001Thank you all very much. The whole room that sounded really good. Thank you all to approve the agenda as 2026 PSA business recommendations. >> Have a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. We have an approved agenda. So in our next agenda item, we have our one good thing. All right, Jim, you want to join me? >> Yes, sir. >> So, meeting ago, we decided to start something new and recognizing inspiring students, staff members, programs we have here within our family that are making positive things happen and making a difference to make sure our team leads the way. and uh by unanimous choice of the school board, they wanted to recognize tonight. A group of individuals who not only um get it done uh
002in some of the tough times, they get it done every single day. Making sure we have safe facilities, making sure we have clean facilities, making sure we have running smoothly. And at this time, I would like to ask our maintenance team you as well. Come on board. So, not only as you can see here, we have a stand ovation in this room because most recently, we want to highlight the fact that when we had a snowstorm, you all spent basically six consecutive days here on campus making sure that we get this campus clear to get our students back to school. and we were able to save minimum of two days, maybe more of instruction because of the work we did where our students could get back in the classroom. That's a big deal. That's helping
003make sure our students can get well. The other things you did during that was sacrifice your time with your families and making sure the things at your house still had to be done while you were here to take care of this house. And for that, we're very grateful to you. And it's not something we take for granted. and you want to say thank you. And we know those things happen on a daily basis. Whether it's being called at midnight to come fix the pipe, getting called because the power out here, or hey, this this thing needs to be handled over here. This lock doesn't work over here. It's countless things that you all do on a daily basis that no one ever sees, but it makes it all run so smoothly. I can tell you
004our principles talk to me frequently about how amazing our team is. When they say we put a work order in, it's almost like turning around and someone's there before they hit the send button. That's dedication. That's passion. And that's what we love here. And you all bring it every single day. So to each of you today, we say thank you for what you do. CPS family and this entire community. It makes a difference. You make a difference tonight. We want to celebrate you. So, thank you. The board's going to join me up here. We're going to take a picture. >> We're going to behind you. >> No, no, no. I'm serious. All right. One, two, three. Thanks for coming. That was fun. >> So efficient have to say anything. >> I know, right? >> They're
005already on their way. That's awesome. So, next on our agenda um is our school construction project. >> Good evening, board. Uh just wanted to give you guys uh a quick update on our project. So, we'll start with the CTE project. And so again, this is uh you know, picture looking from the high school looking uh out towards the uh new CTE building. Once this is done, it's going to be absolutely gorgeous with the brick uh and the CTE logo on it. And then towards the right side is where the bridge will connect and connect it to the high school. So um I wanted to show you. So this is what um the building looks like today. Um, so you can see how much higher we are now with the uh the block work, the CMU.
006Um, we're essentially ready for the steel work. So, we're ready to start setting uh the steel for the uh for the roof system. And in fact, they'll start setting that March 16th. They'll begin setting the steel and uh hopefully um towards the end of April. That'll take the rest of March and most of April to get all the steel in place and uh then towards the end of April they'll start putting the membrane on there that will make it waterproof when it's all said and done. So this is looking at the back side of the building um as you're standing uh near the walking track. Um so I wanted to show you this. So this is what you saw last time. So if you if you look at you know the the walls on the
007right hand side of the hallway the walls are only about you know uh 3 four feet tall and the they were currently working on the wall to the left. This is what that looks like today. So the wall on the left is completed. So um you know most of all the CME work on that side is done on the exterior and then they're bringing up uh that inside hallway on the right hand side getting that to the final height. Um so they're also have started now working on some of the classrooms. So, in those large um workspaces and the HVAC and welding and I can't remember exactly which classes they are, but uh they get classrooms in there and so they're starting to uh do the CME work for those. Um what I wanted to
008point out in this picture as well is you see where there's holes in the block. So, at about 10 feet tall, you see there's those bunch of holes. And then if you look at the top, you also see those three holes at the top. That's where the steel frame will come together. So, at the very top, that's where the roof uh steel will set in those little crevices. And then, uh at the the lower holes that you see there is where there's going to be a mezzanine uh in there. So, it'll have a second floor uh right there above those spaces. So, you can see it's really coming together. And again, this is just another example of another one of the classrooms where they've started the to build out the classroom itself. And here is
009all of the wonderful steel that I talked about. So, all of the steel for the roof is actually on the premises. And so, we are ready to uh quickly begin uh getting that installed. Um, and so that's kind of the CTE uh building, but I did want to show you. So, this is um if you remember, we talked about putting those strainers in. Um, this is the strainer that's over on again the the track side over there, the entrance to the baseball field, the 6 inch line, uh, that we had to do. And so this is the the beginning phase of that. So they've already finished this. This is actually complete now, but I just wanted to kind of show you a picture of the work that they were doing as they got that installed.
010And now moving on to the uh the middle school project. Um, of course the addition itself is complete. We've occupied that and we've moved on to phase six, which is relocating the modulars. And so if you look at this, if you go out there today, you'll see that parking lot is pretty empty now. And uh so all of the the modulars that are um were going to be demoed or not relocated have been have now been removed. And so the modulars you see in the background are ones that will be moving to Moss Knuckles and Thomas Jefferson. And then uh we'll actually um this will get milled up and uh repaved over um spring break week. So uh we're hoping to um try and get them to be able to use the parking lot a
011week or so before that just so we can clear up some of the congestion. Uh if we can, we're hoping to make that happen. Otherwise, it would be after spring break before they could begin parking up here. And that concludes the Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Um, so we have currently spent 9,935,36383 cents on the CT uh building. This represents 25.29% of our budget and the project is completed to 34.45%. So, uh, we are on time and under budget. Um, as a side note, uh, David showed you the strainers. Uh the last of the first three uh is going to be started tomorrow. Uh all the materials are sitting outside the tennis courts. Uh so we're going to start work on that tomorrow. Should be finished uh by Friday. >> All right. So I
012want to give you an opportunity to ask some questions if you have any questions on the any of those various projects. >> Any questions from the board? >> Very impressed. >> We've come a long way, but we we still have a long way to go. Looks good. >> We're excited about it. And again, even with all the bad weather, we are still on time. So, be excited about that. Uh before I let you go, I did um >> Yeah, I was going to just lead you into this because I wanted to let the board know. I've asked David tonight to speak uh to to us and sort of educate us a little bit on the Joshua Falls transmission lines, those high voltage lines that are that project that Dominion is doing um and how that
013may uh affect or or um somewhat um raise our eyebrows as far as where this these uh transmission lines are going. And so wanted to get David to bring us up to speed on on that as well. So David, if you would talk a little bit about that. Yeah. So, I just wanted to give you a quick update on on the proposal. So, there um my understanding is is they proposed two separate pathways that we'll see here in just a second. Uh one you'll see um is uh colored orange and one is colored blue. Um and so I just wanted to to kind of show you in comparison uh to where these would come close to any of our facilities. So, as we're thinking through this, so this is a larger map. uh it shows
014you know Louisa and other areas uh and so you can kind of see the path. So you see the on the left left hand side of this map you'll see that orange path uh that is one proposed path and then on the the right hand side you'll see the blue uh path that they are uh representing as well. So we're going to take a a deeper dive onto this blue one because that's the one that's most concerning uh to us. And so we'll zoom in here and this is looking um close to this property here. So you can see this is the high school middle school uh campus uh in central office as well. And to the um left side of the image um you'll see the existing power line that kind of comes down
015through there kind of makes that dog leg uh shape right by our our property. And then that tree uh wooded area is our new property that we purchased several years back. Okay. And if you keep going to the left, you'll see that blue line. Uh that is the proposed line for this high voltage transmission line. And I put a um another color line in there, kind of a burgundy looking color that represents the distance. So that is about 885 ft uh from our property line uh to uh this new transmission line. Um and so obviously I just wanted to bring this to the board's attention. Uh you know certainly brings up some concerns uh for uh I think us as a school division that it would be that close. Um, I think our preference would
016maybe be uh if they were to choose this to um ask them to put it underground uh since it since it would be so close to our facilities. Um, and so the the next couple images I'll show you are are other paths. U so I wanted to show you the same one, the same blue line as it comes out on 33 uh near Thomas Jefferson. And so this one's not as concerning to us. Um I don't think because as you can see this comes out uh down towards the reservoir um as the bottom right hand side of your screen. Thomas Jefferson is up towards the left center of the map uh that you see there. So you know several uh it's it's really good distance away uh from Thomas Jefferson Elementary. So no real concerns
017uh with that uh location at all. Um now this one shows you that yellow orange line um if you remember. So the orange one is uh the one of the options that they proposed. Uh and this shows you behind Moss Knuckles. So that orange line would would be and I don't know exactly what that distance is, but it's probably about a mile and a half, two miles or so behind uh Moss Knuckles Elementary. Uh this yellow line that you see on the right hand side of your map is an alternate for that blue line. The blue line keeps coming down south as it goes towards Campbell County and then it kind of breaks off into uh I think three different pathways that they are proposing that could go if they went that route. This is
018one of those three and again you can see that is several miles uh from Moss Knuckles. Again, I don't think any real concern, but I just wanted the board to be able to see uh exactly how you if any of these are are brought to fruition that we'd understand how they could impact any of our facilities throughout the county. >> Yeah. And so, one of the things we wanted to bring to your attention, so just to be clear, there are two there there are two different proposed uh paths for the transmission line with variations off of each one. which at the end they would choose one proposal maybe using some of the variations as well. So um at some point they're going to and they haven't given I think the timeline the exact timeline certainly
019that would look like but they've said they're going to need to they're going to put out there this will be the line. So, my concern um would be I mean I will tell you I was a little bit surprised to see them come so close to a uh school complex, especially the one here off of um off of our new property that's connected here to the middle school high school complex. And so I just felt it was important to bring that to you all's attention um with the concerns that we may have um them bringing it that close. other questions, comments from the board. So, um, for me it want to echo what superintendent was saying that I do have concerns that, um, it would be that close to, um, this location. I'm glad it's
020not at the other location. Um, but I'm I'm sure we would have concerns. I'm sure concerns about having those lines that close to school property. Um, well, folks have concerns about that. So, the other folks feel the same way or have other feelings. >> I think it's not something we really want. I think we need to let them know here in the beginning >> well >> they do this >> this power line it doesn't benefit Louisa doesn't benefit orange doesn't fit Louis Houston has got to go through that territory and all hopefully there'll be a lot of opposition you know most things like I guess so I can stop it but basically this is provide power to Northern Virginia with the data centers and all of that I have a suggest I take a take
021it probably build a power plant up there in Northern Virginia and do away with the supply >> cuz we're paying price scar in our countryside for them to have electricity a whole lot better in their backyard than our backyard I don't know if they'll listen to me but they will hear me >> so to echo another school board member stating that the lines could be potentially detrimental to our our our school complex. >> I'll give Steve credit for that. By the way, >> and um and I want to ask the board um if you um would feel um appropriate to make a motion to ask uh the chair and superintendent to draft a letter to the appropriate parties voicing our concerns. I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Make a motion first. >> We
022don't want make a motion to allow the board chair and superintendent to write a joint letter to the appropriate bodies on project developers opposing placement of the valley link Joshua Falls electric transmission line near any LCPS campus. Just be second. >> Just to be clear, it's on behalf of the entire board. Correct. >> Yes, sir. That's on. >> Okay. >> And it's now we have second. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Um, so any further discussion on that? >> Good luck. >> So, so we will, so we have the motion on the table. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Those opposed. Motion's unanimous. Unanimous. So, um, superintendent and I will get together and work on drafting a letter and let you all know when it's been >> sent. Philly's thing, too, because they
023build their own. >> Well, there are a couple and I'd like to bring to your attention this Thursday uh at 12:00 noon. There's an hourong virtual um meeting about it in which we hope to be able to attend. But then there's one here in Louisa as well on March 12th uh from 3:30 to 7:30 at the Betty Queen Center. Um, and I think it would be advantageous for us to attend that as well if possible. So, just want to make you aware of those meetings regarding the lines and u certainly we'll craft a letter and and get it in the appropriate hands. >> March 12th. >> Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. So our next item is a fiscal year 27 proposed budget. >> Yes, sir. >> So good evening. I am uh
024make sure this is let's see put a new clicker in the budget. Yeah, I have to get a new clicker. All right, let's see here. >> Let's go back to the beginning. >> Let's try here. All right, here we go. All right, technology working its best. All right, so um last month we uh presented our FY27 budget to the school board superintendent's budget and we're really reminding us that we're on this journey to greatness in all we do. And looking at on this journey to greatness, our mission and our vision to be that world class forwardinking school division. It's going to be the model school division of the future. And simply put, what does that mean? We want to make sure we challenge every student reach their maximum potential. And during that meeting, we talked
025about getting there because we need to make sure our students have the five Cs and if they are preparing for a world we're not even sure what it's going to look like in a job market, what it's going to look like, how do we make sure they're prepared? And we said through the five Cs of making sure they can communicate well, they can think critically, they can collaborate, they can be creative, and they can be good people, they can be good citizens. We said we feel if we can continue to make that movement, we can get our students to where they need to be, continue to build a better Louisa every single day. And we also reviewed the closer look at those budgets um previous to this over these last nine years. And we talked
026about the additions to programs and additions to to supports that we put in place to help make sure our students can be successful all along the way. And this was the list of things that we talked about which are very impressive and I appreciate the support um over these nine years as we added these avenues for our kids and our students uh to find their passion so they can be successful. So what does that look like moving forward? So look forward we talked about four segments and the first one was where are we? Where are we? So these this is talking about the beginning of the school year in August. Um, we had to add already had to add four teachers and four elementary teachers and two bus drivers as well. That was to start
027the school year. So when we talk about where are we, these are things that are already now into the budget and the board of supervisors has understood that we would need to put these into the budget permanently this school year. So that's at a cost of 426,000. And then looking at segment two with operations and really talking about the insurance and we still have not been able to to we don't have the information back yet uh before us um for the healthcare insurance but we do know the workers compensation insurance is at 51,000. We're still awaiting the health care and the earthquake insurance um rates to come back um so we can um add this to the budget as well and that will certainly need to happen um as we move forward. And then we
028have the personnel additions and talking about personnel additions that would lead into this upcoming school year. And all of the positions that we added for this year really um evolve around uh the opening of the new middle school edition. So first of all an IT technician at $87,000. And a reminder the cost you see are the all-in cost. the benefits, salary, and all-in cost, as well as two part-time cafeteria workers, an agriculture teacher at the middle school, two custodians, and that's a cost of 314,000. So, these operational positions and these personnel additions all relate to the opening of the new uh middle school edition. So then we go to segment 2C and looking at utility cost increases. Um and right now we have that in there is 75,000. I will tell you we're keeping an
029eye on that because we know utilities are going up. This is a this is um the cost of really what it adds to for the addition of the new middle school edition. Uh but we're going to continue to monitor those cost as we as you probably all have your electric bills just as everyone else's and they're all on the rise. So with the health with the um operations segments speaking of the insurance personnel and the supplies and utilities we're 440,000 plus the healthcare and again I remind you plus that healthcare we get those numbers and then looking at how do we take make sure we're taking care of our people through compensation and uh I want to say this again our people are our most valuable resources um that we have uh available every single
030day to make sure that the programs and all the things that are put in place that you saw on the slide near the beginning uh are are taken to its highest level. And so with that, uh we're looking at compensating compensation increases for our staff this year. For our certified staff, 3% plus a step um at 2.54 million. We also had a 4% increase for our classified staff, 736,000. We had the degree supplement increase and as we I explained last last at our last meeting we've done a third of that over the last three years or or over the last two years. Next year the year year after this budget would be the third uh the last third of this 58,000 and that's going to individuals with masters and doctoral degrees. And then the secretary
031scale adjustment. Um our secretary group is one of our last groups that we've been looking at to make sure that we're competitive with our salaries um for our administrative assistance within our schools. And this um would help bring that salary um to a to a very competitive level for that. So our compensation increases are right at 3.52 million uh in addition to uh the cost that we had given earlier. So here's a summary of that cost. Segment one 426,000. Segment two the operational increases at 440 and then compensation increases at 3.52. So then with that we were getting some state funding and as I explained at the last meeting our LCI went up which means our ability to pay within our community goes up. So we lost some funding at the state level due to
032our LCI going up. With that being said through this is through the governor's budget. Now, I remind you this is through the governor's budget, not through the House or the Senate version. This is Governor Yncan's budget still in play because we have even though we have the overall numbers, we don't have the specific numbers for the House and the Senate. So, these numbers are still going out, but we were 963 above last year's u u fund funding, which means it filled the LCI loss plus another 963. And then the VRS savings came in at right at 490 for us. So those are those are money we can monies we can put towards um segment one two and three. With that being said that totals out to right at 2.933 million plus the healthcare. I want
033to remind you of that vision moving forward. Uh so what's the future look like as well? And we always want to keep that in the forefront as I showed you this slide last month. Uh we always want to we're proud to be able to mark that one off as something that's in the future because our JOTC program is alive and well and we're excited about that program is continuing to grow. But also continued focus on the five C's that those are skills that we're saying these are havetos for our students as they go out into a world. We're not sure what it's going to exactly look like with the workforce, but preparing them for that. And then CTE program expansion. We talked earlier tonight about the CTE building and how it's coming along. Well, August
03427th, we're going to open that building and we're going to need additional personnel. So, that's going to be something we need to really pay attention to moving beyond FY26. At FY27, continued focus on mental health resources uh as well. And then addition of the LCMS extracurricular opportunities. That's something we really want to hone in on as well. And then lastly, uh continue focus on compensation. Again, we really appreciate the compensation increases that the sport has supported over the last several years to make sure we're keeping our staff competitive uh and our pay scales competitive so we can keep our staff, retain our staff, and recruit high quality staff. So again, just a reminder, what are those budget impacts? Again, summarizing uh segment one, two, and three, and then looking at the funding that we know
035is coming from the state under Governor Yncan's budget. And then what are we requesting? And one of the things that I've spoken uh with the county about is making sure as we request our 2.933 plus the healthcare as we don't know what that looks like. As we request that knowing that these numbers are probably going to change a bit uh one way or the other, they're probably going to change. It's not going to look the same. The House budget and the Senate budget look very different uh even even now in looking at those two budgets. So, um, at the end of the day, these numbers are most likely going to change, but these are the numbers that we would ask, uh, you to adopt tonight so we can send them to the to the county
036knowing that we may, uh, need to adjust, uh, moving forward and they're well aware of that as well. So again, uncertainty and uh want to tie it all back up with saying, you know, as we put together our budget, as we come to work each day here, and as we strive to lead the way, we want to make sure that we're providing those opportunities where we're that worldclass forward thinking school division, uh that can be the model of the future, and we're challenging every student to reach his or her maximum potential, uh when they arrive at our doorstep. And uh I appreciate the support over the last several years and ask for your support tonight and in the budget we presented uh so we can move it forward and continue to uh make things happen
037here in our school division. So thank you. >> So questions from the board. >> Just wanted to make the comment. I appreciate the time and effort that you all put into this. I ask a few questions leading into this and I think it's a budget that It tries to balance our needs and our desire to move forward with a judiciary manner. So, thank you for your >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> So, um with that, we now have our public hearing. Um so, we'll open our public hearing um procedures and just anybody wants to speak reminder individual by representing a group. So, the floor is now open. All right, I think I got the Southern Mississippi. And so, um, there being no one to come forward, uh, we can close our public hearing and move
038on to our next agenda. >> And well, actually, before you do that, um, I apologize to the board, but I have an urgent manner I need to address. So, consent agenda second. >> Any other discussions on action items? 2026 2749674 services budget 2,984. >> All those in favor? I >> any opposition. transport to the 5th, 2026. This is an annual request that require school. >> Second. >> All those in favor. opposed. Motion carries motion to approve the school construction assistant program. Award appropriations for the fiscal year. >> All those in favor? >> If I could just make a statement. Well, if I can make a statement about that, that's the uh the school construction assistance program. This is a scaff grant that we applied for and got $3.9 million towards construction for for our school
039division, which is a pretty big deal from the state. >> So, uh we're excited about it. I appreciate the team, Mr. Wido, and his team for working on that uh to help make sure we secured that money. So, um that money is coming from the state. So, we >> want to uh celebrate that. That's a that's a really big deal. >> Appreciate all the hard work That's amazing. >> Motion to approve the CTE CIP project funds to elementary school project. >> I'm not sure I understand that. >> So moving uh so we're moving 3.9 million in that we've received from the state. Uh there'll be 3 million freed up to move towards the um >> to move towards the planning process for the elementary school that's in the CIP budget. >> Okay. >> All right.
040>> Yes, sir. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I carries. >> So 10.05 05 we uh is a reschedule for the April board meeting. So during the April board meeting, it the actual date falls during spring break. And so um the request has been uh to move it uh to the week earlier because of the budget um budget uh I guess it would call situation because not knowing what the House and the Senate are going to come together. Hopefully in a couple weeks we're going to have a budget. instead of moving it after spring break, we're hoping to move it before, which would actually put the date on March 31st. Um, if we had it on that Tuesday, but we would suggest we do that in case we need to make some adjustments,
041adopt a new adopt some different numbers from the schoolboard angle um, as far as getting with the county on what that needs to look like. >> A motion for that. >> Yes, >> we would. That's correct. So, we're moving it off for spring break. Um, oftentimes we move it to after. this year requested to move it before due to the due to that which put actually put it on March 31st March 31st. >> All those in favor >> I carries Motion to adopt the 2026 honorable recommendations county chamber of commerce. >> I'm sorry. What is that? >> So, this would be for the VSBA honor role. So looking at um recognizing businesses that help us throughout the community that are part of what we do >> and these are the three that are recommended for
042recognition. >> Okay. Me got a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor >> I motion carries it. >> Dr. Rick, >> I'll try my best. I'm very excited to come here today and uh share a few updates to our journey to greatness number nine. Uh we'll start with human resources and Dr. Paloney. Recently, uh his team held a substitute teacher workshop and talking to Dr. Pony, he shared that we have 13 new potential subs into the fold. I'm sure our principles will be very excited about that. Uh Dr. also recently attended job fairs at UVA and at James Madison University. He shared that he interviewed several outstanding candidates for a few key positions. So, thank you Dr. Pony for your work. Transitioning over to instruction. The instructional team hosted optional afterchool professional development opportunities.
043Uh recently we held a workshop on so test prep which was well attended and Miss Spade read how to catch a Yeti to prek classes which is a fun and awesome book. I'm sure our prek students have enjoyed that. Uh very excited about this as well. Miss Gray facilitated the love math problem solving challenge. It's a divisionwide math problem solving competition. Last I checked, uh Thomas Jefferson Elementary School was in first place, but according to Miss Gray, we'll find out at the end of the week which school did take home the first place prize. Also, the 24 game schoolwide tournaments took place under Miss Gray's leadership. The winners of each school will compete at the Division Y 24 tournament which is next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Look forward to seeing everyone there. Transitioning over to
044workforce development, Mr. Bundri recently supported Trailions Career Day with uh Louisa County High School student uh speakers which was an awesome event. And Mr. Bundick also planned and facilitated our annual CTE showcase night which is always an awesome opportunity and amazing night for our community. And here's a proud moment. Mr. Bowens uh supported the first JRTC cadet promotion ceremony. We had 14 cadets receive a promotion in rank. So it was an excellent opportunity. And Mr. Bowens, he was bragging about this last night to me, but he presented an AI and education as a panelist at a conference. So thank you, Mr. Bowens, for leading the way in presenting and sharing your insights and knowledge with others. Transitioning over to uh maintenance, Mr. Wallace and his team are always getting it done. As we celebrate and
045recognize today, we completed uh they uh cleared out snow and uh ice removal across uh Louisa County, which is we're all very thankful and proud of. They also replace classroom blinds at Moss Knuckles and installed electrical at the turf field. Uh Mr. Childris and his team are all around the uh county as well supporting schools. They fixed the projector at Moss Knuckles. They repaired the Chromebooks at the high school. and they repair the intercom system at the middle school. Transition over to nutrition. Miss Herman provided meals on a remote learning days. Uh she shared that they provided over 800 meals during that time which is amazing. And uh this is also awesome that they also celebrated the Chinese New Year with traditional Asian foods in our elementary cafeterias where our students had great food and
046also learned how to use chopsticks uh in lunch. So this year is also the year of the horse. >> Um Uh, Andrew conducted the annual Super Bowl principal showdown. Miss Bryant did take home the first place prize. Uh, she won by two points. And Andrew also organized our annual spelling the event. The winner was Aiden West from Moss Knuckles. The winning word was Medusa. And those are a few highlights from our journey. Any questions at all? >> No, we appreciate that. >> Thank you, Dr. Grape. >> Now we move on to the safety task force. Good evening. >> Thank you. So, good evening uh everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Pleasure to see you. We've got just a few things to to talk about briefly. First is the SRO status. Uh we have a
047change. We've already alluded to it previously, but we'll show you what's happened. Uh I just want to say a few words about our guest speaker. A couple of you were actually there to see Don Schemet and have a few comments about him. And a quick update on open gate. So, first to our SRO team, uh we mentioned before that Deputy Bo from Thomas Jefferson was going to move on back to patrol, which he has. And starting tomorrow, Deputy Quezinberry will be there as the replacement. And we have high hopes for him. He's ready to interact with the kids. He loves kids. Uh his his kids are all adults now. So, I guess maybe we'll have to go back in in time just a little bit, but he's ready, willing, uh, and able. So, we're still
048also looking for that one uh, additional position. As we said, it's very challenging to find anybody to fill law enforcement positions all around the state, not just here. Turning to our guest speaker, uh, and I know Miss Profett was there, uh, Don Chime, who's an expert in school safety, particularly safe and love schools, came to, uh, to talk to us. He had a uh a great presentation and that's what the handout is. Um and not that we expect you to read it right at this moment. Take a couple minutes to read it later on, but it has some very important information for us. One of his big things was connection is prevention. And really that fits right into our beliefs of who we are and what we are because we believe the cornerstone of everything
049we do in safety is related to relationships and connection. And that's how we get to the worldass education because our teachers and students want to be here and the parents everybody feels uh and it's very important and as luck would have it I happened to be in Dr. Harper's office yesterday uh chatting about school safety and Dr. Harper says, "Well, you know what? Presence is prevention." And I go, "You know what? That is absolutely correct." And one thing that Don Shett came back to, and it kind of hit me at that particular moment. He says, "If you want safe spaces, safe campuses, safe schools, it comes down to an acronym that he came up with, it's called ESAT. First one is engagement, which is that connection piece. It makes sense. That's the cornerstone. It's number
050one. And then the second piece was supervision, the S part of it, which is the pres part that Dr. Harper is is talking about. And the third piece is access control, which we all agree and talk about on a regular basis. And the final piece is territorial reinforcement. And this is Mr. Straley's piece, which is a warm and welcoming environment. And we are doing those things. And so it was great to to hear Don Chet put it in slightly different terms, especially with our focus on technology here recently. Brought us right back to our roots and it was a very effective uh presentation. and he left us with eight engagement techniques for that first step of uh ESAT. And that's why I gave you the the handout. It's got a brief explanation of all those
051things. Very simple to do, but you know what? It makes a difference every day uh for our students, staff, parents, guardians, all those individuals. So, it was a fantastic presentation and maybe at some point in the future, we'll be able to bring them back for an encore event. So, let me wrap up with OpenGate. Uh we have our 25 units are 100% operational which is a great wonderful thing but I just wanted to mention that uh open gate 2.0 is coming out which is an upgraded version of what we have and I'm not proposing we trade in what we have. Ours are working just fine but with open gate 2.0 comes a new board which is interchangeably with ours. Uh and what it does for potentially does it has some enhanced capabilities and one challenge
052that open gate has is a little bit with electromagnetic noise those things that are in the environment from cables and all the other things that are running around in in schools. Uh so it has a much better filter which is which is very interesting and that reduces the what we call our ghost alerts. Uh and it also has some enhanced capabilities in terms of discrimination for metal water bottles uh and some of those other things that set off the uh the unit. So we've asked them to come out and uh demo it and they're going to come out on the 30th and 31st to replace one of the boards in the high school open gate and we'll run it for a day to see what if any difference it has and then if it has
053some significant difference maybe it's something we'll consider for the uh for the future. But our open gates are performing uh extremely well. Uh but we're always for new uh enhancements and they have come out with that. So we'll take a look at >> questions. >> Sure. >> New badges interfere with >> no >> badges don't interfere with it. So that's that's good. You can walk right on through bad has no effect on it. >> Good question. So before I I wrap up, recently got a a question I think it's just briefly worth talking about, and that's is what do we do if a federal immigration agent shows up on our campus? The short version, first off, I think it's pretty unlikely, but we should always be prepared. That's why we even have emergency plans, right?
054Pretty unlikely, but we should have thought our way through it uh if that event ever uh did occur. The simple answer is we treat it just like every other law enforcement officer that comes to our campus. Now, that doesn't happen very often, but there have been a few in the past. So, let me just briefly outline the the basic process of how we handle other law enforcement officers that come to our campus. So, working closely with our administrators, the SRO law enforcement verifies the identity of the law enforcement officer that's visiting the campus and the organization that they belong to. Pretty simple. we find out why they're there, what is the reason that you've come to our campus, and do you have any legal process that you can share with us that we can take
055a look at? And that legal process that's shared with us, we'll share with the school attorney to make sure that everything is is fine and all the tees are crossed and eyes are dotted. And if it's going to move to talking to a student, then of course, we're going to notify the parents and make sure that they have the ability to contact their student. and based on all the information that we have, we'll handle the situation in the most appropriate manner. But it's exactly the same process that we've used every year when any law enforcement officer comes to our campus. Is there any questions that I can answer related to any part of the presentation or or my last comments? I appreciate the clarification and also uh just want to say briefly the Don Chimett
056um presentation was fantastic and it really was a reminder that relationships matter and relationships matter every day and I know that our staff takes that to heart and it's something that we really care about here within our division to take care of one another no matter the situation. Look out for each other and uh I really appreciate his message and I think it resounds true through everything we do. So, uh, thank you for that as well. Thank you. >> Public comments. Three minutes for an individual group. Anybody interested to reports about reports? Okay. In our upcoming meetings, our regular meeting. Our regular school board meeting will be March the 31st at VSBA spring networking forum which is March 17th at 4:30. That's when we get to brag to the other areas. And then um March
057hot topic conference is March 19th. Just let also the VSBA school conference June 5th. Yes, sir. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor?