LCS School Board Meeting: April 1, 2025

001I a to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you Dr day uh agenda approval is there a motion to approve the agenda approval for public hearing and board meeting so who Moved second uh Dr Tinsley and Mrs Lowry any discussion would you please call the RO Mr Conor yes Mr J yes Mr Andrews we'll come back yes yes Dr yes Mrs yes yes yes dry yes motion carries next one is fiscal year 2526 School Board uh budget public hearing Dr D yes um I want to first of all explain we've got several public hearings coming up we have two this evening this public hearing which we're about to begin is the legally required public hearing for comments on the LCS school

002budget for fiscal year 20 26 if you have any non-budget related comments you can save those for the general public comment period which will come a little bit later in this evening's agenda and then a week from tonight there will be another public hearing session dealing specifically with um The Proposal that we're going to hear from the facilities and finance committee at tonight's meeting as well the this public comment period which we're about to begin specifically for comments pertaining to the budget okay um now on the signup sheet I have only one name listed Mrs carlen lens and as a representative of a group she has five minutes hello School Board um here we are again another budget season um I know how frustrating the budget seasons are I have to say before I got

003involved with saor schools I had no idea how frustrating the budget seasons were my kids went to school they came home from school and that was all that I knew um but as you guys know we've been advocating for the last 18 months to get more budget it saddens my heart that we're talking about not getting the 5.5 million dollar needed for the operating budget for next year we will continue to fight for that um I think those of you who spoke up during the joint meeting and really spoke out for our public education system Dr Copeland I agree wholeheartedly that if we do not get the funds we need for our schools that our city will be harmed I know there are many things that are outside of our control that are outside of

004your control when it comes to budget but there are few things that are inside your control one of them is communication I was thinking about this the other day as I was driving both of my children to high school and middle school at the same time much to my middle school or sugarin last year you guys changed the time school starts it's inconvenient don't love it but the communication with that was great we were asked for input we were communicated with that it could happen and then when it happened we were given a video frequently asked questions were already there I could find out that my middle schooler is not going to sit with a senior in high school I got to know that the reason we did this is because we had to save

005funds and that we had to be able to get kids to school consistently it's inconvenient I don't love it but the communication was there and as far as I'm aware you didn't see a whole bunch of parents showing up here being upset about it because they understood the why as you move into this budget season I know you have to make really hard decisions decisions that are going to affect a lot of families which leads me to my next Point while you're looking at the dollars and cents do not forget your mission every child by name and by need through graduation as you look at possibly rezoning kids are there fifth graders that have been there K through five and you're going to switch them the last year are you looking at them individually are

006you looking at the families who might be impacted by going to Bass that's a big change for a family going from a normal to a you know yearr situation are you looking at every child not as how much they cost the system but for who they are the children who Thrive with Innovation at TC Miller if you make that decision to close will they get to thrive somewhere else with musicals will they get to have a drum line like RS pain does will they get to find a place where they come alive you have incredibly difficult decisions to make I don't envy your position at all but I do ask that as you look at dollars and cents you don't forget what they're connected to you don't forget who they're connected to and that you

007don't do it in the dark that you do it in the light of day because when parents understand when the community understands what you're doing it's so much easier to get behind you but feeling like we're always waiting for the other shoe to drop that causes distrust and it doesn't ultimately at the end serve the very people I believe you came here to serve the very people I continue to advocate for the children of our city thank you are there any other people here who did not sign up to talk about budget related issues this evening if not we will any emails are there any emails no sir or voicemails no sir is there a motion to close the public motion second would you please call rooll Mr Conor yes Mr Jal yes Mr Andrews

008yes Dr day yes Dr G yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes Dr ttin yes motion car thank you next one is U chair comments I was not going to say anything but I'm going to make one statement this school district runs on fuel and the fuel is money 85% of our cost is human resource and we have to give money raises to our teachers and staff but they are just like us they go to normal grocery stores and price of everything has gone up our minimum wage for lynchb School Employees is $15 was last three years Mr Andrews you are the witness we've been bringing up that goal of $17 but we were not able to do that because the money supply yes sir the money supply is not coming from

009across the street we were trying to make our teachers minimum $50,000 that has not happened because we didn't have the money it it doesn't mean the school board doesn't want to do it but our hands are tied we don't have the purse in our hand uh but we are committed to providing a quality learn environment that's what we are all about we tightened up the policies discipline policies last year and now we are in process of enforcing them to make sure they are enforced through I'm looking at the chair of the discipline committee Mr Connor to make sure the enforcement is there and we are able to provide a safe learning environment for students as well as a teaching environment for teachers um that's all I needed to say did you want me to say

010yes go ahead dror you wanted to say some parliamentary procedure go ahead sir well yeah I was asked to U make some comments specifically for the chairs of our various committees uh please respect the distinction between members and non-members or guests at your meetings only appointed members and your parent liaison may vote and if you're meeting in this room um uh only actual members designated liaison and relevant LCS staff should be seated here here at the dis all others including board members who are not committee members should be seated in the chairs for the public and should not interrupt the committee meetings they should be allowed to speak only at the invitation of the committee chair if you are meeting in room 206 upstairs of course there's no separate dis but you should still maintain

011the distinction between legitimate members and staff and those who are only there to observe thank you Dr uh next one is presentation of plaque of commemoration of 160 years of public education back to you Dr and Dr is you doing either one of you well I believe Dr Potter is here to um make this presentation so please Dr you want to say something I'm leaving to Dr Potter we've known Dr Porter for years we were colleagues and I have a hand up for you I come to make you a gift this September will Mark the 160th anniversary of the public school system in Lynchburg now the state of Virginia did not uh approve public education until 1870 we had public schools in Lynchburg 5 years before the rest of the state thanks to General Curtis

012who was the commander of the Lynchburg district and uh the son of Union Veterans of which I'm a member would like to donate to the um LCS a plaque commemorating that moment in time when we established our first public schools and that's why I'm here tonight it's not going to cost you a penny it's a gift and um by the way I might mention that the first teachers were not paid by the city because they were Union soldiers and the government paid their salaries they had been teachers Before the War Began and they were put back in the classroom uh by Dr by General Curtis any any questions you you'd like to ask is this the the that's the wording for the plaque yeah and that lists the first uh superintendent and the first members

013of the first school board very nice by the way I'm a product of the LCS thank you I entered school here 80 years ago this September and the education I obtained in Lynchburg carried me all the way to Oxford University so somebody's doing something right questions any question how does the sons of Li of the veterans um operate in town what do they we are it's a fraternal organization made up of descendants of Union Soldiers I'm a descendant of two Union Officers and uh we have spent the LA almost the last 20 years uh erecting uh monuments marking Graves and um I just published a book on the p camp that was here in Lynchburg for Union Soldiers so we're a fraternal organization that dates back to the period immediately after of the war Dr

014Potter where was that prisoner war camp located where EC glass is located uh I mentioned that to the one of the former principles that it was the closest thing I'd ever come to being a prisoner of war when I spent and she also was a graduate she said I feel the same way I wonder how our curtain students feel thank you Dr you need Applause I will tell Mr Bayer who's also an EC grass graduate to go ahead and order the plaque yes sir thank you very much thank you Dr po next one is excellence in skci scholarship Dr cop I'll call Don wise to the podium for the introduction and description of the momentous day day big plaque chairperson Gupta Vice chair day and school board members good evening my name is Da wise

015and I'm the executive director of the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation and I am so excited to be here to announce the 2025 Lynchburg City Schools excellence in science scholarship recipient to share a little history about the Excellence and science scholarship in the fall of 2013 Dr Charles prior and his family announced their initial funding of a scholarship to be awarded to an outstanding senior interest in entering an engineering related field of study and 12 years later this scholarship continues today and has been expanded to include the broader science fields and lives at the LCS Education Foundation as its Fiscal Agent I would first like to speak a little bit bit about Charlie and why this scholarship is so important to him and to this division Dr prior is a graduate of Virginia Tech and

016EC glass high school he earned his bachelor degree in civil engineering in 1966 and by 1968 he had his Masters and two years later his Doctorate in Structural Engineering after finishing his education he served as president and CEO of Westinghouse Energy Systems and Westinghouse Electric Company president and CEO of British nuclear fuels utilities business group president and CEO of bnw nuclear technologies and chairman of the bnw nuclear fuel company additionally Charlie has a long history of valuing and supporting public education and Walla Lynchberg has served as a member of the Lynchberg City School Board and past chairman of the partners in education program at this time and he's way back there I would like to invite Charlie prior to offer some remarks about his vision for and the importance of this scholarship thank you Donn

017and the you school board members thank you very much for the awesome responsibility you take on I don't know of any more important task than the education of the Youth of our community frankly uh I'm just blessed to uh have been surrounded by the partners in education program and Before Dawn Jody Gillette and now Dawn and I guess this is our 13th Award winner and when I had lunch with Charlie White and Scott Bray brand uh years ago we at Westinghouse sponsored something called a science scholarship nationally and we gave a million dollars to that scholarship and I just had the idea I said would it make Lynchberg City Schools unique if we had such a science scholarship program here couldn't swing the million dooll level but could at least get it started and Scott

018was very enthusiastic about it and we got it started and I'm just so pleased and proud of the program and all of the 13 winners of that award they have gone on into uh walks of life where they've excelled and been leaders our first winner turned out to be the valedictorian at NC State not not just engineering the entire school that was Sam fedler he was our first winner of that so that's the caliber of kids that are applying and winning and I'm told that this year the applications included uh the two number one students at Heritage and class so I'm really thrilled that there's an interest that kind of interest in the program and it's kept going so I thank you for your hard work here and thank you for supporting this program thank

019you Mr thank you Charlie Charlie has always had a hope that the winner of this scholarship would go on to do great things in science or engineering But ultimately would bring those talents back to Lynchberg helping to continue to make our town a leader in science and engineering related Industries and much of the reason our community is at the Forefront of the science and engineering field is thanks to our other longstanding sponsor of the scholarship bwx Technologies who has been the lead sponsor for the past six years and who shares and Embraces Charlie's vision for our city our students and our Workforce and I would like to invite Nat Marshall bwxt community relations manager to offer a few remarks good afternoon good afternoon I appreciate the opportunity to come and say a few words U

020it's one of those things where with Charlie with all those accolades and all that it was sort of like Charlie Prior and and the other guy not the other guy so bwxt you know when Charlie asked I don't know if we had a real choice of not supporting this but as you may those who have been Affiliated and know the the community and all the things that are going on bwxt has doubled and tripled it's uh opportunity and chance to really get out into the community and do things so had the opportunity to sit with a number of you on partisan Ed um many folks will see us at many if not most of the career Affairs uh we are simply out here trying to make sure that uh our young people have the opportunity

021to do the very best that they can and we know that the city will provide that opportunity um there's something called and I've sat in several meetings with the superintendent in regards to a program called Lynchburg Area Youth Sports initiative so there's so many things that we can do and certainly bwxt wants to be a part of it so here we are and appreciate the opportunity to speak for a moment and we look forward to our young people doing great things in our community and the world so thank you thank you thank I've had the privilege of working with Nat and B bwxt for over 10 years in other capacities and I've been able to witness firsthand the incredible commitment to our City's students and youth that this company company demonstrates every day through their

022core values of people innovation responsibility and the fitting fourth pillar of Excellence thank you again to Nat and bwxt and our recipient this year was also an intern at bwxt with uh with uh their environmental Engineers which is kind of cool so now on to our recipient a little bit about the requirements for this scholarship it is awarded to the top senior science student as determined by a comprehensive application process to someone with outstanding grades in science and engineering related courses who demonstrates a deep passion for science or engineering ing who has created and mastered available science and engineering opportunities and who has a strong science engineering vision for their future this process require requires a written application a letter of interest three letters of recommendation an official transcript and three an three essays to

023help gain greater applicant Insight from this scoring process the top violinist or deterent determined and complete a 30-minute in-person interview with the scholarship selection committee where there asked an established set of questions so who best meets the profile of an excellence and science scholarship recipient this year's recipient is an outstanding gra graduating senior from EC glass who also attends Central Virginia governor School in addition to their impressive academic achievements also participates in a broad range of extracurricular activities including my favorite being a Girl Scout Ambassador who are defined as Innovative thinkers and optimists and have the ability to bring people together most notably in 2024 they were the grand award international science fair finalist at the highly competitive Virginia state and Engineering fair and were just one of two fi students selected to represent Central

024Virginia at the regeneron international science and engineering engineering fair in Los Angeles but there were two things that set our finalist apart from the rest one was their essay the true desire to help change the world echoed throughout and I quote I always get emotional sorry Environmental Conservation is an issue I care deeply about and I am enthusiastic about finding solutions to environmental problems I've been captivated by the environment for as long as I can remember because Nature has always felt like home time spent outside splashing the water or trekking mountains with my family nurtured a deep appreciation and curiosity for the natural world in fact one of the strongest attributes my parents instilled to me was curiosity and as I learned more about the amazing world I also learned about all the negatives as

025a very empathetic yet strongly opinionated child I didn't understand why people do things that know they hurt the Earth or other people the other thing that sets cian apart was their interview particularly the question where we asked what their education academic future goals are and people can talk about college Beyond if they want to go backpacking or whatever so they're asked to talk about college but even go beyond that they immediately burst into an excited Smile as they rapid fire spoke about their plan to First complete their studies in environmental science at George Mason University then to join the US Coast Guard as an officer and a science scientist in the response sector focusing on humanitarian environmental crisis and then after fulfilling a 5-year service commitment they plan to pursue a master's degree in the

026environmental field and after a career in a role focused on Watership protection and Environmental Management would like to eventually return to school for their doctorate preferably focusing on environmental and Watershed sustainability that's a lot okay of course all the finalists had similar incredible goals and plans but the moment we knew this was our winner was when after all of this had Spilled Out and they let out a big contented sigh Shrugged and like a true scientist stated of course I know all of those plans may change and I am determined to adapt this year's recipient embodies the very essence of what this scholarship was designed to honor it is indeed my privilege to announce the 2025 lynchb City School's excellence and science scholarship recipient Linley Eleanor Crosby congratulations so you have to suffer here for

027just a few minutes you continue now a member of a long line of excellence and science Award winners okay I'll offer you a piece of advice don't give up on that Coast Guard career because they had this thing called the Naval Postgraduate school and you might be able to get your environmental science master's degree Andor doctorate courtesy of the US military I went to the na Postgraduate School and have a master's degree from there so don't give up on it there's opportunities there but congratulations this is an amazing award you'll go to Great y'all get the first picture she did she go go okay did you get one of me already yes I'm good congratulations is there anything you'd like to say to the I'm going to keep it short but um I just wanted

028to say it's such an honor to receive this scholarship I want to thank the prior family and bwxt as well as all of my teachers for allowing me and other students to go above and beyond in the field of science good thank you the board wants to get a picture with you if you don't mind so they really put you in the center of the room for this the Horseshoe Dr Smith you welcome to come Che please do I'm just here do that in the picturee I'm good this is the board's picture Dr can you come I can't can't see you thank you thank you thank you thank you sir how you said congratulations that's that's very nice wonderful next one is um student representative drop student representative comments good evening everyone we'll start with

029Miss White at EC glass this week um all right good evening everyone um we're finally getting into April spring break is coming up soon um but I just wanted to give an update on our EC glass EC glass spring teams and their most recent performances um boys and girls outdoor track is competing I believe yeah it's tonight at um rberg high school so best of luck to all our athletes varsity baseball currently holds a 4-1 record and JV baseball stands at 2-2 Boys Tennis is going to face Liberty Christian Academy this Thursday April 3rd while girl girls tennis is going to also play against LCA but at home on the same day um boys soccer is off to a really strong start uh with a 2-0 record boys JV soccer holds a record of 1

030and one and0 and girls varsity soccer is currently undefeated with a 3 and0 record boys vars lacrosse stands at one and one and their JV team has a game upcoming on April 10th against William bird um and girls varsity lacrosse is also undefeated uh with a two and0 record so great job to the lady Hill Toppers and everyone else for their hard work and dedication so I'm excited to see how the rest of the season goes for everyone um I'm excited to share an update about this year's senior art show at glass um the open call for submissions is now open and open which invites all senior artists to submit one to three pieces for consideration and uh the special highlight is going to be hosted at the Academy center of the Arts um the

031guidelines only current EC glass seniors can submit 2D and 3D pieces are going to be accepted and um the work is not limited to what's created within EC glass so students can submit independent pieces as well um we also in more art news we'd like to take a moment to recognize um 10 outstanding EC glass Arts students who have been selected for the annual LCS youth art show at the Academy center of the Arts um this is an amazing achievement and their artwork has been on display uh well I guess not anymore it was till the end of March so but if any of you were able to see it I'm sure you all loved it I'm sorry it's not up anymore but congratulations to Anna ye Carson KH Ella Stowers Emanuel Watson Maron Albert

032uh Jasmine Ford Rowena Phillips Ren cook Juliet Dopp and Casper Dudley and I told you I was going to have these pictures this month and our seniors had a really fun time celebrating their Journey towards graduation at Fun Quest um and it was a really great opportunity for everybody to relax and have fun and just enjoy their time together as they kind of approach their exciting milestone for graduation um Dr rule even took a few laps around the roller skating rink so that was a great sight to see um we got to play laser tag play in the arcade it was a really fun experience we had a great time good good and I know the pictures aren't up but I can still Dr me okay um on March 29th uh student council held a

033pep rally to kind of build up some school spirit as we're in the spring season um our very own Naji Ford from the hip-hop program he kind of did the soundtrack and djed the whole event which was a lot of fun um the marching band was also there doing some live music and that was a lot of fun we had a surprise flash mob performance from the cast of foot loose so we got to see a little sneak peek of that that was so much fun they were all really really talented great dancing um and it was a really well organized event oh there we go pictures you can see the cast of foot loots dancing in their hats it was so much fun um and so I'm thank you to everyone who participated and

034made this success great job to student council um The Crest yearbook I'm actually on yearbook staff so this means so much to me but it's officially been submitted and it's ready for pre-order and this doesn't really apply to as many people here but if you want to buy a yearbook you can order it at um yearbookordercenter.com and the school code is 10464 and the cost is only $65 which may seem like a lot but it's a lot cheaper than other schools around us some schools sell it for 80 but we worked really hard on it and it's it's really fun and I'm very proud of it um we have some great achievements in forensics uh they went to the vhsl class 4 state championship omry Dopp is official the officially the class 4 oratory state

035champion uh with a really incredible performance Sophia halps is a three-time class 4 state championship and she actually did her poetry pieces for one of my classes and she's super super talented um Linley Crosby who actually just won the award and um Harper weeby they earned third place in humorous Duo I've heard that that one's amazing as well and the team as a whole is officially the vhsl class 4 speech runner up so congratulations to the forensics team and um a quick moment to recognize a super talented student at EC glass um senior Isaac Harden who earned a spot in the all Virginia honors Orchestra placing 13th out of 126 violinists to audition and this is a really great accomplishment um because everyone at the everyone at the audition pool had already qualified for senior

036Regional Orchestra making it like best in the state kind of competition so we're so proud of him and yeah can't wait to see what else he does with his music and then congratulations to our skills USA students for their outstanding performance at District competitions next week um and all of these students have been are qualified to advance to the state leadership conference in ronoke on April 5th so congratulations to Betsy wood Weston Dixon Matthew cowy and Colin Reena and this is um we're excited to see what they do in ronoke and good luck to them and then last but not least our dental program recently attended the hsoa conference um providing them with a lot of really valuable opportunities to get hands-on experience uh and expand their knowledge in the field of oral health they

037were able to talk with industry professionals explore new um advancements in dental care and gain a lot of insight that's going to help them as they continue on with the dental path and so big thank you for instructors and students for representing e glass so well at the event and that's all I've got this month so thank you so much very nice thank you Miss White Miss Hester what's going on at Heritage High School um theyve had a great month this month um our Pioneer um harmonizer choir they went on a trip to Washington DC this past weekend it was a great opportunity for students um like full of many activities such as touring and taking a coral master class at George Mason University seeing Broadway shows baseball game and sightseeing to many popular monuments

038and museums I really wish I could have gone on that trip it seemed so cool and everybody was just raving about it when they came back to school um spring Sports um our boys barity soccer um team has a current record of 1 to two our girls varsity has the same record at one to two and our boys varsity baseball team has a current record of 0 to five but they're working very hard so I can't wait to watch our next game Boys Tennis has a current record of single 0 to2 and double 0 to2 I think and girls tennis has a current record of singles six and oh which they that's amazing and double 0 to two um athletic spotlights the girls track team were at the 2025 Adidas track Nationals and were the

039national runner up and all Americans for the girls 4X 55 M uh shuttle hurdle relay congratulations to Eliana bradner bana tun um Ayanna Johnson and Jayla Benjamin they're just so incredible I love watching them compete every single time um scholarship Spotlight congratulations to seniors aami Ward and sier Hester who both won a second place scholarship award from The Martin Luther King Jr Lindburg Community Council thank you to the m o KJ LCC for your continued support for our students and great job once again ladies so here are some shout outs to some amazing staff members Miss Wiis our theater Tech teacher had the opportunity to speak about the importance of Arts education during the morning breakfast with the superintendent on March the 13th Mr Drumheller won the Science teaching award this past week from Randolph

040College and Mr Sullivan our athletic trainer was spotlighted for his outstanding work with always ensuring athletic our athletes my bad stayed safe and performing at their best during many competitions this season so thank you to all of them for their hardw work um our heritage drill team the Heritage drill team on March 8th won second place overall at the henrio county drill meet at um the school and the individual armed knockout Jamie jarder bro took first place Avery prior took second place and for their personal inspection they took home third place they also took home second place for color guard and third place un armed platoon congratulations to the team and great job mechatronics this is awesome to see I was able to see it this week this past week the cbcc um mechatronics team

041provided a Hands-On learning experience for students during future Friday last week students learned about the megatronics program as well as other CTE programs um opportunities at cbcc while exploring Vex robotics circuits and electricity thank you so much for to the cbcc team for making this opportunity so much fun it was awesome to see like the robots and stuff move around the school it was just so cool um thank you a huge shout out to Mr Clemens our amazing LCS social worker Mr Clemens won the VA school social worker of the Year thank you for how you have taken such great care of your students thank you and have a great day in number one big orange country thank you thank you both next one is public comments Dr D thank you so this is now

042our general public comment period um we only have one speaker signed up so I don't know that I need to read the full policy statement I just remind you that individuals have three minutes to speak but if you represent a group and explain that to us at the beginning then you can have five minutes um uh the one speaker who signed up is April Watson right good evening my name is April Watson I'm a Lynchberg City School's parent I have two kids that are currently enrolled in Lynchberg City Schools middle schooler and a high schooler no Elementary and Middle School not there yet I'm here tonight to address a concern specifically in reference to Schoolboard policy KF distribution of information and materials you'll recall that earlier this year we celebrated Constitution Day on September 17th

0432024 there's a lovely post on social media of kids smiling with their constitutions and activities that they did all day long um I later that week a few days later I saw my child's constitution in his binder picked it up to look through it to ask him about it to talk to him about it and I noticed that it's um takes me there's a QR code on the back that takes me directly to a website www.net.org um and the more I looked on that website there were there was information about fundraisers for political candidates such as Mark Robinson for lieutenant excuse me for North Carolina lieutenant governor agala Mara Lago uh club and other politically motivated um other politically motivated information and and and even more uh section KF of the Schoolboard policy states materials

044from nonprofit Community organ organizations approved for dis excuse me for distribution must clearly indicate their source and must include the following statement these materials and the activity described herein are not sponsored or endorsed by the Lynchburg City School Board that disclaimer was not printed on the Constitutions distributed to many of our elementary and middle school students the 9917 society has ties to moms for Liberty which is identified as a hate Group by the southern Poverty Law Center other school districts across the country have voted not to accept these specific constitutions and I don't think most parents would have an issue with a basic Constitution I know I certainly wouldn't um however this um this school board accepted this donation and it doesn't appear that there was any potentially any vetting um the following month October

045my elementary school student brought home a packet of materials from the Lynchburg fire department super appropriate fire safety material the discl disclaimer was present on every item in the packet December I was working with another Elementary School to prepare for a fundraiser we received a donation of approximately 500 books however we could not use those books for the fundraiser because there wasn't enough time or manpower to have each individual book reviewed prior to the fundraiser beginning um this past March you all I'm sure heard about the amazing local readathon that many of our schools participated in um one specific Elementary School received an amazing donation um every single one of the students in that school was going to get Space Chasers um a book written by our local amazing astronaut Leland Melvin um and there

046was a little bit of there was a pause perod obviously that book had to be reviewed um before those could be given out and then ultimately I believe that did happen um but I just I want to leave you all with a story about a young person from our community teen pregnancy was common in her family so much so that it was her goal to be the first person to graduate in her family without being pregnant or a teen rou parent she didn't have a safe reliable person to talk to or to learn from her only option was to go to her local library and to to learn how to get pregnant or how not to get pregnant but that's something that she had access to um when we put restri on books and limit

047what people have access to sometimes we cut off the very information that may keep them from moving forward and I only say that to say um I think when we do have things I think obviously there are processes that that are that are happening or not happening please just do your diligence and don't make it harder to access information thank you um are there any individuals who also wanted to make public comments who did not sign up yes onee okay um on the left here first good evening sorry for my hobble um my name is Laticia Rodriguez I am a Lynchberg City School parent and have addressed the board in the past um I am a transplant from the state of Florida to Lynchberg I sent an email on March the 19th after hearing about

048the potential closure again of TC Miller to Dr Copeland um I'd like to read the email if that's okay Dr Copeland thank you dear Dr Copeland I am reaching out to you today because it came as a shock to me to read the news this morning and find that there was a proposal once again to close down TC Miller as an elementary school I moved here in July of 2024 and sought after DC Miller specifically for my child my child can academically perform better when she is in a performing arts school after extensive research of the surrounding schools and the schools within her Zone I chose to apply like many others to TC Miller for its offerings I applied while out of state to secure her spot because we knew the school would be the

049best for her to constantly hear that the school is looking to be closed makes me feel like our move was in vain and I should leave the L B area I am sure that there are many other parents within the school that can understand this pain I'm sorry feel this pain the uncertainty of what this school is facing not only jeopardizes the academic performance of those students but the relationships and bonds that they have made during their time here it impacts the tenure of the teachers that have decided and or chose to work at TC Miller and the hard work of the staff and principal that has been put into the school trying to keep it alive I am not not sure if you are aware but Lynchberg does not offer many options when it

050comes to ENT Elementary School grade facilities Walking The Halls of the school as a parent Walking The Halls of the school as an educator and Walking The Halls of the school as just a neighbor will make you understand why keeping schools like this and this around and very much necessary it is not all about testing growth it is more than just a grade having an option for violin classes Performing Arts stage options and other extracurricular activities for students helps to open their mind of the possibility of what their future can hold if this is all for the sake of budgeting and not in the best interest of the students who will receive the greatest impact I beseech you and the board to take a more human look at other options available or to attend the

051schools yourself I'd like to add briefly that the school is a three- floor school and to look at it for prek students going up and down the stairs I'm not sure that that is viable for three and four year olds the other thing is if I wanted to apply for my child to go to the other Innovation school this announcement came after the deadline so I don't have many options thank you thank you now was there someone else that'll be the last one don't take what we don't take people who have not signed that I've already invited hello my name is Maisha Miller and I have the privilege of being both a staff member and a parent at TC Miller I was heartbroken when I learned this school might close when my children and I

052relocated from North Carolina I face the same question every parent does where would my kids be safe supported and inspired I prayed about it did my research and asked around town every sign pointed to TC Miller when we tour the school we all felt it this was home the atmosphere was so inviting I would never forget how Miss kimona greeted us with her warm kind Spirit it made us feel like we belong from the very start Miss Pan's bright cheeky energy reminded us of home and it was clear TC Miller had a unique Vibe Mrs Rose all always Mission driven showed her deep commitment to making a difference in students lives she she knows her kids and it's evident how much she loves them the way she engaged my children from day one was unlike

053any principle I've known she didn't just offer a formal greement she genuinely wanted to understand who they were it felt as though she was not only determining if there would be a good fit with the school but also ensuring the school was the right fit for them right then I knew that if she didn't consider me for the position I'll do whatever it took to make sure that my kids were able to call TC Mela home and they felt the same way this is why I am fighting the move to close the school my son Jaden had never had a school to call home he went to school he just did not consider it a place where he wanted to learn he didn't like he didn't just dislike school he loved it he cried pretending

054to be sick many times and I cried because I didn't know what else to do as a parent or how to help him he felt inadequate and couldn't keep up but now he joined the library Club he begged me to get to school early every morning every evening he says I can't wait for school tomorrow excited to share everything he's learning in class my daughter she's the same way um it was interesting learning about Maggie Walker in her Penny Bank she's in first grade and she's telling me all historical facts when she comes home and that's just a few students story there are 168 more who call T TC mol we may be small but we are not insignificant we matter tach Miller is more than just a school it's a family our teachers don't

055just show up they pour their hearts out into every lesson every challenge every setback even the face of uncertainty and the looming threat of closure yeah thank you it isn't just where we work but it's where our kids learn and it's where we belong thank you thank you and I think there was one more person please I wasn't planning to speak so I'm really nervous I don't have any notes or anything I do have a question is it okay to say positive things about people by name of course that's allowed you need to check no you can say we we cannot comment on any of those things I'm sorry we cannot respond the policy says uh you may not make comments about a public official or employee that are not related to the public official

056or employees official duties so if your comments are related to their I got some stuff to tell you guys um please identify yourself yeah my name is Joan Lewis Yoder I'm a former LCS teacher at darington very proud of that school loved it taught at Heritage High School for a couple years know some of you from there um so I'm a former teacher and and uh you know I would love to talk you all with you all about why that is um but I want to tell you about some awesome things that happen at darington um when you were talking about the history day do you guys know that one of the darington teachers won a prize at History Day for being an outstanding history teacher she has made sure that every one of her

057students has done a history project this year it wasn't all of them but she's got like different groups going to States they won first and that's Janet Bates and you should know her name and hopefully you do I think you all know Mr Jam brone he is amazing he is fantastic now if you think about what this woman just said about the experience that her son's had at TC Miller That's powerful that's lifechanging and she told you who deserves credit for it it's those teachers now you can ask Miss roads another incredible employee of LCS long time serving these students you can ask her how many teachers she got to keep what was the loss to LCS after the mess of last year in TC Miller the loss of talented dedicated staff and as you

058consider the changes that you're going to make tonight and the impact they're going to have on other schools and why you first said we're going to close darington last year and then took a look at saw how strong that school is it's because of the leadership of people like Kelly bivv the people like Jason jamb Bron and those teachers there like Miss Bates it's their leadership and you changed your minds about closing darington but TC Miller also had amazing staff and what did you do to make sure we retained them please look at your human resource numbers please look at the percentage of teachers you have who are not licensed right now I did not get my license in a traditional manner I have nothing against that it is okay you can be a great

059teacher and not go traditional route but they need help thank thank you are there any voicemails or emails Mr s right okay thank you Dr Day mhm next is consent agenda is there a motion to approve consent agenda mov yeah is there anything in the consent agenda oh yeah there is sorry Dr Tinsley and second to the motion I'll second it Dr Day mam cler would you please call the RO Mr Conor yes Mr J no Mr Andrews yes yes Dr D yes Dr gter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lor yes Dr tanley yes motion carries it to one thank you next one is finance report uh Dr copin turn over to our CFO good evening chairman Gupta members of the board and Dr copelan thank you for the opportunity to address

060you I will be brief in my remarks this evening because we have a big agenda and it's a beautiful evening so um hopefully we can get out soon and enjoy it you have before you the February 28th uh 2025 monthin Financial as of February it marks 66.67% of the fiscal year passing it is flying by folks uh the percent of revenues collected versus original appropriation is standing at 54.96 per year-to date and the amount of expenditures versus original appropriation is 6.99% year to date and the total expenditures inclusive of encumbrances which may or may not be spent throughout the rest of the fiscal year uh equates to 93.8% I am happy to report there are no new notable variances for the month and we have Whitted away the variances from prior months I will note

061them but they are we only have three outstanding um variances from prior months that we have not uh that we are still processing through uh one is the attendance and Health Services Personnel that line stands at 107.0 we are working at moving some expenditures and right sizing where those positions belong um and the second one is function 4600 Security Services other they are just over the 100% Mark at 100 66 those are related to our very important uh security features like Raptor and sonitrol and other uh expenses related to the the safety of our students and then the third one is function 8100 which is technology classroom instruction they have significantly um used a a good portion of the budget and they're resting at 2 23.52% but those expenses are related to the software that

062we provide students in their learning capacity so if we're going to overspend in any budget line I would prefer that it be on our students and providing them with the tools that they need to learn so um uh on our statement of Revenue our uh Revenue collections our state are coming in at 6011 per. our federal are coming in at 29.95 and our local took a jump and they're coming in at 45.8 1% respectively we have uh on our miscellaneous we have collected um 1211 n% of what we had budgeted go us and our charges for service rest at 87.8% of what we had budgeted so on our monthly uh report our summary report for health insurance at the time of this um report that I had to provide to you our insurance health insurance

063balances weren't completed for February those calculations will rep will be reported in subsequent reports but I have a little information for you on uh the insurance route I'll be attending a Consortium uh Insurance meeting for Regions 5 six and 7 on April 9th the purpose of this meeting is to Garner interest and developing a regional Consortium uh model or join an existing group Rono county has agreed to host the meeting so I will be coming back from that meeting and Reporting what I have learned um and what uh trajectory we potentially will take uh to the facilities and finance committee um so I will at this time entertain any questions that you have question from M JS thank you very much thank you I like the idea of Consortium Dr warka remember talked about a

064couple of years ago so anything we can do to reduce the cost of healthcare absolutely sir absolutely next one is 25 26 budget discussion Dr Copeland and our chair of finance committee Mr Connors so I'll start this off let Mr Connor fill in the gaps or Miss chamus uh if I missed something so uh it's just a quick update for everybody uh we requested $5.5 million from the city Uh current budget numbers have $ 2.71 million so roughly 50% of what we requested uh the governor uh sent the budget the Appropriations bill back to the general assembly uh about a week and a half ago uh he had line item vetoed uh six or seven different components but there were several hundred amendments contained within that so it will take the general assembly a little

065while to pick through some of that the largest impact um was a change to what we call the support staff cap uh so uh he basically decreased what the general assembly said him by roughly two and a half positions and that's funded at positions per thousand students so the impact of that uh for us uh is 7 x 2 and a half and I didn't do the math ahead of time uh so I'll just leave it at that I don't embarrass myself um so 17 17 and a half you had it um they have a short session which runs about two weeks uh so hope hopefully within the next 3 to four weeks we will know uh pretty firmly where we stand with the state funding data uh once that's once general assembly is done

066with it of course they send it back to the governor I don't know if he has a delay time frame in which he has to react uh on this cycle or not uh but then uh they will update the what they what we call the C tool within the Department of Education for what the final numbers are going to be so at the same time city council will start having uh their deliberations and discussions the 22nd of April will be City council's budget hearing uh it there will be three budget hearings that night uh one's real estate tax I forget what the sex second one is a real estate assessment not the tax real estate assessment there's a second one and then this the uh comments on the overall budget will be the third public

067hearing uh to occur that evening uh I plan to be there and have requested uh a few other folks be there to speak uh to the importance of fully funding the school division's needs I think I got everything Mr Connor what I miss I think that's good good report let me make a statement it's um it's important people who are listening to call your delegates and Senators cuz tomorrow the general assembly meets at noon and most of these vs will be done by midnight uh there's pushed to so ask them to um not vote for I you know support cap for us a district like ours will be about a million dollar roughly 17 and a half positions if I take 50,000 it's $850 but you add benefits to that so it puts us in

068a Hole by about a million dollars in scheme of things in the current budget situation with the already hold and Hole by 2.8 uh this is a lot of money uh a million dollar for Lynchburg City Schools is a dollar increase to our hourly wage employees that's what it is right Miss jamus that's a dollar is about a million dollars to our hourly wage employee so uh it's about people it's about humans and I know they need money in the Rainy fund day that's where their money is going and uh I've been calling I'll be there tomorrow in Richmond I plan to be there I I'll arrive there around 11:00 and if you are there please do join me I'll be in the capital between Senate and House uh making sure the people here that

069we need this veto to be uh or Amendment or V whatever it is to be overturned and sent back to the governor the way it was we need those support caps to be lifted I for1 I'm speaking as an individual School Board member because it will put us in a financial bind by about a million dollars that's all I have to say I'm sorry if I said too much but good it's all we have thank you the next one was um Dr day uh Joint City School Board committee report Dr D okay um so um this uh joint committee uh met uh this past Thursday and we're meeting again really for the last time as um as a separate committee day after tomorrow April 3D uh to decide on what this committee is actually going

070to recommend um I had ask I did ask all the members of this joint committee to give me in writing their suggestions for what we might recommend and I spent all morning sort of coating all their suggestions and putting together a document that lists all the suggestions that were offered to me that's document is now publicly available it's attached to the agenda for our upcoming meeting day after tomorrow uh it may be a long meeting because there are well three pages of suggestions and that's after I edited it uh there's probably I don't know uh 50 or 100 different suggestions that were given and so we're going to have to comb through all of that um what will happen then is assuming we are successful on Thursday and deciding just what our recommendation will be

071containing and then it will be my job to write a final document incorporating all those uh give the joint uh committee a chance to edit it and then present it to the combined school board and city council at the Joint meeting on April 29th so that's where that stands any questions I had but I'll give opportunity for anybody else would I had just one request Dr uh day during discussion we have to keep in mind that the kids are front and center they are humans they are not widgets you know we're dealing with people breathing and we should not talk like five students less two students less they're human and we got to treat them and you know respect them as humans so hopefully the discussion will be focused on uh dealing with the nature

072of people and are stakeholders needs of the students yes sir mhm students should be the front and center of all the discussion okay thank you thank you next one is new business Perkins Grant U Dr copin like to ask Mr duly to come to the podium to discuss the Perkins Grant this is an annual occurrence uh and uh to support our Career and Technical education programs uh good evening thank you all for this opportunity um always enjoy a chance to talk about our great CTE programs that we have here in Lynchburg city um this is a a long report so I've kind of presented a summary to you all um instead of going through the 60 to 70 pages of it um basically the uh Perkins act um plan it's Perkins 5 it's required to

073be presented to the school board and also to CT Advisory Board which I did earlier today to get their approval before we can submit it to the state and again since it is such a lengthy document I have kind of come up with a summary to go over quickly with you all because I know the most important thing you all want to discuss is where the money's going and how much we will much we should get um so kind of looking at it part one that's kind of the that's the certification tab which basically is the signature of myself Dr Connor Dr Gupta The Advisory Board uh chairman and the um CTE representative at cvcc the part two is the uh academic performance report card uh this tells us how our CTE students do compared

074to uh just the normal student population uh our CTE students always exceed uh in the graduation rate of the normal one uh our graduation rate last year for CTE completers I believe was right around 96% um so again if students find a CTE program to be committed to they come to school school and they graduate uh that's you know the best selling point I can ever make about CTE is when we get students involved they come to school they graduate and then they contribute to our community we did not meet the standards in two areas and that was one of them was in science our SL scores for CTE students was I think 83% and it needed to be 86 to reach a state standard so I think that's something that we can improve on

075next year and the other one is our non-traditional placement that is students um such as a female student in a uh Automotive class and a male student in cosmetology uh we were around 177% the state standard is 29% I've been presenting this Perkins plan for the last 14 to 15 years and I think only once in my time have we ever have any the districts that I was at met that that criteria uh it it's one that gets keep completely questioned every year and I'm I'm hoping that that standard will come down to a more reasonable number at some point we get into the different sections of the Perkins plan and then just building information the first part is listing our CT advisory committee members uh the second part uh schedule to is um schedule

076three lists the career Pathways that we've presented in the past years um last year we presented game design uh this year we're presenting a plan of study for plumbing uh because our students even though we're not offering Plumbing at Lynchburg City Schools our students do have a chance this year to take next year to take Plumbing at the CT Academy and cbcc so I thought this was a good plan of study to create to show what our students should be taking till they get to the point that they can take that at cbcc with the CTE Academy think you did schedule four is the opportunities our students have uh in special populations and and we do not have any barriers our students in special populations were able to take take take any CTE courses that

077our normal students would take as well schedule five um it's how we will strengthen our academic and and uh technical skills uh one that I would like to share with you all for next year and I'm sure you probably maybe seen this in the paper but cbcc is going to offer free dual enrollment for all students next year that's Statewide but Statewide it's not CTE wise cbcc is decided that they're going to include the CT students in there so this is these are programs that are taught at our high school so currently we we've been offering it in culinary and drafting next year we're going to be able to offer that through our criminal justice programs as well so again that is a way that we are strengthening our programs schedule six describes how our

078CT students provide strong work-based learning opportunities these are clinicals internships apprenticeships we had two students start in January at Terry Subaru they go to school half day and then they go to work and get school credit for it in the afternoon schedule seven is how will we um list ways that that the Perkins funds to develop and improve and expand the use of Technology um just this afternoon was talking with our health science teachers we're going to look at adding iPads to their programs because they're much easier to take to the bedside or to the gentle chair side than a than a Chromebook or a computer would be and it's something that was more used in the industry as well as well eight is the types of professional development activities that our teachers have we

079do that on a local level they have state conferences they go to during the summer and then we do national conferences in the fall as well that I not only take teachers to but counselors so that we can know that they're working together as a team because the counselors need to know what is out there in the CTE world just as much as the teachers do schedule nine is um how do we evaluate our programs and that is mainly done through our CTE advisory program and then each program as we're in the process of each program setting up their own Advisory Board as well schedule 10 is um a checklist of how LCS excuse me will improve expand and modernize CTE programs and we really do this by yearly inventories and at the end of

080the year teachers usually come up with a wish list for what they're going to need the following year if we've got money left over in the spring we go and start preparing and buying some of that equipment otherwise we know that's what we're going to start the year off with when we when we come back schedule 11 is how how we use this data to make decisions every two years we're we're uh required to do a local needs assessment that is when we really go into the labor market and compare the labor market data with the programs that we are that we have here to make sure that these students are having an opportunity for jobs when they do graduate that there are jobs in this community uh 12 is our career Pathways 13 is

081how we will ensure the equity Provisions um with the education uh provision act and basically I saying is if someone has an issue that they say that for some reason based on something uh equality wise they were not allowed into a program there is a grievance process through the 504 system that we already have in place with Lynchburg City Schools um 14 is uh provides the labor market information and where do we get that we get that a lot from region 2000 data Lynchburg business and Regional Lynchburg Regional business Alliance Virginia works and the Department of Labor All contribute to that information um schedule 15 doesn't apply because we do not have a a regional uh CT program even though we do take part in the CT Academy that's more considered dual enrollment than it

082is staying in a regional academy and then finally uh six it summarizes the amount of state and local money that we spend on CTE personnel and that is that would include the uh students I mean the teachers as well as our um career counselor now for the good part uh this is the CTE staff proposal for local plan expenditure es for the 25 26 year before we get into this I'd like to tell you that that this data is based on the amount of funds we got last year uh the the state does not release the funds until later in the year uh it's one of those things where our deadlines for submission is April 30th and we never I've never gotten the the totals our expenditure or what our allocations are going to be

083until the earliest May and honestly the last two years have been June in July at that point we have to they deny our uh submission I have to put the new numbers in and re we resubmit and then it gets approved because it was already good just other than other than the numbers so looking at this um number wise if we go to the next slide professional development we set aside $25,000 for that the big chunk of our funding goes towards equipment that's 171,000 to pay for expenses for students to travel to uh student leadership uh opportunities organizations such as we have about 35 students going to roke this weekend for skills USA we have 10 other students going to Virginia Beach for FCCLA we've also had students go to state competitions in Deca which

084is our Mar marketing students and then also HOSA which is our health science students and those both were done earlier in March I am proud to say that two of our students in the HOSA our nurse aid program at Heritage have qualified for Nationals and those two students will be going to Nationals in June in Nashville Tennessee very good so we're hoping after this weekend we're going to say we're going to have students from skills USA going to Atlanta this summer and from FCCLA going to Orlando this Summer that is that is my passion is getting these students out in these these organizations and and competitions so we have 18,000 set aside for that as you see up there we have um 11,000 set aside for our CTE summer camp this is something that we

085did last year for the first time uh we we hooked it we kind of connected it to the middle school summer school program at sanduski they did three weeks of remediation and then the fourth week it was CTE camp we had six different Pathways everywhere from Criminal Justice to dental to cosmetology to drafting to programming to 3D animation students got to pick a pathway for each day so they did five different Pathways in 5 days and it was a huge success and because of Dr Davis really liking the program we're going to try to make sure that we do that again this summer and that was when I met uh Mr Hensley I was sitting outside eating a biscuit last year when he came up and I don't know that I really looked like a

086School employee that day cuz I was moving but I did introduce myself and tell him what what of the great things that we were doing that day I called the police at first as well you probably should have uh our we put away set aside $40,000 for software and uh CT programs this is Adobe Photoshop um illustrator those type of programs as I said we did the 18,000 for the students going to ctso competitions we have um 5,000 set aside for recruitment of these non-traditional uh students uh again we have I have to write a program I have to write in the Perkins plan what how we plan on doing that one of them is uh there's a program called in her own words and it's a series of posters showing females in non-traditional workspaces

087also there's videos that the teachers can show in the classroom as well and then finally we have $1,500 set aside for our CTE follow-up survey that has to be done every summer I've done it the last two summers um but this year we will probably hire someone cuz we have several other things going on this Summer that I'm going to be a part of uh but this is something that I did when I was in Franklin County as well um it we basically this person will call students that are a year after graduating asking them the courses and the certifications that they earned in high school how are they related to whether they're in school work or the military at this point so that wraps it up that comes to a total of 272,000 last

088year when I presented this to you we were using the year before numbers and it was 257,000 so we did get an increase last year of $155,000 so that that wraps up my presentation I'd be glad to open it up to questions now um question whatever you'd like to talk about I I can talk CTE all night well my question is stems from the one committee meeting I I was on the Zoom one so you still do have to do fundraisers though to get to for uh monies that you don't have to cover it that the Perkins Grant doesn't correct mainly the fundraising we do is to help support students when we send them to these competitions uh Perkins does not allow us to really pay for the food for them to eat uh and

089I feel like just you know just like when we send our athletic programs just to Regional and state competitions we should not be asking our CTE students to pay for their own food we need to help make you know and a lot of them can't afford it that that would be a barrier to keep them from being able to participate so we do the Education Foundation really steps up and helps we do a golf tournament by the way it's May 31st if any of you golfers we'd love to have you uh but that helps raise money again for us to be able to feed these students give them a little good activity we're going to take you know we're going to ruk like I said this weekend ruk's nice but it's not that much that

090real exciting for teenage students um so we're going to take them to a Salem Red Sox game on Saturday night and we're going to feed them there and then that way we'll all be together have a good team building and then hopefully go and accept a bunch of a WS on Sunday morning so you've been able to raise the money that for the kids on the side this year we we're in good shape I do believe again we don't know when students go to Nationals but again by us doing the golf tournament at May 31st that puts us more money in the pot that now that we can use for this summer for our national conferences okay that's good that money in addition to what you have here yes okay yes the 18,000 doesn't seem

091like enough for yeah 18,000 is a drop in the bucket to pay for uh registration and hotels uh just to give you an example we sent 40 uh health science students that is our dental program and our nurse aid to Williamsburg to States just for the registration in the hotel was $12,500 I believe yeah other questions for Mr dly do you have a custom customer resource management for those who donate yearby year so you can follow up with them and tell them how you've done and what you raised and what you need for the ne following year we really don't cuz really the only fundraising tool mechanism we have right now is the golf tournament and they do that by either uh they support us by either doing team registration or they could sponsor a

092whole which is $125 uh per business but then if they're repeat we knock it down to 100 because we can reuse the sign and you know they repeat just because they say so I keep information I keep the spreadsheets from year to year so I can check to see that they were the that they did participate the year before okay and I've already got their sign so if I got their sign I know that they participated yeah all right I'm sure you could upload those spreadsheets to a good CRM one day and make it happen faster another question I have is that uh the the two failed criteria the one of them at 17% is that something you can put together a little fact sheet with for and I give it to the uh legislative

093advocacy committee that we have here on the school board because we could take that and do some advocacy to change that at the at Richmond yeah I mean like I said the annual performance report that comes out uh we get that yearly so it kind of shows where we've been and we've been consistent in the 16 to 177% range in the three years that I've been here and then you know looking previous that was about the same as well you know what I'm saying though yeah yeah I mean that that way we can get them I mean can show them the information of where we are at and to show them you know that I I cannot pull other people's districts but they would be able to look into other districts to see that the

094majority of districts do not meet that criteria yeah if you could provide that information to us we can take that and do something be glad to Y thank you thank you is there a motion to approve I move we approve Dr Mrs low any further discussion Madam clar would you please call the room Mr Conor yes Mr J Noor no Mr Andrews yes Dr day yes yes Dr yes Mrs Preston yes Mr yes Mrs L yes Dr T yes motion cares hold on Mr dly we're going to sign the CTE this Perkins Grant document normally we do it behind the scenes we'll do it in public today and I'll miss low you are chair of ASC and a champion of CTE I asked Dr copelan it's okay for you to sign is that okay and

095I'll be happy to coign if needed nor chair signs it but uh it' be honored if you sign it yeah that's to Blue to now while we get signatures uh do you have any other information you wanted to share with us tonight actually I am I'm about to bust to get ready to do that I'm very excited um about a month ago Dr Copeland uh put me in contact with leer mcen who is the head of Deacon of Hope and they had been she had been in contact with I'm sure we're all familiar with int Turbo Tax the software people well they are in the business of now of giving away donating food trucks to communities they've done it to eight different cities across the country I know Denver San Diego are some of the

096ones that they they've done they interviewed Miss McQueen and myself a few weeks ago and and I got the email yesterday I'm glad I didn't get it today because if I got it today I would have been thinking it was an April Fool's joke um but they have S they have selected Lynchburg City to donate a $250,000 customized food truck for our culinary program to use excellent we will be able to take it to events you know as our food truck we will be able to take it to the middle school to expose them to more commercial type kitchens career days at the elementary schools and by because we're going to use it across all three that is one of the reasons that I feel like we were picked one of the exciting things that

097they're going to do is they're going to come in later this school year once we get yall's approval cuz we will have to present to you all uh hopefully at the next meeting the letter showing what everything to get your approval um but they will come in and they want to get our marketing and our culinary students together to come up with the design what they want to call it we certainly you know don't want to call it the Lynchburg City Food Truck school's food truck we want something exciting something that you know the logo that represents our community and once they get that information from our students and again they will be the ones creating it what kind of menu will serve then they will take that truck and they will get the professionally

098wrapped for us this summer and if all goes well we will have it to start the school year next year excellent now is this an actual truck or just a trailer this is a truck driveable truck okay yes and I didn't know if we had talked about this before but the Mike Road grant that does Dirty Jobs doesn't he have a CTE scholarship who's that Mike Row Mike um yeah I know that they do U scholarships as well yes yes so if we haven't like plugged into that that would probably be a good place to look as well to help with some of the other things that you need to help with outside the Perkins and again just you know to say again thank you all so much for your support again I have been

099in two other districts before this and I felt like I was supported there but nothing like the support I get in Lynchburg City uh the funding is there we we you know our our teachers do not go without in for CTE if they need something we've got the funding for it and whenever we fall in short because of Perkins you all have been there to step up and help us so I tremendously thank you for that and our our teachers and students really benefit from it all thank you for your presentation thank you all so much you have a great even next one is Elementary efficiency Dr Copeland and Mr Connor you want to kick it off Mr Connor well I'm looking at the PowerPoint um I don't think it's time to make it clear

100maybe you should explain the fa and finance committee's position after we received the information from the city council based on the amount of operating not just operating funds but also CIP funds we recognize that we would not have enough money to operate the way we need to operate um I believe our interim superintendent has done a great job um we were bouncing around ideas um on what we could do and he was working in the background believe him and Dr W working in the background came up with what we think is an excellent proposal um yes is it hurts that we have to make some changes but like what I said on the the task force The Joint Task Force if we don't have the money we can't do things you know at how if

101I if I don't have enough money I can't put a swimming pool in the backyard I just you know I have to visit the neighbors um I know that's kind of a silly um representation but we we have to make some decisions what frightens me is what took place in Norfolk um Norfolk is much like Lynchburg City at a greater level CU it's a bigger city has a declining population declining student population with the decline of student population we also have declining revenues um and North Folk continually said we're not going to do anything we're not going to do anything and it required um Northfolk city council this is um in the latest news the last couple weeks the city council had to F had to file a ordinance requiring them to close 10 schools

102in the next next two fiscal years I don't want that to happen here we have to be fiscally responsible with the amount of revenues that we get sometime it's going to be some hard choices sometime we're not always going to be able to go 6 Months 8 months 12 months ahead of time to get everybody involved because we don't know that far ahead of time so some people we I've heard that we are making knee-jerk decisions well it's not a knee-jerk decision when we ask for a certain amount of Revenue we have to wait for the city to tell us what they're going to give us we have to wait for the governor and the and the um legislature to decide what they're going to do and we have to have contingency plans so it's

103not a knee-jerk reaction but it is um probably what we would consider worst case scenario but it's something that we must do so I think when we look at this proposal is done in phases we're trying to do because one of the things we need to do is we have several elementary schools that need a lot of Renovations um and I know the proposal was out or consideration of building a new school and we looked at we we gave it a serious look and that is also something that we're not going to be able to do at this time because of the needs the not the delayed maintenance needs at a at I believe we have six elementary schools that have um really at the probably at the end of um where we could you

104know they're safe so we have to make some decisions we have to move forward on a plan so I think the plan that um Dr copen came up with um although it causes some pain for some people I believe it gets us moving in the right direction to become fiscally responsible and it also does some things to help some families we have some families um where they've let me know that if their child gets sick at school or their child um something happens at school they live so far from the school so part of this is we are resoning a couple a couple select neighborhoods because there are these parents are the farthest from those schools the child gets sick the child gets in trouble that parent usually has to get a Uber or neighbor

105or try to get public transportation so we're looking at the children it's important and we got a couple neighborhoods that we are looking to reone just a little bit to make it better for those families um that get them um at least a couple select groups closer to home and couple of these neighborhoods are some of our lowest um income neighborhoods um with the most needs so I think helping those parents um have more access to the local school would also be a benefit so I turn it over to you Dr copelan thank you Mr Connor uh this presentation uh was presented at the finance and Facilities committee meeting on March the 8 18th uh they voted that it be brought forward to the full board for consideration at that meeting um who's controlling slides

106you get it all right I'm not going to look at the screen so that I can look at y'all so the overall plan has multiple phases but where we begin is the critical component uh and that is a repurposing of TC Miller uh and some select Elementary rezonings that Mr Connor talked to phase one itself can be broken down into three different parts for phase one uh the first is uh TC Miller ceasing to exist as a K through five elementary school transitioning TC Miller serve early childhood education which we have pre- programs that serve both three and four year olds and we also serve an growing population of Early Childhood special education students uh the last component of repurposing TC Miller would be a consolidation of Elementary alternative Ed programs so the transition assistance

107program that's currently at Bass Elementary would move to TC Miller to be collocated with the restorative academy uh that's currently there the last part of of this first phase of a multiphase plan are those select rezonings uh just to give you some numbers relative to TC Miller TC Miller's enrollment this year has been in the 160s uh and for for elementary students uh we have uh huderson Early Learning Center which currently serves 206 students and we have elementary schools that have pre- programs in them that serve 156 students so the map that's up on the screen just gives you a visual representation of where all the students live that attend TC Miller um so folks from all over the city attend TC Miller and if uh you looked at their school zone it's what I

108call a postage stamp school zone it's a very tight inner core of the city uh for their Zone students uh this next slide talks to uh where the students are coming from thus where they would return to so the biggest component of this is invited students would return to their base school or their Zone school so if you think about that map many of those different colored dots would return back to the Bay School um the TC Miller Zone students uh which are in a in a smaller area would be would be pretty much equally balanced between perrymont and rs pay there are four school zones that touch the TC Miller Z darington Elementary School perrymont RS Payne and Sheffield Oakley Avenue flows through the middle of the TC Miller Zone and splits those students

109into a group of 31 one students that would go to perrymont and a group of 36 students that would go to rspan all these numbers in this chart are reflective of the current enrollment of the building we just Advanced them one grade level uh and uh if TC Miller uh didn't include anything for kindergarteners uh for next year so converting it into an early childhood the building is currently organized around 17 classroom spaces uh when you look at the prek programs that exist at perrymont Paul Monroe and rs pay uh they comprise 10 classrooms four at Paul Monroe three at perrymont elementary school and three at RS pay respectively there are 61 students at pal Monroe 48 at permont and 47 at rspan by bringing all of these classrooms together we provide much better coordination

110amongst the teachers in the sta the building to serve students that are beginning their educational Journey another component that I've alluded to is that we support a lot of three and four year olds and early childhood special education right now all of those students and I think they number somewhere around 60 to 65 are currently served out of Hutcherson Early Learning Center uh having 60 students with unique needs amongst a population of 206 is a significant challenge for that staff on a daily basis but they have made it work by opening a second pre kindergarten building we have an opportunity to better balance that such that we have kind of an equal number of prek classrooms at each building and that this early childhood special education students uh some of these students come for full

111day some of them come for half day in the morning some of them come for half day in the afternoon they might be in another facility out in town and then come to us for those special services by keeping the restore Academy at r at TC Miller and then bringing the transition program from bass to TC Miller uh we clearly have the six classrooms needed for those two programs uh to be supported within the building of TC Miller and this really satisfies uh some of the objectives and goals that we've talked about about consolidation alternative Ed this is phase one which is consolidation of Elementary alternative education the last piece of this proposal revolves around two Island school zones on the left hand side of the screen uh you see the Birchwood Zone in purple

112uh it is wholly surrounded by the darington elementary school zone um those students attend permont elementary school uh and ride a bus every day to get there on the right hand side of the screen is the area along Florida Avenue and the Winston Ridge neighborhoods uh those students attend Heritage Elementary School they ride a bus every day to get there uh and if you look at the brown areas that surround their uh reddish colored school zone that is the bass Elementary attendance zone so resoning of the Birchwood in the Florida a uh when Ridge neighborhoods uh darington Elementary would be our preferred location to send the children from the Birchwood uh apartment complex because that is the zone that surrounds their apartment complex um due to the nature of the Zone it's not the closest

113as the crow flies the closest school to their apartment complex is actually Lin corn Elementary School you just can't get there directly with a school bus you got to drive around crane Hill and and other areas um additionally by providing extra students to darington in its enrollment has slipped over the years and providing extra students at darington uh in a building that has successful programming and successful outcomes is in the best interest of those children the Florida Avenue Winston Ridge neighborhoods uh there are 67 students that live in that cluster uh and we recommend that they be sent to Bass Elementary uh bass Elementary unique programming with intercessions and Remediation opportunities uh has proved successful for many many years uh and bass Elementary has the capacity uh to help those students so all of this

114packag together with the TC Miller closure the rezone option opening the prek uh when we look at at everything combined uh we have gone through the detailed Staffing of the elementary schools that will be gaining students um of the teacher FTE that are assigned to TC Miller we will need three of them to make this work um make sure I get this right in the big scheme of things with uh 67 students leaving Heritage Elementary School and going to Bass Heritage Elementary School would lose three teaching positions bass would gain four bass is the largest gaining build of any of the schools affected in this plan as they will gain the the students from the Florida Avenue Winston Ridge Neighborhood and then they will uh return the the base Zone school students so they will

115increase by approximately students darington Elementary School will need two additional teachers uh due to their increased student capacity so uh everything said across all elementary schools we need three teaching positions at TC Miller to make this work uh we will need some of the uh building level staff because we're going to keep TC Miller in operation so I'm still going to need a building leader we still want to keep the counselor custodians uh attendance security clerk nurse office secretary and there's probably a few others that I haven't gotten in there but when you look at the entire cost uh to maintain TC Miller as a cave5 school versus this transition uh I quickly get to a million dollars worth of savings going forward with this plan as I said it's a multiphase longer range plan

116as we have $60 Million worth of capital Improvement planning Dr woda gave a presentation to the Joint Task Force several weeks ago about we have more needs than $60 million but we're starting to zero in on where our highest priorities are uh that is forthcoming but the next phase of this uh is to decide on a complete Elementary Renovations and improvements decide where gems need to be if we need any classroom additions at certain schools uh and look forward towards what additional resoning needs to be accomplished in the future further down the road once we have consumed the majority of the capital Improvement money we have a window to look at is there another school at that time that that could be closed as an elementary school and gives us an opportunity to consider a

117consolidation of secondary alternative education Ford Hill as we all know is space limited for those of you that sit on discipline committees they are always at full capacity uh and we need more capacity so and a when a second and if a second school is closed it gives us an opportunity to look at whether or not it could function best as an alternative education site for secondary students if that move was made then there is always the consideration and hope that you can grow your prek programs if you can grow your prek pro programs and put more prek in TC Miller then you could use the Fort Hill Community School as a possible location for elementary alternative education um because the needs in the elementary uh schools are not as high as they are in

118middle school and high school it lends itself to that in the out years these are just the phases uh to be considered uh at a future time in closing I always like to clarify for everybody the why behind I make this recommendation it's a known fact that that our school population has decreased by roughly 1200 students over the past decade our utilization rate of our elementary schools is a little bit low and could increase by doing this we do increase the utilization rate at our elementary schools there is a million dollars worth of savings in this approach I will always support better opportunities for three and four year olds in this city because every opportunity a four-year-old has to go to prek prepares them for kindergarten the next year there are many different ch challenges

119that our four-year-olds present they not only present with educational challenges and identifications of letters numbers and colors but they present with socialization challenges because they have not been around other children for extended periods of time simple things like getting in a line and going to the cafeteria for lunch take weeks sometimes for a four-year-old to learn the whole process select resoning is is a component of what this board has talked about previously about close to home we are taking two Island school zones and sending them to a school that is much closer to where they live My Hope Is that less time on bus might lead to better student engagement closer to where the families live might lead to better parental engagement we all know that better parental engagement m in our schools leads to

120better success for our students we haven't put a number on it yet but there is some bus Savings in this from an operational perspective but given the Ever Changing uh rates on fuel and electricity uh any savings would really just be kept within Transportation budget um and it gets us one step towards alternative Ed consolidation and that it tackles Elementary School components that's the presentation that I gave to finance committee I will do my best to answer any questions you might have uh it's not up for a vote tonight we have a public hearing it is being announced tomorrow and will be held here as our work session on April the 8th um so that the public has an opportunity to comment on this and then this will be before you on April 8th for

121action uh Mr L I just want to emphasize that legally uh we cannot do much detail till the public hearing is done so right do the bare minimum go ahead Mrs D well I just know a lot of people are concerned so probably good to speak to it about the class sizes so in my mind I'm thinking you would just increase the number of class sizes that you need add an extra class or whatever so the majority is going to Bass so can you speak just so people can understand how the class sizes will work when the children move there sure and that's hold on let me get M bass will be getting four extra teachers um and uh we've taken a look across the board so there's a couple of things in doing this

122we have to keep the K3 class size where it needs to be for the majority of our schools that's 19 okay additionally we really like to keep the fourth and fifth grade classes less than 25 but as close to 20 as we can okay I don't see have not seen any significant class Siz changes of these students being sent back to their base schools the resoning the move to RS pain because some of these schools perrymont is going to lose a group they're going to gain a group okay basses as I mentioned before bass is gaining the greatest but where bass sits right now they will have four additional teachers next year so they will have three teachers in some grade levels to maintain small class size Dr could you explain s19 people who are

123watching so we have to maintain we get a grant money right for small class size correct we receive close to a million dollar $2 million thank you Miss P $2 million as part of the uh funding from the state for What's called the K3 class siiz initiative um I think the lowest we have is an 18 uh goes from 19 to 24 there we go there's the expert uh so we focus very when we did our elementary Staffing review we really zero in that on those grade levels when we start because if you can't meet those ratios then you lose your percentage of the funding and we don't want to lose a percentage of that funding so I I have not seen any significant increases in class size in any school I just thought that

124put people's mind thank you Dr tson kind of a related question building capacities is how does this affect those numbers so to give you some examples badford Hills uh will gain eight students that will take them roughly to 400 students in 2015 they were 511 students um let's see what's another have Bass the last page uh bass will go to approximately 250 260 students uh 10 years ago they had 310 got okay so we're still under previous occupancy numbers and use numbers in the past um another one Sheffield will gain seven they'll go to 419 420 and they've previously been at 461 okay um darington is one uh darington has fluctuated between 180 and 210 uh since I got here in 2012 uh they'll get to 219 with this change uh so there's the most

125significant um piece a number that they haven't seen previously so because of declining enrollment it's not dramatically affecting numbers as far as as what numbers have been is that what I'm hearing you say yes ma'am that's correct okay all right now and you also said that Elementary alternative education would would be housed at Fort Hill am I correct about that phase four way down way down the road okay what happens with other alternative education well that that was a kind of you got if you do this then you could do that so when you think about after we spend our 60 million doll and we do all our renovations if we end up closing another elementary school then and and and it could become a better alternative education building than Fort Hill is uh and

126if that if if you do secondary alternative education in another building then you could consider Fort Hill becoming Elementary alted okay so it's all dependent on all dependent there there are many other decision points through this that's why when you think about that slide that was full of all the words I started with phase one and then didn't hit phases 2 three and four until the end because there's a first step to start this then the next step is going to be zeroing in on how we spend our Capital Improvement dollars for the most impact thinking longterm um so where will our ssos be will they be part of the TC Miller at all or I can't even got that for yet I'll pass okay phone a friend on that one at a later date

127all right and I just have one other question um so whenever you hear the term rezoning you know the word legal pops up in your head have we done a legal review had the lawyers look at this because uh the zones were set up you know based on a segregation order and those types of things we just kind of wondering if we've looked at that and made sure that this passes the legal test we've looked at the the uh influx of students that are going into certain buildings we have not specifically called in for a legal opinion on this um over the history of Lynchburg uh post desegregation order there have been several iterations of changes in the way we delivered school um I guess the easiest way to point out some of that is

128it's at one point there was what I call a four tier approach to education and Dr wo keep me honest on this and that there was a primary school at kindergarten through third grade there was an elementary school there was a junior high and there was a high school okay and uh when you think about some of these smaller buildings like Hutcherson and Laurel uh they were one of those I think it might have been Hutcherson and bass it might have been the package deal that Hutcherson was primary and bass was Elementary uh as things changed over time we move moved to an elementary middle school high school approach so some of these zones have been adjusted uh since the years of the original G segregation order just keeping a focus on don't break it

129just try to make it a little bit better sure I can mention yes please in that time frame there's also been several schools that have closed so well Kaiser what was Kaiser uh then Garland roads uh School Armstrong school closed um so just and as those schools closed uh those students got reson to different areas okay good thanks thank you is it true that go ahead I was looking at you but you never raised your hand go ahead that um The Innovation school curricula will just simply disappear and the students will go into another school without any of those bells and whistles because the Innovation at TC Miller is school specific that is that is accurate what we are looking to do is to take the Arts team uh that does a phenomenal job at

130TC Miller and find the right location in another facility that has a sufficient performing art space that then they can take the great things that they do at TC Miller and expand it to a larger School sounds like sanduski actually now that you say that have a large sanduski has what I'd call a gymatorium cafeteria okay uh it has a stage that does PE movement Ed classes and lunch on the other side of the super screen uh if you take a look at the uh the spaces of bass Elementary or RS pan that have a dedicated Auditorium type space that's what we're considering uh to be the next launch point for for an arts program thinking he other question go ahead while you're doing this consider I've always been looking at Fort Hill and seeing

131what other building can take Fort Hill because it's it's so small um keep looking keep trying to consider I've thought of Hutcherson the faculty and staff of Hutcherson switching with Fort Hill I've thought about other things but um I'd really like that to be solved at some point I hear you any other questions thank you Dr copel Mr Conor next one is uh board member reports go School Mrs Lowry okay we had a meeting on March 5th and they updated their cell phone policy it had already been done they were it was just in the meeting and their selection for 2025 26 is already um Gone In Motion so now Friday April 11th students must accept their position um if they're going to come and registration meeting for new Juniors and their families will be

1327:00 p.m. on Wednesday May 7th the annual CVG research Symposium will occur in sh Hall on campus of the University of Lynchberg on Wednesday April 23rd from 7 to 9:00 p.m. and uh the senior recognition ceremony scheduled for May 4th um from 2: to 4: at Heritage High School auditorium and this is also open to the public and our next meeting is May 7th um at 1: p.m. thank you next is Lauren again you Mrs Larry Lauren uh we haven't had a meeting STEM Academy Mr Conor okay I got a lot of information um we had a board meeting on March 18th and um had several positive things coming out of the STEM Academy um they had a open house back in um early March um they had students attend from every School Division and

133attendance there were 150 plus attended the event um learn about the STEM Academy and the current students alumni and instructors demonstrations and tours of the stem stem Academy and Facilities um spring 2025 planning with Juniors for the 2526 classes and internship possibilities um planning with seniors to register for graduation and review post secondary plans um things like entering the workforce maintaining remaining some want to remain at CVC some are joining the military Navy Marines and some are planning to attend four-year college and university um students began internships on January 8th 2025 there were 11 internship locations in Central Virginia and there will be internship presentations on Wednesday April 3 2025 student applications for the 2025 um school year ammer had 13 applicants appom matics 9 Bedford 14 Campbell 38 and Lynchburg 20 for a total

134of 94 applicants um number of approved seats Amis had three aromatics two um Bedford 8 Campbell six Lynchberg seven and they had one scholarship student clicking the wrong button um application of selection members will review applications and meet the week of March 24th and March 25th so that was last week and they were going over the applications and they're mailing um notifications to the students um they mailed them out by March 28th um and they will work with schools and the wait list until open slots are filled for 25 26 so there might be if one division has more applicants than seats and those seats aren't filled then they will offer those seats to a different division um okay Min um student may use their High School transcript to qualify for placement um math placement

135must have a 3.0 cun GPA and be enrolled in Algebra 2 or have completed Algebra 2 with a grade of a better and English placement must have a 3.0 above and cumulative GPA um upcoming events for the STEM Academy stem applications due was due March 1st stem application meetings with March 24th March 25th stem application notifications for 20 2425 was March 28th stem internship presentation will be April 30th um the senior dinner and awards will be May 13th and commencement will be May 15th 2025 that's all I have for this Dem thank you Mr car next one is finance and Facilities chair Mr con um we will be reviewing once again some information that's coming us from The Joint Task Force um we're also going to be reviewing um the document that um you sent

136me I had some questions about Staffing over a period of time along with enrollment so we're going to be looking at that and um also thinking looking at some recommendations of what we want to go cuz we want to go back to the city and see if we can't modify the way they want to issue the um CIP funds so we you know we're going to get down and dirty about the CIP because we got a lot of work to do so we're going to see if we can't if they can't work with us a little more maybe get us frontload some of those funds a little more we'll talk than yeah that's a discussion for lat LS chair Mr Jal uh yes we as a committee have uh discussed a number of bills and

137there is a a bill not in the local area but the federal level called HR 5349 that our recommendation is for our board to support it and allow us to write uh two letters to our Senators in support of this so that it will pass um as possible has already passed the house and has gone into this the the federal Senate this bill is an act to develop and disseminate a civic education curriculum and oral history resources which I take to be personnel with personal experience teaching about this uh regarding certain political ideologies and for other purposes being enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled the ACT may be cited as The crucial communism teaching act the purpose of this act is to help families

138Civic institutions local communities local educational agencies high schools and state educational agencies to prepare high school students to be civically responsible and knowledgeable adults to ensure that high school students in the United States learn that communism has led to the death of over 100 million victims worldwide understand the dangers of Communism and simil similar political ideologies and understand that 1.5 billion people are still suffer under communism it has a few more things but that is the summary of this and we are in support of it thank you next is academic success committee Mrs La chair Mrs low um we have a meeting this week but um we are going to be going over the lit literacy coaches math schedule because they can also use their time to help math and we our children need help

139with math um a teacher treasure box where with input from all sources as a resource for anybody who would like it to get help counil or information on Behavior or from elementary all way through high school or how you do this or that and the other in class or teach a certain lesson just it's a resource um senior Knight I'm still waiting to hear from two of the uh counselors one at each High School about the Legacy showing up on their senior nights and uh the blue Rich Pregnancy Center coming to have dating information and um the math adoption timeline we're still waiting on that from the books um adoption so ideas that will um com in from the plc's to share with uh the Secretary of Department of Education here in Virginia and she

140is looking forward to some answers that might help with the um uh she knows that we need the number she said for testing but she knows that there are problems and kids need more time before taking tests so she's open to ideas so the these ideas are what we want to pass on to her and also preschool testing and a PD with Dr Black which one of our business partners who is well uh informed educated and on uh ADHD and recognizing some uh symptoms a better way to recognize them and because some things are treatable so she would love to do a PD with um K through um eighth grade teachers so it's something we're going to be talking about new business thank you uh next one is Partners in education Mr Andrews and Dr

141Tinsley it's kind of a slow time for p board right now so an ad hoc committee between LCS Education Foundation and the P Board has been uh instituted uh going to discuss the relationship with those two entities and how they can better collaborate moving forward so for the time being General P board meetings have been suspended until this ad hoc committee can do their work so that's all I have to report thank you LCS Foundation Mr dealul and Mr Jal I think the Ed Foundation did a great job with the uh superintendent's breakfast and I think the superintendent did a good job as well in his speech congrats and uh a lot of people know you a lot better now that's one the big reveal yeah and then Don Weise did a great job here

142so I appreciate that thank you next is Beacon of Hope Mr Andrews and Mrs Preston okay Beacon of Hope the Heritage and EC glass future Center teams took 50 Juniors to Virginia Tech last week um interviews for the summer internship program will take place on April 23rd at the Lynchburg Regional business Alliance 125 Heritage and EC glass Juniors and seniors will have an opportunity to interview with more than 20 local companies which is a great opportunity for all of them the Commonwealth scholarship application is closed now recipients can receive up to $5,000 to attend any accredited 2-year 4-year trade school or Technical School in Virginia the class of 2025 recipients will be announced in late April thank you next one is superintendent Commons Dr cin yeah a few things to highlight for everybody on the

143board uh if you like sports this is your time of the year we got baseball softball tennis track lacrosse soccer I think I got them all U but there's something going on at every high school every day of the week U Middle Schools many times during the week uh it's also our beginning our busiest window of testing uh across the School Division not only State Testing but AP testing uh will be coming up here short uh as as students wind down the year and I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the theater performances that are going on across uh the School Division there's something every weekend in April except for one uh this weekend uh TC Miller does susal Jr the 3rd through the 6th uh Heritage High School opens Peter and the

144star catcher on the fourth it runs for two weekends uh sanduski middle will do Beetle Juice JR try saying that fast uh April 25th 26th and 27th and then e glass opens foot loose on May the 1st for two weekends uh so if you need something fun to do please check out these schedules and uh support uh theater in our schools these children work very very hard to pull off this I was over at TC Miller for for a meeting last week and Miss Coleman had the student do the opening number for susal Jr and it's just delightful it really is so that's all I've got I I want to know if they offered you any roles they have not thank you uh Mr Conor will'll start with you board comments um nothing else thank

145you Mr J uh yes first I'd like to thank the elementary schools that gave us gifts for our school board appreciation month it was tremendous I can name a number of schools but all the different gifts um we're a blessing thank you very much I hope that the city council does this next year for us um we uh we are covering a number of issues and I I really hope that we can get on board with making sure that the public is more informed than ever before about our plans and the things that will happen with our local schools um I believe that it could have been done better in the last 18 months I have ideas of how it could have been better but um hindsight is 2020 and we have to move forward

146so let's keep that in mind that this is a big team and we have to navigate it uh better than ever before um one of the LCS parents came up today and this is uh something that is very important to um comment on and that is that uh the 91 17 society.org has produced this booklet accepted in thousands and thousands of schools Across the Nation and it it was one of the only booklets that could pass a rigorous test of what is and what is not political if you look on the back there is a QR code which I've never used but I remember um getting a great share of these stamped since there was a team I can't vouch for everyone on the team that they put a stamp on everyone but a random

147one I I just happen to have on me now has the stamp and if you look they're not all going to be in the same place if people stamped it in different places so uh this one is on the inside if you're looking forward you might miss it if you just flip through it um but it's the stamp is here and this um this is something that we should advocate for and not um not consider anything that would turn students astray from a good path I think that we should have more of the constitution in the Bill of Rights in our um in our society and our schools and I remember something that the parent said and that is that the uh Southern Poverty Law Center said that this group or uh supporters of this

148group or candidates that somehow this is connected to um are hate group are labeled as hate groups almost everyone I know knows that the southern Poverty Law Center itself is a hate group supporter they if it's not a hate group itself it is a hate group supporter it supports hate in general I would say but you can look up the specifics so much so I wrote a little note here that um the uh it promotes anti-American principles and Advocates lawfare against not only conservatives but any organization that uh goes against its own principles and its uh LEF ideologies so the splc in if you can encapsulate it as something it would be a hate group in as an organization so that designation doesn't hold any water with me and many many many other people because

149they know that splc is a hate group uh supporter so um let's not make it harder to access information I agree with that and I'd like to support that um finally the teacher of the year aana Ayana stamps Glover at Heritage Elementary School I'd like to uh give her a hand for 24 2024 2025 winning uh teacher of the year tremendous she's a Heritage Elementary teacher and uh we need more of those we we need people to shine in their in their uh their vocations and we want people to to be rewarded and honored for what they do in the the teaching profession um I will bring up the agenda item at the next meeting to vote on the letters of support for HR 5349 which I just mentioned um The crucial communism teaching act

150thank you Dr D um I just want to remind board members that the meeting that we current that we previously had scheduled for April 22nd has been rescheduled to a week from tonight April 8th and I want to point out to that there are a lot of policy updates in the consent agenda I count over 30 so um you need to do your homework and read through those in advance if there's any of those that you think you want the board to discuss when we at the beginning of the meeting when we're ready to approve the agenda you need to at that point move to pull any of those items out of the consent agenda and and so that we can talk about them separately don't M wait until we get to the consent agenda

151on the in our meeting before you say I want to pull such and such out you need to make that motion at the beginning of the meeting when we are considering whether or not to adopt the agenda so there's over 30 I think we still have some curriculum and instruction ones to add are they up now no sir they will go come in May okay that all right so but even apart from those there still I counted over 30 from all kinds of different uh policy work groups so please do your homor and look through those in advance just a clarification Dr D these comes through your policy work groups yes there are two board members in each of those policy work groups that's right so they are not just willly nearly put by the

152staff members on the agenda two board members have allowed including the superintendent to come through we would never willy-nilly just want to clarify that why it sounded like 30 out there so I was just going to ask when did you say they were going to go up uh the curriculum instruction we we are meeting at the end of April and then we will take them to the work session in May okay um because we typically have them on the work session agenda agenda right um I looked and saw the number that were already on the work session um plus we were not able to really get a a meeting date together that suited everybody so I just pushed it off until May thank you thank you Mr um it feels like seems like for too

153long we've been spinning our wheels and it feels good to feel a little bit of traction being made so I'm proud of the work we're doing yeah thank Mrs L um I had the privilege of reading Dr Seuss um I was doing that through month of March but also to darington Sandusky RS pay and Sheffield I'll R to this week then the bike presentation RS pain saw the drum core perform which was great and bass I'll be attending susal on Thursday and um and I'll be looking forward to going to the girls tennis cuz my husband used to teach tennis and we all as a family play tennis so I do like the tennis but um no just thankful for um all the classes that welcom me in and um I really am uh enjoying

154just meeting the kids and you know all the different schools and I've always loved working with children so that was never a problem but yeah looking forward to all this thank you Dr Tinley yeah I just think it's wonderful seeing everything that's going on in Lynchburg City school system so so often we can focus on the negative but when we look at the positive the negatives pale in comparison and when I look around at our teachers and our administrators the folks that are I really think of a an old quote from George Bernard Shaw and this is a famous quote many of you may have heard it he said you see things as they are and ask why I dream things that never were and ask why not and I think that's a beautiful quote

155and I see that being played out in the Lynchburg City school systems uh system every day and I just want to thank the teachers and the administrators uh for all that you do thanks thank you Dr Tinsley um next one is the ad hoc superintendent search uh we'll move back to you uh the staff is free to go Dr Copeland after this because we'll go into a close session go ahead Dr um yeah we just need to go into close session so we can so the public who's watching we you want to give it a little synop what has happened so far yeah so right now we have um we have whittel down as it were the list of candidates uh down to six um uh candidates we did that as a joint meeting of

156the uh the ad hoc committee and the school board um we went back to mcferson and Jacobson they went back to each of those candidates had them each do a vignette a video answering some very specific questions and mcferson Jacobson they went back as well and did background investigations deep background investigations on each one of them we were provided we being the ad hoc committee and the board full board were provided with reports and videos we have since looked at those viewed those videos looked through the reports and it is now time to go into Clos session to decide on which of those candidates and how many we want to bring in for formal interviews and we decided to keep the ad hoc sech committee along with us that's the voice of the community right

157so the final vote on who becomes the next superintendent will be a board vote however as um a voice from the community we have kept the ad hoc committee as part of the process so that they can voice their con concerns questions uh and comments to the board who will be voting yes and we got I know Mrs Lin is there right you want to uh and we may have some coming in on Zoom so through Zoom so and U and we're doing it under the able leadership of attorney towns who will be guiding us to make sure we stay legal go yeah and and just just to be clear with the public um you know just so that there's no perception of secrecy here the reason that these meetings are being have had in

158close session and I think most would appreciate this is that these names are sensitive in in a couple of cases we have folks that are serving in Educational Systems that don't necessarily want their current employer to know that they've applied to another school district so we we need to be sensitive to that we have each signed a confidentiality agreement with mcferson and Jacobson on behest of the applicants so we are under a legal obligation to keep these these names private at this time however I will assure you that when the new superintendent is selected you will know who that is thank you so let's see let me read the verbage for the close session thank you Dr Tinsley yes sir any questions for Dr Tinsley then notice of Clos session the school board chair recommends

159the school board approve a motion to convene a closed meeting to discuss the following as permitted by the Virginia code 2.2 d371 1 A1 a personal matter involving discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for superintendent position is there a motion to go into close session mrul Mr Connor Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr Conor yes Mr J yes Mr Andrew we stay here yes she's asking for yes was asking are we staying here or going upstairs Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs yes Dr yes thank you so we'll stay here that's what I think he said have upstairs upstairs okay upstairs thank for