with the superintendent because students as well is that mrs walker that just left us as well as the students tristan and i wrote your names now and jasmine it's very important to me because i i don't know about the other board members i use i was a member of a high school band myself okay that is an instructional need this is why mr barnes spoke first i said get with dr cramer okay because by the time it gets to the board and we act on it if you make an appointment you all can do it as a group and he can uh meet with all of you at the same time call his staff make an appointment meet with dr cramer and he can discuss things with you instructional things okay

191thank you very much okay that's it is there anyone in the audience that did not have an opportunity to speak but would like to come up now and speak okay good evening uh excuse me mrs excuse me no stand right there mrs jackson but okay okay mr bryan as soon as we get finished i recognize you okay all right thank you thank you ma'am for allowing me to speak again dr kramer didn't get a chance to welcome you to the county uh earlier just felt awkward with the talking about mr wilson and mr darden so welcome to the county look forward to working with you one of the things i think that your staff is working on uh this is an issue that i brought up last year that was somewhat complicated by covid and

192some severe transportation issues we had um we've kind of gone back and forth over the years on a policy that allows students whose parents work at one school for example if you have students who are at the middle school at georgie tyler that school gets out an hour earlier than the elementary school so if you have parents that are on staff at the elementary school we used to allow those students to ride the bus because most of those buses come back to they go from georgia tower run their route and they go to to windsor elementary i'm sure there's something similar in smithfield as well so staff members were allowed to allow their stu their children to ride the bus to the elementary school where they could then get off and then their parents could

193take them home this is extremely important you know speaking for the southern end of the county with families where we have staff members from southampton franklin and other places where their children attend our schools because they are staff members and as we discussed earlier tonight that's something they're allowed to do however they're not allowed to ride the bus and um it puts them in a bind for child care and that kind of thing this is a cost free easy perk to that only affects a couple of staff members but it's really important to the staff members that it does affect so uh ask your staff to please look into that this seems to me like a pretty easy win now that we're passing on the covet issues and uh hopefully pass some of the transportation

194issues thank you thank you okay i anymore i'll keep this short um it's getting late i know everybody wants to go home i'm not sure how much you're aware of stop the bleed training as ethan schwartz mentioned um i don't want to insult your intelligence by no means but it's a program that was initiated at the federal level in 2015 and it came about unfortunately through tragedy just like mr swartz stated the gunshot wound is not what kills it's the loss of bleeding it would be a very beneficial course if you decided to undertake that the course is only about an hour and a half long there is a student to instruct a ratio of a six to one that allows sufficient time for didactic and practical stations there is physical involvement dealing with tourniquets

195different methods of stopping the bleeding and dealing with hot zones warm zones and cold zones depending like like you said yes i am an instructor if i were to do something like that if you decided to undertake it there is no charge it is very beneficial and if any one of you would like more information on it please feel free to give me a call let me know that's all i've got thank you mr holster and on your way back to your seat i did take the training a few years ago with our alawite county rescue squad uh smithfield uh out here on the back here you go and there's quite a few people in that class it's beneficial thank you okay all right if we don't have any more speakers to come forth at

196this time we'll move on to board members requests and comments and at this time i would like to recognize mr charles bryant from the town of smithfield mr bryant did you want to come up to speed did you want to come to the speaker so we can hear you he's with planning commission good evening yes um as i said i i was not expecting to be recognized i was just attending to observe pretty much what you all do here and uh like most of the people here the speakers here uh i appreciate uh what you all do uh serving the uh the town the county uh you know school board members and such and welcome to you dr kramer uh but uh yeah there's not so much you know being chairman of the uh planning

197commission for the town of smithfield it really has no has very little to do directly with what you all do at the school uh but you know school board but the most direct thing that uh any association was excuse me recently was uh you all had an application before the planning commission to add a special ed building here at the school that's about the most direct association that we have with you and that was approved of course as some of you may know the planning commission wasn't too thrilled with uh the design of that but in any regard um uh is it's a learning experience for me to be here tonight just watching how other uh governmental activities are conducted and with that uh i'll just say uh thank you for the chance to speak

198and being recognized thank you mr brian thank you and earlier tonight we had mrs valerie butler here she's a member of the smithfield town council and i would be remiss my mistake i overlook mrs butler but she was here earlier tonight as a matter of fact fact she was here at six o'clock early in the meeting and she left a little while ago but uh we would like to thank mrs uh councilwoman valerie butler for attending as well and see mrs butler is normally a member of our uh audience anyway on our meeting nights this is not her first time or second time she's constantly comes to our meetings thank you very much okay i have one comment and that was on the server survey for the early school start i would like to request

199that maybe staff you can think about it but i would like to have a survey sent out to parents and maybe you know members in the community because i know all of you are not parents have students in the schools and this about their feelings about early school start for um 2023 2024 when i say early to school start that is starting school before labor day and um just put a survey out there and we'll go from the results and we need to do that soon because as you know the school calendar is probably in the process right business bricks okay so we would like to get that out as soon as possible to get input from parents in the community thank you very much that's just my request anything else tonight any requests from

200any other board members yeah i have one request uh if our school district can look into a policy for snow days because most of our students now prepared to work from home so we is there really a need for snow days now since they have laptops and all that stuff available um a lot of school districts are eliminating snow days and since they have the ability to work from home maybe that's something that we can look at also okay anyone else i've got something uh when i spoke earlier i spoke of uh spoke about mr wilson and uh i didn't know mr darden but my prayers go out to his family also i mean i never should leave anyone out but you know sorry about that so my prayers go out to the darden family

201a couple other things uh this is going to be quick i went to smithfield high school and also hardy elementary school on the first day and let me tell you the principles of mrs cuffy at smithfield high and mrs denson i wish she was still here but she's already gone home they if they ever want to be traffic managers those two ladies worked and and mrs denson if she had a one of those uh fitbits on her arm she had to do about 20 000 steps that morning it was unbelievable so so hats off to them they really worked they worked very hard and i know they were sweating when they were done so that's all i am okay and um to follow up on what mr cunningham just said dr kramer and i we

202spoke yesterday and we agreed that i would um say something on behalf of mr wilson because he was a board member and dr kramer will say something on behalf of the darden family because his daughter work for uh was a building principal so this is why we split it up and he said and that what we said came from the board as well as alawite county schools for both families and mrs bucks as well as mr brenner we board members did not overlook you all but my plans were to do summer smithfield high school i keep forgetting you all are on the same schedule i was thinking i moved from smith high school over to your building but i promise i will show up at your building one day when the students enter and we're

203just going to make signs and welcome them and you'll have all of the board members that can come out at your building at one time okay and we'll do the same thing for mr brennan and carrollton which they were my plans to go there but i was told you may not want to go down in all of that traffic mrs times because you probably won't get there in time anyway so we're going to do the same thing for mr brenner and his students we're going to bring signs and welcome your kids to school one day if something special going on just let us know but we want to do that very soon okay thank you very much mrs bugs is with us she's smithfield middle school to mr brennan it's carrollton elementary and i know

204you all went to all of the other schools okay madam chair i just want to speak a little bit about the dedication of the cte uh building renaming you know as everybody in here knows i didn't vote for it that's something i just didn't agree with it doesn't mean that i don't support the vote that the other three members here tonight took i wholeheartedly support that i didn't get in the photo because i didn't think it was appropriate however when we have a dedication for that building i certainly will be there as every school board member should be so i'm just asking don't assume that i don't support something because i don't do what you expect me to do okay and i'll tell you the reason that i voted the way i did and everybody

205knows that i spoke very highly of dr thornton for quite a while but for me to want to memorialize any person permanently on public infrastructure he's got to be somebody she's got to be somebody that's led an exemplary life somebody is always honest always set an example for other people to follow they've got to have the universal respect of their community their colleagues and their subordinates and unfortunately you know in my mind and they've got to have every single one of those for me to vote for him and therefore i was not able to vote to rename the cte program after dr thornton and that is exactly why and a lot of people may disagree with that and that is you know that is purely your right and do i support the vote absolutely because

206we did it the right way and that's that's pretty much you know what i wanted to say madam chair thank you thank you mr collett nothing else if nothing else to come before this board tonight at this time meeting is adjourned and you all safe travels you