001[Music] w [Music] w [Music] oh for [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] for for for meeting is called to order uh we have electronic participation I think we have three members could make it today so is there a motion to approve electronic participation motion second Mr Conor Mrs Lowry Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr Conor yes Mr Julio yes Dr yes Dr yes M yes Mrs yes now we got solid quum three members who are electronic you're welcome to join anytime uh Dr D pledge of okay please rise for the pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you Dr day is there a motion to approve the agenda
002motion Mrs Lowry second Mr Connor is there a um I want to propose that we U Move the policy updates which are uh section K into the consent agenda section I and the black presentation uh I think the person is not here I don't see them so should we move it to a later day um that is um yeah um what's the gentleman's name uh Dr Potter do is Dr Potter here I don't see any okay then I guess we'll postpone this to that will be the Second Amendment to the agenda yeah we can make it one Amendment with two items in it yeah is that okay with you to make that motion that's yes you just amended my motion all right is there a second to amended motion second Mr Lowry yeah any discussion
003Madam cler would you please call the RO so we're voting to amend the agenda the the agenda and after that we'll vote to approve the agenda yeah Mr Conor yes Mr Julio yes Mr Andrews Dr D yes yes Mrs yes Mrs yes Dr tensley yes mral motion car all now we back to the approval of the agenda is there a motion the agenda I move that we approve the adop the amended agenda is that a second to that second Mr Conor Madam cler would you please call the RO Mr Conor yes Mr Julio yes Mr Andrews Dr day yes Dr G yes Mrs Preston yes mral Mr dep not keep see him you can see yeah can you hear us Mr depal audio Mrs yes Dr Tinley yes thank you uh I don't have any
004comments so next one is student representative comments Dr cop good evening everyone we'll start with heret high school tonight well I hope everybody had a great February so this month Pioneers outside the classroom our Deca students were able to go to Deca States this past weekend it was a great opportunity for students to compete with some of the top Deca students in the state Ranna Jones and Deja bowling were the only team to make it to the semi finals congratulations girls and great job to all of the DECA students who competed this weekend signing day three very amazing student athletes had their signing days this past month Giana early is taking her incredible talents to Wingate University to continue her passion of volleyball Tavon Clark is taking his talents to Shepard University to continue his
005passion for football Braden Morgan is taking his talents to CNU to also continue his passion for football congratulations to these incredible students and can't wait to see where their future takes them so for winter sports our boys basketball team ended their season with Varsity having overall record of 16 to9 and JB having a record of 5 to 12 um girls basketball end did their season with barcy having an overall record of 7 to 18 and JB having a record of 20 2 to 20 um boys wrestling had States this past weekend and also had the most state placers in school history congratulations to Dylan Lamar Matthew Garland Bentley fleshman and Elijah kkin for all placing this past weekend for girls wrestling congratulations to Audrey Pierce for being the first girl in school history to place
006in States for track the girls are the current 20242 3C region Champions congratulations to them as well spring Sports such as soccer tennis baseball and many other sports are currently getting ready to start their Seasons so we have some all district team recognitions here are all of the boys and girls basketball players who made all district for the 20242 school year senior marello Toms and Junior Taylor Kohl's made first team all district seniors Tavon Clark CL Garvin and Tyrese Slaughter made second Team all district freshman miles Tyrie and Dena Alexander made honorable mentions for the district congratulations to all of them and their accomplishment um athletic spotlight vsl is currently discussing changing girls wrestling from a more of a club sport into a fully sanctioned sport this would really impact our girls wrestlers in a
007very positive way our track team is currently comping in States today their first day was yesterday and it was a very great start to the competition today we want to continue to wish them the best of luck also a couple hours ago bana Tunes became the state champion for triple jump so congratulations to her Unity walk our homecoming king and queen were invited by the Lacy organization to kick off this year's fourth Unity walk and celebration also a huge shout out to Amari Brown who was also there with the Kumba dance Ensemble great job Pioneers Pioneer theater this past weekend was the closing weekend for the cast of The Adams Family we are so proud of you Pioneer theater great job for putting on another phenomenal show and last but not least a huge shout
008out to the amazing cosmetology teacher Miss pay thank you for how you have grown the class tremendously and also how you have taken such great care of your students thank you and have a great day at number one big orange country thank you thank you Miss Hester Miss White what's going on at easy glass okay hello happy March um hopefully it's going to start getting a little bit War warmer outside soon but that means it's the end of winter sports some of the seasons have already ended we have a couple people still going but we've had a really really strong winter season as I've said before with athletes showing a lot of dedication and teamwork um outdoor track and field had a meet today at Liberty University putting in a lot of great effort boys
009varsity basketball um has had an amazing season at 22 and4 and they're back in Action tonight against Tuscarora so go Hill Toppers uh girls varsity basketball also had a great season finishing 16- n our JV teams for sure face some challenges uh boys basketball finishing at 8- 10 and JV girls finishing it 2 and 11 but they showed a lot of growth throughout the season and I had been to some of those games and it's it's really cool to see the Team Dynamics just all across the sports and as we move into spring boys vars lacrosse is kicking things off tonight with a scrimmage against Woodbury forest and we're really proud of our student athletes and looking forward to a great spring season um speaking of the boys basketball team congratul ulations to exceptional players
010and coaches who have really earned the hype uh through dedication and hard work we're proud to celebrate um coach DJ who is named district Coach of the Year JT Osborne who earned Player of the Year and honors Adrien farmer James Ferguson and Omar Anderson and Gavin Arthur have all been recognized for outstanding performances with um Adrien winning First Team all district James and Omar earning second Team all district honors and Gavin receiving honorable mention all district um also happy to announce that the lady Hill Toppers have also brought in some titles of um co- seminal District uh champions for the 20124 2025 season and we're so proud of their success um congratulations to Destiny word and Jordan Matthews for earning First Team all district honors Payton Hai for securing second Team all district and annia
011McCoy for getting honorable mention all district and then Coach atrina Thomas has been recognized as coach of the year for leadership and all of these Awards just show how uh how hard our student athletes are working to bring in wins for the school so it's good to see that um and then a few more boosters excellence awards has been have been given out as of recent to Anna waterworth and Sebastian plock for cross country this award recognizes their outstanding achievements um in school leadership and integrity both Anna and Sebastian have shown a lot of those qualities uh throughout the season and they wanted to thank coach Van Porter and assistant coach Becky eert for their guidance and support throughout the season the future Center at EC glass has had a really exciting and productive past
012month uh filled with campus tour field trips fast f nights SAT prep sessions visits from local colleges and future Fridays and if you look at the photos on the screen you can see some of our amazing Hill Toppers getting help doing their applications submitting their FASA and getting accept acceptance letters from their dream schools and it's the it's really contagious when you see someone like getting closer to their dreams it really motivates you so it's a really fun place to to be in right now um congratulations to the EC glass forensics team for being named region runner up so proud of the winners Alana oder Melody petite Amory do Sophia Haled uh lonus putam Harper weey and Linley Crosby each of them earned a spot at the states tournament in March and we can't wait
013to see them on stage again the EC glass CTE program wants to give a shout out to Jasmine Ford a very talented culinary arts student who has a passion for cooking and baking um she loves making donuts and cinnamon rolls from scratch and uh showing off her work in the kitchen and After High School she'd love to work in fashion or continue her work in the kitchen as a chef so keep up the hard work Jasmine oh very good um I really wish I had some photos to show uh of the senior trip it was originally scheduled for late February but it had to be canceled because of snow but next month I will be back because the trip is tomorrow and I'll have some great photos of all of our seniors um earning a
014really well-deserved fund day um and last but not least the EC glass theater department has just finished casting Foot Loose uh the musical is going to be performed on two weekends so the weekend of May 1st and 2nd and the weekend of or well the week of May 9th and 10th offering a great opportunity to see our really talented students in action um the casting crew have been working super hard to bring this show to life already and we're really excited to share their hard work with everyone so get your tickets on ECG t. booktix.com and bring your friends and family it's a really fun show and that's all I have for this month thank you thank you Dr coopman thank you next one is public comments Dr D okay um I will read um
015the policy statement concerning public comments um persons Desiring to address the school board by voicemail message well let's see um that deadline for that was at 3:30 so we're past that I'll go on to the part that applies to the people that are here um persons appearing before the school board will not be allowed to campaign for public office or promote private business ventures and should not use profanity or vulgar language or gestures make comments about a public official or an employee that are not related to the public official or employees official duties engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting or intimidates others or address the school board on issues that do not concern the services policy role and or repes responsibilities of the school board individual speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes
016a speaker representing a group shall limit their comments to five minutes representative shall identify the group at the beginning of their presentation a group may have no more than one spokesperson the total allotted time for public com ments at Schoolboard meetings is 30 minutes voicemail messages to be played are also limited to 3 minutes for individuals and 5 minutes for speakers representing the group priority will be given to in-person comments before voicemail messages in the following order students I don't see any on the list staff I don't see any on the list but uh we do have one parent and then following that we'll have community members so uh the parent uh who will be our first speaker is Selena Morgan and she could find yeah you should identify the group if you're speaking on
017behalf of a group okay so hi I'm actually they kind of told me to Pivot towards the group is that what we're doing that's your five minutes okay thank you so much could you hold on juste might could you please put yourself on mute please uh could you mute yourself thank you go ahead okay we're good all right I am Selena Morgan and I am here to represent the young women's empowerment Academy here in Lynchburg Virginia so good evening LCS board members faculty and staff my name is Selena and I am the director for the young women's artment Department Academy for our Lynchburg chapter in this role I have the privilege of working with some of our most vulnerable but important young women in our city brilliant resilient students who are navigating not just their
018academics but also personal challenges shaped by trauma today I stand before you not only as a director but also as a community member and parent deeply vested invested in the well-being and success of our students I urge this board to consider making trauma informed care training a part of professional development for every administrator teacher and staff member a part of LCS and here's why trauma does not stay at home it walks through our schools every single day it sits in our classrooms lingers in our hallways and impacts the way our students engage with learning trauma rather from poverty violence abuse or neglect rewires the brain making it harder for students to focus regulate emotions or even feel safe in an environment meant for learning yet far too often we Mis interpret trauma responses as bad
019behavior we see Defiance where there is fear we see disengagement where there is exhaustion we see anger where there is deep pain when we don't understand trauma we risk responding in ways that push our students further into isolation reinforcing the very barriers that prevent them from learning and thriving here's what we know the brain is highly adaptable in childhood but trauma disrupts healthy development particularly in areas responsible for emotional regul ation memory and learning chronic stress from trauma keeps the brain in survival mode making it harder to focus process information and engage in problem solving trauma affects emotional and Social Development children who have experienced trauma May struggle with trust relationship and self-worth this may interpret social cues have difficulty forming relationships or act out aggressively or withdraw completely trauma can manifest as challenging Behavior
020many students who experience trauma struggle with self-regulation leading to impulsive actions Defiance and emotional outbursts what may look like disrespect laziness or Defiance is often a child's attempt to protect themselves from further home F further harm I'm sorry or Express unmet emotional needs trauma affects learning and academic success as well as physical health but here's the good news understanding trauma changes everything when educators are trained in trauma informed care they learn how to recognize these sign respond sorry sorry respond with empathy create classrooms where all students feel safe supported and ready to learn they learn how to shift from punishment to intervention from frustration to understanding and from labeling students as problems to seeing them as a young people in need of guidance and support and let's be clear this is not about compassion it's
021about outcome research shows that trauma informed schools reduce disciplinary issues improve attendance increase academic success which are all things LCS could really use retrain our staff in trauma sensitive practices we don't just help individual students we create a culture of resilience that our entire School commun Community benefits from our teachers administrators support staff and coaches are already doing incredible work but without the right tools we are asking them to do the impossible to support students without fully understanding what they're going through trauma informed care training equips our Educators with the knowledge and strategies they need to not only teach but to heal Empower and uplift so today I ask let's make trauma informed care training a standard not an option let's ensure that every educator staff member and staff member is equipped to meet our
022students where they are so we can help them get to where they deserve to be just a few stats because it all matters currently our CPS complaints for current fiscal year roughly is sitting at 978 our fiscal year ends at June 978 which is roughly about 133% of LCS a student population at this very moment we have 208 children in foster care why does this matter many of our young adults are placed in alt education situations because of responses and we're not actually able to see them Beyond I hope that we all understand that our students don't need more punishment they need understanding they need advocacy they need us please don't understand I am not attacking anyone I am asking for us to consider how we can better support our students thank you thank you
023um all our next speaker is Robert Floyd excuse me flood good evening to all of y'all and thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak again it's been a while I want to address something that's been going on uh at least about a month there but I don't see the gentleman here so I I'm address it anyway you know um first of all I would like to say you know to the um Dr the Paul I think it was uh had made a mistake you know people are human everybody make mistakes sometime but you know sometime you have to be punished when you make mistakes I have made a bunch of him in my life and I was punished and when I admit that I had a problem I admit that something was going
024on you know they dealt with I would like to read this right here first I would like to thank the board members on the upholding of your standards and doing the right thing by stripping a board member of this of his duties and VI his position as part of the discipline department when you can discipline kids you can send them home then you end up doing something that's disgraceful no one is perfect like I said people make mistakes I would love to have a conversation with the gentem and wonder why he done what he done but when you know when you look at things and kids get punished for certain things they do and they might get a whole year six months from something less than what somebody disgraced or super attended a woman and
025on top of that a black woman if he really knew what black women went through to get where they at today I don't think he would have done something like that and I just feel like that he didn't do it alone I feel like he had some help but how do something stay up there for a whole week and nobody see it it just don't make sense he admitted that he done it and he said if the city council tell him to step down he'll step down he ain't stepped down yet because somebody told him not to step down you know I think about when Dr Edwards was on uh vacation and some kids got the fighting at her at this high school and they had two uh city council people wanted to expel her
026wanted to fire her because these two kids got to fight they pushed it for to fire her she was there she was on vacation all us take vacations just think of something happen at your home when you're when you're gone you think they going put you out your house it don't work like that but when somebody do something that the city council put them there for a reason and he's in a department to deal with kids with behavior problems and I think that about 8,000 kids is he oversee and then you turn around and do something disgraceful to a superintendent that's gone and she was here he might you know he might have thought about it I think she can speak for herself but I think that you know he needs to step down we
027had a great man there before Dr bran he was a good man fair man equal man but city council thought he need to leave so but we can't have something like this we already divided how can we come together situation like this will keep us divided and what you think these kids do they see us they smart they intelligent yes they get in trouble they make mistakes but they're human beings and they get punished when they do something so why can't he get punished when he done something I don't understand that but I appla I mean I applaud y'all for what y'all done now the city council got to do their part and I wanted to tell him I know he's not here but I had 10 kids outside that he suspended I wanted to
028bring in here so he could talk to him it might still be out there but I don't know but I said that to say this that was a joke ain't no kids out there thank you thank you uh next is uh Gary Taylor good afternoon School Board Dr copelan Dr Gupta Dr day rest of the school board members those that aren't in attendance uh my name is Gary Taylor I'm the founder and president of citizens for better Lynchburg which is the only bipartisan Committee in the entire city of Lynchburg so we strive to work together from both sides of the aisle it's which is very important to have collaboration to fight the extremist on both sides of the aisle on the left and the right in the city of Lynchburg and in America for that
029matter so tonight my comments are going to be addressed towards the CIP funds mainly and I'm going make a couple other comments but yall should have my presentation because I will never get through a five minute presentation in 20 minutes so uh on the CIP funds the most important thing going is it looks like there's 10 million I think for this next year 30 and then 20 I think it's 60 total so the question is going to be is the vast majority of funds going to be used for one school or is the vast majority of the funds going to be used for the 11 schools okay so you guys have been bullied and meandered and all kind of stuff by city council and certain groups of schools so the question because it sounds like
030a no-brainer you have 12 schools are you going to dedicate that money to one school or you going to dedicate it to the other 11 so I'm not sure if any stakeholder wanting a common sense and best practices solution would say that one is better than 11 so my question is we know what happened with the school closures okay a disaster a disaster people like myself and other people have worked for a decade to get Lynchburg City schools in line okay and we have made zero progress on facilities zero so will this board again fail to do what is best for all of Lynchburg City Schools not just one we the people and the parents hope not that you will this time side with the vast majority instead of the vast minority and get this
031started in the right direction so that's the most important thing you have $10 million uh please use it wisely and you have a big school district not just one school so with that I want to switch it to the superintendent search I don't really uh I had a chance to meet with the Consultants okay myself at sanduski I'm one of the last meetings and the only thing I will say as a lifetime person who evaluates situations you're lucky if you have a 50% chance of getting a long-term successful superintendent because the consultant firm you're using doesn't believe in school choice you can't have successful schools without successful without school choice that's the that's one Foundation of successful school system the other is elected School boards if education were a private sector the federal government would
032step in and break it up because it's a monopoly government is the worst form of business there is it's not lynchburg's government it's government in general is the worst form of inefficient form of business and business of education is the most out of touch business within that of any business okay because it's not real world it's not real world it's Academia okay I can give you example example example example when you do real world stuff versus acadamia right here in Lynchburg I saved Lynchburg $4 million by myself when I stepped in used $5,000 of my own money in three months and was able to help people in the food deserts so I just wanted to make sure cuz I knew I wouldn't get through so when you're on the side of righteousness truth and God
033you're on the right side have a great night thank you Mr Taylor um do we have any voicemail messages yes sir or any emails yes sir all right well that concludes the public comment period thank you Dr D uh next is consent agenda is there a motion to approve the revised consent agenda MH oh okay approved Mrs Lowry is a second I'll second it Dr day uh any discussion I would like to withdraw the human resources report from the consent agenda well technically that will require two-thirds vote because you're modifying something that the committee's already voted to approve you can make that motion but it will take a two-thirds vote to pass is there a second to that motion I didn't discuss it with anyone so I don't expect to have it have a limited
034number of members here so I'll withdraw that okay okay is there Madam CL would you please call the r Mr Conor yes Mr J yes Dr a yes Dr G yes Mrs Preston yes Mrs Lori yes Mr Andrews Mr tul yes Dr T yes motion car thank you next one is finance report Dr kopin turn over Miss jamus to go through our financial report this evening good evening chairman gupa members of the board and Dr copelan thank you for the opportunity to address you it has been a minute um I'll be brief in my remarks this evening to lend more time um for further discussions you have before you the January 31st 2025 monthin financials as of January 58.33% of our fiscal year has passed so we're barreling on um the percent of revenues collected
035versus the original adopted revenues was at 43.6% year-to date I anticipate that we'll see an influx of additional revenues Midstream um when V starts pushing some of those out the amount of expenditures versus is original appropriation is at 51.4% um notice it's almost 7% below what we have uh past this fiscal year so on the expenditure side we're uh um we're doing relatively well from an analysis perspective um total expenditures inclusive of encumbrances equates to 94. 26% remember those incumbrances may or may not come under fruition um they are set aside that we make sure that we have what what we need to cover set aside um for future purposes and for payroll and salaries so we had a few notable variances um this past um month of January line 21 function 2200 I believe
036I've addressed this with you before the attendance and Health Services Personnel um they've used used uh 90.3% of the budget due to expenses related to salary and benefits so that larger than normal encumbrance um is associated with some positions that we need to move into other areas and we anticipate having that done in the next month um the line 59 function 4600 Security Services other has used 93.9 6% of the budget due to some expenses related to purchase services such as the Raptor technology system and sonitrol which is our um which is our badging into the S into the building system and um our um watchu guard as far as um making sure that when alarms go off that someone is is in attendance to take care that some other variances that we've discussed in
037Prior reports are our technology 8100 8200 um 8300 and 8500 and 8600 those are technology um expenses for Pupil Transportation for administration for instructional support these are all things that we need to use in the classroom um a lot of these are front-loaded because you pay for your software at the beginning of the year and then you um take off off that that um set aside throughout the rest of the fiscal year um our statement of revenues our federal state and local collections um are 50.8 for federal 26.7 for state and 30.3 respectively um for local so the slow um dispersements as I said will most likely speed up towards the middle part um of spring although we are blowing it out with miscellaneous and charges for services they're significantly ahead of our Target for
038the fiscal year um our miscellaneous um expense uh collections revenues are at 11 14.2% and our charges for services are at 87.6% on the monthly um summary report our January 2025 versus January 20 24th year-to dat balance of health insurance cost reduced 39.9% in this January versus last January so we're heading in the right direction and hopefully in the next month or so the increase of the rates will start equalizing and offsetting the expenses and bringing in the dispersements um to offset those um that's the end of my report I'll entertain any any questions that you have at this time if not I will I have one question you said that you would probably move the expenditures into other areas um so we have some attendance clerks um and some of those positions that are
039actually based out at the schools but for some reason they are originally coded to ad the admin building oh I and their duties are School related so therefore they should be that expenditure should be in the schools so there are a few positions like that um that we're coming across that we are making an effort to change the distribution code so that they are aligned with where they do their actual work aesome thank you yes ma'am I I have a couple of questions absolutely only going back to the healthcare our premiums have gone up right effective January yes sir um as of January and the total receipts are less than last year so why is that last year you had $1. 384 million in receipts this year is 1379 so with the increased premium same
040number of employees it should be higher number so those uh run a month behind Okay so we will that as I said that we will start seeing that increase and equalize the the expenses the cost probably in February or March hopefully if there aren't uh too many expenses that are outpacing our dispersements um so I anticipate February and March being a different picture um and you know taking into account that increase that we did the same thing I had for dispersements your dispersements are up almost half a million dollars right it's for December not for January well so the bill comes in in January and so I report those expenses in January um but most likely they uh take some of the December into effect as well as January so I anticipate we'll start seeing
041um better numbers come out of that so thank you no other questions thank you very much absolutely uh next one is unfinished business uh Ed Hawk search committee Dr Tinsley yes hello everyone I'm hearing myself echo in this so I'm going to keep it short um so we are in the process now of getting uh the board members and the ad hoc committee members uh copies of all of the applicants files uh we're going to get those to you on a thumb drive um and uh on the 13th of March we are meeting as an ad hoc committee to start going through those those uh looking at the applicants and uh and ranking them and uh may follow that on with a March 17th meeting as well we'll see how we we do on the
04213th and then we will be bringing uh uh candidates before the board on uh on March 18th um confidentiality obviously is is a big deal at this point in the process because we are getting down to actual names so I hope uh everyone understands that uh you know the sensitivity of of releasing people's names to the public because of jobs people might be holding at the present time so uh we are going to to maintain confidentiality of those uh those names at this point um and obviously we'll release a set of names at some point but uh but we just want the public to understand that uh you know folks are in positions now that may have applied and might not want their current employers to know that they've applied somewhere else so we uh
043good good full of applicants though uh very encouraged uh by the the the people that we've gotten and um yeah so we're very uh optimistic about uh the future lity schools Dr D had a question yeah sure sure just just looking ahead um once um well I think the plan is on the 18th uh the search committee will have a joint meeting with the school board a closed meeting to preserve that confidentiality and at that point we will discuss with the search committee the candidates that they've collected um and I guess uh mcferson and Jacobson will well I don't know if if it's mcferson and Jacobson or the search committee will make some recommendations about finalists and then the board will decide what its final finalists are right is that is that a correct so
044far yeah I understand what you're saying yeah so we're going to make our recommendations to the board uh you all uh you're going to have the documents at the same time the ad hoc committee does so you know sometime before the 13th we'd like love to have uh your feedback on any of of the candidates any any you know candidates that you prefer those that you don't reasons why that kind of thing but we're going to come up with our our suggestions uh we'll bring those to the board on the 18th as you say in a closed session and at that point U finalize that list of finalists and then after that reach out and start setting up uh up the interviews do you want feedback from Individual school board members by the 13th did
045I understand yeah if you have feedback uh by the 13th would be great um because we're going to have a meeting on the evening of the 13th to discuss our suggestions but of course we're all going to be together in that joint meeting on the 18th as well so we can we can talk through any issues at that point as well and my other or other question is once we've the board has decided on its finalists um that too needs to remain confidential to protect those individuals uh in their current employment situations um how will those how will the board conduct interviews with the finalists will we bring them here physically will it be an electronic interview of some kind how will that work so let me can I take it over here from Dr
046Tinsley so the the process we'll be doing is all of you have a flash drive with all the information so it's protected um please do not share that with anybody and you um 18th we'll have a joint meeting where we'll uh have a Clos session uh we don't need staff that day Dr Copeland uh we'll go into a closed session and we'll go through each of the candidates um and but the search committee will have or the consult through Consultants will present their five we can look at it if any additions or deletions need to happen at that point in time and then at that time we'll decide how many of those candidates we want to bring on the ground because it involves cost so the search will will make us recommendations for five are
047we bringing all five are we bringing three uh and that decision we'll make on 18th and once the decision is made um we'll go from there uh involving how much how do we maintain confidentiality uh till they come on ground so are you saying until then we don't know how we're going to conduct the interviews will at that the process will for how many are coming uhuh that's when we'll decide we'll decide okay all right that's what I was trying to resolve the 18th close session will be the day yes sir uh one time I was offered a job across country and they wanted me to consider flying over just for the consideration uh of a a secondary um interview and I did not want to pay for the plane flight I wanted them to
048cover it if they were really willing to hire me and they weren't willing to do that and so it didn't pan out do we have any problems with the distance of people I think in the past we have covered the travel expenses when you bring a candidate on ground that's why we have to be mindful how many do we invite so the cost factor is involved and we got go ahead go ahead Mark Mark oh you're cutting in and out your audio's off you'll have to start over you can stop your car and then speak so it's no it's the network connection he's driving yeah yeah we couldn't hear that we'll have to uh look at that's why 18th close session is important how much money do we have and how do we go from
049there yeah other questions for Dr I think we lost him right is he there are you there well we we can't hear him at least but please make sure all of you have this and you sign the confidentiality piece of paper with Miss day right all these people you have given flash right to so you have to maintain absolute confidentiality um all right we move to the next item city council School Board join task force. today okay um let's see so um you may recall that on January 7th we the board resolved to send a letter to city council requesting a joint meeting of our two bodies to try to reach a consensus regarding our budget that joint meeting took place on February 18th at the end of which the mayor and board chair appointed
050a four member committee consisting of myself Mrs Lowry and city council members faldi and Reed with myself and Mr faldi serving as co-chairs um I am going to refer to this as The Joint Task Force although at the time it was appointed no name was given to it um after that joint meeting concluded the mayor added uh council member Mision to the committee and Dr C Gupta added Mr Connor uh Mrs Reed declined to serve and so the mayor replaced her with Mr Wilder um now having co-chairs of a committee is an awkward arrangement I noticed the other day that Robert's Rules advises against it uh but regardless that is the State of Affairs and I will do my best to work in concert with my co-chair to conduct conduct the committee's business uh so
051that this new committee The Joint Task Force or J ATF will uh met for the first time on February 27th the city manager's office offered a statement of purpose but the committee adopted a simplified general statement of purpose uh in it's in the file jtf guidelines that's attached to tonight's agenda if you want to see what it actually consists of um I want to point out that this uh Joint Task Force will be shortlived currently it PL to meet just four more times and will expire no later than June 30th we then turned our attention to rules of procedure we voted to follow Robert's Rules of Order plus one Special Rule which is that when votes are taken everyone must vote in other words no extensions are allowed unless a member has a genuine conflict
052of interest or a motion passes by consent and we agreed that would be the presiding officer at all of our meetings but I would not vote unless it's necessary to break a tie so there is a uh uh inequality between the co-chairs um I have an advantage in the sense that I conduct the meeting and recognize speakers and forth so forth and Mr Fry has an advantage in that he's the only quoteser that can vote unless there's a tie among the remaining voting members present our next meeting will be Wednesday March 12th at 5:00 p.m. at the uh ITC building not March 13th as was indicated in the city manager's original document the remaining meetings will be on March 27th April 10th and April 29th that last one is intended to be a joint Schoolboard
053city council meeting at which the Joint Task Force uh hopes to be able to report a recommendation the school board's student discipline committee will schedule any hearings or meetings for the weeks of March 27 and April 10th in order to avoid Thursdays otherwise Mr Connor and myself would have a conflict the following items were indicated by the committee members at our meeting as things they want the Joint Task Force to consider close to home zoning which schools will be open for the 2526 school year alternate education facilities School enrollments capacities and student locations school plans consistent with the SK City's proposed CIP plan and the possibility of State funds to help support construction costs we did discuss briefly the city manager proposed CIP CIP plan and noted the gap between uh What uh it allots
054to the schools and what our requested CIP funding is at our next meeting um the intent is that the uh LCS Administration will provide a summary of the major maintenance and renovation needs of our school buildings and a city staff offered to make some suggestions about how we might assess School enrollments capacities and student location all intended to provide uh information to input our effort to try to come together and form uh a a plan going forward that both the city and the school can agree to now I want to clarify for the public that the purpose of this committee is to try to resolve the impass that we seem to be perpetually in namely that the school board makes plans which cannot be carried out because city council is unable to provide necessary funds
055now that is not meant to be a casting of blame it's simply what we have experienced we seem to be in that situation again the board's plan to rebuild sanduski does not appear at least to me possible based on the city's draft CIP plan for 2025 through 2030 so we are probably forced to reconsider yet again I understand if those who are passionate about a new seski are frustrated that the issues seems to be up in the air once more I understand that uh the hope for this committee is that it will chart away forward that both bodies can support so we can end the stalemate and move forward that's what I have to reest questions for Dr yes questions none I had a request Dr Day from all three of you picking three of
056you was to there's a first year member there's a second year member and a third year member on this task force so so we continue that historical knowledge future cuz we we have turnover so Dr day is the senior most and Mrs Lowry and then M but the focus should be the kids not the individual personality that's my humble request to all three of you if you can maintain the focus on that kid because we are here to provide quality and a safe environment learning environment for our kids it's not about me it's not about you it's not about about you is not about you so hopefully as we meet and we move forward the focus is on the child and they should be the Forefront of every discussion we do that's my humble request
057to you sir as your co-chair I understand may I make one more further comment I I want to also make it clear that this committee has no formal power to decide anything we cannot it cannot dictate dictate school board's policy it cannot dictate the city's budget all it proposes to do is try to come up with a recommendation that we think both bodies will support uh but then it's up to the two bodies the school board and the city if they really are going to support that recommendation or not we're simply trying to identify the middle ground yes that's all yes and that was something I was concerned with u because it didn't it being informal made it very similar to the two members of this board meeting with two city council members on a
058regular basis it's very informal the discussions led to what we have and now it's going to be a very similar format so I I didn't think it would be too much different in its outcome unless you want to comment on the difference well it it was um Dr gp's initial suggestion that it' be two and two and then the mayor for reasons that were not explained to me we can only speculate uh decided to add a third member and then to balance it Dr CP to added a third member as well three members make it a public uh announcement so it under the Foya regulations right two goes under the radar screen so uh three makes it legally required to announce that public where they'll meeting what the agenda will be which which are not
059the requirements the objective was not to defy those things but it made to me that has not been told but to me it made sense to have three members from each so then it's it's a public meeting good question go ahead it is a public meeting and I happen to go to the to to that public meeting but my question to you is do we have any restrictions as far as our participation in in that meeting if I had an idea suggestion a question a comment am I I allowed to make that or do I need to make it privately to somebody else I I think you would need to make it uh directly to one of or all of the three of us who represent the school board on the committee uh we have
060not put a public comment into the agenda for for those meetings it's um just sort of brainstorming of our two bodies together but I think I think the three of us would welcome any input from both fellow board members and the community and I certainly would expect that the three individuals from the city Side would likewise welcome input from U the community or from other school board members okay during the meeting are you're saying or I'm sorry beforeand yes yeah there's no public comment period at these meetings they saying yes to me or yes to are you saying yes to me or yes to her to you well you just asked so I'm responding to you so during the meeting yes yes oh outside of the meeting you can say anything you want to anybody
061you want try to be polite though good yeah that's I have one yes do we need to do anything else to make sure that we distinguish this task force from whatever the city thought it you know because it seemed like they thought it was something else that they voted on back in November lifelong that's and I think there's still some correspondence going back and forth like there's confusion but this task force is not in any way related to that that's why that's why um I think it was important that the first thing we did is Adopt a statement of purpose to clarify what this committee understands its purpose to be now as you recall that was not voted unanimously by the assembled six people it was 5 to one okay thank you thank you Dr
062D uh next one is new business Heritage Park property transport Dr Copeland like to ask Dr Ro could to make this presentation yes sir good evening members of the board thank you Dr Copeland um on January 26 2024 the finance and Facilities committee reviewed a request from the city uh Department of Parks and Recreation uh to transfer two Parcels of property uh from a School Division control which of course was also owned by the city uh back to City control for the purpose of developing two properties uh for City Park use uh those properties were at permont or adjacent to permont elementary school as well as the two Heritage campuses um the purpose of that was again to develop a public park but that would be would be used both for uh certainly the school
063Community but also the larger Community as well as an opportunity to invest in those spaces um perrymont in particular there's been a longterm plan uh for that that project um as well as some developing ideas for the Heritage Park as well um at that time the finance facilities committee recommended unan unanimously to approve that transfer um there were a number of things on the agenda that came up over the next couple of months and then the perrymont park came up over the summer the school board unanimously approved to transfer that property uh to the city and then now we're ready to take a look at the Heritage Property Park um one of the issues that we wanted to make sure was that when uh the Heritage Community uh needs to use the property uh it
064is available to them uh and our colleagues at the department of Parks and Recreation have assured us that certainly the Heritage Community would have priority um over the over the property uh well to be able to use the property as needed but as as it exists right now uh this provides an opportunity for the Parks and Recreation Department to invest in that space make it it even even better use than it is now um but also again with still the adjacent to the property uh Mr White Woody is here he's the director of Parkson Recreation and certainly would take any questions you might have about this uh this transfer um but essentially the property if you just know if you know the property the the area of the of the of the campus sort of
065on the other side of the creek uh would then be transferred to uh the city to be maintained by them again uh we've had a great partnership uh with them uh and want to continue that is that the property where the old pra the old practice fields and stuff used to be com in off the leeville road yes sir okay yes sir and I'm assuming Mr Bey is fine right he's sitting in the audience so sir yeah is there go ahead my only question would be what would be the process of asking for using of the land when Heritage needs it yeah absolutely so we have a we have a really close partnership with the city parks direct department for a number of properties one of them of course being uh City Stadium for various
066athletic events and I'm sure that we would continue to have the same process why do that we'll just use that we have a great relationship uh we'll continue that uh I don't know that we necessarily need to have anything formal but it's a long-standing thing that we've been doing is there a motion to approve it I have one question Mrs lry just curious um it's will we have a fence or something along the school line just so nobody can walk on school campus from that or does that matter we hav we haven't planned for that and I don't believe that's in the design we also haven't done that at perrymont or other places where we have uh Park property but um yeah well the schools are open I mean people can walk on okay I'm
067good I walked that place and Dr Coleman is in audience we walk that place quite a bit so there's a like a metal uh gate at the very on the leeville road side oh okay and it's open only from um sunrise to sunset that's where it says up there right now it may change later on but right now it says on the board open only from Sunset and the public still uses it I've seen cars okay all right is there a motion to approve it motion uh Mr Connor second Mrs Lowry any other further discussion Madame cler would you please call the RO Mr con yes Mr jilo yes Dr day yes Dr G yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes M yes Dr T yes car thank you next one is uh cell phone
068um policy update cop call Dr Brown to the podium uh he's going to provide an update after two months of the new cell phone policy he's conducted a survey so he's got some data to share relative to that and we have our secondary principles here uh to provide input on how things are going on their buildings Dr Brown good evening everyone take one pass sir thank you hope everybody's having a wonderful evening it's good to see you all um we I won't be before you long today CU I know this desire of the board to speak with our principles um regarding our cell phone implementation for our cell phone policy um did want to go over a few things before we turn it over to our principls to give you opportunity to ask some questions
069and do a Q&A with them um and we will get to that just momentarily um we are providing a handout for some survey results that we sent out and you were just now getting that because fresh off the press we wanted to allow as much time as possible for um respondents and we're pleased with the survey results that we got so just from a general overview um the second slide shows the amazing work that our Communications team Austin Journey did to announce and make sure that our community school Community was aware of the cell phone policy changes again the communication team led by Austin Journey did a wonderful job um and started on pretty much day one uh with updates about the announcement of the policy did a notification to family students and staff send
070press release and uh updates on our website then U followed that we had a principal meeting where I made principles aware of the changes and um the implementation strategy moving forward um we started with the they started with the off and away all day campaign um and then provided several other updates as you can see there on slide two slide three uh talks to our student survey and I'm just going to do a real brief overview and and oversight if you have any questions feel free to answer ask those um but we wanted to send a simple survey out with just four quick questions for our students staff and parents to get an idea of what the perception was um again there's some research coming out Across the Nation that is uh the cell phone
071decreased cell phone use is improving mental health for students um grades academics School Behavior but we wanted to see what was specific to Lynchburg um again not a peer-reviewed study at all but this is um something that's the perception of our parents so we're pleased to announce we had 1400 students take the survey which is a good sample size four quick questions that focused on ability to focus in class was um what did it do to students social life they perceived social life change any changes on their Stress and Anxiety and any changes how how it impacted their academic performance the next slide shows the first two questions the impact on their social life and their ability to focus in class and you can see the yellow indicates that they didn't had there was no
072change so wasn't really a preference um we did see that if students did have a preference they were slightly more negative towards um the impacts on their social life and the ability to focus in class um as you can see indicated by the red and orange bars um blue indicates the positive impact on students the next slide shows the impact of student perception on their Stress and Anxiety level in the academic performance um again vast majority of students felt like there was no change no impact either way positive or negative um the one that was more significant is the students did that reported a feeling felt um that did increase their Stress and Anxiety level um a lot more I have a lot of theories and thoughts on that um I will hold those and
073and until we have a greater discussion but it's I think it's important to realize some national problems worldwide Global issue of students and cell phone usage and they use it a lot and the addiction to cell phones and um I believe some of that is what we see happening there the next slide we um will show the parent survey which we're pleased with that response rate as well we had almost 500 parents U 468 parents respond three quick questions that talk to social interactions academic performance and students um mental health and the next slide shows the impacts of that mirror the student survey pretty close clely vast majority of parents felt it didn't have any impact but if it did if they um did have a um opinion one way or the other on Mental
074Health it was slightly more negative um it's a little bit slightly more positive um for their academic performance and social interaction but again vast majority didn't have an opinion either way the last one is we surveyed Educators uh we only had 69 Educators fill out the survey and we sent it multiple times and principles reminded staff um and mirrored the same questions uh this was interesting because the next slide shows um for engagement in focus and student performance on academics um teachers felt that um they had a more positive impact on students ability to engage and focus and their academic performance the next slide shows that in regards to U their socialization and impact on Mental Health teachers felt generally did impact their social um uh impact and engagement in a positive way in non-instructional
075things and um pretty neutral but slightly positive on their impact on mental health so in summary um teach parents and students felt a little bit more neutral about the policy changes if they did have an opinion it tended to be a little bit more towards a negative impact um teachers felt that the policy those that responded felt that the policy was more positive and had more positive impact and and effect um those were pretty much all of the things I wanted to go over with you all at this time uh can ask our principles or secondary principles to come up and I'm going to do a quick Q&A and uh go from there so Dr Brown yes I have a comment for you I just by looking at that and being a teacher to me
076that teacher part was so important because they're the ones giving instruction and so they even if not all students filled it out not all teachers filled it out so but the ones that filled it out seems like if I'm able to instruct and then and the kids can be where they need to be and better prepared for testing and and class work and Etc that's good thing and I think doct Lee sent out a survey before I sent this one to her staff as well and she can speak to that and mirors that sentiment yeah yeah so definitely some of what you said reflected in the survey for our teachers how we collaborated um my colleagues and I we discuss some of our concerns with how this looks in the classroom and the teacher perception
077of this so my school was used as a sample just Gathering all of our ideas around this and I have about 40 classroom teachers I had 24 teachers to respond to the school survey based on the conversations that I've had with my colleagues behind me and 79% of my teachers who completed this survey said they feel that the updated cell phone policy they have seen improvements in student attention and focus in the classroom um of those same participants I asked them do you feel that the updated sale policy you have seen less social media drama pouring into the classroom and overwhelmingly overwhelmingly excuse me 75% of our teachers said they have seen an improvement with a decrease in social media drama spilling over in the classroom um teachers were uncertain about this because they don't
078know if the students are just holding the cell phones or if they're truly putting them in the locker but teachers d report 64% reported that they do not see the cell phones in their classroom so one is making an assumption that they're leaving them in the class in the lockers or they're just not engaging with them when they're in the classroom and finally on this survey um they were asked with the updated cell phone policy do you feel students are more responsible with their cell phone usage and 72% of students teachers reported that they are seeing more student responsibility in regards to inappropriate cell phone usage and that again was based on our conversations about what we are looking for in the classroom as a result of this and I was the sample representing all
079of us very nice me the chief any of the principals have any comments to make thank you for all you do for our KS we appreciate everything you guys do there thank you and Dr Brown you too man you an amazing job so uh don't let people stop you from doing what you're doing uh any other I know board members have but any principles have any comments to add on to no all right Mr Conor go ahead um headsets earpieces we're seeing them you know so one thing that we did before the thank you to Lynchburg City schools because they helped us with the foundation of rolling out this policy by being proactive before January 6 and communicating through Austin's office what is coming for our families and so one thing that we did we
080met with Dr Brown about this before January 6th and we also met after this so we sent out in some form of on our websites or on our school social media Pages we develop graphics for our families and shareed this out and we understand that this is a technology policy not limited to cell phones so it does say cell phones smart watches headphones mean and wireless um earphones gaming devices and personal laptops and so this is what Graphics similar to this um have been presented to students and families from all secondary schools Dr D so um I think we all realized when we decided to put this policy in place that it was going to be a difficult adjustment for everybody for for you and your staff as as well as as students um so
081I guess my I have a couple questions how difficult has it been and do you feel like um that difficulty is easing up are are both your staff and your students becoming a bit more comfortable with it what do you think it's definitely been a challenge I mean the the headsets particularly because it's a habit kids um wear them all the time and most of the time they listen to music and uh different types of things and so um that's been the biggest challenge uh the cell phones have not been as much of a problem still you know kids break rules you know that's what they do from time to time um but you still work with them you try have conversations with them and try to encourage them to do the right things but
082the headsets have been the biggest issue um particularly between classes um during class maybe not so much but between classes because you know kids get out of class and it just you know they want to decompress a little bit you know and kind of be in their own world some kids feel like it's in they're in the safe Space by having their headphones and so again we try to encourage them try to tell them to take them off call parents have those conversations but that's been the biggest challenge particularly start of year no you know you you have no cell phones but then starting in January no headphones and so that's been the biggest adjustment um and they're still adjusting to it still struggling with it but I think they'll eventually get on track at
083some point yeah I i' that those are the same thoughts I think the pre-planning that went into it um was more um our strategy ATC glass and so teachers have some additional duties or some change duties as a result and so there wasn't adjustment period for that it's flowing flowing really well now though but I would Echo the say the headphones probably more than the cell phones have been um some of the issues but um our kids have responded very positively to the change um better than I anticipated you anticipate the worst and playing for the worst but they've been great so Dr rule could you share a little bit about your cafeteria uh gaming situation and all so if anybody i' I'm not undefeated yet but we have lots of board games taple faral
084Uno Uno is the the big win um and there's all kinds of Uno right now so if you're ever up for game of Uno um I'm sure there's some willing students to challenge you so I'll be there then I love it that's right bring 11 11 to 12:30 okay let me write that down so that that connects to what my next question is going to be because I have read comments from uh staff in other districts that say they they have observed uh more interactions between and among students between classes uh since cell phones have been suppressed if I can use that language have you observed that do you see more student to student student interaction that's not electronic um have you observed that do you think I'd say the cap here is a little
085louder it's louder which is fine you know you know you kids to socialize and you want kids to interact with one another so I would say that's the one good thing um that that happens um is that there there's more conversations that there's more interaction with students uh between students amongst each other so that's my part in it we heard a lot of social data that surveys do we have any hard data from tests scores things like that yet too early yeah I I think really in the early stages of this um and we are planning with Mr YB um on doing some follow-up data but uh if you think about it just implemented this in January and then we had a lot of snow um so um thank you Dr V for making the
086snow this year um so I think it's really early to look at that but that is something that you know we'll take a look at but also so many factors um with the you know involving test scores and um whether it's construction or remediation different programs and so we can look for correlation um and I know you all understand all that but also Mr yro may have comments on that yeah the what he said is true it's so early um we are we changed to a straight seven schedule this I mean there's so many variables that we'd have to start looking at kids who had cell phone issues last year and how those behaviors change so there are some things we've kind of started to discuss about we'd like to track but I would be
087foolish to come up here and say we could make a statement that says too much of anything even the the survey that we sent out is pretty subjective it's a pretty small group the error rates are a little higher than I would like but also people kind of respond with what they were hoping for I think sometimes so I'm hoping that the teacher response continues to be that way but I don't know that I would be C I would be cautious to say that says we're removing the needle too much because a lot of that's just people's opinion still um but there is some work to do with that as we move forward and that'll be work that we'll probably be working on this summer based on what gets requested you identify one or two
088uh tests or events that you can say definitely will correspond to this impact in the you know I think we can look at scores at the high school in general I think really what's going to be most curious is to look at kids who had um repeated cell phone violations or those types of ideas and seeing the impact on their specific progress because for kids who have never had a violation anything they do we don't really know if we're measuring the impact of that or not that there's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of stuff being done at the national level when they're doing studies but these are people with teams of data scientists and it's just me so but yeah we'd love to be able to come back this
089summer and say Here's Where we feel like we're seeing some progress we want to dig deeper here some things that are hard to track and we want to start to put some pieces in place to make that easier to track thank you have question members go ahead um so all of us received an email from from someone that said that there CU in the surveys it all didn't say 100% so my question is for either teachers that you're having trouble getting on board with this or allowing things to happen how is that coming along to try to reel that in are you asking about teachers that maybe not are not adhering to the policy yeah pretty much that's what the letter we all received said sure we've we've shared with teachers that if we walk
090in our expectations have been very clear if you're not following those expectations then that's a conversation or necessary personal action so okay yeah we we try to encourage our teachers to be good teammates and that's what we that's the way we categorize it um if one teacher is enforc it and other teacher is not you're not being a good teammate to the teacher that um that is enforced it so we just try to be consistent with it and um and just try to do our best to ensure consistency across the board yeah because I was thinking as a teacher it's like we're all supposed to get the kids to be the productive human beings in society and if we teach them to or allow them to just ignore the rules what will they do in
091their jobs you know that would be really bad so you don't want to set that precedent so yeah yeah and I think that fits in perfectly with our philosophy on high care High expectation and you know I think a lot of times teachers are letting kids use those cell phones in class they have high care um but really not holding those expectations up and you don't want them just yelling at kids and tell them give your phone all the time without letting another the care it's you got to connect to why this is important and why we're doing this and yeah make sharing the why behind the policy hold on just for one let me ask the remote members any any questions from the three remote members I have all right Mr Andrews uh Dr
092Mr the ball I'm just listening all right Mr Conor go ahead I'm getting feedback from students that they feel offended I might not be the right word that their cell phones are away but the teachers are freely using them during class and they feel like if it's good for the goose so if y'all have any experience heard from students saying why are the teachers freely allowed to use their cell phones and we're not allowed to touch them I have not I have the students will talk to me if they see my cell phone out and say off and way Dr Ru I have heard that feedback from you know nephews nieces church members sir they're saying that the you know they may not express it but they do feel that some of the teachers are
093are BL you know start to test and they're immediately on their phone can I comment that that was Mr dep go ahead Mr Deon thank you uh much in the same way as adults are allowed to do things that young people are not I don't know if that is really an issue if it's if a parent or if a teacher or an administrator uses uh anything that's not that a a student's not entitled to use I I don't think that that isn't even an issue for uh to be considered in this in this they may perceive it a child or a student may perceive an issue of unfairness but the reality is uh there's a lot of things adults can do that students or children cannot uh there's a lot of things that uh that
094are Liberties that adults enjoy that people under a certain age do not so that's I I I don't find that to be a although some of you might that my opinion is I don't find that to be a valid concern other questions for go ahead and I'm just curious has it ever been communicated since it started that we're not trying to the to the students that we're not trying to create an antagonistic relationship between any teachers and students on this one issue okay and one of the reasons is because we don't want your usage of the phones to get a teacher in trouble has that anything like that idea been communicated at all to put some responsibility on the students to take care of their teachers phone about the students the why behind the policy
095for them the students because it gives them a little bit of the burden of the responsibility to say hey I want to take care of my teacher not to get my teacher in trouble you know what I'm saying no no think I don't think we've approached it from that angle as um you know don't get your teacher in trouble because you know they have bosses there's an idea to Think Through okay that's something we can think through motivate them to their phone back out talk about it thank you Dr Brown thank you for all yeah I just want to say thank you for taking this serious apprciate let's give them a round of applause if I can say one thing just want to give a shout out to our girls uh track team they just
096won the state [Applause] championship that's great that's great next is School Board member reports uh G School Mrs Lowry okay that will be tomorrow right EXC Laurel Mrs Lowry and I um next meeting is May 7th I believe the last meeting I already shared the Laurel stuff so St academ me Mr Conor um they had a board they had a board meeting on the 28th of January but unfortunately I was in Richmond at the legisl vsba legislative so I missed that um I wasn't even able to join it electronically but I will be at the next one but she did um send something out that um she had 20 stem applications from Lynchburg City schools and there was an additional seat available at a cost of$ 5,900 I think $592 and I sent something to
097the chairman to see if something we'd be interested in and he shot it back to me as um you know we're in the middle of a budget process so we wouldn't be interested tonight but what I understand it was a junior seat that won't that might not even continue into a senior year so I didn't think it was something that cuz you kind of got the same information back but the St ex race STEM Academy is doing quite well getting a lot of input want to take the financing facilities too next um we just we're right in the process being on the um Joint Task Force and we're in the process I think we'll really get into our next Finance meeting after um the next thank you um Schoolboard meeting thank LS Mr Jal we
098made some decisions on policies that we would like to present to the board at some point but we were missing members so I think we'll do that when we have more of a consensus on these different policies that um Richmond was coming out with so nothing new other than that academic success Mrs Lowry okay our last me meeting we're working on a teacher treasure box um so um and I'm working on a grid for that and hopefully we can get that out by this summer and teachers whether veterans or working teachers can um put their names in if they want to be help it's a help kind of thing um volunteer um for many different uh subject areas also uh we're waiting on math textbooks updates right now only one's out they are not mandatory
099I found out um from the vooe because they are not aligned with the S so's the Virginia s so's we can still choose but um it'll be more like if you get something and then you look at our SS and then we pick from what we're using so um also uh we're checking on senior night um to have um the Legacy and the Blu Ridge Pregnancy Center to be there to um share information with students um also waiting on ideas from teachers teachers at their plc's that um were're having the admin sent out to look for teachers to look at to help the Virginia Secretary of depart um of Education in Virginia to um for ideas she's open for ideas for change she knows that we need numbers but she knows there needs to be
100some adjustments in the so so kids have more time to learn so she knows it's not perfect and so they're open uh we've got some information from I promise information that was received and we will look at that at the next meeting thank you P Mr Andrews or Dr Tinsley yeah I don't think we have anything going to report at this time thank you uh at Foundation M nothing new Beacon of Hope Mr Andrews or Mrs Preston the um Beacon of Hope future Center is hosting a college night for juniors this Wednesday from 6:30 to 7 the event is designed to inform students and their families about post-graduation opportunities and representatives from local colleges businesses and the military will be in attendance dinner is going to be provided for uh those that are in attendance
101and there will be a chance to enter a $11,000 scholarship raffle applications are now open for their summer internship programs for Rising Juniors and seniors students will be placed in a month-long paid internship with companies across the Lynchburg area and some internship business partners include places like Central Health fratone and the free clinic our Commonwealth scholarship application is closed and recipients can receive up to to $5,000 to attend an accredited 2-year 4-year college or trade or Technical School in Virginia the class of 202 five recipients will be announced next month and we are continuing the career acceleration program reaching out to Lynchburg City graduates from 2012 and Beyond and their parents and Guardians to support their return to school upskilling career um advancement services including coaching resume writing interview preparation workshops and so forth what
102time is the dinner meeting I'm sorry what time is the dinner or the meeting the dinner is at 5 well it's 5:30 to 7: I'm not sure which comes first but going back to at Foundation they have their superintendent's breakfast on March 13 March 13 you'll mention okay I just want to make sure that I'll be out of country from 9 through 16 so Dr day will be introducing the superintendent in that event right uh so next one is Dr Copeland in go ahead so uh start with congratulations for the Heritage High School girls track team for another Indoor state championship I need to I should have caught Mr be before he left out to get the count of how many they've won in the past couple of years it's a bunch it's a bunch
103um for the first time in I think wrestling history across the state uh the 3A 4A uh championships were actually held in school buildings and Heritage High School was the host for the 3A Wrestling Championships this past Saturday I think they started at 5:00 a.m. in the morning with weigh-ins and measurements uh and concluded sometime around 900 p.m. uh over a thousand folks came through there as you heard Miss Hester talk about a great showing by the her high school wrestling team and placing so many students in the top six uh of the state so that was a huge event um spring Athletics is in full swing I'll try to mention them all but is the busiest time of the year for high school in Middle School athletics with softball baseball tennis track soccer lacrosse
104golf golf golf fall or spring fall fall okay I think that's it for spring but when you think about our high school campuses uh you can have soccer games baseball games softball games all going on on campus at the same time if you live close to one of those you might hear the crowds in the neighborhoods uh which is always a great sound uh next Thursday morning at 7:30 is breakfast with the superintendent sponsored by the Education Foundation I hope you will all be there uh the tease is you'll learn something about your interim superintendent that you didn't know before uh it is all about Fine Arts uh and the importance that fine arts have on the education and uh what we do here in Lynchburg uh an additional Fine Arts plug School theater Productions
105have been going on at at middle schools and high schools for really the last two months I think we've kind of hit a lull but dunar just finished a play Heritage finished a play I think linkor and sanduski are all in a Performance Cycle uh so it's a very very busy time lots of opportunities to get out there and see uh some great performers uh even uh our Orchestra teacher Mr stall cup was on stage uh in The Adams Family and did an amazing job with the part that he played uh so it's great to see all of all of those going and that's all I've got thank you thank you board member comments Mr Conor nothing today Jal I was thankful to briefly attend the community dinner last week it was delicious again uh
106enjoyed the menu choices and the way that was put together and with a friendly face as well serving it so um I'm looking forward to the next one hope we can have even more people come out for that that one I didn't get the numbers they didn't know two I think 220 great so it was about 50 more than the last time wonderful that's fantastic Dr D um I don't think I have anything to add um other than to reinforce the issue that um I think Mrs Preston brought up before that if you have um thoughts or suggestions you want um the three of us to take to this uh Joint Task Force please do communicate them to us it's it is going to be a challenge um we don't have a lot of time
107um okay thank you Mrs Preston nothing thank you Mrs Lowry um I want to thank uh Mr naggie at cvcc um invited me to talk to the kids at um our do enrollment students at cbcc they had a lot of good questions um also to thank you to Mrs kulie who showed me around at the um Resort of Academy today at um at Bass um I went to see Peter Pan on Sunday and the kids at link horn middle did an amazing job saw some Paul Monroe Alum Alum and my own children went through dunar and high school both my girls all the years through theater so I've seen a lot of plays but anyways so um and I'm I'm starting to um set schedules for reading to classes for the next two to three
108weeks it's the month for Dr Seuss so thank you uh Dr Tinsley no I have nothing thank you Mr [Music] Andrews Mr depal I think he I think he had to leave you had to leave all right so last uh but I'll be out of service from March 9th to March 16 Dr dayve will be an in person he'll be there at the breakfast uh finance and Facilities Mr Connor will be joining as a third member they you guys will elect your um chair the meeting has cancelled on March 11th so you'll reschedule it discipline data Review Committee is March 13 at 3:30 next school board work session March 18th which will basically be a close session after we do the Pledge of Allegiance uh LCR March 18th at 3:30 are we still doing it
109on that day March 18th 3:30 yes yeah academic success committee March 25th at 3:30 and the next school board meeting and that's a fact April 1st uh at 5:00 p.m. right here the meeting is adjured thank you thank you