001Pastor Davis, I didn't hear you. Didn't hear you. I hope the mic's on. Is it on? Yes. Okay, let's pray. Our heavenly father, we do bow uh Lord and thanking you for the wonderful privilege to pray. And Lord, your holy scripture says for us to pray without ceasing. Uh simply meaning uh having an attitude of prayer at all times, always being ready to pray, always having an open line. And so Lord, we trust tonight as we bring these petitions before you, we thank you for all that are here, the students and the representatives, Lord, the teachers, parents, and uh Lord, uh the scripture tells us to give thanks in all things, not for all things, but in all things, Lord, to know that everything, Lord, you're every second of every day that we are on
002your mind. Thank you. Thank you for your love. And Lord, uh we are thankful tonight for this uh uh group of uh folks that are here to uh for their children. And the Lord, we're thankful for the school board and for those that are dedicated, Lord, of serving the needs of King George County Schools. And so we do pray for our school board members, David Bush and Ed Frank and uh Carrie Cleveland and Colleen Davis and Kathy Hoover. Lord, and for our superintendent, uh, Dr. Boyd, and Lord, the ability to use good oldfashioned common sense, which equals wisdom. So, we pray for that wisdom as, Lord, you lead in our county. We're thankful for everyone that serves and Lord, uh, we just ask you to bless, use, and have your wonderful, willing, way. In Jesus
003wonderful name we pray. Amen. mandate. Now we will have the pledge of allegiance presented by Seielston Elementary students followed by a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic. stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight we have I'm sorry we we to share just a moment please. I apologize. So at Sealston Elementary School um we raised $300 for a coat drive and we also um took all of our lost item last and found items which to totaled over 600 articles of sweatshirts, zip-up jackets, and winter coats and we'll be donating them to Elevate and Soar, an outreach program in the Richmond area. And so we want to thank our students for helping us collect our coats um and also getting
004them washed and ready to go. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Our first our first thing that we get to do tonight is uh recognize our art contest winners. Yes, Madam Chair. So, annually we have a Virginia School Board Association art contest for our students. And uh King George County always does a wonderful job with this opportunity. This year we do have some outstanding artists that we have in the audience. And when I call your name, if you're here this evening, if you were able to make it, please come forward and we will hand you a certificate and then please stand up front so that we could recognize you and take a picture with the school board. So from King George Elementary School, Canon Amos right here. Canon from King George Elementary
005School. Cecilia Pelgrren. Canon, you want to stay right here, buddy. from PTOAC Elementary School. Nani Fontleroy from PTOAC Elementary School. Zoe Gonzalez from Sealston Elementary School. Kamal Braramlet from Seleston Elementary School. Devonte Davis from King George Middle School. Tamaya Reynolds from King George Middle School. Aurora Huock from King George High School. Megan Lansbury and finally from King George High School, Tessa Smith. Thank you all for participating in this competition this year. your artwork will stay in the schoolboard office for this school year. I hope you won't miss it. I hope we will get a chance to love it. Uh we really appreciate everyone's participation in our art contest. It always is great to show how well we do with art and uh those things in the in our region. So, thank you guys so much.
006If we could tighten up, we'll take a picture with the school board. Thank you. [Music] Hold it up so everybody can see it. There you go. right there. I'm going to step out of the way. Thank you guys. Mr. D. If you have not signed up for a public comment, please check to see the clerk can sign up now. Interested? Public comment is a time for the community to present matters that they believe deserve the board's attention. Comments are one-way communication from the community members to the school board and they are not a forum for dialogue or de debate. The school board applies the following procedures to all speakers and does not discriminate based on the identity of the speaker or the view point of the speaker. Comments should be presented in a courteous, respectful
007and appropriate manner. The public shall address the school board only on matters that are related to the services and policies of the school division. Speeches that cause disruption to the meeting, promote private business ventures, involve threats of any kind, involving intimidating language, relate to office campaigns, involve complaints identifying individual students or personal attacks of staff members is prohibited. Property decorum and the provisions of this procedural directive are expected to be followed at all public meetings of the schoolboard. The members of the audience shall conduct themselves in the same manner as outlined above for the individual speakers and shall not disrupt an open public meeting of the school board nor incite others to do so. At the discretion of the chair, any person violating the rules list listed above may be asked to leave the board
008meetings. When recognized by the chair, speakers will be asked to identify themselves by name, state their relationship to the school division, and indicate in which magisterial district they reside. Commentary during public comment time is limited to three minutes. Our first speaker of the evening is Sherman Davis. Thank you. As stated, my name is Sherman Davis. I vote in the Dinland district and I'm in the county for 48 years pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. I want to give you a little bit of a math lesson, prophecy lesson, uh history lesson tonight so everybody can be educated. Okay. There are over 300 prophecies concerning the Lord's first advent and scholars uh inform us that uh there are 48 prophecies related to this uh to his uh birth uh narrative. There was a mathematician by the name of
009Peter Stoner who uh did the math and to uh estimate the probability of one man fulfilling all of these uh 300 and some prophecies was one chance in a trillion trillion trillion 13 times. Our minds can't even get our arms or thoughts around a number that large. But it would be the the number of atoms in a trillion trillion trillion billion universes the same size as our universe. One man to fulfill all of these prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the odds are impossible. Now, if I were an unbeliever uh studying prophecy of Jesus Christ and I'm found out that he fulfilled all of these prophecies that were simply impossible, I think that I would fall on my knees and claim his as my personal savior. That's what I did 54 years ago. God bless
010you and thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Boyd. Yes. As always, thank you, Pastor Davis. We certainly appreciate you coming to our school board meetings. Uh, Madam Chair, I did want to just speak for just a minute on some correspondence that we did receive this week. School board received some correspondence about the Virginia state budget, including $1,000 or onetime bonuses for teachers for SOQ positions. I should say all SOQ positions, not just teaching positions. So, uh, where we are right now, some important dates in the budget process is the current general assembly budget. The budget passed by passed by the House and Senate right now does include that provision of $1,000 bonuses to teachers for SOQ positions. That budget has now been delivered to the to the governor's desk. The governor
011has until, I believe, the 24th of March to act on those recommendations. Right now, April 2nd, the general assembly will reconvene and I'm hoping shortly after that we should have a final state budget. We're certainly keeping close eyes on where uh that budget sits. Uh I want to thank everybody for paying close attention to where we are in the budget process from the state level down to the local level. Tomorrow night, uh our local government, our board of supervisors will receive their budget presentation from the county administrator. Uh I encourage us all to stay engaged. uh making sure that we understand from the state level down what the what the school and uh state budget's going to look like. Uh there'll be some important moments going forward. So, thank you all that sent that information
012out. I can promise you we're keeping close tabs on where those funds sit and as we get a final hopefully fingers crossed final budget from the state around the be beginning of April we should be able to make some pivotal moves not only for those fingers crossed those bonuses in this year's operating budget uh and then also for next year's operating budget. I should make this point too. If that provision stays in the budget, the requirement is to pay those bonuses out by June by uh the beginning of June. So, we're keeping close tabs on those and seeing where they sit. So, thank you all for staying in tune and can please continue to do so. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Boyd. Do we have any changes to the agenda, Mr. Frank? Okay,
013moving along. Our first presentation will be from the CTE advisory committee, their annual report. Good evening, Madame Chair, school board members, Dr. Boyd, and student representatives. My name is Kim Trusslo and I am one of the assistant principles at King George High School and the administrator that is fortunate and blessed enough to be able to oversee the CTE department. Thank you for allowing us time today to celebrate career and technical education and the wonderful things that we do to grow King George County Schools CTE program. To begin, I would like to welcome Christine Hill, supervisor of secondary instruction to give you a description of our CTE um advisory committee and updates on our CTE program. Thank you, Kim. Um good evening. Uh I wanted to just uh thank again all of uh our CTE teachers
014for being here, which is a wonderful turnout from our our team. Um, I wanted to thank Miss Treslo, of course, who oversees the program at the high school and uh, Miss Rinko, who also uh, works along with CTE and work-based learning and she's a vital part of the program as well. So, our advisory committee meets four times a year and we used to meet in the library at the high school. Uh, we meet in the evening, our CTE teachers come and then we have representatives from our community organizations. uh workbased or um uh community uh workers uh businesses and industries. And we never really got a lot of traction of getting our uh community members to come into the high school into our library. And so that's changed a lot uh since we um started
015holding our meetings outside in restaurants. And uh that was really the brainchild of our work-based learning uh specialist uh Terry Ringo. And so now we have what we call CT eats. And uh these are meetings where a meal is shared together uh and our advisory members come to that meal and then can provide guidance on what the industry needs and what the industry wants from our school division. as we prepare students to go out into the workplace uh or into college or into a um another training school. And so it's been a really great way to connect with our community and really to our region because we have lots of visitors at our CTE meetings and it's been very valuable. Some of the things that our advisory committee is working on is really expansion of
016how can we bring in new uh types of programs for our students without killing the programs that we already have that are successful. Um but then also creating new opportunities for students. As we know, there's been quite a shift in mindset for uh people that want to go um into the workforce right after school. So, uh, or right after they graduate. So, that's the those are the updates I'm going to give you right now. We're still, you know, working closely together to tour other, uh, CTE programs, and we're looking at uh, not just student survey data, but also economic data to try to develop a plan on what is best for the next steps for our curriculum and for our programs at the high school. So career and technical education provides students with um academic
017and technical skills, knowledge and training to help them in their careers in the future. Some of our students will leave with actual certifications that enable them to go into a field right out of high school and others just get a really great broad general overview of what careers will do for them. And at the high school, our programs have been organized into 17 career clusters. And that is what helps our counselors to then guided guide students into uh an area that they might be interested in. Sometimes those career clusters um overlap and sometimes they're related and sometimes they're at two different spectrums. So, it's very helpful for the counselors to have that information as well as um of course our knowledgeable teachers. So, um, I'm going to give this back over to, uh, Miss Treslo
018so that she can talk, uh, about our teachers and our specific programs at the high school. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Mrs. Hill. All right. So, one of the things that I really would like to do this evening is recognize our teachers that work so hard for our students in King George County for CTE. Um all of these teachers are considered CTSO um sponsors for their uh courses that they teach. And what that basically means is they spend an awful lot of time after hours with these students with their CTESOs, whether that's traveling to competitions um and doing other things after school such as community service. So I think it's very valuable for us to recognize them. So at King George Middle School, we have Mrs. Elizabeth Mi Mitchell, if you could come
019up, please if you're here. Mr. Matthew Smith, Mrs. Brandy Thomas, Mrs. Jennifer Watson at the high school. Mr. AJ Addison, Major Grant Callahan, Mrs. Kathy Crop, Master Sergeant Jeff Helker, Mrs. Kim Jerrell, Dr. Nicole Lowe, Mrs. Lisa Muhammad, Mr. Stan Mitchell, Mr. Matt Richmond, Mr. Ralph Stefani, Mrs. D. Strauss, Mrs. Lisa Tate, Mrs. Amber Weise, Mr. David Vogle, and Mr. Bart [Applause] Young. Thank you all for everything that you do for our students because you give way above and beyond anything that we could ever ask of you. and I am so grateful to call you colleagues. So, thank you very much. This school year, students are being served through CTE courses both at the middle school and at the high school levels. These CTE courses provide King George County students with a comprehensive program of
020study that aligns directly with the 17 career clusters that Mrs. Hill was mentioning earlier. We currently offer 61 electives in our CTE program of studies which covers 39 career pathways. We have 12 se I'm sorry, excuse me, 128 sections of courses of CTE classes and this year alone 2,334 students are in CTE classes between the middle school and the high school. That's a very large number of our enrollment and it's very very impressive that they spend time with these amazing teachers. Students at the high school have the opportunity to be a CTE completer which means they can get a CTE sequence of courses. Last school year we had 201 completers. In addition, we offer industry credential opportunities for our students to add to their resumes and to show workplace readiness skills, helping them prepare for
021employment and prepare for college. Last school year 583 CTE credentials were given and of those 26 were state lensures through our nurse aid program. As you can see on this slide we offer industry certification exams I'm sorry next slide Amanda thank you. Um on this slide, industry certifications exams that we offer are the wise financial, the national retail federation of certification for customer service, sales, business, and retail, Microsoft Office Specialist in all areas of Microsoft Office, the carpentry exam, workplace readiness skills, the certified nursing aid um exam. As I stated, that is a state lure exam. Our students leave King George County High School and they go out into the field and work as CNAs in our local area um technical drafting and also we also offer the ASVAB. We alo also offer students the
022ability to be involved in the CTSO which is career and technical student organizations. This gives them the ability to both compete both in re in compete in regional, state and national competitions. We currently have seven CTE SOS we offer at the high school which are DECA, FBLA, FFA, HOSA, Educators Rising, NJOTC, and Skills USA. I would like now to invite Mrs. Terry Rinko, our workbased learning specialist, to share with you our growing CTE and workbased learning opportunities. Thank you, Miss Treso. Good evening, everyone. I'm excited to share with you that our CTE programs are promoted widely at our King George County School Steam night with a tour of our trades wing. Students can go into our um our Miss Crops uh drafting class where they can receive 3D printed flower pots and go across the
023hall to our agriculture teacher, Mr. Mitchell's class and plant watermelon seeds. It's a lot of fun. KG Career Academyy's English 10 pilot um went off without a hitch this this past fall with under the tutelage of Jonelle Davis. She held a English 10 class with a career undertone where students also attended industry tours. They uh researched a particular career. They wrote a paper on that and they also uh conducted an informational interview. KG Fire and Rescue offered our King George seniors for the first time ever five slots out of their 12 in their spring recruit academy, which will lead those students to firefighter EMT careers with King George Fire. Students will pop out of that academy in six months, earning $49,000 working for King George Fire and Rescue. We are so grateful for that partnership.
024King George High School is a focus of now a three-year grant from Rap Hanic Goodwill, who is working with us to build training pipelines that lead from the programs we have currently at King George High School to uh living wage employment beyond graduation. They meet after our CTEs with a subcommittee of our stakeholders. Germana's second after hours core craft trades class is about to kick off. It actually is kicking off April 1st and will go through the last day of the school year. These students who are seniors and Virginia residents will receive $600 in federal funding. And due to the generous um donations of our stakeholders, um they'll also be receiving $300 refund checks after they have started their class, giving them a net cost of zero. for our community members. We still have um
025slots available through the end of the month for seven more students in that class. Moving on to work-based learning opportunities. We just had our first student apprentice hired to work for Four Elements Electric this year. We are so grateful to Four Elements Electric and its owner, Bobby McGloaclin. King George County Schools workbased learning finished out the CareerZ challenge by be being presented with a $22,500 semi finalist check in August for all of the work that we put into um our program uh leading to our KG Career Academy that will launch next year. Reverse career fairs are now held twice a year to establish workplace readiness across the entire junior class. service learning tree plantings. We held two of those with friends of the Rapahhanic this year and that was in uh with conjunction of our
026biology classes, our horiculture classes and our adaptive horiculture classes as well as our environmental science classes. This year there uh students attended Fredericksburg's regional chambers ch I'm sorry mock interview day as well as our intern expo day. King George Department of Social Services designed and held our um KG Career Academy pilot uh their first industry tour that for that pilot class, the English 10 class. Eight student in externships will be planned are planned for this summer. So we'll have eight students who are able to work in county offices as well as schoolboard office departments. And we're very excited through to the generosity of KG Dogren Rotary, we earned a district grant that will fund nine uh teacher positions in externships. They'll get to spend a day in the life of different businesses and industries around
027the county so that they'll get real world experience, relevant experience of what's going on in the workplace to bring back into the classroom. And then in the fall, we're going to hold a forum where they're going to get a chance to share their experiences. And we hope that you're able to come to that. Here we have pictures to share with you. In the top left corner there is a picture of that industry tour provided by department of social services. We hope that that's a model for other departments and other businesses to provide for our students to come in and learn about all the different types of career opportunities in their business. on the right, top right, going around clockwise, we have a picture from one of those Rapahhanic uh friends of the Rapahhanic tree plantings.
028And that was at a uh a local private um private um property where we had over 40 students who worked collaboratively to plant and create a border of of trees as well as provide some um some u insurance against erosion as it bordered the Rapanic River. If you continue down on the bottom right, there is an a picture from one of two workshops that was provided by our Rapahan at Goodwill. It includes our CEO from the Rapahan at Goodwill as well as one of our students teaching students how to tie ties at our dress for success workshop. And they also came back to create a workshop for us on um interview skills. students then applied all of those towards this past Wednesday's reverse career fair which you see there on the left is an example
029of a student manning a booth students we had 170 students this past Wednesday who uh manned booths about themselves their strengths and their dream jobs and we had a generous awe inspiring 59 um community members that came out to support those students throughout the day every single student had between five and eight practice interviews. And if I may share with you just a couple comments that students made afterwards, not only did they feel more confident as they uh go out into the world and start to apply for scholarships and camp counselor positions, summer jobs, and their real jobs, but they also said, "I liked the fact that many of the people I talked to believed in my dream. I learned that my actions and accomplishments are really impactful and celebrated by others. Thank you all
030so much for all of your support. Thank you, Mrs. Reno. All right, so very quickly, our CTSO officers want to come up and just share with you really quickly what they've been doing. And first would be DECA. Hi, my name is Kaia Wilson. I'm currently serving as the co-president for the 2024 2025 school year. And in recognition of our officers in attendance today, please [Applause] stand. You may be seated. Um, light the way to be the one. The King George High School DECA chapter has had a great start on the road to internationals in Orlando, Florida in April 2025. To get started, KG DECA spent countless hours of meetings, events, activities, preparation, and practice that really paid off in certificates, medals, and trophies. On November third 13, 2024, 70 KG DECA members participated in the
031DECA District Leadership Conference at Spennsylvania Town Center. 15 overall winners moved on to the state leadership conference on February 28th to March 2nd, 2025 in Virginia Beach. The King George DECA chapter had another successful state leadership conference in Virginia Beach. Joining over 5,300 DECA members and adviserss from all over Virginia, KG DECA fielded a delegation of 40 students who competed in 21 different events from series to project management to team entrepreneurship to professional selling and con and consulting to fundamental events. On Friday's night opening session, KG DECA was named the largest chapter in region 3, recognized for its work in community service, Virginia Decade Day, and earned the blue chip award for its annual report program of work. Early Sunday morning at the grand awards, the state action team for the 2025 2026 was announced
032with Grace Zuk winning region three vice president and Virginia winning vice president of marketing. He George Deca's Alo Zuk won top eight in the food marketing series and Vivian Rinko won second place in the food marketing series as well. There are they are on their way to the International Career Development Conference in in April in Anaheim, California. Joining them will be the following students who were invited to participate in the Thrive Academy. Kai Wilson, Noah Miller, Mora Collins, Willie Zilla, Jason Drezy, and Ally Spilman will also represent the Fox Socks and participate in school-based enterprise academy in competition. Virginia Gurgi and Grace Suk will be voting delegates with the Virginia DECA current incoming officer teams, friends, supporters, and representatives. KG Deca, thanks you for your time. Next up is FBA. Good evening. My name is
033Wyatt Mueller and I am one of the current vice presidents of the Future Business Leaders of America, also known as FBA. Last month, we attended the Germana Regional Leadership Conference where 23 of our members competed across 26 categories. the most members we have seen in years. Our region is extremely competitive. We have larger schools from Spennsylvania, Stafford, Prince William, Fairfax, just to name a few that are in our district. Despite being one of the smaller schools, our chapter had an outstanding performance, bringing home 12 medals, qualifying 10 members, going to the state leadership conference on April 4th and 5th this year in April. Also, FBA would like to congratulate fellow student Mr. Ethan Stockwell. Ethan received a perfect score of a thousand on the Microsoft Word certification exam. He has been selected by Serta Port
034and Microsoft to represent the state of Virginia in the national championship being held in Dallas, Texas in June. I would also like to thank our lovely leader, Miss Jerrell. And I would also love to thank um our uh the computer a computer science teacher uh David Vogle for being just a great guy and being our sort of computer science guy in FBLA and really teaching me how I won cyber security last year and he's just amazing guy. Give a round of applause to everybody. All right, Hosa. Good afternoon. I'm Olivia Hoffner, the president of the club, and I'm Fatima Banello, the vice president of HOSA. This year, HOSA has progressed with some learning opportunities such as a Mary Washington Junior volunteer program. Um, fundraising sponsored by our local bloom a local Blumia where they donated
035750 tulips to sell. Um, as well as second place at the state fair for our informal uh informatal pamphlet is uh made by our team members. Upcoming are a few RCC field trips to attend the real deal and disaster day, a fundraiser to support the California wildfire victims, and a few local healthcare employees coming to speak to our members and hopefully inspire them for their future careers. We have hopeful goals for the future, including host a career fair, state competitions, and expanding our influence to the community. Thank you for your time. FFA. Good evening everyone. I'm Addison Rollins, the president of FFA. My name is Zoe Hockett. And I'm Christopher Rollins. Future Farmers of America is a career and technical student organization within King George High School. We help the community in numerous ways and
036some of the ways we've helped this year are with the garden club at the farmers market. We have helped the King George Farm Bureau with their annual meeting and crab feast. We had a float in the fall festival parade. We planted trees with friends of Rapahanic. We adopted two Christmas families. We did a food drive at Thanksgiving. And we will be reading this year's A in the classroom book to KG Elementary students this coming week. This year at the state fair, FFA members competed in various events. Zoe Hockett competed in hippology. Christopher Rollins competed in lawn tractor operations. Addison Rollins and Brie Burch competed in Hort demonstration and placed third. Ashley Self and Ellis Shugo placed competed in a science poster and placed fourth. Also at the 2024 Virginia State Fair, the King George FFA
037chapter competed in Forestry Field Day. Forestry Field Day consists of five main competitions. The log roll competition, the log toss competition, the water accuracy competition, the bow saw competition, and the twoman crosscut saw competition. The King George FA chapter placed eighth out of 30 total teams. The following King George FA members competed in forestry field day. Cooper Sabota, Christopher Rollins, Addison Rollins, Michaela Snelling, LSU Go, Carly Hoffman, and Kevin Army Trap. We also competed in the Federation Small Engine and Tractor Troubleshooting Competition. And our FFA chapter has also completed their OSHA 10 certification, a 10-hour course that prepares students for the workplace. Thank you all for your time. NJOTC, good evening. I'm cadet Lieutenant Commander Shelby Yei and I'm the commanding officer of King George Njtc. King George is continuing to thrive. We currently have
038126 cadets in the program. Um 60 of which being our first year NS1s. Um this year has been an especially successful year for both our air rifle and our drill teams. Um our four of our cadets in our air rifle team competed at Navy Nationals um in Alabama this past month and competed with the top 40 schools in the nation. Our Jill team was also ranked first in the area four time and competed at area four championships um for the first time in our program's history. Along with our teams, our unit also takes pride in serving our community at Love Thy Neighbor Food Pantry every Saturday. All cadets are required to volunteer at the food pantry and help distribute food, which is a great opportunity for our cadetses um to connect with those in need
039in our community and really grow that servant heart in our cadetses. Um, now I'm going to pass it on to my executive officer to talk about our upcoming events and opportunities. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ellen Campbell and I am the executive officer of Fox Company. Um, I'm just going to inform you guys about some upcoming events and opportunities that we present to our cadetses. Um, the most the most recent in the future is our annual military ball ceremony. Um, that is on April 5th and it is our 30th military ball. A lot of prep and hard work have gone into this and it is one of the most looked forward events of the year. We are all very excited for it. Um we also have our end of the year ceremony
040where we reward our cadets for all their hard work and dedication to the community and to the program itself. Um we also provide our cadets with multiple opportun multiple opportunities. We take them on field trips. We provide the ASVAB. We provide visits from recruiters. Like just last week, just last week on Friday, we had a recruiter from the Army come in. He had a very well brief, he had a very well done brief. Um, some of our field trips that we do, we go to the Marine Corps Museum. We go to West Virginia for our senior cadetses. Um, today, just today actually, we went down to Dogger Naval Base to see what they do down there. It was very interesting. I loved it. Um, and I believe that is all. Thank you for your time.
041We appreciate it. And lastly, we have Skills USA. Um, hello. My name is Wyatt Bogle. I am the vice president of Skills USA. And I'm Grace Suk. I'm the reporter for Skills USA. Uh we just have a little bit of stuff to talk about of things that we've been doing in our chapter lately. In September 24, we had skills members complete in the second annual drafting competition at the state fair of Virginia. Um Nolan P Nolan P sorry placed first continuing the King George High School's first place winning streak. Um Anace and YV placed 10th and eighth respectively and that's good for that. November 2024, we had our Skills USA KJS members assembled Thanksgiving baskets for five meals for the members of the family of our sorry in need. December 2024 skills USA KGHS members
042participated in the angel tree project. So that's where we go and take in custom families that do not have enough muffins to get presents and we basically take our presents for them. And February and March KS members competed in various uh sorry skill related compet competitions. Skills USA Virginia District 11 championships. K students competed in carpentry welding architect drafting. Dolan B plays fourth. Adam manufacturing first and eighth place Az and Mat. Orion M and Madison M respectively. And in second place for crime scene investigation, we had Anisha H and Janiah G. In April 2025, we will have our competition, Brussels, USA, and Rono. That's our states competition. And we have that is on April 4th through 6. And thank you again for your opportunity to [Applause] share. All right. Our last group that's not represented
043here tonight is our teachers for tomorrow, which is our organization that helps prepare teachers for going off to college and hopefully joining this lovely profession that we have. Um, thank you so much for allowing our students to have the opportunity to share. I know that went a little long, but I I think it's valuable to hear from them and know what they're doing. Um, students, thank you for all your hard work and your service to our school, to our district. Thank you for representing us and not only the local level, the state level, the national level. Um, one weekend, I know Dr. Boyd talked about it a weekend, two weekends ago. Um, I had so many emails from our Ctsos that were traveling and competing and just to watch all of those awards to come
044up was just amazing. So, it's really exciting to see all of them going out to the next level of competition. Madame Chair, school board members, we greatly appreciate all your continuing support of CTE programs and we look forward to helping continue to grow our opportunities for our students. At this time, our students are going to be coming around with presents for you. We have plants for you. Guys, go ahead. We have plants for you. We have t-shirts for you. We have bracelets. We have pens. Um, and we have the CTE brochure. So, thank you very much for allowing us this time this evening. We appreciate it. Thank you, Josh. Oh, cool. Thank you to all the students and CTE adviserss and teachers. What a great presentation. We appreciate it. You got numbers. Thank you again.
045Thank you. Strawberry. They did a great job. Okay, next we have um a presentation on our promotion and retention. Good evening. Not sure how to follow that. That was pretty incredible. How awesome. you know, we we sometimes focus on the things that we got to keep working on, but as we're sitting there, it's just really amazing to see the fruits of the labor of all these amazing teachers and staff that we have to bring those students to be so successful. I'm really proud of them all. So, on to the next subject of promotion and retention. Tonight we've just put some data together and some information to share to kind of um bring some awareness and understanding about the policies and things that we have and the interventions and things that we have in place that
046follow through with the promotion and retention. So we have um Kathy Bird and Angie Harris will be here this evening with myself. a team of us have gone together and wanted to to bring this information to you and we'll have questions at the end. Okay. All right. Good evening. I'm Kathy Bird. I'm the coordinator for special services. Uh I'm going to start tonight by explaining kind of our process that sometimes does lead to retention. um school-based intervention teams uh meet at each one of the schools, but this is a particularly a process that is really important in elementary. Um they're discussing academic, behavioral, social concerns for any student who's not making adequate progress towards grade level curriculum. Um as Miss Harris is going to talk about later here, all students get a level of intervention.
047This is our kind of highest tier or some of these concerns that are non-academic but are impacting academic performance. Um referrals to the school-based intervention team um come from teachers, counselors, administrators, school social workers, but it's also a method used to address parent concerns when they contact the school um about any concerns happening with their student. Um so we use the um tiered systems of support. Um when we're talking about ESPIT school-based intervention team, we're typically talking about level like tier three supports, our highest level of supports. Um the outcomes of these meetings can be academic interventions, behavioral interventions, trials of accommodations. Um a process where we plan with the family for maybe resources they need on the outside or different ways to support them at home. Um they also end up in referrals for
048evaluation for an IEP or a 504 plan and could end up with a recommendation for retention also. So these are some numbers for the past three years for you guys to look at. You'll notice there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to these numbers at this point. Personally, I think this will smooth out over the next few years. Um our major impact here was COVID that of course we're still talking about in the 21-22 school year. You know, we came back that was we were still in masks. Um we just came back from a year where some students were virtual. the entire time. So, a lot of this process was really trying to tease out whether a student might be struggling due to a disability impacting them or whether this
049was a student who was heavily impacted by COVID for one reason or another. Um, so the numbers here kind of show us how what each outcome was. So, like I said, you can some a lot of students, this is kind of the process where we tease out if we suspect a student has a disability and might eventually lead to an IEP or a 504 plan. Some students, um, we continue to monitor their intervention pro process because we see they're making progress. We see they're headed in the right direction, but we don't want to just cut them off, you know, so they stay in that progress for next year so we can keep following them and make sure that they're still making that process. Um we had like in 2122 we had 37 students who exited
050ESPIT as we call it schoolbased intervention team. That means these are students that we felt sure did not need any further um intervention from us. A lot of those maybe had to do with attendance issues that we were able to work through. Um we have we do have a high number of students that move in and out of our communities especially at particular schools. So some students moved away during this process and then some were retained. Um so you can see the numbers are not stable through each one but I think we're moving more towards figuring out the right interventions for students and making sure we're doing the right things. Also, some of these follow-ups, so 22 23 school year might see some of those students we continue to monitor might then have moved to
051the IEP or 504 at that point because we've gone through intervention process enough that we suspect a disability. Um, if you have questions about those numbers, I'm happy to answer. But that's kind of our short and sweet version of um, schoolbased intervention teams. Okay, I'm here. I'm going to kind of talk about our intervention process, especially at the elementary level because we do kind of run parallel with the student-based intervention team. Um, we are proud to say that we offer intervention and enrichment from K to 8 pretty much um in our schools. And what that really looks like, we're providing another layer of support specifically for reading and math support. So students um it's a tiered approach. So our tier one, if you're looking at tier one, two, and three from the pyramid that Miss
052Bird showed you, tier one is your your classroom instruction. So then it goes to tier two that kids might need a little more support. And then tier three are my most high risk, our most intensive students. They need even more support. So we have that kind of um in our intervention programming, we have that mapped out at every grade level. every grade level at the elementary level too has dedicated time in a systematic way to provide those interventions. So it's personalized support. Um it really helps meet the kids needs and it's flexible grouping within that. So a kid once we start an intervention and it they're showing progress and making improvements then we they might shift to another skill set that they need could be under the umbrella of reading or they might need both.
053So sometimes we have kids that can be challenging or students that need support in reading and math. But it's just really important to know that these interventions are at the core of the discussions for the spit team as well because we want to look at progress monitoring these um students where they're at their academic performance and all of that plays into the whole child when we look at the elementary level. Um and the good thing the interventions do if we start in kindergarten the interventions are they're kind of building and it kind of goes right up to fifth grade. So we build on each layer of skill sets if that makes sense. Also this year we know we've talked a lot about the Virginia Virginia literacy act the VA. So this year we also have
054another layer of support with our reading plans. So when uh students in K to3 took their vowels assessment our state screener um if they were identified as needing uh as a high-risisk student in that high-risisk band then we also where they have a reading plan um in place that is targets areas of need has goals we progress monitor those goals we make adjustments throughout the year. So like say for example this we gave you a sample of a reading plan there. It started with alphabetical knowledge in kindergarten. If they are making progress with that then we go to the next layer of that. So it really moves with the kid um in offering what type of intervention services they get. On a special note I really want to thank you guys because uh adding the
055positions of the interventionist last year that we had you know asked for in our budget last year it really provided another layer of support. We added one interventionist at each elementary school and it has made a tremendous impact this year of being able to provide not only the additional reading support we needed but also the additional math support that we just didn't have enough personnel to really do that. So thank you again for that. So I want to give you a little bit of data um based on what we are looking at right now. So this is kind of where we stand now with our reading plans. When school started kindergarten 4 this is this is division data. 42% of the cohort really were identified in that high risk band. Um lots of things can
056play into that because about 25% of our entering kindergartens do not attend any type of preschool. So that does play into that um number a little bit. But on a good note as you can see um we took midear data points and we're already seeing decrease. So we'll do the last round of those uh vows assessment will be given in May. So we are anticipating that number to go even further um decrease. So, what that's saying, you know, with the changes we've made in the tier one core instruction, um the lessons are very with offering very explicit um uh instruction, we're seeing differences there on top of then we're with the interventions. We're just really seeing the kids progressing at a rate that we were expecting to do with the with the evidence-based curriculum we
057have in place. So, looking at that, we were looking at your policy and regulation consideration. I know this has been a hot topic um promotion and retention. So these are some suggestions that we um just would like to offer to revise and improve the policy IUA is written. The last it was updated was 2014. Um and then there are some changes that need to be considered for the regulation IUA-R. Um just to kind of reflect the current practices that we have in place. So, some things to consider is change the progress assessment team because that's what it's referred to in the document to the school-based intervention team because that's what is in current practice. And we also ask we're considering um removing the school psychologists as a mandatory team member. Um they are a part
058of if it goes to a full evaluation, but it's not really a necessity for the team. Uh we have counselors at the school, our specialists at the school, administration and teachers and parents of course. Um and it's almost impossible for schools, we only have two in the division for them to attend all these meetings. Um and then the last thing the regulation does, you know, it is outdated a little bit. So it refers to individuals as youngsters and we might consider changing that to students. Have any questions or anything that we can help with? Does anyone have any questions? I do. I guess what I don't know how to ask it, but like what does it take to qualify to get intervention? I know that sounds silly, but I know like my own It's a
059great question. It it really what we do it's all hands-on deck approach. So really those beginning of a year assessments, end of year assessments are very vital to kind of um how we lay it out. So every student at the grade level receives whatever they need. For some students, they don't need intervention. So we give them enrichment opportunities so they can grow you know and sometimes that can look like we do some extra uh problem solving creative uh activities and writing we can do extra reading assignments or we look at you know even accelerating a math on the enrichment side of it but on the intervention side of it um it really depends on what the data on reflects the child needs the most. So it could be reading it could be math sometimes it's
060a combination of both. How many? So, everyone is receiving some type of enrichment or intervention daily. I guess because my son is a very quiet, he's graduating this year, but he's very very quiet and there were times that he struggled for a few years. And I think teachers are so overwhelmed like how do we not miss certain kids? Like how many kids can a teacher take on at one time or the help that they have? Well, the good thing is um with the the program that we have in place now, that's I mean, everyone plays a vital role. I I cannot stress that enough. the pair professionals that we have in our s our team, the interventionists, the teachers, the specialists. I mean, it really is. So, what it really looks like at the elementary
061level, it's a 40 minute 30 minutes for K&1, but it's a 40inut and and it's all hands- on deck. So, in that 40 minutes, all the kids are put in small groups and it really relate it really depends on what their their area of weaknesses is. So, then we will match a program or it's to that what that particular need is and it's flexible grouping. So a kid for example might start in a fluency group in reading but makes a lot of improvement and now we need to work on some comprehension. So that would kind of transition to the to like another um layer of support if you will. So it's really important that consistency is important. We train our pair professionals on particular programs. These programs can start in kindergarten and they progress you
062know as they as they go up the grades. So it's it's really nice to have that all hands- on deck so we can have the expertise with the explicit instruction at that moment in time for kids because intervention is just like the more right. We still have core instruction and teachers working very very hard. They scaffold those lessons but that's grade level content and kids need to be exposed to grade level content. That's what they're expected. That's what they're going to be tested on. But then is that intervention? What can we do to kind of go back and maybe fill in gaps where they they are missed along the way? Yeah. Yes. Um what do you I kind of already know the answer to this but what do you use for assessment for gathering the
063data? I'm especially think about kindergarten. I mean can you list us? I mean obviously testing what types and especially for kindergarten how do you what types of assessment do you use? We do the vowels assessment. Um that's K to that and that's going to be expanded to K to 8 next year. Um and we do VKRP data. Okay. Uh we do some we do have math like just beginning I mean kindergarten is kind of an easier one to do but it's do they know the difference between letters and numbers you know that just take it very basic. Um, and then we just look at I mean we're seeing more and more every year like kids at one time it's like they some kids don't know five letters you know or you know and that that's
064that's kind of a problem. So we really can't I can't put a plug in for preschool because preschool is very very important. But we take those kids and then we kind of group them. So on that hands-on deck we're like okay well and it's flexible. So I might say you have two kids in your class that need some work on one set of letters and Dr. Boyd might have kids in his class that need to work on the same letters and we can pull them together because it's a unified time. Does that make sense? Yeah. And so you you um it's a lot of teacher assessment especially with kindergarten right off the bat. Well, you have to progress monitor it because that's the thing. You don't want to put a child in an intervention program
065and never check the progress they're making. Um it just kind of defeats the purpose. It's very targeted. is very purposeful and we want to keep it moving and flexible so we can stay on top of the kids' needs as they progress and obviously you see a significant difference between those that have gone to preschool and those that have not. I I mean sure I mean that exposure that that's that's obvious. Do you um how much how do I state this? How much um in terms of assessment and progressing from kindergarten all the way through this do you do the teachers communicate with each other as the those students that they currently have as they're progressing to the next year? What types obviously you communicate. What are the ways in which you do communicate? Well, you
066know, kind of a continuum thing. Sure. Um we do a lot of of collaboration at the elementary level. We have a what we call a focus time and that's an ex we it's extended planning time for teachers and we kind of bring all hands on deck there too. We constantly talking about data. We're looking at constantly talk about kids not just a data point but you know are the kids responding to this intervention? Are they responding to the person delivering the intervention? You know there's just different variables to consider. So we meet every eight days at a focus time at all grade levels. It's just a rotating basis. They have common planning time. Um we try to we have quarterly data meetings at the schools to help with the admin team and the specialists. So
067yes to answer your question there's a lot of collaboration um and it's throughout the year. It's not just at the end as they're right the kids. So we use the end of the year data really to help so we don't lose a lot of ground when you start the new school year. So we'll use the end of the year data this year to kind of already have groups of the cohort so we can hit the ground running and then tweak it as we go. So you know once we give the vows in the fall if we had to make adjustments we can make adjustments at that time but we don't want to spend like kindergarten doesn't take vows until later in the window you know like it's end of September somewhere around there. So we
068don't want to waste all the time that we could be working in small groups with kids waiting on that one assessment. Last last question is as you look at the progress in the continuum of this kinds of things going from kindergarten to third grade um are there um I got totally what I was going to say are there ways in which the um that you may assign certain let me give a specific example okay if um you've got a kindergartener a kindergartner that is really having trouble um just recognizing the sounds of the letter, specifically phonemes and so on. Okay, they're they're having some difficulty. Would the next year in first grade maybe you would focus you'd have one teacher that might focus on something in particular a little bit more and then the students
069that are in kindergarten that have trouble with that particular area can be um funneled into that particular focus and that teachers had a little more training in that area. Am I probably being too confusing? I'm sorry. I was an elementary teacher for many years. So I mean we try to match the expertise of of the person delivering the instruction if that's what you're asking me. But well it's matching the students to the teacher. Yeah. So we want to provide some I mean to be honest our weakest performing students we want it with our strongest you know teacher that we can we can provide. Now the safety the intervention that we have in place kind of builds that safety net for you. So because teachers are still expected. This is why the craft of teaching is
070amazing. you know, it's like a puzzle piece at the elementary level. Um, they teach all subjects and, you know, they really have to still teach grade level content. So, we, you know, we the the intervention is really the safety net to help teachers go back and build like say if I'm a second grader and I'm still working at a kindergarten level in a particular skill set that provides time to actually provide that intervention that necessarily be very difficult to do in the core instruction because you still you have to keep up with the pace of the demands of that grade level. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. I have a whole lot more, but that's all right. No, I may Yeah, I may schedule time to meet with you. I just That would be great.
071I I love this. I talk about this all the time. All right. Thank you. I want Special plug to our teachers and our pair of professors. They do an amazing job. So, it's really incredible to watch. So I would invite you to come check it out because it's maybe one last question is how does a lot of the stuff that you're doing relate back to actually the curriculum that you're I know there's so much in the state that's kind of we don't have any choice about do you and what you can do in manipulating some of the curriculum related to how the students are progressing in a particular area do you make changes in curriculum I mean not I mean we do make some changes but our curriculum is aligned to the standards of of
072you and it is aligned to the science of reading. So that that really helps us. We're very purposeful in in the selection of what we choose to use in front of children. Okay. So that that it's aligned. So you know it would defeat the purpose if we're doing two different things, right? You know. Okay. All right. Thank you. Do any other members have any questions? Uh yes. Uh number one, thank you for all you do. You guys do a fantastic job. Uh but I do have some questions. Most of the time or let's say half the time that we go to disciplinary hearings, we will see a student who hasn't for example two years ago uh student at the high school ninth grade had passed one class in his whole school career. uh that leads
073to by the time they get to high school that leads to nothing but disciplinary problems and then we see them there at the at the hearings and we had one just a couple of weeks ago that was you know total FS all the way through. How do we stop that? How do we and and that's that's what I want is or or that's my goal is to alternatives to retention and social promotion so that we can put students through uh and that go into the high school and that walk across the stage being able to read and write. Um, and I know that that that you guys do a fantastic job at this, but at what point does age maturity level come in and we say, you know, he's no longer he should no longer
074be in kindergarten. Need to move him on to first grade. Uh how many how many students do we uh retain each year? I see on here three three and two is but is that through the whole division? I think your data was I mean we really I guess the answer to the question elementary is a little is a little bit different if you will because you know at secondary level you have a specific content that you're looking at but for elementary this spit process is very crucial. That's why we work parallel together because you know not every child is going to have a disability but not every child learns a content at the same rate at the same time either. So we it's a you know we have to help them develop those skills. So
075a kid that's a student that's coming out of kindergarten if if they're a high-risisk kid we've already flagged them then we're going to be on top of that monitoring all the way through their elementary you know journey if you will. Um so it does continue. Uh some of the thing too notice that the difference of secondary you know it's transient here a little bit too because when I was a principal at PTOAC you know by the time kids started in kindergarten by the time it we used to be sixth grade back then by the time that cohort was in sixth grade only 40% of them were still the kids that I started with in kindergarten. So there's lots of factors that play into that but I mean that's the what I love about our elementary
076program. It it builds upon each other. So yes, kindergarten we we'll flag them right there, give them the help in kindergarten and then in first grade we pick them right up. So we get the luxury of knowing them from K to five, you know that so we can look at the whole child. I mean there's so many variables that can can play into this, but really the the takeaway is that we're very purposeful in the instructional materials that we're using. We're very purposeful in the time that we give kids and and we're very purposeful in progress monitoring that because that's the key. You can offer a lot of instruction, but if you don't know and evaluate the effectiveness of it, then it's not really that effective. You see what I'm saying? So, I I feel
077like that's what we are continuing to grow in that and we're continuing to improve in that and over time you'll see the progress that that the kids are going to make. So, but okay. And I agree with that. We don't really we don't and it's a team decision when it comes to promotion and retention. It it's not a decision made by one individual. It's a decision that's made by a team because lots of factors play into that. Not only academics, social skills, uh environmental things happening at home, um absenteeism, you know, there there's so many factors. So that's definitely, you know, something that is not taken lightly at the elementary level as far as retention goes. and we really want to make sure that we're giving the best that we can to child a moment
078in time. So, but I I hear where you're coming from. I I was just wondering I mean just for 21 22 there was three for 22 23 three and then for 23 24 is that divisionwide. So those are um those are elementary numbers and I believe the numbers were actually 655. These are just schoolbased intervention team members. Okay. Um there are some students who are special education students with an IEP. The school-based intervention team isn't going to meet for them. They're it's going to be a similar team that meets to discuss it. The same process with all the considerations. Um it's it's just going to be more comprised of that child already has a team working with them. So that data is not recorded in here. And this is elementary data. As you guys know,
079secondary is a whole different beast with that as far as what you were talking about like passing classes and kind of what that leads to. So, and it's important to note too for an elementary student, they might struggle in reading but excel in math all in the same year. So, you know, when you're looking at retention, you know, you have to look at the whole picture. Oh, I don't like either one. retention or social promotion. So that's why I'm looking for alternatives. Uh and it's what can what can the board do to help you to help you know other than more money and more and more staff uh that are there. That's I I think one thing is is that we can get this policy in a in a working order and the regulation in
080a working order relatively quick for them so that uh the practices that they're employing which which are very I mean we've you've guys have described a tightly woven net that we use to layer services on top of each other from the ESBID process to special education to everything in between. Uh, I know we're trying to look for that silver bullet, but you know, there's just a ton of different things that are thrown at our educators right now that don't just originate in the building. They originate outside the building. There's social, emotional, there's all kinds of factors that go into this. But I I think from a board's perspective with without more money uh because because it does it does take an army. It does take an army. Uh, and we know that costs money. But
081I I think as we're sitting here today, if we can provide those practitioners with a solid ironclad policy and regulation uh that we can lean on as they continue to push forward with the practices that they've designed, I think that could be the immediate effect we could have as a board to help them. You know, I just think that kindergarten, first grade, and second grade is the most important three years of our students. career uh and pretty much life because you know if you can't read by the you know from kindergarten or second grade you learn to read and from there you read to learn. So whatever we can do to put the emphasis on K through two I think we need as a board we need to do that. I I agree. I'd second
082that. I think we're going to begin to reap the benefits of these reading plans and a lot that has gone into the VA. Uh the board did offer a number of considerable resources when it came to implementing the VA. Uh and we've also presented some of those in this budget cycle. Crossing our fingers hopefully we can deliver on that uh in a in a very challenging budget year. But I think as as long as we keep, you know, this ESBIT process in the forefront of our head and what services they need to support that program and then also the VA, I think that's going to be something that's going to show us. I mean, the process they're describing is, as Miss Harris has said a number of times, very deliberate and very focused and one
083that provides multiple levels of support uh while kids metriculate through school. I think we're going to see uh students that metriculate through this program look a little different than they have in the past. I will I will you know I don't I don't don't like saying this but uh as many services as we can create uh there's still just that elusive situation that we always can't attack and unfortunately sometimes those are the ones that that that we have to deal with on a different level. Um and we'll continue to try to assess those and and deal with those as best we can. But there are some challenging situations that no matter what we throw at it, they still present additional challenges. Thank you for your support though. Thank you. Just want to add quickly too
084is like the schoolbased intervention team has been an evolving process over the last few years. This year we went from having staff that was under Dr. Howard in the special services department that would go to the buildings and run these meetings and document it went to the assistant principles that are in charge of special education at the schools. So now that that's back at the schools and focus there you know while it's a challenge all changes it's um it allows the schools to take more control over that also. So I can say like for the 2122 school year it was me going between all three elementary schools setting up meetings doing all the notes try you know trying to keep people on pace. It was it was a lot. So now that it's back to
085schoolbased I also think that we're going to see some just improvements in the process over that too. It's it's a constantly evolving process to do you know what's best for the kids. Thank you for everything that you do and thank you for the presentation. It's great information. We will look at that policy and regulation. Thank you. Thank you. Now it's time to hear from our student reps. Welcome back. Make them press the button. There we go. Uh I'm Eric. I'm the middle school representative to the school board. Um uh as Chairman Hoover just said um uh I have been gone for a few months. I was uh attending the page program for the House of Delegates in Richmond. Uh so we go there, we help out the state legislature. Um learn about the legislative process.
086Uh, and one of the biggest benefits that I got to see while I was down there was sort of getting a chance to be treated like an adult and, you know, sort of get to entertain the fantasy of being an adult early, but with safety nets. So, we weren't doing, you know, there there was no risk, not all the risks that were involved with being an actual adult. Um, as for my report uh on King George Middle School, um, the KGMS drama team is currently working on uh a new play. It is titled Back to the 80s. Um, it will be showing from the 9th to the 11th of April uh at the middle school. Uh, King George Middle School will be holding a pep rally this Friday to boost morale ahead of spring break.
087So that mixed with the the break, hopefully students will come back invigorated and passionate for learning for the fourth and final quarter of the 2024 2025 school year. Uh finally, I just wanted to give out a huge congratulations to the KGMS choir and the KGMS band as they both received perfect scores on their district assessments this year, which means that for the second straight year in a row, King George Middle School is a blue ribbon school. Excellent. Yeah. Round of applause for Thank you. That concludes my report to the school board. Eric, I have one question. Do you know what time that pep rally is on a Friday by chance? I do not. I know we're holding the pep rally and the awards ceremony on Friday. 12:30. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Eric.
088Next, Chad. Good evening, guys. Thank you so much for having me back. Um over at King George High School, uh spring sports are currently in full motion. Uh we have games every Tuesday and Thursday, so if you want to come out, definitely come and support the Foxes. Um a lot was said about our amazing CTE program tonight. Some of this might be a little repetitive, but our NJOTC air rifle team competed in nationals last month. Um their season is over. Uh the drill team competed in area championship where they placed third overall. And then of course our military ball is on April 5th. Um part of CTE uh they took recently took a trip to Bayside forward down in Dogren which was super exciting. Um Kendrick High School band got excellent in their assessment and
089our feet meet is coming up on April 10th which is super exciting. Um some more exciting stuff is that prom is coming up on April 26th at the high school. Uh so it'll be a super fun time. And lastly, we are heading in as well to the fourth quarter of our school year. So, all super exciting stuff. I want to know what a feet meet is. Um, so it's the Special Olympics Feet Meet. I'm sorry, I should have specified. That is the Special Olympics Feet Meet that we put on. Um, Miss Strauss, uh, she is head of it and a lot of our volunteers come out and we get to do a bunch of fun activities with the various people from the school division. Super excited. Thank you. Thank you, Chaz. Does any of the
090board members have questions for the students? Do I have a motion to go into close session? I move that we go into close session pursuit to state code section 2.2-3712A of the code of Virginia. I move that the board convene in a closed meeting to review hires substitutions um resignations and retire retirements and for review specifically the superintendent contract as permitted under 2.2-3711A 2-3711A number one of the code of Virginia. Second. All in favor? I I votes I. Motion carries. We are now in close session. I move that the King George County School Board return to open session and certify that pursuit to state code section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D. Only public business business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under this chapter and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by
091which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed or considered in the meeting by the public body. Second. All those in favor? I I certify. Certify. Certify. All those in favor? I. Chair votes I. Motion carries. Certifies and votes I. Do we have a motion to approve uh personnel as presented? I make a motion to approve personnel as presented. Second. All those in favor? I. Chair votes I. Motion carries. Next we have on our agenda um our health insurance. We have to talk about our our rate. Madam Chair, we need to go through the consent. I'm sorry. I skipped a whole section. I apologize. It's okay. And Madam Chair, while you're looking at that, what we did this time, we did get our batch of VSBA policy updates. Uh we've put those some of those,
092not all of those. We put some of those in the consent agenda. We've many of us have done this a number of times now. What we did was take out any substantive changes in terms of policy. We will bring those back to you and we will go through those policy by policy. Uh but hopefully you've had a chance to look at some of these. You'll see that as VSBA does, they'll change a word here and there. And it really has no substantive change to it. So if the board is comfortable with this option in order to save some time and be a little more efficient moving forward, if we evaluate these policies in that manner, then we'll include them in the consent agenda. um unless there's uh debate over one and we can pull that
093from the consent agenda. Is everybody in agreement with that? That sounds good. Thank you. So for now, let's go with the uh meeting minutes. Does anybody have any comments or changes to that? And if not, can I have a motion? Make a motion that we approve the minutes of March 3rd, 2025. Second. All those in favor? I I chair Bo votes I. Motion carries. Now the policies that re reviewed but not revised. Does anybody have any comments or questions or something to pull out? I agree with Dr. Boyd that um looking at all of the uh changes are very minor such as dates or whatever. Um, and so I would agree we could do all these together, but that's just my opinion. Do I have a consensus from the board? I agree. Same. Yes. Okay.
094Can I have a motion? I make a motion. Really supposed to say each one of these, but I'll go ahead and do it. Bear with me. I make a motion that we approve um the revised um policies a AFA BCG BDD BHD BH DL DLB DM E E A B E F E G A G- AE I G A K J E B J H CCA J HCC AA-E JHCF and KBA F1 second that code. All in favor? I I I I don't know what I I supposed to I'm sorry. Really? I think technically I we really are supposed to say every one of the policies. You got to do it again for the next one. All right, let's go. Okay, Mr. Bush, would you like to go again? Oh. Oh my. All right. Second
095and we did everybody have a chance to look at these or and have any like feedback or are we good with the with the updates? They they were all pretty I can do it again. You want me to do it again? Go for it. If you don't I mean I don't know if I can get through it, but All right. And so if everybody wants to do all these together, is that the Madam Chair? Is that what everybody says? We'll do these together. I heard no objections to that. So, all right. I make a motion that we approve um VSBA policy updates BFE CHD CHDB. That's the same one. Dr. Boy, in two different sections of the policy man. You are right. That's correct. Uh policy D I E F E F D FB GBN
096GBR GDQ GHC GHB JF C A- E JFCC JH HDA JJ A C JM and K A second. All in favor? I chair votes I. Motion carries. Now we can talk about the health insurance. Dr. Boyd. Yes, Madam Chair. So, we are required annually to deliver a response back to our healthc care providers. Uh this evening, you will have a uh board agenda item in your packet titled or the topic is FY2526 health insurance rate. We've discussed this informally. Uh the renewal proposal for employee health insurance administered by the local choice has been received and includes a 12% increase for the uh or excuse me relative to the 2425 contract. So this will be for the 2526 school year. Uh I author or this my recommendation should be to pursue and execute a renewal agreement
097that will provide employees health insurance coverage through the local choice health benefits plan beginning July 1, 2025. We've we've discussed this. This is for next year's healthcare cost. This is our formal motion to accept this renewal. Do I have a motion? Yes, ma'am. I'll make a motion that we pursue and execute a renewal agreement that will provide employees health insurance coverage through a local choice health benefit plan beginning July 1, 2025. Do we need an amount? Uh, no, you don't have to go into those individual amounts. Okay, seconded. Any discussion? Um, yeah, I just have a question. Obviously, this includes only the 12%, correct? This includes only the 12%. Um secondly is um so go ahead. I think I know what your question is going to be. So right now what this looks like is
098the board picking up the 12%. As we discussed now as the budget process develops and as variables change uh we do still have the opportunity to go back and change how we how we cover that 12%. Uh that's still within our preview, but this evening we would be uh delivering back to Anthem or to local choice an agreement that we're enter into that agreement. Any other discussion? Madam Chair, I just have a comment. So I I think that this is great that our rate, you know, decreased from the 20% down to the 12%, but I do um want to stress that next budget session, I think that we need to get more bids out. Okay. Get what? I didn't hear you. Sorry. more bids out. I think yes, because they say 20% every year since
099I've been here and then give us a better rate. So, we're all excited about it when really they knew that wasn't going to be the rate. I don't disagree with that at all, but we have hired someone that kind of supposed to do that for us a little and all we have to do is give them the directive to go into a negotiation. That's what I'm saying is that person that we hired, let him look for those rather than us. In fact, we got to be a little bit careful. No, I know. But I just want to make sure it's understood because something's happened a couple years ago. We got to be careful as board members. We can't go out and start looking. But yeah, to direct um what's it called again? His position. This
100that's uh Mark III is the company and Heath is our representative and we can direct him if if the board sees it appropriate to uh initiate initiate initiate other bids next year. Yeah, I agree. But I also I also think that we need to initiate it with another company like outside of him period like besides Mark III, you mean? Yes. So that would be us. So well, he's just our healthcare broker that also provides third party benefits. If we want to look for another broker or a that's a different question. So that that would be a different health care broker. So but he right now could could obviously consider different health care options or or initiate additional bids for healthcare contracts. Yeah, I think we need to do that. Um, when we think about insurance,
101you always think about your own insurance. It keeps on going up, keeps on going up, and then you go to another company and you get a better rate and that could happen. And it's just something to consider. And I think your fear, and we're saying this publicly, I think you said this last time, um, Miss Cleveland, is that sometimes the brokers have a relationship with insurance companies. And we're not saying he does or doesn't, but it's still it could be wise to, um, to possibly look at that, maybe even ask some very direct questions because I think he's obligated to obviously share that. I would like to ask him some direct questions in that regard before we start going out. Yeah. No, it's not it's not just about him having relationships. When you're a broker,
102you have relationships with the people that you broker to. Correct. Only, right? So, another broker could have relationships with other people. So, that's why I say we're having an increase every year, which everybody does, right? But I was very much taken aback when he comes and says it's 20%. So, I just think we should consider consider it. It's just Yeah. So, you want Dr. Dr. Boyd didn't mention to him about looking for other insurance companies and also for Dr. Boyd to look at the possibility of other other brokers too. Both we can do that. There will be a cost for other brokers. We don't know what that is yet, but I'll I'll I'll do some research and get back to you guys on what that might look like. Yeah, because what's the current contract we
103have with him? We have a contract that No, we do. Yeah, that's Is it still a year left on it or two years or what? Um, that's all right. just get back with us. I think it's year by year. Yeah, year by year. I think it's year to year. What calendar year, school year, what? School year. Yeah, we'll look into another opportunity even with him is just ask him to do it. Yeah. Give us people you haven't checked with yet. Absolutely. And and I think the point of questions Mr. Bush wants to ask too is you know what how does your network what is your network and where are the limitations there? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay. I have a motion and a motion that was made and properly seconded. All in favor? I I chair
104votes I. Motion carries. We have a a a grant. Dr. Boyd. Uh yes, Madam Chair. So this is uh this is a good thing. uh for for a challenge or a problem that we know exists in our our society right now. Uh and we're trying to attack it in King George County schools as best we can. The topic of this is the dangers of fentanyl activation grant. And really quickly, I'll read some of the background. Uh youth across the Commonwealth do not understand the serious harm that fentanyl poses to their health and teachers lack the resources to keep them informed. In response to this challenge, the Virginia uh Foundation of Healthy Youth developed the dangers of fentanyl lesson to educate high school students about the evolving dangers of fentanyl. The evidenceinformed lesson is free to
105download and can be used in any high school classroom across the Commonwealth. It is available in both English and Spanish. To encourage the implementation of the lesson, VFHY is providing up to 25 $4,000 activation grants for nonprofit for-profit schools, school systems, government organizations, and charitable organizations through a competitive process. Organization must organization must agree to the following three grant requirements. Uh those requirements are to train at least two staff members to deliver the lesson, administer the hourlong lesson and the anonymous 10 question pre and post test to at least 200 high school students between January and August, and provide feedback to the VFHY on the lesson via a short feedback survey no later than September 1st, 2025. I'm happy to report that we did apply for this competitive grant and we have received it. And
106what we will do this evening is ask the board for the ability to accept these funds uh for the fentanyl grant uh for King George County Schools in the amount of $4,000. That requires a motion. Yes, it does. I make a motion that we accept um the grant of $4,000 for the dangers of fentanyl and to implement this for the implementation of the program. Second. I do have I do have questions also. Say any discussion. I have some questions. Well, no, you can go first. Yeah. Uh yes, Dr. Boyd, it has in here that the high school counselors are going to be doing this is I mean they are overloaded now. Uh I I think Miss Fischer has worked through the details with uh our counselors. can I can get some more detail on what
107that might look like and see if that's something that we can I know what they intend to do. They intend to deliver it in our physical education programs like some of our other uh health and safety lessons. Um I think a a portion of the training has to go to the teacher that or the counselor that implements the program. So if you'd like more information from Mrs. Fischer on how that's going to be delivered. I can can see if I can't recall. Well, no. I don't I don't want to second guess Mary on or Mary Fischer on here, but however, I know that counseling is down one right now. Yes. So, you know, and just adding something else to their plate. Can we can we get someone else to come in and do this to
108help with this or like a school board member? Let me see what I can figure out and I'll be happy to get back to you guys on delivery of the lesson and timing of the lesson. That's I was going to say the same thing, Mr. Frank, is that if you could ask Miss Fischer to look at she doesn't have to have everything detailed out, but what are her plans and I like what um Mr. Frank said is that we got to be careful not to overload anybody in this. So maybe have part of the plan could be we can where I'm she's looking at this or this, you know, but to at least give us an idea of what it might look like. Understood. I would like to add that um this is just for
109the high school and I think we need to start getting this kind of information down to the middle schoolers too. Um just I don't know if we can share that training. I know it's a lot but Okay, maybe another grant. Just just saying. Yeah, there might be. You're not wrong. That's a that's a good idea. Let me see what I can figure out. Okay, we have a motion made and properly seconded. Um all those in favor? I chair votes I. Motion carries. Lost my place now. Um drafting lab device refresh. Yes, Madam Chair. So again, this is a purchase order that exceeds $50,000. This m this money is already budgeted for in our in our FY25 budget. Uh we heard a little bit about the drafting lab this evening in our CTE program. What this
110is is the refresh of these very powerful computers that run uh drafting programs, you know, like AutoCAD. It used to be called AutoCAD. It's not called AutoCAD anymore, but this is um the purchase order uh that it totals $52,500. Uh you can see there below. It is my recommendation to approve a motion to issue a purchase order in the amount of 52,500 for the King George High School drafting lab PCs. Do I have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I'll make a motion to issue a purchase order in amount of $52,500 for the King George High School drafting lab PCs. Second. Any discussion? Madam Chair, I think um obviously this is already in the budget. Uh is um it's already in the budget. Yes. Okay. Um and is it is it about the amount we thought
111it might be or is still It is. It's a few I'll be honest with you. If you want to get further into details, it's a it's a few thousand more since uh tariffs took effect was what we found out. Uh this was going to be about 49 or somewhere in that ballpark. And then we got information from companies who are experiencing uh the effects of tariffs and it it shot up above that 50,000 mark which is why we have to bring it to you. You wait till like June or something. I wish we could. I'm I'm glad you said that. That's very interesting in terms of our budget. Thank you for sharing that, Dr. Boyd. Any more discussion? Have a motion made and properly seconded. All in favor? I I chair votes I. Motion carries.
112We have committee reports. Mr. Bush, do you have any committee reports? Well, I have an apology to Miss Roberts. I tried so hard to go to the Dr. Howard. Dr. Howard. I'm sorry. Why' I say Roberts? I don't know. Dr. Howard. Um, no, I mean, I waited um I I checked my email like at 1:30 and it said it was still on. I waited there until it was 5:00 and then I got the email saying I was going to be online and then I didn't actually get the emails away online until I got home an hour and a half later. So anyway, I am so sorry that I missed the meeting. I know you do. I know you do. But I did want to apologize. But no, I don't have anything else except saying I'm
113sorry. Miss Davis, a quick update on the CBGS board. Um, I just wanted to announce that the enrollment for the 2526 school year is currently up from 223 to 231, which has been a goal um for them to because of Lancaster, Columbia Beach, and Middle Sex uh raised their enrollment amount. Have we ever considered that? Uh raising our enrollment raising the number of students. We've considered it. How many kids are left over that can't join because it's maxed? Uh, it depends on how many applications we get in a given year, but there there's a few and and it's not just there's more to it. There's more to it. Yeah. Okay. So, I just wanted to say that's awesome to hear. Um, well, that's it. Oh, we have a meeting on the 20th, so I'll have
114more next school board. Mr. Frank, I don't have anything. Miss Cleveland, I don't have anything. Okay. I have two meetings coming up this week, but I do want to put a plug in for Thursday night. Uh, Steam night um starts at 4:30 dinner and then the events from 5 to 7. I can't remember where that is, Miss Haft. That's at King George High School. So, come on out everybody. Okay, now we have the superintendence report. Uh, yes, Madam Chair. So, I'll be quick. Uh again, we are deep into budget season. So, uh there's a lot of important things coming forward tomorrow night. Specifically, the uh county man the county administrator is going to provide an initial budget presentation to the board of supervisors. Uh that'll give us an indication as to where uh they stand
115in terms of the collective county budget. I think it's something that we probably need to keep close eyes on. Um the other thing that will be discussed tomorrow night is the approval of CIP projects. Uh we delivered our CIP along with other county projects. Uh that will also be delivered to the board of supervisors tomorrow night. I mentioned earlier tonight uh and just wanted to make sure that everybody's on the same page. We are waiting until about a week from today. the governor will hand the budget back over to the general assembly uh with any type of revisions uh vetos anything that he wants to change in the budget uh that that he received from the general assembly on April 2nd which is about another week after that we should have a better idea of
116where that state budget is going to sit that's going to be a a very important factor we have delivered a budget presentation to our board of supervisors right now based on the assumption that the state budget is going to pass in the form that we believe it's going to pass in. That can certainly change. Um so I I know there's a desire right now in the community to to get through with the budget process, push it forward uh at at breakneck speed. Um but really things like a past state budget have a huge impact on particularly the school budget. Uh so so I encourage our community and I encourage everybody uh you know all board members to to keep tabs on where we are in the budget process. It'll be very pivotal uh in in
117the really next three weeks on on where that stands in terms of school funding. Um so I I'll stop there, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Boyd. Um Mr. Frank, do you have board comment? Uh number one, number one, I'd like to thank all the staff and uh teachers for all that that you do. Thank uh Pastor Davis for coming again. Looks like he's always here uh with us. I guess we need to work on getting our pastors together to give Mr. Davis or Pastor Davis a little rest there. Uh thanks to the uh art contest. uh those kids who really did a great job there and I guess they'll be displayed at the school board uh for the rest of the year. So, it's good. And to Miss Trusslo, thank you so much
118for the CTE. I mean, you're the whip behind that whole thing. So, you're you're the reason that that goes on and uh has a special place for me uh there. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Frank. Miss Cleveland, I don't have much of a board comment. I just want to say thank you to the presenters tonight. The information was really beneficial for me. Um I was really impressed by the crowd of students that came um and their presentations and how great they delivered them. Um really building uh some really great students here in King George. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bush. Um first of all, I want to say how happy I was. I went to the reverse career fair the other day and spent the afternoon there and
119that was very um enlightening to say the least to listen to some of the students were so prepared and others not not prepared as well. But I think it was lessons for those that weren't prepared to realize what they needed to do. But um really um Miss Ringo, she's doing just a fabulous job. Miss Trestle, thank you again like Miss Frank said, for all your work and for all of the programs in CTE. It's just so so encouraging to see all that. Um the uh the art projects um was always neat to see that kind of and the parents that support that. I think it's it's also so good. Um I did want to say that um I know that um we passed a referendum for um building a new school back in November and
120um I'm just a little concerned that the community is um kind of waiting to hear as to when we're going to hear more about that. But um so it's just a concern I have of mine. Obviously, as a school board, we're all concerned because we're increasing by 2% a year and eventually we already have two schools right at maximum and um very soon we're going to have another one and um so it's I don't want us just because it's not an absolute emergency today. I we cannot forget that we need to um accommodate those students that are coming to us that are new every year. We can't just ignore that that's happening. Also, I wanted to thank the administrators. I know this is what we're into about two months of you guys attending the meetings.
121I know from personal experience for many years that it's not always easy to be here on board meeting nights, but thank you for being here. I appreciate it. We appreciate it very, very much. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Mr. Bush. Miss Davis. Yes. What was that dinner we just went to with the VSBA? Was that the spring art show or Eastern Regional Forum? So, thank you to the schoolboard office that allowed us to go see all the art contests or awards that were handed out and how King George represented represented King George there. Um, I wanted to say that I I was really kind of taken back in a good way that 2,334 students are enrolled in our CTE programs or programs in general. Um, that's incredible because that's a a
122little seed being swn in every one of those kids' heart of what's this world can offer them or what they can do for the world be a part of um the FFA, HOS, CTE, DECA, FBLA, the NJOTC and Skills USA. Thank you for allowing them to come out and organizing all that and allowing us to see what they do and hear from them. So we um it means a lot to us to see that positivity that's going on in our schools because up here a lot of times when we hear from people it's really bad stuff. So when you guys bring this one what we're here for it's a reminder of why we're here and why you're here you know. So thank you for that. Um and that's it. Oh and thank you for all
123our gifts. I love gifts. We didn't even get to say goodbye because we're so focused on the gifts. They were gone before we looked up. So, thank you for that, too. Thank you, Miss Davis. Um, thanks to Silston Elementary for showing up for the pledge this this evening. Um, thank you once again to Miss Rinko for the re reverse career day. Um, and for all the work that everybody puts in to find our our our school system grants. Every literally dollar helps. So, thank you to everybody. Um, thank you to Miss Harris and Miss Bird and Dr. Howard for um or or Mrs. Roberts, whatever you want to be called, um for dinner, for presenting that um I apologize for that um presentation that's helpful for us, you know, to have moving forward. Um thanks
124for the student reps for showing up and always giving us great information. And lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't also say what a great job with the CTE program. Those numbers are fabulous and I can only see them growing. So, thank you everybody for being here. I know it's late. And with that, I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion we second. All those in favor? I chair votes eye. We are now to win. What's our next meeting?