001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] The meeting is called to order. Looks like uh we don't have any electronic participation. Uh Dr. Day, pledge of allegiance, please. Please rise for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Dr. D. Uh next is approval of agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Motion, Mrs. Lowry. Mr. Andrews. Yes. I want to uh move that we make an amendment to the agenda. Uh we need to add an additional in in the consent agenda, an additional human resources report. I'll second that. And just for clarification, that additional human resource item will come after the close session. So that's why you don't see it
002right in your packet. It'll become public after the close session. Right. Is there a uh madame clerk, would you please call role for the amended amendment? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. President, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mrs. Laur, yes. Dr. Tinsley, yes. Motion carries. Now, we have an amended uh agenda for approval. Is there a motion to approve the amended agenda? Move we approve the amended agenda. Dr. Day, Mr. Andrews, would you please call the room? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. D. Yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mrs. Larry, yes. Dr. Tley, yes. Motion carries. Now in I will not have any comment. We have a long agenda today. So, Miss Finny, special presentation. Welcome to school board, ma'am. Yes. Thank you.
003Thank you, Dr. Gupta, Dr. Day, members of the school board. Um, I want to thank you all for allowing me the time to come today to talk about the school board appointment process for this year. Council's had some time to weigh in on this. Um, and really this is just a a way for me to reach your audience. So, I appreciate that. Each year, council appoints three members, uh, one for each district. Mr. Andrews in district 1 and Dr. Day in district two. You all will be concluding your term this year and have indicated uh, not interested in serving another. So, thank you very much for your um, service to the community. Uh three years is a long time. Miss Preston in district three. Uh this is the end of your first term. You are
004eligible to serve two terms after this. And if you are interested in serving again, you'll be subject to the same process I'll be outlining today. City council will hold their first public hearing on May 13th. State code dictates that the names must be read into the record in order to be eligible. So what this looks like is I'll be collecting applications up until the May 13th public hearing. I'll read those into the record. Historically, council has held a second public hearing or laid over a public hearing for a second public hearing on May 27th. We've held that space. Uh once they've closed that that time period, the application period will be closed for this year. So again, I'll be collecting applications up until that point. Um again, at the close of that public hearing, they
005could begin to select candidates if they so wanted, but we will hold space in the June 10th city council meeting for them to finalize that selection. We'll be holding interviews the time between the June 10th and June 24th uh meeting. So that's June 11th, June 23rd. Haven't figured out those dates yet. And then on June 24th, appointments will be made uh during your general business meeting. Next slide. Thank you. So what to expect? Uh I will be accepting applications through the close of those public hearings. At the public hearing, applicants are encouraged to appear before city council um really just to speak about their qualifications and let council know who they are. Parents and community members are also encouraged to appear before council to speak on those candidates and their qualifications as well. New this
006year, candidates uh chosen for an interview will be required to confirm residency. We'll be asking or taking both traditional and alternative methods to approve that. Um taking into account people with maybe non-traditional housing arrangements. Interviews will be held in the open meeting. So, it's open to the public and also livereamed. Council deliberations and appointments, again, also in an open meeting and live streamed. And then state and national criminal background checks will be the uh done for those who are selected. So, what's on our schoolboard application? Um, we'll be capturing just our general contact information and your warden and district. We ask two questions. What experience do you offer as a candidate for the Lynchburg School Board? and what do you feel you would contribute to the Lynburg school board in the community if appointed there
007is an option to upload a resume although it's strongly encouraged and then these are not applications are not made available to the public citing personnel information but it will be on record that you have applied and then QR code and where to find our application are to the left that is really all I have for you all again I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to you again um and just reach out to your audience for it thank you very much. We appreciate any questions for her. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next one is LCS computer science scholarship. Dr. Copelan. Um I'm looking there she is. Thanks Dr. Copelan. Good evening chairperson Gupta, Vice Chair Day, and school board members. My name is Don Weise. I'm the executive director of the Lynchburg
008City Schools Education Foundation and I am so excited to be here to announce the inaugural 2025 Lynchberg City Schools Computer Science Scholarship recipient. I would first like to share a bit about how we are so fortunate to be able to offer this new scholarship opportunity. In December 2023, longtime Education Foundation donor Linda Carr and her husband Clarence James donated $100,000 to the foundation to create two funds. A $25,000 Vivian Carr Miller excellence excellence through education fund and a $75,000 Carr James family community service community service fund. These funds are being used to remove barriers to learning for Lynchburg City School students, address and provide basic needs, and advance career and technical education opportunities for students and graduates. Linda and Clarence did this because they were committed to supporting the causes they hold dear. Indeed, giving
009back is a cornerstone of Linda and her sister Vivian's lives, instilled from a very early age by their family. At this time, I'd like to invite up Linda, Clarence, and Vivian to speak a little bit more about this. Hello, my name is Linda Carr. And I'm Vivian Miller. Hi. My sister's going to talk the most. The only thing that I You know her, so Okay. Um, the only thing that I'd like to say is that we give back because we're hoping others will see it and others will do so as well. I mean, it's easy to give. You don't have to have a lot of money or anything. It's just your heart. You just need to put your heart into it. And I hope that other people will see it and be encouraged and they
010will do the same. This is the baby sister and I'm the oldest, but she pushes also. I am so happy to be here this this um evening. Um Lynchburg City Schools and Lynchburg City community in itself just means a lot to me. I think the majority of you if you know me, you know that um it's a very special place. It's a very special place for um people that come here out uh outside of our community, college, work or whatever, university or whatever and for whatever reason they try not to leave. So, you know, we know that it is expanding and it's a wonderful place. And um I just want to thank my baby sister for all that she's done. And even though you're hearing what she's doing today, I kind of keep as the
011stuff. And this says, well, I don't even know what you say. I just I just throw things in a bucket or in a but that says TMR and TMR. And it's it's kind of folded over. um technical management resource corporation and Linda started that 1999 1999 but even before that and that's her business that's her IT business and even used to be used retired she's retired she's retired but you know we've always been very proud of her we're proud of all five of us but I am very proud of Linda because she has gone and she's persevered over a lot of obstacles to get where she is today, her and her husband and her family. Um, one of the things I have in this folder, I guess you might call them artifacts. So, I started
012to open up the folder and it says something like technical management resource incorporated. And then this is way back where she donated $1,000. Pam Smith Johnson was there at this particular time. So, that's and that was to the pedal program. a thousand dollars. Linda Barnett was the principal at Darington Elementary School at that particular time and I do believe the library had flooded out or something like that and $1,000 there. Um I don't think this organization exists any longer but it's called it was called Timothy Club and Linda worked at the Timothy Club. I worked at Cam Kumbaya. So, but she was inner city, you know, so she had the toughest, I guess you might say, assignment. But Timothy Club was donated 1,500. Black Theater Ensemble was donated 500. SPECS, that was an organization was
013led by Kelvin Moore at that particular time. I cannot tell you it was for um young students um high school students. I cannot tell you what the acronym was for. And then I have education foundation Bob Doer $5,000. So this is how far and I did not make this up. I did not print this up. I came it's on old paper. So that's going back I believe that's probably going back to 2002. And then the theme for that particular time is children believe what they're told. Then I have a 2002 where it's from going through all? No, I'm not going through all of it. Bob Doerre is just a thank you. Then I have a old old partners in education where she was highlighted for um the resources that she had donated to Darington. Then
014I have from Cynthia Paige who was at that particular time the chief financial officer, some correspondence from her. Then I have the title of the proposal for Desi and everything is itemized out what was donated or what was requested and um the theme of that program. It takes a family to teach a child. And by the way, I would like to say that we grew up in Darington Ele and went to Darington Elementary and we lived in the first brown door next to the office in what they would call the projects. So, I just want to let you know that. So, I'm going to interrupt you for a minute. Go ahead. The the thing the fact it's a fact that children believe what they're told. You tell them how great they are and they will
015be great. You tell them how special they are and they will be special. You tell them how successful they can be and they will be successful. My goal has always been to ensure that children know how special and great and successful they can be. And that's what we strive to ensure that they have that they take with them wherever they go. They believe what you say. So everything you say is important when you're talking to a child. Okay. And I'll just wind this up very quickly, but there is another piece of correspondence. It's to Linda Miss Carr from Roger Jones CC Vivian Miller CC Dr. James T. McCormack superintendent Dr. Paul Mckendendrick, deputy superintendent and Miss Pams, Miss Johnson. So that's going way back. But I want you to let just let you know that
016this is in our DNA as our family. This is what we do. It does not have to be about money. It's about your resources, your time, your energy, um your sweat equity. It's what you're willing to donate. And then if you have some financial monies, then you put it out there. and hopefully for children for the betterment of our community. We have a lot of places that we can place 25, 30, $50. I can think of Jubilee. I can think of Boys and Girls Club. I can think of Lynchburg City Schools um Ed Foundation. I can think of Camp Kumbaya. So, there are many other children's organizations that exist in our community and even outside of a community. I also want to add that this is not the only place that she donates. there's other
017places outside of in her own community because she lives in Northern Virginia in Fairfax, Virginia. So, she brought it back home and I'm so glad she did. And I want you, they're not people I have to get up here and I have to blow and toot the horn for them because they are not the type that's going to do that. They've been doing this for a very long time. No one's heard about it. No one's heard about it. Why? because they didn't stand up say I'm going to toot my horn. So, I want to make sure I want to make sure that people know, not just the Car James family, but all the way back to my mother and my father and even before that, if we had a little, we gave a little of
018what we had. And that's what it's all about. And we really appreciate I always say when we're doing something for service and service or orient oriented is that thank you for the opportunity to serve. Right. That's true. Thank you for the opportunity for to serve and thank you so much. Appreciate it Savannah for being so smart. Oh yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] I don't know if I need Yeah, I think I do. Um, so thank you, Linda, Clarence, and Vivian. Over the past year and a half, the foundation has worked closely with the family to make informed decisions about using these precious dollars in the best way possible to address the most pressing needs in our school, as well as creating new opportunities for students otherwise have not existed before. The fund
019has provided scholarships for African-American students in memory of their parents, Mary Katherine Robert Welen Carr, Senior, scholarships for former students of Fort Hill Community School who have who have transitioned back to their base school. And starting in the fall of 2025, providing essentials such as hygiene items and undergarments for students at Perrymont Elementary and uniforms for every single family in need, including the 86 new students at Bass Elementary. And the reason why we are here tonight, the establishment of the first significant need-based scholarship at the education foundation with a focus on students who wish to pursue a degree in the computer science field with a total award amount of $15,000. A little bit about the requirements for this scholarship. It is awarded to the top computer science student as determined by a comprehensive application process
020to someone with outstanding grades in computer science related courses who demonstrates a deep passion for computer science and who has created and mastered available computer science opportunities and who has a strong computer science vision for their future. This re this application process, as I mentioned, is rigorous and culminates with the top finalists completing a 30-minute in-person interview with the scholarship selection committee where they are asked an established set of questions. I would like to note that during this interview, our winner not only brought her resume, but left us a thank you card at the end. Excellent manners. This year's recipient is an outstanding Heritage High School graduating senior in cyber security teaching assistant enrolled in advanced cyber security classes who plans to pursue a career in computer science at Randolph College with an emphasis on
021game development and a minor in studio art. In addition to her exemplary academic career, she most recently competed in the extemporaneous speaking state competition at Skills USA where she was awarded the gold medal and will be advancing to the nationals in June. Aside from her incredible extracurricular activities such as curating a personal collection of a thousand books, playing the ukulele and electric guitar, writing, and in her own words, loves computers, and this is a passion I've had for more than a decade. And this was so evident as she talked about her cyber security class with Mr. Bill Carter, who is here. I still remember the first time I walked into the classroom. My eyes may as well have been saucers with how starruck I was. So many computers, so many lights, so many headsets, and
022wait, is that a drone? I was beyond excited, and Mr. Carter matched my enthusiasm to a tea. But it was the heart for this work that goes be that goes beyond the technology that made us realize, Mom, this was our scholarship winner. I quote from her letter of interest. I'm sorry, I should be more professional. One of my biggest ambitions is to create pathways for women of color in the tech industry. It's disheartening to see the under reppresentation in fields like computer science. This is not sad. It's amazing. And I want to change the narrative. A lot of people go into the field of computer science for the financial stability. But this means so much more to me. I'm doing this for my mom who smart supported me through every endeavor. Reed, do you want
023to come up and read? Sorry. I'm doing this for the little black girls who may see me and think I can do this, too. I'm doing it for the little me who had, God bless. I'm doing it for the little me who had no black stream role models and thought, I don't know if I can. And I will quote her last sentence in her letter as I introduce our recipient. Oh, you can, Savannah. I promise you you can. I'm going to make it through. It is my privilege and honor to announce the inaugural recipient of the newly established Lynchber City Schools Computer Science Scholarship, Savannah Hicks. [Applause] Thank you so much guys. I don't cry when I'm happy. What is this? I blame Don. Oh my gosh. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I have a
024speech, but I don't really think I can like top the inter the introduction she just gave me. Um, good evening everyone. Um, my name is Savannah Hicks and I'm deeply honored to accept the LCS computer science scholarship. Um, I want to begin by exter um extending my sincere gratitude to the school board for this recognition and most importantly to the car James. I'm [Laughter] here. Thank you to the car James family for your generosity and belief in students like me. Um, this scholarship is more than financial support. It's a powerful encouragement to keep pushing forward and I'm truly thankful for that. I also want to extend my appreciation to coordinator Don White um for her tireless dedication in organizing this opportunity and supporting students throughout the application process. Her commitment doesn't go unnoticed and it
025has made a real difference in my journey. This fall, I'll be attending Randolph to major in computer science with an emphasis in game development. Along the way, I've been fortunate to have mentors who have guided and inspired me. Mr. Carter, my cyber security teacher, has played a huge role in my growth. He's been a steady source of knowledge, motivation, and support. But my greatest supporter has always been my mom. Her constant her constant encouragement has carried me through every milestone, and I wouldn't be here without her. Receiving this scholarship is a powerful reminder that I'm not on this path alone. As I take the next steps in my academic and professional journey, I do so with deep gratitude and a strong desire to pay it forward. Thank you again to the Car James family, Coordinator
026Wise, Mr. Carter, and everyone who has supported me. I will carry this honor with pride and with purpose. To Miss Hester, and Miss Boswell, thank you for the interview pep and the endless support. You two have made every step possible, and I'm so appreciative. To the lovely people at the Beacon of Hopees Future Center, I cannot even begin to count the number of essays they've read over supporting me through every meticulous detail. Um, as I stand here before you, I accept this award not just for myself, but on behalf of every teacher, every secretary, and every LCS staff member, each of you has played a role in my journey, and I hope to make you proud. I'd like to close with a quote by Thood Marshall that means a great deal to me. None of
027us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody, a parent or a teacher, bent down and helped us. Thank you. [Applause] Congratulations. And thank you. Do you mind if we do that quickly? I know we're running short on time and then right absolutely [Music] just make sure everybody's in the frame and one two three Okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Next one is student representative comments. Dr. Copelan. Good evening. Uh this evening we will start with uh I guess we'll start with heritage tonight uh for the board. This is the last evening that our wonderful students will be joining us. The next board meeting is kind of in the middle of their last day or two of school and as seniors they will probably already be
028checked out of the building waiting on graduation at that point. Uh so Miss Hester please. I hope everybody's doing well. But before I start I just want to say that was just it was just so beautiful to see somebody who's so passionate about like school and what they do. So I just want to say congratulations to Savannah Hicks again. [Applause] So, um, first off, I wanted to highlight the senior dinner because that's such a huge accomplishment. Um, congratulations to all the top 15 seniors from Heritage and Glass on Sunday. These scholars were celebrated at a senior honors dinner at Randolph. All of these students are exceptional and we can't wait to see what their future holds for them. So, congratulations again to our top 15 seniors. So, for spring sports, our boys soccer team is
029currently 4 to6. Our girls soccer team is currently 2 to 10. Our boys baseball team is currently 0 to four, but they're doing great work out there. Um, our girls softball team is also 0 to 5, but they're they're pushing really hard. Our boys tennis team is 9 to4 and our girls tennis team is 7 to2. I also want to say our track team is also doing very well as well. They are um many athletes have gain new personal records in their personal events. So, great job to all of these students and um keep up the great work. So, our ice cream social, I had the pleasure of doing that. During April, our HHS leadership class decided to host an ice cream social for the entire school before spring break. It was a fun opportunity
030to be able to play games and socialize at the ice cream social. It was also amazing to be able to serve almost 300 students. It was also really cool like to be able to scoop the ice cream and stuff. I wasn't expecting it to be as hard as what I thought it was, but it was really hard. Thank you again to leadership and their amazing sponsor, Mrs. Gaffford our career fair also during the month of April we hosted a career fair for all students to come and view different career opportunities. It was a great opportunity and it was a great success as well. We had many seniors be able to be called in for interviews with different companies that were at the fair. So congratulations to all the students who were able to hear from
031um many of the jobs there and it was a great opportunity. Um, thank you again for allowing students like me to be able to speak and just let you know more about Heritage. And also, I want to have a huge shout out to our teachers for teachers appreciation week. So, thank you and have a great day in number one big orange country. [Applause] Um, all right. I can't believe this is my last one. I've been doing this for two years. Um, so just a quick little snapshot of what's been going on with our spring sports. Starting with track and field, both of our boys and girls outdoor track teams have a meet tomorrow at home. So looking forward to being able to show off on our own field. Um, our varsity basketball team is having
032a great season with a record of or varsity baseball, excuse me, is having a great season with a record of 11-2 while JV baseball is currently working hard sitting at four and five and one. Um, in tennis, both the boys and girls teams are playing today. The girls uh or the girls are away at LCA and the boys are at home. So, best of luck to both of those teams. For soccer, the boys varsity team is 8 and two and one. And continuing to build momentum is JV, holding a solid four or five four and two. Our girls soccer team is crushing it with a 1-10 record, which is a super impressive. They're a top performing sport this season. Um, and then for lacrosse, boys varsity is 5-4, girls varsity is six and two, and
033they're both all working really hard to make the glass community proud. It's been a great season for athletics, and our students are both showing um skill and spirit all across the board. And I just wanted to take a second to um recognize an outstanding student athlete at EC Glass. Junior Izzy Smeuik is graduating early because she's committed to playing division 1 soccer at Liberty University. And not only is that a huge accomplishment athletically, but it also shows a level of dedication to school and academic readiness that she's put in to make this happen. And we're so proud of her and we're really excited to see her at the next level. Next, I want to recognize two more student athletes who were honored with the EC Glass Boosters Excellence Award, one of the most meaningful recognitions
034for a glass athlete. So, congratulations to Kaden Patrick who received the award for wrestling. Uh the award is based on scholarship, leadership, integrity, and Kaden's an excellent example of all three of those. And special thank you to coach Jeff McCall who continues to be a great mentor to all the wrestling team. And I wanted to celebrate Will Wesley who earned the Boosters Excellence Award for boys basketball. Um Will's commitment on and off the court really reflects um the values of the award. And again, big thanks to coach DJ for his leadership and support on the team. And the annual EC Glass AP and senior art show is currently underway. Um a preview of the show is available in the lecture hall from well it's over now but it was um from the 1st to the
0355th and students got to show off like a little like a little preview of what they were going to do and it was all amazing. I got to walk through there at one point. It was every all the art was really impressive. Um and the official opening reception is going to take place at the Academy Center of the Arts on May 13th from 5:00 to 7:00. So if you get a chance check it out. We have a lot of really talented artists at Glass. Um, this event features selected pieces from AP art and senior art students and it highlights like the creativity and the technical skill that it really takes to um have developed throughout the years of doing all that artwork. Our spring musical, Foot Loose, had an amazing opening weekend. Um, the energy,
036the choreography, the performances, it was all outstanding. Really a statement to the hard work of our students and our staff. But if you haven't seen it yet, there are still opportunities to watch the show on Friday, May 9th at 7 and then Saturday, May 10th at 2 and 7 and it takes place in the glass auditorium and tickets can be purchased on ecgtbooks.com. So come out and support our very talented cast. And we've officially entered exam season at EClass. Um AP exams started this week. I took my first one today and students all across grade levels are working hard to just finish the year strong. And last week, our 11th graders completed the writing so which is a major academic milestone for the juniors. Um, and teachers and staff have been doing a great job
037of supporting all of us through kind of a high stress time. So much appreciated to them. And I'm so excited to introduce the student leadership or the student council association leadership team for the upcoming school year. So our president who's returning is Mary Stone. She's amazing. Vice President Audrey Miller, secretary Harper Weebi, treasurer Mason Minkler, director director of public relations Juliet Dopp. And then next year's schoolboard representative is going to be a good friend of mine, Claire Ramsey, and she's amazing. And these students were selected by the people already in leadership. Um, and they're extremely qualified and they're all really hardworking. And we'd love to welcome our new faculty adviserss, Miss Shuck and Miss Williams, who are stepping into the roles. And unfortunately, that means we're going to be losing Miss Gats, but I know
038she's going to do fine no matter where she ends up. And Miss Shuck and Miss Williams are going to do amazing as well. Um, and last Saturday, our juniors and seniors got to celebrate our big night to remember, which was prom. The event was a huge success. Um, everybody looked great dressed up, enjoying good music and creating a lot of good memories. And a huge shout out to our culinary program for providing and preparing the amazing food that added just a really nice touch to everything. And their hard work really made everything a lot more special. It was a great opportunity for everybody just to get together. But um I want to thank you guys for letting me come and present to you these past two years. It's really been a pleasure. So thank you.
039Thank you. Thank you both for your service to the school board. I know that it's a very busy time during your senior years, but coming here and representing your schools, you've done a phenomenal job. So thank you and best of luck to you. Thank you. Next one is public comments. Dr. Okay. Uh we do have a a few people who signed up to speak to us tonight. Um I will uh begin by reading the relevant portions of our policy about public comments at schoolboard meetings. Uh, persons appearing before the school board will not be allowed to campaign for public office or promote private business ventures and should not use profanity or vulgar language or gestures. Make comments about a public official or an employee that are not related to the public official or employees official
040duties or engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting or intimidates others. or address the school board on issues that do not concern the services, policies, role, and or responsibilities of the school board. Uh, individual speakers shall limit their comments to three minutes. A speaker representing a group shall limit their comments to five minutes and the representative shall identify the group at the beginning of their presentation. A group may have no more than one spokesperson. The total allotted time for public comments at the school board meetings is 30 minutes. And voicemail messages will be played um at the end of the in-person comments. Th those are also limited to 3 minutes for individuals and 5 minutes for speakers. Priority will be given to in-person comments before voicemail in the following order. first students uh then staff
041after that parents or guardians and lastly community members. Okay, so we have four people signed up. Uh the first is a student uh Savannah Hicks. Is Savannah here? She was just walked outward. So she has spoken. Yes. Well, we heard from her, didn't we? Okay. Um, next, um, Steve Mortvet. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you all very much for the opportunity to speak with you all this evening. My name is Steve Mortfet. I'm the account manager for the Blood Connection for the Lynchburg territory. I moved up here. Well, first of all, the Blood Connection is a local nonprofit blood bank. We have an office in Rono and our mission is to bridge donors to the patients in need at the hospitals. Uh I moved here to Lynchburg to talk to area businesses, civic organizations, uh
042churches, and in this case the schools about the need for blood donations and to partner with those entities to help members of the local community save lives in their community. In a few in the few minutes that I'm going to be talking with you, about 150 people will have needed blood. Every pint of blood can help save three lives. It can also help save eight patient or eight babies lives. So the effect of blood donations really makes a huge impact. Uh the biggest difference between us and other blood banks is we keep all the donated blood within the local communities. We are the exclusive provider for Curillian Hospital Systems. We also provide services to Lynchburg EMS, Christensenburg EMS, and UVA Health. We are here to help Lynchburg and the surrounding communities. In the cases of
043school, uh why I'm here is when a school host a drive where we get 30 donors, we're going to cut that school a check for $500. 60 donors means $1,000. Is there a possibility that Heritage High School, that EC Glass High School could use $500? $1,000 once or twice a semester. Also, we have scholarship opportunities for students who need extra funds for post high school education. Uh when a student organizes a blood drive where we get 30 donors, we're going to give that student a grant for $500 that they can use for their school. So, students like Savannah, she would crush it. She would do amazing. Uh, so I wonder too, are there students at EC Glass and Heritage that could maybe use some help with their post high school career? We can help with
044that. All donors receive an e gift card that they can use for retailers, restaurants, Visa card, Mastercard. So from putting groceries on the table to getting supplies for school for their kids to just having a nice night out or paying a bill, we give our donors an incentive to help themselves as well as helping the community. We have partnered with Radford High School and Narrowis High School and we would love to partner with the high schools in this area as well. The great thing about working with high school students is if we can get the high school students excited and we can make that a part of their lifestyle to regularly donate blood when they're 16, if they start at 16, and they can, we just need to give them a parental consent form. But
045think about that over the next 50 or 60 years. if they regularly donate blood, they're going to impact well over a thousand people directly, let alone all the people indirectly. Um, I know that a lot of the high schools, a lot of the businesses, a lot of the churches that I've talked to have worked with the Red Cross, and I think that's great. Uh, that shows that this is a community that gets it, that likes the idea of donating, that sees the big picture. I want to stress that we do not see ourselves as us versus them. We're not in competition with the Red Cross. We're an additional resource for people to donate blood that like the idea of keeping the blood local. Uh we don't look at it as all of them or all
046us. You know, the donor pool is large. Uh the patient need is even larger. So there's plenty of opportunities for all blood banks concerned to work with all the different organizations to collectively work together. uh we want to be part of the solution and that's why I'm here is to ask for your help to be part of the solution. I mentioned that I'm the account manager for this region. I prefer partnership coordinator because that's what it's all about. Building relationships, building partnerships to save lives. We cannot do what we do without hosts. When various organizations help us with our mission, we help them with theirs. We help churches, the civic organizations, the nonprofits, and the schools in their mission so that everybody wins. I'm hoping that we can all collaborate to work together between the
047school board. Again, thank you for the opportunity to talk with with you. Uh between the school board, the superintendent, the principles, uh the teachers, the staff, the blood connection, working together, we can save a lot of lives in this area. Um I am here to ask you for consideration of a possible last drive blood donation. And I understand that the school term is coming to a close rapidly. A lot is on the table. Uh but there may be time yet uh to still have a last drive to save lives. Uh we make it very easy on our host. All we would need to do to make this happen would be to have space in the parking lot of the school for our blood mobile, access to a restroom for our donors and staff, and then
048somebody in the school system to help get the word out through social media. We do all the rest. We make it very easy. We don't ask for volunteers. We have the staff. We have the snacks, the drinks, the whole nine yards. Um, and then we'll do the rest in a five hour in a Is my time up? Yes. Yes. Thank you. I'm sorry. May I have one minute? I'm sorry. Thank you. I ran out of time. Um, thank you very much. Oh, is it possible to just leave some I brought some stuff for everybody? Um, would it be okay with pass those out later? Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I ran out of room, but definitely check this out. Thank you. Um, next is William Clark or excuse me, William Carter. William Carter.
049Was he the husband? The teacher. Teacher. Oh, the teacher. Yeah, he was dead. Let's go to the next one. Um, okay. Uh, Selena Morgan. ready. Go ahead. Okay. Hi. How are you guys? Um, so coming to you guys because there's a few things that I kind of want to bring to your attention. So, first thing, I am 100% an advocate for all things LCS, especially funding. I've gone to city council to support you guys, but I want to bring some things to your attention. This year I had the privilege and I don't know if I want to consider it a privilege um but I'd like to be able to think that there's some advocacy that will come out of this um with one of my children being sent to Fort Hill. Okay. And so some
050things when you guys are formulating your budget and you're pushing some things through, I need you guys to consider how we can kind of support uh Fort Hill um our students that are online. um lack support. Okay, they lack support. Um there's kind of like a circle of trying to get things established. Um and they lack training. Um why do I say this? It took me about three to four meetings for my kid to get access to her edmentum work. Um, and when I say multiple meetings and then realizing that for an entire semester or quarter, she had three assignments. That's that's what the lack of, right? And so the same teachers that sit in the classroom are responsible for the students online. So what does that look like funding wise? We need some additional
051support. And then you're like, well, Dag, those are students that are in all ed, right? We still get tax dollars and we still need to support them. All of our students that are placed at Fort Hill are not always right. 100%. And I say 100% I mean 100% at fault of being placed there. Why do I say that? Because my student that was placed there was actually sitting in her classroom and she was assaulted. She came before the school board. They watched the video of her being assaulted. She actually walked out of that building in handcuffs, right? Because they said, "Well, she assaulted a teacher." But then after reviewing the data, the video, that teacher actually assaulted her first. So what I really need us to do is I want us to have funding. I
052want us to be able to support our teachers, our our administration, but our students and our families are important. So whatever we need to do, there's a whole picture, guys. And I get it. And we can't do everything. And across the street is hard. It's not an easy group and they're nitpicking our funding. I get it and I'm supporting you guys. So, but what I need us to do is also try and figure out what what pieces and what can we do training for our staff. I came here before about the trauma informed. They need it. Okay. Response times are teachers feeling supported in the classroom. I 100% believe and support that. But also, if you're in a classroom and you're afraid of your students, that's another conversation. That goes for administration as well. Okay.
053So, I'm coming to you all as a parent, a community representative and an advocate because I'm always going to like I I sit in those meetings and I do play devil's advocate because my kids have support and they have an advocate that's going to show up and it's going to make sure that everybody's accounted for and they're doing their due diligence as well as Lynchburg City Schools and staff in the building. But some of our kids don't have that. And so when we identify barriers that they already have and then we place additional barriers in front of them saying you have to log on between this point this time in order for you to be counted as present. That's another barrier and we can't do that. Or you're coming into the building right you're meeting
054with a teacher and then you're being marked absent. So now I got to come to a truency meeting. So now for me as a parent, my calendar is being, you know, my time. I'm being pulled away from work. So I need us to start figuring out some whole pieces. And that goes for our babies in the classroom. It's not perfect. I get it. But let's figure out what we can do to support all of our kids. Okay? That's all I wanted. I am 100% whatever I can do to push council for funding us. They're not going to fund us 100% unfortunately, but that two million that they're trying to cut, we need it. Okay, hats off to all of you all. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you. All right,
055that's all the people who signed up in advance. Do we have any no voicemail? No voicemail or no emails either. Okay. Well, that concludes the public comment period. Thank you, Dr. Day. Next one will be a a close small close meeting. Uh, let me read. The school board chair recommends the school board approve a motion to convene a closed meeting to discuss the following as permitted by Virginia Code 2.2-3711A1. The discussion of assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, discipline, or resignation of specific Lynchburg City School personnel. Is there a motion to go into close? Motion. Second. Mr. Depal. Um, Dr. Day. Madame Clerk, would you please call the role? Mr. Connor. Yes. Mr. Jal, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. D, yes. Dr. Gita, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Lori, yes. Dr. Tanley,
056yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We are in close session. We'll go to the next door room. Um, for the benefit of the public, let me say we are expecting this to be very brief. We'll be back. So, we'll be back as quickly as we can. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] Hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hello. Hello. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Second, Mr. Depal. Um, Mrs. Lowry, Madam Cler, would you please call the role? Um, not everybody's here. We got the quorum. They can Okay, we've got it. Mr. Jal, yes. Mr. Andrew, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Larry, yes.
057Motion carries. You can you can take vote. Dr. Tanley, we coming out of close session. Coming out of the closed session, Mr. Connor. Yes. Motion carries. Certification of closed meeting. The school board chair recommends school board approve a motion to it's it's going to convene certification. The school board chair approve a motion to convene. It's showing me the same document. You have it Dr. Day certification. Can you read that? Would you read it for me? Okay. Uh, the school board chair recommends that the school board approve a motion. Oops, wrong one. School board. It's the same. So, the motion is to certify that we didn't discuss anything different from what is apply allowed by the Virginia code. The correct language didn't get. 2-311A1. Is there a motion? Motion. Second. Would you please call the role?
058Mr. Connor. Yes. Mr. Galo. Yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Larry, yes. Dr. Tanley, Motion carries. Thank you. Now, we're into consent agenda. Is there a motion to amend the consent agenda to add an item? We already did that. We did that. We did that when we amended the agenda. There's a motion to approve the consent agenda. May I Mr. Connor and Mr. Jal? U would you any discussion on consent? I would like to withdraw number three. So you're making a substitute motion or you first let's make a motion. Let's second that then you make a substitute motion. So his motion is not seconded yet. Mr. Connor is a second to approve. I was seconding the original motion to accept the consent. Who who
059made that motion? I don't think anybody did but I'll make that motion. You make that motion. He second it. Now the motion is on the table. You have a substitute motion Mr. He has an amendment amendment to the motion. Yes. I would just like to withdraw number three for a brief discussion on the HR report. Can we just discuss it? Do we need withdrawal? There needs to be a second before we No, there doesn't. I'm just withdrawing it so we can briefly talk about it and then that's it's the next thing that happens and then you just go on from there and you can approve the consent agenda. So basically there's Wait a minute. We need a second to your motion before it gets discussed. That's what is there a second to the motion? Second.
060I Okay, now you can discuss it. I disagree with that, but that's great. Let's do that. Um, thank you. The uh So, I just would like to re reiterate that I would like these reports to somehow get to city council because they describe all the transfers and the additions and the separations that we get. So, I'm just mentioning it. I just want to mention it again. We have approximately 17 separations and that uh I think it'd be good for city council to hear or see and somehow um acquire on a regular basis. And then I had a question about remind me why there is a report addendum added to the consent agenda before simply adding the um information to the regular report or the original report. Is it just the timing or because things kind
061of come in at the last? I can address that question for you, Mr. Jal. Um, at the time frame that the board agenda is established, human resources officer office provides the current state of who they know is joining or departing the school division. On the Friday close of business, so last Friday, they will also provide an update. So there's the primary report that goes in and there's an addition to the report which is capturing one week's worth of departures and arrivals. Uh and then for tonight's uh event, there is a a specific addendum that I added to the HR report about the two appointments we just discussed. So that's why you see multiple iterations of it. Um, and I from the city council looking at this, um, I would advise the board that you simply
062let them know once you approve your minutes because all that information is in your minutes and that they can the minutes are published publicly. Dr. Day, so the motion on the floor is simply to remove item number three from the consent agenda. Would you please call the role? Can I finish? Sure. I think there's no need for this because as Dr. Copeland just explained these human resources report or public information. Any one of us can have their own initiative forward them to uh anyone they want to. So it doesn't need action of the board for these to come before city council. If you want them to see it, you send them an email. It's up to you. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. So absolutely I don't mind with uh I am just wanting to
063speak about it instead of it running through and no one talking about that's it. I'm not withdrawing it to completely um approval agenda. That's it. Last thing is we had 26 separations um and 10 whereby it hasn't been removed from the consent agenda yet. We're still on the motion of whether or not to remove it from the consent agenda. That's the issue on the floor. Question. It like Dr. J said it's public information because anybody can look at the program that we're having and city council just do that as well. Can we just send it? Well, they can just look at like any parent or anybody else. They can just look at it themselves. Yes. And I could look at the tax code for so many different things if I had the um knowledge that
064it was updated or something. Right. So, we can indicate to them that this is updated and they can check it out. But it it may not be in their wheelhouse. So it's up to us to share it. Yes. I think you defeat your purpose by taking it off because once it be not does not become it's off the minutes, it's no longer in the public perview. Then they can't see it. So I I just I I just don't see why what benefit there is to taking it off of the consent. I agree. And you're talking about it's a good thing, but I don't see what taking it off the consent agenda does. No, I want to pass it. I want today. I don't want to take it off and it let it um go on
065to another meeting. I just want to withdraw it to if I needed to discuss it and then allow it to go back on. Now, I can make a motion to put it back on immediately. Um, but if you simply look at it, it has a couple of the the the Robert's rules that allow for this to happen. I'm not taking it off permanently. I just wanted to discuss it just like we're doing and I was about done. We're discussing taking it off, but can you pull it up the HR report? Yeah, we have it here. Okay. Um, there's one, two, three, I mean the consent agenda. There's one, two, three, and four. Right? If you look at one, click on one, click on two, click on three, and then read the small print that's under
066each one, it simply allows any board member to withdraw any item from the consent agenda without a second. Sure. So, that is what I was doing and I simply wanted to talk about it and then allow it to to pass. That's it. I just didn't want it to pass without con without disc uh comments. some comments. It does say um if you read the last sentence of that little miniature items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. So if it comes out of the consent agenda and there has been a request that means it just becomes um a next business item after we're done with the consent agenda. That's why I'm asking for a vote. Yeah. To remove item three. Is there I don't think it needs a
067vote. It says may be removed at the request of a requested it. It's out of the consent. It's out of consent agenda. Yes. We move a motion to approve the consent agenda. And I and I your mo your new item is still part of the consent agenda. We'll come to clarification. We not discussing your item now. It's the consent agenda minus item three. Yeah. We'll come back later on for discussion today. Great. Yeah. So, would you please call Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll move we approve the consent agenda. We did it. Yes, sir. Would you please call the role? Mr. Connor? Yes. Mr. Gleo? Yes, Mr. Andrews. Yes, Dr. Dave. Yes, Dr. Gupta. Yes, Mrs. Preston. Yes, Mr. Depal. Yes, Mrs. Lori. Yes, Dr. Tansley. Yes. Motion carries. All right.
068Next is finance report. No. No. We uh uh Dr. Copelan, I'm sorry. I apologize. Dr. Good morning. Lynchburg City Schools is happy to announce two key leadership appointments with Dr. Jennifer Davis as the next deputy deputy superintendent of instruction and programs and Josh Boyd is the next principal of Fall Monroe Elementary School. currently serves as the director of teaching and learning and will succeed deputy superintendent Amy Pew who's retiring after 40 years after a 40-year career in education. Mr. Boyd will step into the principal role at Paul Monroe after long-term principal Donna Bear retires after her 40 years at the end of this school year. Since her during her time as the director of teaching and learning, Dr. Davis has had a significant impact. Uh she's led implementation of the division's all-in initiative to address
069learning loss and launch the new teacher academy to support and develop new educators. Josh Boyd brings two decades of experience to his new role as principal. Uh he currently serves as a principal on special assignment uh helping both Paul Monroe and Sanduski. In previous roles he was the principal of the virtual academy, assistant principal at Sheffield Elementary and a secondary instructional coach. Congratulations to both of you. So now I think we come to the removed item. The removed item. Yeah. All right. You're the parliamentarian. Removed item. So on the table is uh the uh human resources report and I get I will make a motion that we accept it. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Any discussion on that motion? Not on the motion, but I just wanted to talk about it briefly
070and that is that it's um 26 separations with 10 by Liberty University students. When I saw that, I thought in the and in their first one to three years, I think one was a little different, but I said I would like it to be more as more like a military recruiting for a four-year commitment. And whether or not that is something that we can do, I don't like it. Yeah. Right. I just like to discuss it because it's not a good thing if we have one and two-year teachers leaving the system. You have seven children, I mean seven teachers leaving one school. You have 10 Liberty University students leaving in their first three years. Some of them won, some of them first two year. What's the issue? Is it the Liberty University? Is it being
071local or is it the school itself? Well, they're in different schools. So, I'm not so sure it's the school and the environment. I would like that. I would like to understand that. I would like something to be done to understand it. a little survey and study. Yes. Mrs. Lowry, when I was teaching, okay, I taught a conversation with Anne Barry and then and this was a good 10 years ago at least. Um, we couldn't keep teachers past five new teachers past five years then. So, it's not like it's a new epidemic coming on. This has been ongoing. So, and because we're a right to work state, you can't make someone stay for a certain amount of time, just so you know, right? That's why I would just sort of prefer basically that would be like
072a four-year commitment as the military does. Um, and I just want to discuss what we can do to help them to make that commitment. Incentives. I think I've heard some places pay off uh debt, educational debt from new employees, but to have 10 of them coming uh leaving from one uh institution, maybe simply because it's local, I think we have to look at that and and understand it because if they're one and twoear teachers from just one institution, but the other institutions are um are uh having a longer stay employee here, then there may be other reasons. than we understand for these. But if if teachers are given an opportunity to have a um an exit interview, I would think that the data from those exit interviews would be um available to the persons in
073in human resources and that could be in investigated to determine if there is a problem at that school or in this location or people coming from the other school or or whatever it is because the goal is to retain teachers. not and we certainly don't have the resources to give an a a monetary incentive to people to keep them on board. What we want to do is to do the things that are going to keep them on board because we're doing the things that we need to do as administrators andor as people that are looking for teachers to hire. And just so you know, last year when we saw the same thing, I actually reached out to many of them and some were pregnant, some there was a job move to be closer to family.
074It wasn't always something negative. There were personal reasons. Dr. D. Um, we are not addressing the motion on the floor. The motion on the floor is whether or not to approve the human resources agenda. were addressing uh uh the the concerns that uh Mr. Jal has raised, but those are not the motion on the floor. The motion on the floor is simply, are we going to approve the HR agenda or not? I'd like to ask that we call for the question. Will you please call the role? Mr. Conor. Okay. Do you approve the HR addendum HR report or not? Yes or no? Okay. I approved it when it was in the consent agenda. So now we're back to approving it. Yeah. We're just asking, do you approve it or not? I approve it as as
075Yeah, we haven't changed it. It's still the same HR report. I vote yes to as it was submitted by human resources, Mr. J. And before I vote yes, because I approve of it also, uh, after I withdrew it, I just wanted to discuss it and that's how it should be. So after we all approve that it's added back to and it's approved then there's no more discussion of it. So that's why I think it's valuable to do the withdrawal discuss and now now it's it's going to be over. I'm not going to discuss it anymore. I just brought up those points and I really don't have any other points to share about it other than the point of order is the vote now. Yeah. We need your vote please. Discussion is over. That is okay.
076Now if you go back into the videos of LCS for the last few months you will see that you allowed other board members to do what I'm doing right now. Let me I'm 100% positive about that. Welcome to the club because the retention rate between 0 to 4 years is about 70%. If you have watched the previous reports for last 6 years I've been on board 0 to four is most of the drainage happens. Why it happens? There's a lot of issues salaries benefits we don't have money to pay the money which counties are paying. Young people switch jobs because they got growing families to take care of. The issues are there but the problem is they brought up like this just happened yesterday. That's not true. It's been happening. I've been on board. This
077is my seventh year. 70% is the retention rate on average. 70 30% lead. So we should not blow it out that it just happened and this is just like a brand new story headline news. It's not. I've been seeing it for six years. That's why each year me and Mr. Andrews have been doing 1750 1750. There's a reason for that. So the minimum base salary, I know people want salary for veterans, perfectly fine, but for the young folks, you need that base salary increase. And that's what this board is doing this year. But to go anything higher will require more cash up front in the operating budget, not in one-year budget, multi-year operating budget. Do you understand? In in business, you cannot have just one-time money to pay support salaries. You've got to have ongoing
078budget. So, uh I understand making headlines to just bring it up, but this has been in the headlines for the years. This is not a brand new issue. But the problem is the solution. We don't have the resources to implement. You can love them, you can admire their work, but end of the day, the county steal them from us for a couple of thousand dollars. That's a fact of life. Would you please say your vote? I'm satisfied. Yes, Mr. Andrews. Yes. Dr. Dave, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Lawrence, yes. Dr. Tensley, yes. Motion carries. Next is finance report, Dr. Copeland. Turn it over to our chief financial officer for a brief report. Good evening, Chairman Gupta, members of the board, and Dr. Copelan. Um, I will be very brief
079in my remarks this evening, so hang on. Um the financial reports that you have before you are as of March 31st uh 2025 which marks 75% of the fiscal year passing and it's passing quickly. The percent of revenues collected versus original appropriation was at 64.15%. The amount of expenditures versus the original appropriation was at 69.0 uh3 year to date. Total expenditures inclusive of the incumbrances that we have set aside equates to 95%. Um, as of March 2025, our health insurance ended in a positive position, taking in $245,482.90 more in receipts than we paid out in dispersements. Yay. Hopefully that will become a trend. Um, Brown Edwards auditors will be here the week of June 16th through the 20th to start the fiscal year 2025 annual audit process. We're all looking forward to that. That is
080includes the end of my report and if you have any questions, we can move on. Yes, Dr. D. Um since we are funded categorically, we cannot move funds between any of the major categories. That's correct, sir. Um and uh at least the facilities category looks like it's um 257% of the budgeted amount. If I'm reading this correctly, line 80 of the uh expenditures report line 80 of the expenditure report. Yes. Is uh the non-instructional operations. Yeah. Not uh not maintenance. Okay. So my question is, do we need to move funds between categories to account for that? So there will be some true up um after May 30th once all of we're sure what those um accounts will have in it and I don't believe at the time we're going to have to um do that.
081Well, so can I but yes, go ahead. So that particular one so that that particular line is related to personnel. Um so you'll see there is a personnel line for that facilities. So that is to pay the construction project manager which ultimately gets paid by the capital improvement fund. So it will get tred up. So it'll go out at this this just a timing issue. Yeah. Sure. Okay. After May 30. Yes. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Next one is special education annual plan. Dr. Copia. Oh, Miss Ashley Burks, our director of special education to the podium to talk about the annual plan. Miss Burks, floor is yours. All right. Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be in front of you this evening. Um, so I'm going to try to be brief. And
082so what we wanted to do is just discuss the needs of our students with um that have disabilities. Uh, first and foremost, uh, our sort of mantra for the special education department is people overprogramming. I know that there is a lot of red tape protocols uh budget and funding for our students but remember there is a face um of our kids at the end of that and wonderful wonderful fantastic special education teachers that uh support them each and every day. Um so for the VOE they ask a couple of things. Um the first part is making sure that our students that we are following the mission and the vision of LCS and how we are removing those barriers for our students with disabilities. Um we are definitely committed. We're making sure that we're engaging them
083in the classroom, providing those accommodations um that they need and for even our students that are placed in private schools or home schools that we are supporting um them as well. We also as a part um of that is asking is there any barriers to equitable access for our students and as one of the things we talked about today was new staff. So sometimes when you are coming into a classroom, you have 20 kids, six of them have an IEP. Uh that's a lot to kind of take on. And so what we want to do is address one of those barriers through fundamental training and a systematic process. Um so that they have support throughout the year with regular check-ins, ongoing training, and we also have resources from the VDOE and TATAC who kind of
084come in and train you on how to interact and and teach students with disabilities of of various levels. Um, so one of the questions also asked, uh, how are we doing that throughout the year? Some doing some of that, um, before the school year starts, doing full-blown, uh, training, role playinging, um, having experts in there that can do that coaching, and then doing a systematic process throughout each quarter of the year so that they have mentorship and, um, support as they go throughout. The next part of the plan ask about our local and regional jails. So we also support our students who are in Blue Ridge Regional Jail. So we do have a coordinator that goes over there, ensures that those students um still have their free and appropriate education um and seeing what they
085need um and making sure that their IEP goals are met as well. E for maintenance of effort uh for our school year for 2526 for local plus state is uh $14 million 965,688. We're making sure that we use those funds for our students um to meet their needs. There are so many things that you have to have in the classroom to make sure that you instruct individualized for each student whether that they have autism, down syndrome, um ADHD, whatever that disability is that we are being able to fund what they need and give the teachers materials as well. Another part is for our proportionate set aside funds and this is specifically for students who um are parentally placed in private schools or are homeschooled. We are still required to provide them their education. Therefore, we
086have um a teacher and a speech language pathologist which gives them direct services. Um so that supports students you know articulation any classwork and any deficits that they have. So for that for 611 that is our 3 to21 um we have $172,946 that is making sure that we can pay our staff members and then in addition making sure that they have the benefits as needed for section 619. I like to think of that as our prek babies um for our younger students for two to five and um they have allotted $1,399 for grant part B 611 grant fund. Um we want to make sure that we have our funds to support our personnel and benefits. That includes multiple special education staff. That includes your teachers, your school psychologist, your BCBAS or board certified behavior analysts
087and any clerical and administrative staff. So, it really does take a team to be able to support our students with special needs. Um, and by doing this, not only are we ensuring that they have instruction, um, this also includes ESY, which is extended school year. So, making sure that we can support our students throughout the summer if they need that remediation and any goals that they didn't meet. Um, in addition to making sure that documentation is maintained and that we are following compliance guidelines with the VDOE for codes uh 3,000, we want to be able to use contracted services to add in some programming um that LCS desperately needs. So be able to help with our transitioning for our high school students so that we can have better career um and job opportunities or if
088they need to go to college um before that burden has been placed on our teachers who are teaching in the classroom. So we want to have those resources to be able to relieve that from our staff but order in order to make sure that our students are reaching out with different services. So, we have wonderful programs like DARS, Step Up. They do a fantastic job supporting our students with disabilities. And so, um, to get our students, um, to graduation and beyond is the key word there, we're going to need services to be able to support them. Um, in addition, uh, more instructional um, support for special education staff, and that looks like academic coaches. So, being able to teach a student with disabilities. there's different teaching methods that you kind of need to be um
089well-versed in. So, being able to train our teachers on how to teach best, whether that is in a more self-contained setting where it's just students with disabilities or if they're in a general education classroom, being able to work along with that uh general education teacher so that we can uh provide them with the best instruction possible. And then lastly, we want to add funds for code 6000 for iPads, uh, Chromebooks, adaptive seating, standardized test kits, um, instructional supplies, and educational software. So, a lot of time for our students that need assistive technology, you have to continue to have ongoing so that they can use it throughout the year. So, for example, if a student is non-verbal and they cannot speak and they use pictures on an iPad, it's not a one-time purchase. we have to
090continue that we don't take away our students voices, we lift them up. And so um that funding is needed to be able to support our students. And then lastly under uh grant 619 is for our early childhood. Um so think of that as our younger students or our prek students. Um we are using code 1000 and 2000 to be able to support our staff with being able to pay them along with their benefits. Um, in addition, we're looking at programming for their communication skills and cognitive development. Our, um, pre-K teachers over at, um, Hutcherson definitely need that support in order so that they are teaching throughout the day and then being able to receive that additional training for curriculum and adaptive functioning. And lastly, we also want to have con contracted or purchase services um
091for web- based assessments. That's a whole lot easier than paper pencil. So, if we are able to track our students progress um and then we can continue to meet their goals in more of a developmental way. um for our younger students in our district in addition for staff development um being able to coordinate with TTAC conferences and getting more of that instructional support. And then lastly, code 6000 for our younger students. We're really focusing on our sensory items and motor skill development and skills to be able to support them. That is all that I have. Do you all have any questions? Yeah, I have Dr. D. So I just want to understand this report a little bit better. Is this primarily just uh mandatory reporting and certification or is part of this a request for
092funds that requires approval? I do see on two pages like on page 13 it says proposed grant budget. Are we asking for this money or are we just explaining how we're going to spend money that's already allocated? Both. So this we do have to turn this into the the state but we have to be able to justify what we're using those funds for and it is all for our students and for our special education um teachers and related services like psychologists and speech pathologists. So before we can spend the money in the way that you've described, we have to wait for authorization. We have to submit it to VDOE. So it goes from me um and to the um superintendent at this time which is Dr. Copeland and then is submitted to the state. Um
093and if there's any amendments at any time, you're allowed to do that as well. But then do we need to wait to hear back from the state before we can move ahead with it? They all right. So uh there are certain components of the funding that if you look in the governor's budget, you will see some lineouts specifically for special education that are in the governor's budget proposal. These grants related to IDA, which is the support for students with special needs, uh are based off of the reporting that we provide to the Virginia Department of Education on a recurring basis. So, our authorizations move up and down on a regular basis depending on the number of students and the needs that they have. So, the grant components of this are kind of automatically uh coming
094from the state on a regular basis. uh we at least do three reports I think through the year related to special education services and things like that in addition to having VDOE monitoring visits to look at how special education funds are being expensed and the support we're providing. So what I'm trying to get at is come back at us and say we don't like the way you're allocating it. Please change it. Does that ever happen? Are you at all concerned about something like that? No. No, that's what I wanted to hear. No, no, thank you. Yes, thank you all. Thank you. How many students are in Blue Ridge Regional? Um, at this time I think there are about six. Okay, we have six students. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. What is the success of your
095grant writing in the last two years application? So, I was just appointed to this position for this year in January. And how many have you done? I'm just kidding. Um I asked for the last two years. Do you She wasn't here the last two years. She wasn't here. That's what I'm saying. Yes, I was asking for the department. Your miss special education department. This is required by the department of education under IDEIDA individuals disability education act. This is required for us to submit this annual plan that talks about how we're proposing to spend the money and the money that's being allocated. It has never been rejected. Um, so it it is not uh I don't want it's not a competitive grant. That's the right word. So it is it is not something that we are
096writing competing with others waiting to hear from BDOE. It is this is part of the bureaucracy. If I may that we have to do each year. So if going back past 25 years, I would say we've had success every year because it's not competitive. it is given to us and awarded and you know I don't have any concerns unless the governor doesn't have a budget. Um I don't have any concerns that we're not going to receive the money. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pier. Thank you. Thank you, M. Thank you all. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you. Thank you. Next one is the Jubilee Drive Elementary. Dr. I turned over to Dr. Wica for a quick update on some reasonzoning issues and affected students. Yes sir. Uh thank you Dr. Cookland and and good afternoon
097members of the board. Um just a a quick overview of this presentation. Uh on the first slide um I just provided some background information. I won't go over it with you because we all recently lived it. Uh but this often helps us for going back for historical purposes. But uh you will all recall that we made some adjustments to some of the attendance zones uh related to elementary schools um specifically related to the Winston Ridge Florida Avenue um as well as the Birch Birchwood area. Um and I want to know make a make an adjust a recommendation for an adjustment here uh based on that option. Um so just a couple a little bit of information based on on zoning. Um, so Lynchburg City Schools actually has uh two different databases of the elementary and
098middle and high school zoning. Uh, the first is the schoolfinder application, which is something that's manually uh maintained by the school division. Uh, you find it on the school division's website. Uh, the city also maintains a geographic information system database or a GIS database. Um, and so I want to point out so the city maintains that. It's separate. um which uh we would assume that there would be a link between those two databases, but there is not. Uh and so we we've now learned that there are a number of discrepancies between the two databases. Um and it absolutely is the school division's responsibility to notify the city when there are updates. Um that's not something that we've done in my three years that we've been here. Uh but over time, of course, there have been
099adjustments as uh that has occurred. We are now conducting a citywide review to make sure that the that zoning is accurate uh on those uh city maps. We feel like the schoolfinder app is is the most accurate at this point and so we're making those adjustments and we have developed a process to resolve that. So I want to specifically identify the Jubilee Drive, the Sheffield Island zone. Island zone is not an official term, but it's one that we just use as uh a part of what we do. Uh, in the current zoning, there is a a small elementary zone uh along Jubilee Drive that's not depicted on the zoning maps and was not taken into account uh during prior discussions. Uh, and when I was writing this, I was thinking uh I'm looking thinking Mr.
100Connor should say you should talk to transportation and do that. So, and to that I say you're absolutely right. And so, uh, so I I appreciate that. Um, the screen is restarting. Um, but I I'll continue to talk. Um, most homes on this street were built in the the late 90s. Um, and we have to assume that was added to Sheffield at that time. Uh, because there was not there probably was not space at Heritage at that time. Um, that was apparently never updated in the city GIS. And so the only way to for us when during this process to know that this was a part of Sheffield again other than talking to transportation, which we should have done, uh, is to check every uh, single address manually uh, for those affected students. So, we
101have now double and triple checked uh all the addresses in the the affected area to make sure that they were accounted for correctly correctly. Uh and the reason we're bringing it to you is that it we believe that it's school the school board's intent that everyone sort of in that area would be zoned for bass and not sort of the long range area, but we didn't talk about Sheffield. And so, I think that it's the most important thing is that we just get it out on the table and say what is the intent? Let's be honest about where we are. Uh let's be clear about what the intent was so that the board can take an affirmative vote. uh based on your your p your action. Um for the 25 26 school year, uh if
102you reszoneed that area, that very small area uh to Bass, it would affect two households, a total of five students. Uh we have contacted each of those families. Um I've talked to one of the families and and then Mrs. Lee at Sheffield has talked to the other. Um they are amendable to the idea um of moving and so that's uh a positive thing if that's the schoolboard's decision. On the next slide, if you were to see it, uh you would uh hopefully it's on your computer. It is. Um you you'll see what the what the zoning me this was my whole thing right uh I had a he worked hard on this we see it I see it here you can see it so uh on there you can see what the heritage zone looks
103like on the GIS uh database which you can see there is and I'll show you in just a moment where the jubilee drive is uh you can see where bass and heritage is on the next slide you can see that that island zone that's not depicted in GIS what it should look like that's that that's slide six I guess um so that is the way that the the the the slide should or the the zoning should look. Um again, it does not look like that. Uh it looks like the one before that. Um so we've addressed that. So a couple of recommendations here. Uh we'd recommend that Jubilee Drive be um uh zoned for Bass Elementary School in the 2526 school year. Um that that small zone. Again, we we think we need to communicate
104with families immediately. Again, we've already done that. Uh had great conversations. Uh we also are going to conduct a uh discrepancy review between schoolfinder uh and the city GIS that's already underway. Uh and we'll update the GIS mapping to accurately reflect the the zoning uh the the adopted zones. Again, that's already underway as well. So um that's a very brief overview. Um again, um just that's a process of learning and so we appreciate that. Yes, sir. That little Sandusky in blue. Is that Washington Street? Um coming off Gray Street. I I can't speak to that. That's Hudson. Yeah, I I'm not I'm not sure about that. I I think that's probably a little close, but I can find out. That's another That's right in the middle of the Bass zone. Why, you know, we to
105picking up just off of Grace Street that little I think that's connected to a little bit larger Sandusky zone. Certainly certainly if the if the the idea is to address some of these small island zones that would be an important thing to do at some point. Okay. But right now I agree totally agree that that should be going they should be on the same buses going to bass. Are you making a motion to approve it? I'll make a motion to approve. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Mr. Lou the discussion on this motion. Madam clerk, would you please call the role? Yes, Mr. Jalo. Yes, Mr. Andrews. Yes, Dr. Day. Yes, Dr. Gupta. Yes, Mrs. Preston. Yes, Mr. Tal. Yes, Mrs. Lauri. Yes, Dr. Tinsman. Yes. Motion carries. Next one is TC Miller
106Hutcherson renaming. Dr. Cop. Good evening everyone. As we start moving forward and thinking about the next school year, uh I am recommending that you adopt two new names. Uh call the TC Miller building the TC Miller Academy and change the Hutcherson Early Learning Center to the Hutcherson Academy. That puts both of our prek buildings underneath the same naming structure. Uh it also uh will allow use of title one funds to support uh the uh prek children uh and uh it gets us set up for the start of the school year. Mr. Con, I'm just curious as to Go ahead. Go ahead. You go ahead. You started. Is there is there any any discussion in recording the history of TC Miller or Hudson anywhere? I have not had any. Is that something that's been done with
107other schools? The only school I know there's a well doumented history of use is Dunar. Yeah. Middle school uh due to its history is the uh black high school years ago. And I've heard some things about EC Glass historically. So is that something that we can consider for those schools? I would just need direction from the board. Okay. On how you would like to proceed, right? Um, I don't I'll leave it at that. That's on. That's on. Conor, um, is there a reason we can't there can't be the TC Miller Early Learning Academy? Does that affect the title one? If we add it, that's exactly why. So, all we can just be straight academy. There's no other. We need the money. No, it's not that we need the money. It's that we can then use
108the resources that we currently have, okay, to help those children. Okay. Currently, Hutcherson does not is not have the benefit of receiving any title one services for their students because they have early learning center in their title. Okay. So, we would like to be able to and um the principal for years has been you know asking and you know sharing the need for title one support and it's just additional resources that are allocated to the school in terms of um teaching staff support, coaching, that type of thing. Also, um some parent events and things like that. So, it's beneficial to both of those schools if we do not have early learning in the title. Okay, that could be I would like to move that we approve these two renaming suggestions. There is second to them.
109Second. Well, any more discussion? Madam cler, will you please call the role? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Gillio, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Larry, yes. Dr. Tesley, yes. Motion carries. Next one is school board member reports. Go school. Mrs. Larry. Okay. Our next meeting is May 7th, tomorrow. Um, so and after that it will be August 6th. I did attend the senior recognition ceremony on Sunday as well as the honor society dinner with Dr. Gup and Miss Preston um board members but the selection update um is will of the full class of 75 juniors has been done and that have been committed to year 2526 parents are filling out registration forms and new student orientation is June 9th through the 11th and August 4th.
110Laurel again you Mrs. Okay, for Laurel. Um, the next meeting is also May 7th, so we have a couple meetings tomorrow, Dr. Copelan. But the ribbon uh ceremony for the new bus and um bench um dedication in um honor of uh teacher who has passed, Martha Lipkcom, was donated by Scout 180 troop. So, that was really nice to see. And I believe I sent you all pictures of the the new bus that they have now received. That was the ribbon cutting ceremonies for and then um the bench dedication. So our next meeting is tomorrow and I'll have more information next time. Thank you. STEM Academy, Mr. Con. Um unfortunately um this past Sunday they had um their awards back. No, matter of fact, Tuesday, May 13th, and I intend to be there, which is next
111Tuesday after the financial facilities meeting if we have it that day. Um, but they're having their um STEM Academy senior awards banquet. Um they did have something this past Sunday um that I was unable to attend because I was um out of town at the time. But um I will have a further report on the how many were named which I gave a little bit of that last time we met um on how many students were accepted and how many applications were received. Thank you. Finance and facilities chair Mr. Connor. Um we have not had a meeting um since um we came up with the proposal with the TC Miller proposal and then the joint meetings with the city council. Um we're going to be scheduling one very shortly. Um I'm looking at the 13th
112right now. It's Tuesday. Um and we're going to be looking at some facilities and hopefully we'll have some numbers. Um I think the city finance committee meeting today. I think the governor has released his budget. So hopefully we'll be able to actually look at look and do some um planning facilities planning for this upcoming summer season. Thank you. LCR chair, Mr. Jal. We have our next meeting on May 20th at 3:30 p.m. and we'll be discussing some of the different um bills that we approve or disapprove of. Thank you. Thank you. Academic Success Committee Chair, Mrs. Lowry. Our next meeting is May 27th. Um our last meeting we discussed PD literacy coaches math schedules, teacher treasure box um on which is ongoing development. Um still waiting on the math um adoption from the VDOE. Um
113two centers joining senior night and the preschool testing and we also have a schedule bring next time for the test the testing schedule. Thank you. Next one is PI Mr. Andrews and Dr. Tinsley. No change to what we reported last time. We're still waiting till June for our next meeting. Thank you. Next is Ed Foundation, Mr. Depal and Mr. Jal. There's been no liazing. I like that. I like that Sunday. They had a very nice uh senior honor dinner. It's very nice. It's a wonderful thing to see our high school graduates being honored. Next one is become hope. Mr. Andrews and Mrs. Preston. I have nothing to report. No leaison. What did you say? No leazing took placeing took place. Thank you. Next one is superintendent comment. Dr. Copelan. Good evening everyone. I'll be brief.
114Uh about four weeks of school left to go and as our seniors this evening alluded to AP testing is in full swing and so testing. Uh graduation please put on your calendars is Sunday June the 8th. 2 pm and 6 pm um at the Vine Center on the campus of Liberty University. Um and if you have time this weekend, please go see Foot Loose at EC Glass. Uh they will close the show. I think that is the last performing arts show of the season or for the school year. Uh those students have worked hard. Uh so please support them uh if you have time this weekend to see the show. That's all I have. What times did you say the two times for the graduations were? 2 p.m. is heritage and six is class. Thank
115you, Dr. Copelan. Next one is board comment. Mr. Connor, no comments, Mr. J. Thank you. Um, the 2025 Virginia History Day contest special award winners had some in LCS. There are winners all over the state and one was Brenton S. Haley teaching excellent award. Darington Elementary School teacher Janet Bates, uh, Virginia History Day District Teacher of the Year Award, Michael Bronzemer, Paul Lawrence Dunar Middle School for Innovation, Bromer. Also on April 26th, exhibit winners, we had uh fourth place Raison Vasquez, Virginia Blair of Lynhorn Middle School, teacher Tristan Burke for loving verse Virginia, the right to love. We had another fourth placer, uh, Cameron Horesley, Jacob Jacobe Good, Keegan Bush of Darington Elementary for their writing, Jackie Robinson. The teacher is Janet Bates. We have another fourth place winner, different category for Leo Cudlick for
116Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, teacher Janet Bates. Again, we had a second place winner, Harmony Spinner, Josie Hall, Waverly Thomasy, Eleanor Fontaine, Eve Flavin for writing Davis versus City School Board of Edward, Edward County, teachers Tristan Burke and Trey Young Griffin. And we did have a first place winner for writing the writing the rise I say writing but it's a pres presentation the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall area googla Mac Morrison Clayton Cox of Linkhorn Middle School with teacher Tay Young Griffin. Thank you. Next one is Mr. Andrews. Uh, happy teacher appreciation week to all teachers out there. Um, and to council, we really need that 5.5 million. So, come on. Come on through with it. Need it. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. D. No comment. Thank you, Mrs. Preston. I I agree
117with with what um Mr. Andrew said. This is teacher appreciation week, and we really do need to to show our appreciation to teachers. That is one of the hardest jobs ever. Requires a lot of time, energy, and and dedication. And most teachers aren't in it for the money. They obviously need money to to survive, but they're in it because they love kids and because they want what's best for them. And when we see students like the ones we've seen here in the last few days, we recognize what what a difference a good teacher can make in a child's life. So, thank you for all that you do. She stole my thunder. Exactly what I would have said. Mr. Thank you, Mrs. Larry. I want to say thank you to all the teachers and administration for
118all you do. You are so very appreciated. The students of LCS are better because you pour yourselves into their lives through education and so much more. And congratulations to all the teachers recognized for inspiring students at the Governor School and Honor Society. And thank you Don Weise and Education Foundation for helping the students with their next steps. Um, thank you to Randy Dutton who with the Legacy Center for the most recent six CCPS graduates who successfully employed were employed earning60 to $70,000 a year from ages 18 to 20. That is just amazing. Um, you're truly an asset to our LCS students. So, thank you everyone. Thank you, Dr. Tinsley. Yeah, and just yeah, reiterate what everyone else is saying, but thank you to the teachers. It's it's wonderful to have such a great group of
119folks out there leading our children into the future. And um Mr. Julio, thank you for reading those names. I had sent those to Dr. Copelan and you stole my thunder. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any comments. So, next is close session. Let me read it. The school board chair recommends school board approve a motion to convene a closed meeting to discuss the following as permitted by the Virginia Code 2.2- 2-3711 A1 personal matter involving discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for the superintendent position and the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, discipline, or resignation of specific Lynchburg City School personnel. Is there a motion motion to go into close session? Second. Would you please call the role, madam? Mr. Carter, yes. Mr. Gio, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Day, yes. Dr.
120Gen. Yes. Mrs. Preston. Yes. Mr. Depal. Yes. Mrs. Lori. Yes. Yes. Thank you. We'll go upstairs. [Music]