LCS School Board Meeting: May 7, 2024

001[Music] e e e is called to order uh Pledge of Allegiance Dr day please rise for the pledge to the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to stand nation indivis withy and justice for all thank you Dr Day The Pledge item C1 is approval of agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda motion I have a motion to amend the agenda go ahead Mr TR I'd like to amend the agenda to discuss in addition to the LCS policy manual with respect to honor roles and graduation honors Have you shared that with the clerk uh I sent yes I sent her a copy of the policy all the board members as well as Dr Edwards uh Dr woda and Miss Peter second second and do I need

002to what do you have an amendment to yeah I think there's a couple other amendments I don't know if you want to do them one at a time or do them all once we do all together all right give me a second here so you can go along with the crowd I'm still trying to catch up after the last meeting um give me a second Madam cler would you please call on his Amendment okay Mr julo yes Mr Andrews yes Mr tros yes Dr day yes Dr gupa yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs La yes carries okay and I would like to move that we just uh take item want to move item K1 with which was the recognition of this year's uh High School representatives and move it up

003in to uh following their presentations rather than so deep into the agenda great so their presentation will be um which is um after E6 okay so I'd like to move K1 to immediately after E6 I'm looking at that yes sir right that's number one you have another one and another one is we wanted to put on the agenda a business a budget discussion that would be the item that would be old business it should occur between K and L KL so all item discussion of uh 2425 operating budget do you have any more Amendment no I that's enough that's enough is there a motion to approve the amendment motion motion you moved it right I moved it yes second um M Mr depal Madame clerk would you please call the RO Mr julo yes Mr

004Andrews yes Mr TR yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lorry yes motion carries now there's amended agenda for approval is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended motion Mr Mr Andrews Madame clerk would you please call the RO Mr jilo yes Mr Andrews yes Mr TR yes Dr yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lorry yes motion carries thank you uh item D1 is chair comment and I'll yield my time today first to delegate Walker and then to uh Miss finy delegate Walker this device you to leave it sitting right here that's oh no that that's fine find this just happens to be a larger piece but we'll find a way to get it uh

005set here so first of all thank you for the opportunity to come before the uh city of Lynchburg School Board tonight uh is quite an honor and before I present this resolution uh regarding one of our area schools it is also an honor as your representative in the general assembly as well as Senator Mark beak to recognize the achievement that has taken place here in all of our schools across the city of Lynchburg I know that Dr Edwards uh and I are often times in some of these schools making presentations whether it's bicycles for achievement in in various quarters and then we also have another honor as elected officials in the general assembly and this is one that I enjoy the most and that is actually doing honor Ro certificates to each school that provides

006us with the list and thankfully we have a 100% participation here in the city of students that are Achievers and this is a certificate on behalf of your legislator and we send that to all the students that receive those honors from the various schools and I often times have people on the street that will stop me and say Mr Walker you don't know how happy my son or my daughter was when they received that certificate that honorable certificate from you and from others and the general assembly and so I like to brag on the city of Lynchburg that we are a city of smart educated well-informed people with Bright Futures and that's all because the results of leadership here and the hard work of the teachers and principls and and everybody so uh without getting

007into a long speech tonight let me just share with you something that uh we did this past year on behalf the general assembly in the house of delegates while Senator Mark Peak is not here I'm sure that he would concur with us but this is a resolution resolution number 226 and this is uh commending Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation and uh before I get started how many folks have attended dunpar that are here in this room okay so this was agreed on by the house of delegates March 4th uh 2024 whereas Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School of innovation an esteemed institution of the Lynchburg City Public Schools celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023 whereas after the black community in Lynchburg petitioned the Lynchburg City School Board for a black school high school Dunbar

008High School opened his doors to students in 1923 of 90% of the GR graduates of the 1920s went on to higher education and whereas throughout the 1930s Dunbar High School was increasingly operated under the leadership and authority of the black administrators of the school including Clarence William say or C who would serve as the school's principal from 1938 to 1968 guiding the school to academic excellence and the spirit of the segregationist U barriers in place at that time and whereas as the faculty of Dunbar High School grew larger and more diverse the school's curriculum involved beyond the classic program to include a more General and Vocational oriented courses encouraging a greater number of students to achieve at the school whereas dunar High School uh would continue to grow in the postwar period as new buildings

009were constructed the state champions were U Were won there uh the school's graduates attended the nation's most PR prestigious schools and went on to become leaders across various distinguished professions at the local state and National level and whereas the desegregation of Lynchburg City Schools through the 1960s would ultimately result in the closure of Dunbar High School in 1970 and his students began attending the other school which most people know as EC glass and whereas in 1994 the school reopened as Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation an Innovative that was started by a magnet school uh continuing under a continuation of a grant that has since been administered by the Lynchburg City schools with support from the Lynchburg City School Board and whereas for 30 years Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation was fostered

010by intellectual social emotional well-being of his students and nurtured in the achievements of his faculty staff helping to make Lynchberg a wonderful place to live work and the raise of family now therefore be it resolved by the house of delegates that Paul Lawrence dunpar Middle School for Innovation hereby uh commend on this occasion of its H 100th anniversary and be at resolve further that the clerk of the House of delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation as an expression of the House of delegates admiration for the school's history his contributions to the city and the Commonwealth of Virginia uh patent by Paton by delegate W Walker and at this time I would like to ask the principal and the assistant principal of dunar middle

011school if they I know that they're here okay if y'all join me on either side here because I'm sure you guys want to get the photo here but uh for the principal we just want to show you how much we appreciate not only dunar middle school but all the schools here in the city you had a rich history and that history has had an impact here in our city and we just want want you to know on behalf of the Commonwealth Virginia and the house of delegates how much we appreciate uh dunar as well as the other schools and so congratulations thank you all very [Applause] much and thank you Mr chairman and members of the school board thank you delegate Walker we know we have a friend in Richmond with the name wend Walker

012thank you Miss finny uh you're the second one I'm yielding my time thank you Dr gup Dr Day members of the school board um I'm Alicia finny from down the road Clerk of council for city council and I'm here to talk to you today about the 2024 School Board appointment process um I do have some slides if we can throw those up Austin thank you uh Council had the opportunity to weigh in on this a few weeks ago and I thank you all for allowing me the time to come up here and talk to you about it uh next slide please every year Council considers appointments in each district uh this year the incumbents are in District One Mr Randy tro in District three Dr Atul gouta and in District Two forever the dedicated and

013committed public servant Dr Sharon Carter first appointed in 2015 you'll be closing out your third and final term this June thank you for your service [Applause] next slide please uh next Tuesday Council will hold its first public hearing this is the time for candidates to speak on their qualifications and a time for parents to State their support or opposition of the candidates uh I will post these in our public the week prior so you'll see a list of names and as applications come in I will be updating that accordingly historically council is elected to hold open their public hearing to allow candidates more time to apply so we've scheduled that for on May 28th I'm sorry this is not can you go back one slide yes thank you uh last year at the end of

014the second public hearing Council began choosing candidates they'd like to interview so we're holding space this year at the end of the May 28th meeting for Council to do so again this year however Council will still have two weeks to finalize their selection when they're scheduled to conclude this part of the process on June 11th during our general business we'll hold some time in the two weeks that follow to conduct those interviews with appointments being made during General business at the June 25th meeting contingent upon successful background checks next slide what can you expect if you are an interested candidate well we are currently accepting applications and we'll continue doing so through the second public hearing uh state code does does dictate that if your name isn't said into the record during our public hearing

015then you cannot be considered for appointment interviews will be held in an open meeting this will be open to the public and live streamed Council deliberations and appointments will also be held in an open meeting and state and National criminal background checks will be uh conducted for those selected next slide so what kind of information do we collect on our Schoolboard application will we collect the basic uh contact information that that's your phone number your email address your physical address your ward and district and occupation we also ask two questions what experience do you offer as a candidate for the Lynchberg school board and what do you feel you would contribute to the school board and to the community if appointed there's an option to upload a resume although that's highly encouraged and these information

016is not made public um citing Personnel information under the Virginia free information act so that's it for me and I thank you all for letting me go over this process briefly with you all if you have any questions or any points about the process um you said you would um notify us will that be an email to us or is it on the website it's on our website and posted um yeah on our Council board docs and it's just it's made for the public okay yes thank you miss any questions thank you you are the unsung heroes of city of lunchworks so thank you for everything and I do have to say really quickly Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of our teachers they should be appreciated you're board members got that email we are

017doing meals for teachers as part of this Appreciation Week so as your schedule allows hopefully people can uh join there now we move on to item uh e uh student representative Dr sure uh and this being the last uh meeting for students because the next one uh they are not in school we have a packed House of students who want to share um wonderful things with us um and I always love the presentations and the creativity so I am going to Kick It Off by starting with my Bedford Hills Elementary School um bringing in uh principal Sherry [Laughter] [Applause] steel everything is when we [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] together good even good evening my name is laurelai I am a fifth grader at Bedford Hills Elementary as you can see our principal Miss steel is

018our biggest supporter for Innovation and enrichment she goes above and beyond to keep us excited and motivated to learn I'm here to tell you about Lego le an exciting after school enrichment opportunity we had this year our school librarian Miss ARP saw how much we loved Building Solutions to problems with Legos during the her Library classes and believed we could achieve as so much more if we had the opportunity she worked hard to find funding and Community Support thanks to an impact Grant from the education fun found foundation and additional support from Extended Learning coordinates Miss wit we were able to create eight dis devised teams and a total of 48 students along with 10 parent staff Community volunteer mentors each team worked tirelessly after school with their adult mentor to as a guide twist

019twice a week to for 6 weeks to come up with an authentic and Innovation Way to build a stage and platform that would best repres presentes an interest or Hobby learning about the technology behind a stage show we added mechanics light and sound using a coding software wow we tested we tested it shared it reflected on our journey and presented the entire process and modeled the Jud to the judges to judges at Randol College where we received glowing reviews and awards for things like enthusiastic presenters and in our team's case marvelous motion wow wow with the help of our amazing mentors Miss Rebecca Kilby our fifth grade team worked together to make the model that you see in front of you first we had to explore the possibilities and learn we had to learn to

020cooperate in order to make a successful team in Lego project we had to learn to divide up the tasks and areas and more importantly make compromise some people would build structures and some would modify them then we had to design brainstorm and design we all liked the idea of a fun event so we came up with a beach party we incorporated all of our interests music gaming skateboarding food and animals we let each small group work on their main interest hi I'm Oliver and next we had to create and test our model the team worked together to divide up into four made sections and then each group decided on what effects lights light Sound and Motion would work for each Place laurelai wanted to make wait wanted sound effects lights and music for the musicians

021Sean and I decided to do a concession stand and use sound effects Aiden wanted gaming and skateboarding with lights and sound finally miles and Laura Li wanted a petting zoo with frog finale finale with a sound in with sound in motion then we shared our progress with other teams we looked at other projects and how they worked Sean decided to expand the concessions with bigger size and more details miles added more animals to the petting zoo and made the Frog table more sturdy so it would support the motion we want to share this with the community because we think we worked really hard on it and we want to show what we what we did as a team hi I'm miles and this is the final model description it is a beach party with a

022live band a video game area Skate Zone and petting zoo with a frog T finale we started with the announcements introducing the stage and live band next is the video game area where you can play Mario Kart and other games as well as a skateboard finally we end up with the petting zoo and frog finale during the whole party there's a concession stand with food and merchandise to shop for the stage is motorized to draw attention to the Musicians lights were used on the stage with each team member's last name initial to make it more personal lights and sound were also used in the video game and skating area to make it exciting and explain the rules the FI the finale the finale uses motion and sound effects to entertain the crowd sound effects and

023music are used in every area to make it more fun and appealing excellent thank you for letting us share our this amazing experience with you tonight go Huskies hus thank you that is thank you look at that like that confession stand very good okay well that was certainly impressive and I just love miles cuz moving up there all excited about the work he had me excited up here too so um congratulations to our little Lego uh Team there uh start young and then who knows what they'll be building by the time they are my age so so proud of them um to share and the fact that they Incorporated the Arts and Music and everybody's interest just uh showcase once again what we do when we cooperate as a team we can get everybody's needs

024met so thank you Bedford Hills all right next up uh My Little Learners uh with their principal Jason jamri back there from darington elementary school come on come I know des's not shy that's right so we are still waiting for one of our Dolphins who's our speaker but so we're going to flip it a little bit we have a video we was going to show you last we're going to do the video first so if the video is ready we're going to show you the video that everybody put together Mr G I have a request for you when you're done could you please but you have a slogan every morning or every kid in your school does would you be able to share that with the community and the board oh yes sir absolutely thank

025[Music] you and they show me every day they make sure that I'm ready it's just the Desy way cuz it's a Desy world yeah it's where we come from a d world is where we come from all right boys and girls I am I am I am I am best part of the [Applause] future I am smart I know that I'm smart because my teachers have high expectations for me in class we work together to learn each day sometimes we learn as a whole group in class but other times we work with small groups and partners when students need extra help they got they get one on-one time with teachers we learn a lot in a lot of different ways with our eyes with our ears by reading by writing and through experiences our school

026is special because of the programs like stem Spanish book clubs after school tutoring and enrichments at the end of each quarter we celebrate with the w CER and the award CER it feels good to recognize for academic achievement and attendance through our G store we earn G dollars from Principal Jam Brown we are able to Learn to Earn save and spend our G Jers every quarter at the G store I am important it matters that I come to school each day when I walk in the door I'm always greeted with a smile if I miss a day Miss Wayne W asks if everything is okay all of the grown-ups who work at Desi know my name at school every student can receive a backpack breakfast lunch snacks and a library bag we have Community guests

027who come to read to us garden with us teach us how to build rockets and even celebrate us with bike assemblies we've seen two operas by Opera of the James we've had a dance presentation a visit from Miss America and we even start in our own Black History Month musical written for us by Dr Johnson and produced for us for us by Miss Porter every week we learned an important fact about black history the PTO raised enough money so that that each of us could choose a book at the book fair for free Mark Spain from the news came and read to us the Desi Community works together every day to let me know that I am important I am respectful I am proud to Walk The Halls at Desi I have learned how I

028can show respect to others through my words my actions and my choices during morning meetings we talk about show respect for each other and we practice skills to help us get along if we have trouble getting along we can always go to our teachers Mr G our custodians Miss J or any adult in the building Miss Jay takes time to work with students who are going through situations or who need help working out problems the boys mentoring program is all about Brotherhood strength and character and learning to model strong role models who volunteer to spend time with us girls are empowered through confidence Club volunteer mean meetings with Dr Johnson mysterious dollhouse club for girls and fifth grade girls lunch Club with Dr Johnson spending time learning and creating together builds confidence at Desi we

029show respect to each other to our school and to the community around us I am hard working hard work takes time and effort at Desi I know faster doesn't always mean better our teachers want us to strive for excellence by completing challenging tasks to do this we have to work at something little by little day after day until we meet a goal Desi fifth graders spent months working on their science fair and History Day projects in art music and violin students spent weeks creating works of art and learning new songs second and third graders created habitat projects week by week we continued to learn to speak Spanish in the fall we transformed our library into the Desi book Cafe we had two reading challenges to track and increase our time spent reading as a school

030we read over 54,000 minutes this spring achieving our goal when we work hard at Desi we were recognized Mr G gives shout outs on the announcements teachers display our projects and assignments Dr Johnson gives the science Sparkle award at the end of each quarter students receive bug Awards which means bringing up grades I am goodlooking at Desi we celebrate spirit days where we show our fun Pride through our clothes hairstyle and Swagger I know I look good when I take care of myself the Virginia Co-op teachers teach us about nutritional and how to prepare healthy foods Miss Austin teaches us fun movement games that keep us in shape students are from EC glass visit visited Desi to show students how to take care of their teeth Community businesses owners visit us to talk about Fresh

031Cuts skin care and style when I know I look good I feel good I'm the best part of the future Mr G tells us that we can have Big Dreams we can achieve great things when Community Business Leaders visited us on career day we got to learn all about different types of jobs I have hope for the environment in fourth grade I learned how to take care of the Earth by planting a garden and composting going on field trips also helps us build our dreams because we see what's happening in the world second grade went to the Danville Science Center kindergarten has been to the Layman Farm the fire station Danville Science Center and they partnered with third grade for a stem challenge at day at funquest fourth grade learned about plant and gardening at

032Randolph college and Lynchburg Rose kindergarten first grade and second grade are going to M Mountain Zoo next week best of all as fifth graders we got to go to Washington DC to the national museum of africanamerican history and culture we traveled to our nation's capital and saw the accomplishments of so many generations of people we're going to the Lynchburg Public Library this month to get our tour learn about summer reading and get library cards our parents and grandparents show their hope in us by planning special events and activities throughout the school year as part of the PTO I am smart important respectful hardworking and goodlooking I have a bright future ahead of me Desi has taught me that I am the best part of the future I am I am I am respectful I am

033I am of the [Applause] [Music] future hello hello my name is Rachel I am a third grade student at Desi I love Desi because people are sweet because they help us learn by making us feel safe and loved people are also fun Mr Levin he gives us rewards when we behave such as candy toys and Magic Dolls Miss Batista is so nice because she's always trying to help us learn by explaining it in an easy way every every teacher custodian and student is very nice they are all willing to help out such as Mr Naja she is smart kind and loving the people also encourage me Non-Stop and challenge me to go further God loves Jessie and so do I [Applause] unfortunately the our other Desi dolphin is about one minute away or two minutes

034away he did not get to make it but um we're going to give him a special shout out on our morning announcements tomorrow so he'll get to say his speech tomorrow in our announcements thank you very much well I'm I'm okay if to wait if you are I mean if he's on his way we're going to wait that young we will make time for the desii do okay I'll let doie all right they just uh wanted to recognize a silent supporter of Desi Dr Coleman he told me he's here supporting Desi oh there he [Applause] is so while we while we wait for our little dolphin um uh thank you Desi for that amazing presentation and in there um so much literacy and reading and fun and um Miss Pew and I were at that

035fifth grade science fair challenge yes yes uh we we were certainly impressed with with your students and even at your violin concert all the things that you do are just absolutely wonderful so thank you for sharing that with us and inspiring us with all of that Des he love there um it does make the board meeting just feel good having you here uh while we wait for the our Desi dolphin we're going to transition um to our next group of student speakers uh and this would be with Dr Baldwin um and Miss Wills from our historic and awarded Dunbar Middle School of innovation thank you guys for having us here we're very excited we have two gentlemen here representing our school Taylor jump and Tristan rule Taylor is an eighth grader and Tristan is a

036sixth grader we have had multiple students from different grades talk about our experiences from field trips to Innovations to Athletics and they're going to talk about it now and uh I'm going to give the floor to Taylor first and uh yep we'll go from there hello my name's Taylor and I will be filling in for a couple students that couldn't make it today um starting with Innovations for Mr Johnson's Innovation class they created podcasts that they got to publish on dumbar Spotify page DMS Innovations podcast Mr Johnson's Mr Johnson also opened up internship opportunities within our within the school where eth grade students can intern in sixth grade classes in Miss Harris Pottery CL poetry class they entered a poet they entered a poetry contest to win money earlier this semester and had several poems

037publish this year as well for elective and clubs clubs math counts mathletes have been work have been hard at work this year every Friday since September they have gathered to prepare for the regional competition our team competed in February and in and all district competition the team came in fourth place with the most improved team award electives in Mr Johnson's career in investigation in in Mr Johnson's career investigations class he had guest speakers come in and talk about and talk to us about different career Fields as well as improving my typing skills recently in art class I've been learning how to create 3D art Mr Mo's class recently launched Rockets as part of an experiment in Mr in Mrs Johnson's class teen living Miss cider has come in as a guest for 6 weeks and

038taught us many teen cooking lessons on nutrient on nutrition and the importance of a well Bal balanced diet and lifestyle Miss cider and Mrs Johnson both have taught to the students the importance of fruits and vegetables to their daily meal options field trips as a student of dumbar I had a great experience going on field trips there have been a variety of field trips this year like the recent trip to music department competition in Hershey Pennsylvania the school did a the school did great winning the following awards show choire compromise of six seventh and eighth grade students won first place seventh and eighth grade Orchestra won first place and seventh and eighth grade band won first place theater traveled down to Junior theater Festival in Atlanta Georgia um theater the school received an excellence in

039Dance Awards and the following students were recognized two students named All Star Cassian Lee and Cameron Spencer two students made call backs for the cerography how do you pronounce this choreograph choreography choreography video auditions Quinton Tom Quinton Toms and Lily yarro my personal experience on a field trip this semester is when I went on for went on one for my herbology class we collectively visit the PED River and the surrounding area the trip was amazing and it taught us a lot about the river itself going along with other things like how the water is tested and what fly fishing is we even learned how trout lived in the rivers like the the one we visit and release trouts that Mr Tucker hatched and raised in his classroom I've had a great time and I'm sure

040my peers felt the same way this is by a girl named Abby hello my name is Abby I am a sixth grade student at dumbar Middle School at at dumbar my teachers have been helping me prepare for the so they have printed out so reviews and made sure we have had notes to study off it we needed help earlier this year we had a history project called history day where we picked someone or something that was a turning point in history this was set up like a science fair um fair and the winners were Asher for foster Junior group exhibit District Amir Davis Junior group exhibit District B I'm going to pronounce no I'm pronounce this wrong Brennan Porter Brennan Porter Junior group district i' brinon Key junor group District Hanah I this I'm bad

041at this you're fine buddying yeah I think it's proing Pro Hannah kin Junior group democracy District louana polar Junior group democracy District Luciana and Hannah are now competing in States now after PL after placing second in regionals and democracy section this marks the second year in a row that dumbar has qualified for state competition in English students worked on their poetry skills and students for each grade level were able to accomplish great things students are also created online poetry books using a program called Book Creator to top off our year one of our very own sixth graders placed first in the 2023 2024 pedmont Young Writers contest seventh grade students produced multiple project-based learning products in the forms of Crea creative writing essays inherited n narratives and presentation dumbar has multiple winners in the local

042beberg poetry contest as well as taking first and second place in the perceived Young Writers poetry contest the eighth grade English team and their student worked very diligently to meet and exceed expectations this school year students read over 1,000 books for the 20 book Challenge and even published their own books of poetry through Miss Harris [Applause] class hello my name is Trist and I'll and I will be talking about dunar sports dunar sports this year has been great from winning City championships having good sportsmanship Dunbar Middle School is a top sports Middle School we have also won two City championships this year and we're going for another one today in track here are some of the records recently broken in track most notably for the girls team a aana Mosley broke the school record for

043shot put 36 feet 6 in El Elana Eliana bradner broke School record for 100 meter hurdles 16.1 and triple jump 33 9 and 1/4 Sydney Foster broke two records 400 met 6146 and 800 meter 2 2 minutes 25 seconds 69 for the boys team traik Hudson broke shot put record 47 feet 7 in Aiden Campbell broke the 100 m record 11.33 and 200 M 23.7 the boys four four times four times 100 meter relay record 46.6 three AJ McCoy Aiden C Cabell Gregory Abbott Chik Hudson our sports team has been great and will continue to be great for many years to come thank you for your time awesome and I just want to give both these gentlemen a big round of applause for doing coming out and talking about our [Music] school we excited to

044be here for over a 100 years and hopefully a hundred more there you go there you go thank you poets for sharing all of that with us and all of your accomplishments which is why on uh May 21st we will be celebrating our students the school board will be honoring all the accomplishments of our students and we can't do it in the boardroom we just have so much and so many um that will be at EC glass and I'm sure we'll see a lot of these students at that award ceremony okay moving on to our next uh group of students uh with principal Dr Dills uh from a Linkhorn Middle School let us welcome our Jaguars good evening uh my name is Katie grany I'm the band director at linor middle school and in front

045of you I have four of my eighth grade band students and we're just going to play two short excerpts for you um some things we've been working on the first is a Bach carral um a four-part b Bach carral and the second one is just a short excerpt from one of our Spring Concert pieces called dragon slayer so two very different pieces for you this this evening [Music] d [Music] d [Applause] p [Music] you [Music] thank you not right now did you not right now okay so one of the fun Parts about this is I never know what the students are going to do so it is so great to have them just celebrate us um with music and uh that brought back memories I used to play clarinet and trumpet when I was in

046high school that's no easy feet but you all know what the research says about students who study music right they do better on standardized test so who knows we always going to have a music program here um in Lynchburg City school so thank you Jaguars okay um um we is am my Desi okay we are going to take a pause and shift back to my one little Desi dolphin who was not here but we will wait for you cuz you are important as we learn [Applause] there you go um H hello everybody my name is Tyra CS thank you for all you guys from coming the first thing I like about do Desy is I love the staff um because they are very helpful I love the library because they are the it makes my

047reading better and it help helps me think better I love I love the lunch cuz it's very yummy I love the prizes we win in our class cuz we try our best I love the people who helped me in my SOS test Mr Finn Miss LS Mr barin M Miss Shenia thank you all for helping me thank you for listening [Applause] that was definitely worth the wait and I know our school nutrition director Mrs Morris is probably so excited to hear that lunch is yummy so thank you um for sharing that with us as well okay we are going to transition to our high school student rest reps um always a joy when uh they share with us the happenings at EC glass and Heritage High School so I think we are starting with Lucy

048all right well this is the last meeting for the students for this year but I'm happy to announce that I've been reselected for next year so so seeing as the school year is coming to a close I want to um really kind of go in and highlight our spring Sports who have been doing really well uh softball is 4 and8 and I want to give a shout out to a ior who's on the team Abigail Jones and she's committed to be a pitcher at Virginia Wesley University she's been doing an amazing job uh next of course is baseball who has a record of 14- two which is very impressive and they actually have a really big game in a couple of hours tonight versus Jefferson Forest um it's a lot of people are going to

049be attending because it's two really strong teams so that's going to be very exciting um JV baseball is 2 7 and one Boys Tennis is also playing tonight with a match uh at home against Je Forest uh they start a little bit earlier than baseball they started around six and girls tennis is away at Jefferson Forest um in the number one seat who's a freshman tovia CRS has been doing really well this year so congratulations to her for being number one as a freshman and then let's see boy soccer is also having an amazing season 11- two um and JV boys are 10-2 and one which is really impressive winning records and I believe having a strong team bond is super important to a successful Sports season uh in the varsity goalie char Char Hagman

050says that they're a very close team and it really helps to have a con feeling a good feeling of camaraderie and responsibility for one another uh they have they have a lot of belief in themselves this year which I think you can tell and it makes a big difference when it comes to having a winning season um and then girls soccer is also having an impressive year with a record of 63 in one JV girls are a record of 53 in one and then uh both boys and girls varsity lacrosse have recently celebrated their senior nights where they recognize the seniors who have helped contribute to those wonderful winning seasons as well and then outdoor track and field has also had a great season with their next meet being on the 10th in addition to

051the Athletics happening at glass this year's re recipients of the Hill topper alumni football scholarship were Congratulations by were congratulated by their teams families um the LCS staff and the Beacon of Hope hope staff um at EC glass Nicholas Watson plans to um attend Christopher Newport Christopher Newport P University next fall um but leaves behind an amazing Legacy he was named all seminal district and class 40 All Region during his career class and then the other recipient uh Michael Thomas will be attending emry and Henry colleges or emry and Henry College sorry and he was also named all semal district and class 4D All Region and Mike Thomas actually had over a thousand tackles during his time with the hill Toppers so congratulations and we can't wait to see what they do next um and

052then a little bit in the Arts I just wanted to congratulate and recognize the students who went to Richmond um from April 18th to the 20th to audition to become all state musicians and uh we had a few that walked away with that honor including Isaac Harding morg Morgan Cook Trenton Walker and Alton Quinn and uh they went in went in and auditioned uh for their respective instruments or Choir in Morgan's case so great job and keep up the good work um more in the Arts last night e glass held a talent show for their St students um which the participants auditioned a few weeks back and um e glass has a lot of talent but most specifically the winner of her talent show uh JJ kiry who's saying a lovely rendition of something in

053the orange by Zach Brian and JJ is actually um a blind student at EC glass but he has not let that or anyone stop him from being just incredibly talented so we're very proud of him um on the weekend of April 20th a group of career in technical education students got to attend the Virginia skills USA State leadership conference in Virginia Beach they competed in a variety of contests such as architectural drafting uh crime scene investigation criminal justice job interview and Technical drafting all the students did a really great job uh representing glass and a special shout out to uh two of our winners JP maner for bringing home first place in technical Drafting and Anna boers who got first place for job interview so congratulations and as we all know AP exams have started

054and our students uh regularly scheduled exams are coming the week of the 21st and faculty and staff have done an amazing job of keeping students morale up um during just these times of a lot of cramming and a lot of review uh and just last week during our lunch periods on Friday Dr rule was allowing students to write encouraging messages on strips of duct tape and letting us pretty much tape them to the wall he was a very good sport about that so thank you we all had a really good time so I know I enjoyed it and then graduation graduation is coming up and I wanted to just kind of walk yall through what the schedule is going to look like for the seniors so first is the senior baloria uh for glass which

055is going to be held at the University of Lynchburg Chapel on May 29 or on May 19th at 2 pm and then our mandatory graduation rehearsal uh is in the EC class Auditorium on the 30th at 11:30 and last but certainly not least graduation is going to be at City Stadium at 8: a.m. so we can properly honor and congratulate all of our seniors and that's all I've got for you but thank you so much and happy Teacher Appreciation Week thank you okay and now from Heritage all right I apologize in advance for not having a presentation I just found out yesterday that I was going to be here so uh we had our senior night move for girl soccer and I'm so glad I was able to be here for the last one um

056I will not be coming back next year because I'm graduating but I believe Matt Garland who I know personally will and I'm very excited for that he will do amazing um so to start on a little bit of a community engagement at the beginning of the month over spring break um our Pioneer theater hosted a kids camp and at the end of the kids camp they per performed honk uh junior version and also engaged in kids camps our girl soccer team held a youth camp and that was a big success uh we had students from within LCS and Campbell County that was wonderful uh we' also had uh our national Honor Society our football players and our cheerleaders led by wonderful coach Bradley um they attended and volunteered at Laurel Regional School prom um and

057that had a sports theme so seeing the pictures for that I got to go last year I was not able to go this year but that was so fun for them I loved hearing the stories um we have had some Financial donations from J crew um in organization with adopted classroom.org um so in the fall that was for our Arts programs and we've had one this spring which is for beautif ation of our grounds so we're very excited for that um in athletics we have had some senior nights track and field had their's a few weeks ago um although there were several state qualifiers so their season is far from over um girls soccer baseball and girls tennis will be this upcoming Tuesday uh boy soccer boys tennis will be on Friday and for images

058from those look out for Renee Shelton and we actually have a boy soccer Alum jaed sherad who has been picturing um um soccer girls and boys soccer and then JV and some of our middle schools so check him out on Instagram he's doing really good there um onto some events in our student life we did have our prom this past weekend so if you want to see some pictures from that go to Heritage High School on Facebook those are some really good pictures um we have decision day coming up May 17th and that'll be hosted in cooperation with Bean of hope so we're very excited about that um graduation will be shortly after that on the 2nd and they just announced our speakers so we're excited to hear from Ronald black as our introduction speaker

059um Akira Mallette who is a wonderful track athlete she will be our main speaker and then our valid dictorian Mia Mason who we saw on here last month so that's it that I have for you guys this month I apologize for no pictures but sa where are you going um I going to be enlisting in the Air National Guard and I will work as a cyber warfare operator for a year before going into the Air Force Academy where I will get my bachelors in astronautical engineering and then my MERS in computer science welcome and I'd like to say sa is one of our sa is one of our students that goes to the cvcc dual enrollment program fantastic yes love the early college program such a community there if I may add I enjoy you

060can convey my kudos to your baseball and softball teams I enjoy from my window watching the game every evening nowadays they're both playing together they can synchronize so one is playing the other is off that's beautiful fun yes fun yes Dr should we do the Declaration first this one yeah let's do okay well uh we are so glad that we were able to have you to join us um this school year uh you certainly have brought a refreshing perspective and have covered so much information um about your schools to keep us informed and never mind just being good role models wonderful Sports and just uh joining us for convocation and doing all the things um got to see at National Honor Society see that business skill of yours organizing all of that uh it has

061been a pleasure to work with both of you and I'm so glad Lucy's coming back next year that that is wonderful you can help Mentor the new um new uh Heritage rep here we do have a special guest uh guest gift for you and a resolution which I am going to read sure I'm reading you reading the one and then he it's on two pages and I she's only got one page oh you got only one page know okay all right you want me to read both of these yes got it okay I'm just checking making sure I can do this on okay all right so this is a resolution of commendation and appreciation to Salah kin and Lucy white presented by the Lynchberg City School Board saah and Lucy were selected by their PE

062appears to represent EC glass and Heritage High School on the Lynchburg City School Board during the 23 2023 24 school year the Lynchberg City School Board views this desire to serve in the public life as the worthiest of Ambitions with this resolution the Lynchberg City School Board seeks to pay tribute to SAA and Lucy students who have conscientiously worked to keep their student body's Point Viewpoint before the Lynchberg City School Board in doing so they have filled their responsibility and made valuable contribution to public education in this community whereas sa and Lucy served the Lynchberg City School Board as Heritage High School and EC glass high school student reps to the Lynchberg City School Board from November 2023 until today May 2024 um whereas both sa and Lucy served as role models for their peers

063excelling as leaders and voices for their schools by participating in important School Board discussions that directly affect their peers where SA and Lucy's attendance at Lindburg City Schoolboard meetings demonstrated their commitment to their role as champions for the best possible educational experience for all students now and therefore be it resolved that the Lynchburg City School Board of Lynchburg Virginia commends sa and Lucy for many valuable contributions in providing the school board with yet another Viewpoint for their consideration and guidance furthermore the school board of the city of Lynchburg takes pride in these Superior individuals who so early in their lives have already begun to make their marks by taking such an active part in the public life in Lynchburg Virginia Lynchburg City School Board and School administration and school yeah and I certainly Echo those

064words and on behalf of my team and of course Schoolboard clerk who gets to work with you all we are so proud of you you and we are excited to see your next Journey um do not forget us come back and definitely uh tell us all the good things and to continue learning from you and watch you grow and develop in your senior year next year um good things are to come for both of you so we have a couple of let's Dr Edwards will hand out certificates and special guests [Applause] know we have special certificate for you and just want to say congratulations and thank you so much for you thank you so much we'll see you [Applause] thank Mr Cross would you join congratulations and thank you very much for all that you

065[Applause] thank you for all you have done all year round thank you thank you absolutely Dr we have a presentation oh we do that's right we're still on student comment this is just great today okay we have one more um student presentation and it is one of our students Lily Hall EC glass senior did an AP Capstone research on something that is very near and dear to our heart teacher retention um and she did work with our Chief Human Resources officer who is very excited to support her work uh but we would like to present her a short video and then our two of our teachers Mr Reed and Mr Matthews are here on behalf of uh Lily and to share her work with us as well so Mr Hall come on good evening board

066um I'm going to apologize first of all Miss Hall was not able to make it tonight um she's on the EC glass tennis team and they had uh a match that was called and it's uh this match is also a breast cancer awareness one and so she felt like it was really important to be there um so I am definitely here to talk about this um my partner Mr Matthews was also going to be here he could also not make it uh so you get me tonight Bas um before you watch Lily's video I want to give you a little bit of background about what AP Capstone is why we have it what it does for our students because my bet is you have no idea in 2016 EC glass became a pilot school for

067the new AP Capstone program this is a two-part uh class that glass offers here in Lynchburg City Schools the first part is available to sophomores and juniors at EC glass it's called AP seminar and it begins by teaching the basic research skills that you and I want our students to have namely that research is not asking Siri a question it involves actually finding credible sources checking the validity of those sources and then synthesizing them into something um important AP seminar is a unique AP class because the student AP score is not derived from one test you know one of the things I think you and I both know is that the era of one test one score one day really is in the ask and the College Board understands that so the AP score that

068kids get in AP seminar is actually the result of them writing multiple research papers and uploading those to the College Board and more important giving digitally recorded presentations the way that some of us did our senior year of college or maybe in our master's degree programs where we had to defend our research our high school kids are doing that and that's the first class the second class which is what you're about to see a little bit of here is literally called AP research and here's what it means kids with the help of their mentor and this year Mr Matthews was the AP research teacher I was the AP seminar teacher with the help of their Mentor they identify uh a research uh Niche that they're interested in something that has not necessarily been done something

069uh you know we call it a gap in the research um they spend an entire year combing through sources and conducting original research this culminates in a 5,000-word paper that they have to upload for their score and a 20 minute digital presentation complete with uh a panel of experts who then ask them questions about their research it is exactly as intense as you think that it is here's why I'm here tonight Lily Hall one of our amazing seniors wanted to research teacher retention in Central Virginia specifically as it equates to Lynchberg City Schools this is a fortuitous kind of evening because you guys are about to look at a Personnel report later and if you've looked at it you know that what she's about to tell you matters so what I'd like to do is

070go ahead and let you see we've reduced her 20-minute presentation down to about four and a half minutes she's going to go ahead and present this to you mostly it's the results part of it um and then we'll come back and I'll add a little bit more context and take questions hello my name is Lily Hall and this is my AP research presentation for the 2023 2024 school year I the title of my presentation is tenacious teaching discovering the factors affecting teacher attention I originally was interested in looking into teacher attention when I found this graph and it showed the high numbers of resignations throughout the LCS uh community and um as you can see EC glass um my school has very high retentions over the past 10 years or resignations over the past 10

071years um so this led me to my research question what factors influence retention in elementary middle and high school teachers in Central Virginia schools um how I conducted my research is I created a survey and I surveyed elementary middle and high school teachers in the central Virginia school system the survey was split into new teachers versus experienced teachers and um I set up a system where teachers were to ask how many years they had been teaching and if they answered zero to five years they would be sent to the new teachers portion of the the survey and then if they answered um six to 20 plus years than they were sent to the experience portion and this kind of served as a comparison between new and experienced teachers and how they um how they recognize

072teacher retention in their own lives and in their in schools and so as you can see the majority of um teachers uh selected 20 plus years of experience or 0 to five I asked teachers what their biggest challenges was so far in their teaching career the majority of new teachers found that behavioral issues was the biggest problem at 67.7% I asked um experienced teachers as well what is the biggest challenge for new teachers and they agreed that um behavioral issues at 89.3% was the biggest problem for new teachers I then asked teachers how much time they spent dealing with behavioral issues during their day and on average they found the majority of teachers said that they spent 11 to 15 minutes um 11 to 15 minutes addressing behavioral issues and the second largest portion said

073that they spent 16 plus minutes addressing behavioral issues I asked experien teachers the same question and they um had similar results with 31.3% spending 11 to 15 minutes of class time dealing with behavioral issues I then asked what improvements could be made to accommodate new teachers I I asked this specifically to um the experienced teachers who had experience and knew what um could be adjustments could be made to accommodate new teachers and the majority of the results found that um higher salary is the biggest problem for teachers or that could help um encourage new teachers to come in and stay in schools um however the second highest um answer was programs to help prepare new teachers at 55.4% this graph I found in my research um was a study that was done similar that was

074conducted um uh it was uh sent to a survey that was sent to teachers in a high school um system and the survey addresses what ways can we attract new teachers in high need schools and they found similar results with each choice um the results found that money is the best way to encourage teachers to stay and attract new teachers to stay in the system so my future research and implications the research that I found can help um provide an insult uh Insight in the cultural change changes around the school and the many behavioral issues could also be a factor that has also been changed as a result of the cultural changes and these are all these are really important factors to study and um for future research and um my recommendation is that new

075research should focus on looking at other ways that can encourage new teachers like programs and things to help prepare them other than money because that's just not a very realistic um solution to this problem as many schools especially in the LCS Community um don't have enough funding to um increase salaries and that is the end of my presentation thank you guys for watching [Applause] so two quick follow-ups there and then I'm happy to take any questions that you have about either the AP Capstone program or about what Lily's work is right there um you saw that her sample size was pretty significant she had over a hundred responses uh from elementary school teachers Middle School teachers High School principles alted Virtual Academy all these kinds of things um in terms of a response and you

076saw the two highest responses there of course was um teachers talking about of course pay um and and what that means both in the state of Virginia um as well as sort of Nationwide what we see as teacher pay um but also talking about discipline and I want to I want to drill down to one slide that she was talking about there when she was talking about the minutes that were spent on discipline um one of the pieces of that data that she could not disaggregate was obviously um a high school teacher spends in our case 90 minutes with a class right and so what I might be thinking about in terms of a unit of time might be in 90minut blocks how long do I spend in a 90-minute block maybe that's 15 minutes

077uh dealing with disciplinary related things um for an elementary school teacher obviously now we're talking about a different unit of time right because they have those kids as I am reminded by my better half all day they don't get them just for 90 minutes and so I do want to I want to put like a little Aster on that particular chart because I think there's a there's a couple of ways can look at that finally the last thing that I want to say is you know as you guys tonight when you get that Personnel report um and you talk about it you you know that people are watching you know that that your teachers are watching and the community is watching but the kids know the kids know and and they're they're they're literally out

078there doing their own research one of the things that a lot of my students have told me is when they look back none of their ninth grade math teachers are still here none of them and so they realize that there are there are things that we cannot control in our lives and there are things that you all are presented that you cannot control but I think some of the data on that chart is something that LCS can control and if you listen to what Lily is saying and if you listen to what the kids are saying and to what we're saying I think you can see that there are some things we can control so with that I thank you so much for your time um I'm happy to hang around for a moment if

079you have any questions um I would very much like to see her full written report is that possible sure I believe that I shared that with the superintendent and a few other folks so I'm happy to share that um with you as well so you have you have it I can share with you okay thank you please absolutely thank you all right thank you so much just before we close out uh all of the student work um just a shout out to all of the students who were here tonight and virtually as well um for taking time to share with us uh thank you to the parents uh many of those students are here because their parents uh were able to get them here so that they can participate but in the spirit of um

080teacher staff appreciation week behind all all of the great things that our kids are doing are phenomenal Educators who are you know in the background not getting all credit or anything like that just happy to work with these children and I hope that we all see uh particularly with our younger ones but not to be missed in our in our older students the confidence that they display when they come up to the podium um the camaraderie I don't know if you noticed my my little Desi baby uh was shadowed by two others we got you crew right um because that's how they roll uh their feelings of just being supported by their schools uh is very genuine from from the students who are here good things are happening in our schools and the good things

081are happening because we have amazing aming great people in our schools and this teacher appreciation week is just a small reminder um but uh we have to do more we really do have to do more to encourage um all of us to celebrate the hard work the dedication um that our teachers do every day thank you thank you very next one is public comment I think we moved something up didn't we yeah that was the presentation of the awards that we just did so I think we're we're okay okay so this is the uh public comment section um I will read the uh U policy statement here that applies to this um persons appearing or persons Desiring to address the school board uh oops no I don't need to read that part uh persons appearing

082before the school board will not be allowed to campaign for public office or promote private business ventures and should not 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 policies role Andor responsibilities of the board please do not clap Boo or Express approval or disapproval of speakers speakers should be treated with respect even if you disagree with their positions individual speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes a speaker representing a group shall limit their comments to five minutes the representatives shall identify the group at the beginning of their presentation a group

083may have no more than one spokesperson the total allotted time for public comments at Schoolboard meetings is 30 minutes voice messages to be played are limited to 3 minutes for individuals and five minutes for speakers representing a group priority will be given to in-person comments before voicemail messages in the following order first students second staff third parents and Guardians and fourth community members public comments are reserved for the public comment to provide input the board does not respond to comments answer questions or otherwise engage in discussion at this time now it appears to me that uh all the individuals who signed up to speak tonight are community members I don't see any identified as students staff or parents if I'm wrong would one voicemail for student one voicemail from a parent they're not in person

084okay they're the voicemails okay so we have one voicemail in and yes one student voicemail one parent voicemail and we will read those at the end I think we'll have time yes sir par what's your name sir Justin hinley okay so you're a parent uh all right so um then according to our policy Mr Hensley you go first good evening my name is uh Dr Justin Hensley my family and I are residents of district one uh we have three children at Bedford Hills Elementary and one child at sanduski middle in the Adaptive program uh before I begin I do want to say thank you uh from me and my family to this board for all the work you put into attempting to make education better for our children here in Lynchburg uh I come tonight

085to bring a topic that I believe is slipping through the cracks as the board and LCS Administration grapple with potential school closures uh and budget cuts there are schools that are still open and operating and there are items that you need to focus on other than just what school will be closed and what budget is going to look like for the next fiscal year my wife and I have have two children with individualized education plans or IEPs for both of our children the process to obtain and manage those IEPs has been fraught with misunderstanding mismanagement and misalignment within the school system fortunately we only have one child our middle schooler um uh who uh is facing the brunt of poor School administration uh and uh who who who have no understanding of of IEPs individualized

086Health Plans behavioral Improvement plans or how to manage them and thinking about what is making things better for our elementary school student after two years of fighting with the IEP process I've come to the conclusion it comes down to people at Bedford Hills we found kiry Waller Bradford who has worked tirelessly with the Bedford Hills team to make our son's school year a success at sanduski however uh we found certain administrators whose misunderstanding mismanagement and Mis alignment of the entire adaptive program has been unacceptable and downright deplorable across the school system there seems to be a disperate understanding of how to manage and operate adaptive program classrooms for our oldest son who has a rare genetic disorder which almost took his life on day five and left him with traits of autism ADHD and high

087anxiety this m mismanagement creates scenarios where he is given referrals and suspensions that are designed for the general population but are being charged to adaptive program students essentially your staff are giving out Middle School disciplinary actions to Adaptive students who have the mental capacity of a preschooler um I hope you can understand where that just doesn't make sense instead of trying to treat our adaptive students like a square peg being sh shoved into a round hole why is LCS Administration not looking to be more adaptive with these students I'm sure that my son isn't the only one who would love to go across the yard to Sandusky Elementary School to the playground but when I asked that question to sanduski Middle Administration I'm told that quote outdoor activities can be planned ahead and arranged by

088classroom teachers unquote but that hasn't happened in two years the LCS motto says every child by name and need graduation I can't speak for high school students but adaptive students in elementary schools and especially sanduski that's only something they can dream of you all might know their names but you have no idea about their needs Step Up reach out to me and ask questions engage with my emails that you're copied on Dr Gupta you're looking at making Cuts save some budget funds by Illuminating Port administration at sanduski bring in some folks that know how about adapted programs and how to make them work for every child by name and need of graduation thank you thank you okay uh Dan Harrison hello school board members staff um and of course superintendent Edwards thank you as well

089for all the work that you're doing I know that you took this on with the feeling and passion to do and make good in our city I come to I come to you today as a concerned citizen parent and also one of the pastors at church of the Covenant here in Lynchburg when I come before you I I don't come alone I stand on the shoulders of my own predecessors most notably our Church's founder Bev Cosby who may be completely unknown to most of you but he understood what it meant to fight religious and racial Supremacy in our city and uh Bev found ways of channeling Justice making throughout our city and those effects are still here today and uh as we look into fighting politicized and xenophobic tendencies that are found throughout our leadership

090in the city and it's nothing new it's been that way for a long long time even when Bev started in his civil rights journey in the 1950s here in Lynchburg but he helped by starting organizations that work tirelessly to try to strip away and dismantle some of those pieces like Lynchberg Covenant Fellowship and Interfaith Outreach in Miriam's house and many many others now as a native Oklahoma and a Chuck citizen I reached out to our school board our Beloved School Board our leaders asking on March 6th of this year after NEX that's the the child's name NEX a non-binary student in Oklahoma had succumbed to their wounds after a fight in a high school bathroom I reached out I said I am concerned about our lgbtq A+ students I feel like this board has done

091a great disservice to queer and trans students their parents and their families in the city and I think that for some reason many of you feel that you have taken some sort of religious high road and it just angers me and it concerns me the only person to respond was Dr Edwards thank you she gave me the courtesy and I understand that that this is not your full-time job I know that we all do many things but you took this job on and you got to answer to the hard things because we especially as Community leaders representing many many families come to you and especially those most vulnerable students and we're asking you please in my letter I was asking you to please send that vote that that didn't allow the GSA at EC glass

092to to take the funds from it gets better because why they're a queer and trans organization trying to help queer and trans youth I just couldn't understand it and then watching one of you mansplain to our superintendent about what the appropriateness of behavior is I can't take it I think the racial and misogynistic attitudes that hide behind religious moral things is hypocrisy we've got to change the whole world is looking I feel at us and it's not too late there's plenty of room to change and then you're wondering probably well he's a a liberal preacher for sure for sure he's liberal he can't be the Jesus anything like the Jesus that we know well I know that Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself and I know that what you do to the least of

093these you have done unto me and I know let the person who is without sin cast the first stone but I feel like you all EX except two very compassionate intelligent very smart professional people on this board through low stones at those kids and we watched it the country watched it and I'm sorry if there's been consequences from that that make you uncomfortable I am I I am sorry I mean that's terrible but you have to understand the severity of the feelings of the community you're ripping us apart and you don't even know it because I guess you live in a bubble somewhere teachers don't want to teach here administrators don't want to administrate here families are moving and I ask you to please make this a safe place Title Nine is now I know

094several of us are here to address this because we want you to do the right thing civil rights law is no joke if we begin to go down the slippery slope of making new rules and changing exceptions and things like that we are not protecting our students so let us protect our trans and queer students today by doing the right thing and upholding the law thank [Applause] you um please remember there's still not there's not to be any clapping thank you that was mentioned next is Vincent Gonzalez hey can I make something you're out of order you that's your job that's yours all right I'm sorry no disrespect so let me this reiterate please do not clap Boo or respond in any way to the comments of a speaker thank you go ahead Mr Gonzalez

095um first I want to say that um Tim want to mess it up are indivual group okay first I want to say that I'm so um emotionally drained from coming here this year this process has really resurfaced memories of my time at LCS that I've spent my adult life trying to forget when I'm a student you tell me to think to use critical thinking skills but when I'm an adult and think critically I'm a problem I want to say as a member of the equity task force that this year has been very frustrating this board has communicated to us through its inaction that you do not value our work I felt that the interaction between the task force and the board last semester was disturbing to say the least it's evident that the majority of

096the board either does not understand or fully intends to enact very real harm on queer and trans youth I am concerned that this board learned nothing from the national scrutiny that occurred with the it gets better campaign Grant and the treatment of queer youth of the EC glass GSA the long-term effects of that Fiasco are still being felt by the EC glass GSA after so many students were intimidated out of participation you effectively dismantled a student organization as a school board and you should truly be ashamed of yourselves I also wanted to touch on the yunan model policies as it was recently resurfaced by a board Member One of the arguments being made by members of the board is that if LCS does not Implement yun's transphobic policies the district could face possible lawsuit the

097reality of the situation is that the state has made no moves to force districts to implement the model policies but the Virginia Department of Education is currently being sued by two transgender students from York County School Division as well as a student from Hover County the ACLU is providing legal support for both cases and has already reached out to members of the LCS Community after the denial of the grant awarded to the EC EC glass GSA I want to point out that the manufactured out manufactured outrage that allowing full access to facilities for transgender people will somehow endanger other students or cause an increase in sexual assaults is not only unsupported by evidence but the majority of the conservative members on school board and city council that support these claims proudly associate themselves with Liberty

098University an institution which is currently being forced to pay the Federal Department of Education $14 million for systematically covering up sexual assaults on campus more than 400 cities in 21 states have implemented laws to protect queer people from discrimination and allow trans people to use the bathroom that matches with their gender identity there has been no increase in public safety incidents in restrooms in any of those States lastly the recent amendment to Title 9 by the federal department of education passed in April requires schools to allow trans students to use the bathroom that matches with their gender identity violating this policy undoubtedly will make this District vulnerable to possible litigation thank you for letting me speak today thank you um next is Nicole spenden Berg I'm speaking on behalf of a group okay hello again

099Nicole spangenberg here she they pronouns representing quer toown Hall and I'm also a member of your Equity task force April 19th the US doe released final Title 9 regulations that provide vital protections against sex discrimination and Advance educational equity and opportunity these are going to take effect beginning August 1 I'll be quoting today from the regulations directly and from lawyers and I'll tie this to Virginia to Lynchburg and to the um proposed model policies basic takeaways stay aware of federal law changes stay in compliance avoid unnecessary litigation keep your funding Yan's proposed policies are now out of compliance with another federal law so I repeat myself in saying do not adopt you've heard me say so in August in a work session and you have the documents and slides from that and I'm giving you

100more reasons today according to the Department of Education the updated regulations serve to empower and support students and families they clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related conditions sexual orientation and gender identity sex-based harassment includes harassment on those bases as well this is from 10610 and 10 6.31 they prohibit separating or treating any person differently based on sex in a matter that sub matter that subjects that person to more than Dem Minimus harm except in a few limited circumstances such as Athletics which I'll get to in a minute any policies and practices that prevent a student from participating in their education program or activity consistent with their gender identity imposes more than Dem Minimus harm on that student and therefore generally violates title 99's non-discrimination mandate requiring

101a student to submit to any invasive medical inquiries or documentation that students experience sex-based harm when they are excluded from sex separate facilities consistent with their gender identity also qualifies as more than de Minimus harm and therefore is in violation of federal law and violating the non-discrimination Mandate the Department of Education told crisis in the classroom that compliance with the regulations is a condition of receiving Federal funds incorrect claims circulating news outlets in the past few weeks say that the regulations rewrite the definition of sex but as I just said a quick look at the regulations shows that they expand protections against sex-based discrimination to also include gender identity protection but it does not overwrite any meanings of sex stereotypes or sex characteristics based on the Department's review of federal case law the Department of

102Education is unaware of any instances in which cisgender students are excluded from facility inconsistent with their gender identity that have experienced nearly the same harms or any of the same harms that transgender students experience federal courts have rejected claims that treating students consistent with their gender identity harm cisgender students the Supreme Court has also rejected the notion that the preferences or discomfort of some can justify any otherwise unconstitutional discrimination against others for example of a court case the city of Clairborne versus Clairborne this morning the education secretary Miguel Cardona testified on the agency's priorities and policies to the house of delegates when these new title 9 updates were brought up the house only focused on asking about sports which is not even a part of this update until the standard for criteria for a student's

103eligibility to participate on sex separate athletic teams is finalized and issued the current regulations still apply from the current 1500 page unofficial version of final regulations available to the public I found that Athletics is only mentioned 75 times and only to mention that it is not relevant to these updates the department reaffirms that a recipient may not invoke Title 9 to require restricting speech expression or conduct in violation of the First Amendment now regarding the model policies senior transgender rights attorney Wyatt Rola with the ACLU says that these do not follow best practices based on research and in fact violates the 2020 Virginia code law the lawyer has also said that it's a shame that the Department of Education has put school districts between a rock and a hard place telling you to Implement policies

104that open you up to Serious legal trouble communities are divided on how schools should treat transgender students questions remain about how much power the state has to enforce them according to the ACLU you don't have to because the law does not include an enforcement mechanism currently you want to make sure that you're clear what you're doing and if you implement something that goes against Title 9 that's a liability last but not least as a me member of your advisory committee the equity task force I'm disappointed that we have not been put on a Schoolboard agenda we want to have a conversation with you about Equity confir concerns and recommendations we've worked all year dissecting many policies and analyzing equity in this district and if we can't have a conversation with you about it then all

105that work is for nothing so please let us talk to you about it at a school board meeting thank you next is Joe Meadows [Music] and hello I would like to thank the clerk of the board and Dr Edwards for excuse me allowing me the chance to speak this evening my name is Joe and I have three schoolage children that do not attend Lynchburg City Schools but I am a Lynchburg resident and taxpayer I'm here today to speak to you about the updated tin 9 rules released by the US Department of Education late last month I'm here to ask you to re reject the call from city councilman Martin misin to refuse to comply with the new rules while I don't expect many of you to agree with the substance of the rule changes I

106urge you to avoid any action that will almost certainly cause our already cash stra school system more in legal fees defending itself against unnecessary title n lawsuits as well as potentially jeopardizing Federal funding it is also ironic that one of the council members primarily responsible for starving our public schools of funding is also encouraging them to take an action which would waste more money it's also worth noting that these rules would add protections to students victims of sexual harassment and assault contrary to the councilman's claims and unlike the previous administration's rules which strip protections from victims and made students less safe having watched some of the debates at this school board over the last few months I feel confident in saying that sadly many not all of you but many make decisions not based on

107available science statistics or other data but based on your own personal feelings I don't think any amount of Statistics I throw at you will change any Minds here so I'm just going to share this with you growing up in the '90s while I was still figuring myself out being queer just wasn't something you did I had no support system no safe place to be myself or a safe person to ask questions about the feelings I was having this caused irreparable damage to myself Decades of repression depression substance abuse anger and pain for many kids of all backgrounds school can sometimes be the one safe place they have away from substance abuse violence negle or neglect that they may be exposed to at home this is especially true for lgbtq students sometimes school is the one

108place they feel they can be sa they they can feel safe to be themselves when you set the tone with your language and decision-making that gay and trans kids aren't welcome you create a hostile environment for lgbtq children in our school schools you encourage bullying and you take away what could literally be a lifetime Lifeline for these kids potentially causing catastrophic decades long damage to them the medical science is clear and unanimous affirming and supporting our children's identities is lifes saving I urge you when making decisions that affect lgbtq kids that if you can't leave your personal feelings at the door then you don't belong here and one last thing I would like for everyone here to try and imagine for a moment just how much courage it must take for one of your students

109to come stand here and speak to you and how cowardly you would have to be to sit there and tell those kids that they are whining and crying that was truly one of the most despicable displays I've ever seen from someone in government and you should be ashamed of yourself Mr depal and if you have any dignity at all you should turn in your resignation before you leave today thank you for the chance to speak to you today thank you uh the last individual who sign up to speak tonight is Jared Banks thank you school board thank you Dr Edwards for this opportunity to speak I'm the Reverend dror Jared Banks I'm the senior minister of the First Christian Church um in Lynchburg that I'm representing tonight um I'm here this evening representing a church

110which is celebrating 150 years of loving God and our neighbors so I know I'm going to sound a bit like a preacher tonight I'm here because I understand that these times in which we live can be confusing as we live in a divided nation where we are bombarded with fake news and all sorts of misinformation both by preachers and politicians I understand it's a difficult time to serve in any leadership position such as on a school board as our political leaders our president our governor our attorney general our state representatives and our city council are often at odds the federal government gives us laws or policies like Title Nine and a member of the city council tells you to ignore those laws or policies these are indeed confusing times the good news is that I

111Proclaim as a preacher of the Gospel that our God is not an author of confusion the great confession of faith of all Christians is Jesus as Lord which is historically meant Caesar is not that means Christians allow the teachings of Jesus to guide our lives and not any political agenda when folks were once confused about what laws to obey Jesus was asked about the supreme law of God he responded love God and love your neighbors as yourself and on these two laws hangs all of the laws and the prophets in other words loving God and neighbor trumps every other law as we know Jesus was especially and we know that Jesus was especially concerned for the most vulnerable for little children for the poor and for those bullied and oppressed by culture and politicized religion

112those who are often ostracized by the larger Community to further remove all confusion when it comes to what laws we should obey the Apostle Paul wrote about respecting the laws of the government but then he wrote but owe no one anything except love one another for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law the Commandments are summed up in this one word love your neighbor as yourself and just in case we're confused to what love is Paul adds love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is fulfilling the law so the good news is in these confusing times when our lawmakers do not agree when our city council is at odds with one another good people do not have to be confused when we are making decisions we simply need to ask ourselves

113am I making this decision because of Love or am I voting this way because I love my neighbor as myself do I agree with this policy because I do not want it to do any harm to my neighbors especially my most vulnerable neighbors this is especially important for school boards for school administration ations because our decisions have the potential to do great harm to the most vulnerable to our children and especially our children who are often bullied by culture politics and religion so today as a representative of a historic Faith Community in Lynchburg I pray that you will always make decisions based on your love for all children especially our most vulnerable children pray that you will always be careful not to make any decision that could bring any harm to a child physical mental

114or emotional it causes any child to feel ostracized demeaned belittled disgraced in any way regardless of their religion their economic status color of their skin their gender identity or their sexual orientation if we allow the supreme law of God if we follow the supreme law of God we must ignore the voices of fear and hate and work to create a school environment that is safe inclusive and affirming of all students including our trans and non-binary students thank you okay we do have uh two voicemails yes sir uh let's do the student one first please hi this um hello my name is Arden Island and I'm a student at Heritage High School um I was told I could call here to leave a message to be read during the school board meeting tomorrow night and um

115I just wanted to say that as a transgender student at Heritage High School I have received a very welcoming community the teachers the counselors the principles they've all been very good to me but every time I'm a transgender man every time I walk into the women's restroom I don't feel like I belong I pass I'd like to say I pass very well as a male and it kind of freaks people out when I walk in there people's eyes widen people gasp people walk out people laugh they giggle they go into the Stalls and hide I don't think [Applause] that I think that Lynchberg City Schools should not should no longer deny transgender students access to the school locker rooms and restrooms aligned with their gender identity no matter what hormone reassignment therapy no matter what

116surgeries they've been to I think that transgender students at LCS and in every US state should be allowed to go to the bathroom that their genders align with if it is known that that person is transgender and that they have an identity they should be able to go to that restroom that's how I feel that's I i' feel honestly genuinely safer that way we are in TR students are at risk and we have to protect we have to protect them it's that simple I love my principal I love Mr Bey I I love my teachers I love Mr City I love Miss Harris I love Gunner Sergeant nice I love all of them they're all extremely good to me but the district has got to do more thank you okay and now there's one parent

117voicemail hi this message is for the school board meeting uh taking in effect on Tuesday May the 7th my name is uh Samantha City I am the parent of two students at chesfield elementary school I'm also a member of the Junior League of Lynchburg and the chair of the period access Distribution Center committee uh first of all I want to thank you all so much for addressing the immediate need of uh period supplies in our schools by installing the uh dispensers in our schools and thank you so much for your continued partnership with us and with Park View Community Mission and supplying period uh supplies to our students uh I do want to let you all know that the week of May the 20th through the 28th is period poverty awareness week uh where we

118when we're uh developing awareness of period poverty in our community especially as it impacts our students because we don't want to see any student not uh sh up to school because they're on their period or they don't have adequate period supplies in their homes um I thank you so much again for your continued partnership I hope you will continue to partner with us as we address address this much needed problem and we will continue to spread awareness uh throughout the rest of the month of uh period poverty thank you so much okay well that concludes the public comment period thank you Dr day next is item G uh Dr Edwards March 2024 Financial reports for the finance report I'm going to turn it over to Mr yies good evening chairman Gupta members of the board

119and Dr Edwards um in the interest of Revy I know it's been a a long meeting this this evening um my face is hurting from smiling so much from those students so hopefully my report will be less bad and everybody will be smiling at the end of it um so as of March which marks 75% of the fiscal year passing believe it or not it's flying by um the percent of revenues collected versus our original appropriation was at 65.5 s% year-to date um Revenue collections are down slightly by 4.05 more than the prior year Revenue collections for the same month which uh last year which was 69.6 2% these are my notes I haven't gotten to the expenditure um report yet um and I believe that uh that particular report I added the line that

120you requested so that is an older report I believe that um the report number two on the uh board docks would be the ones that has the lines that I'll refer to there it is yes so the amount of expenditures versus original appropriation is 66.90 just slightly above the year-to DAT Revenue collections um it's less than a half% of the same month um in the prior year the total expenditures inclusive of encumbrances equates to 98% so we're tracking underneath a hundred of spending all of our um expenses up to our budget line this year the majority of notable variances were discussed in last month's report however there are a couple of honorable mentions um that I'll speak to on the expense report line 21 um the function code 2200 the elevated percent is attributed to

121moving funding for attendance clerks to function 1000 and there was a need to do a journal entry to move the associated expense um of these positions that should equalize out in May's report because a JV was done and so the reporting just needs to catch up with the accounting period um line 37 of the same report as function 3400 vehicle maintenance service is at 171.8cm incumbrances associated with a vehicle and powered equipment supplies and labor costs the department is actually looking through those uh encumbrances to make sure that there aren't additional monies held um and if there are they those encumbrances will be released in the month of May so that we get a better line of of tracking those expenses Line 39 which is function 3500 for school buses there's a negative budget available

122but that's associated with the purchase of the grant funded 25 electric school buses so obviously we had to put the expense in a line that's Grant um reimbursed line 48 function 4200 Building Services is 118.2437 new form there's a couple of uh items that I wanted to note I added your requested line numbers on there as well Dr day um line one and line two the first two lines on the report of Revenue um there a portion of the revenues that are in line one with the sales tax receipt those actually should be coded to the line below it a portion of them to the 1/8 sales taxx line um Finance staff has done a journal entry um to move those funds to the correct line that is an accounting process that will catch up

123in um in the May report I also would like to address line seven and line eight the revenue associated with the special ed soq um which it's tracking well below what we have budgeted um it was inadvertently coded to infrastructure and operations and this is why we do monthly Financial reports to catch items like this uh journal entry has been entered to move those funds to the correct Revenue line um moving on to the monthly Boe report um the item that is hot on everyone's mind and everyone is sitting at the on the edge of their seats the health insurance receip seats netted 1,559 3879 for March 2024 versus the 1, 184,000 uh6 46210 in February expenses uh Health cost went up in one month by 421,750multifamily $669 we've gotten we almost half a million

124dollars in claims in March over what we had received in February um in a self-funded um package though you're going to have the volatility of variable costs and claims like that um we have the next question I know that's going through everyone's mind is we have received the preliminary quote um from local Choice Health benefits program I've met with the LCS Insurance Consultant regarding the premium information associated with the employer or employee contributions I've ran some analysis to um better um educate the finance facilities uh committee going to ask that Dr Day put that as an agenda item on next week meeting would like to run that those numbers past that committee as well as invite our Insurance Consultant to zoom in for any additional um information or answers to questions that the committee may

125have um and so if that's okay with Dr day I'll ask come to adjust the agenda accordingly one final good thing to note um based on the um historical um things that happened last year our grant reimbursements have been submitted through March so we are up to date as up to date as we can be right now on getting those reimbursements in so then we can get them back so that we can get as close as close to a zero um net balance at the end of the fiscal year as we can um we hope not to overspend we hope not to underpin we have a goal and we're working hard towards that goal and keeping our finger on the pulse of the finances for the school system so that's the end of my report

126I'll entertain any questions you may have so you you commented on the big boost in medical claims yes sir this past month but the overall balance to this state it looks like is actually better than it was last year it was uh because you um in you know with in all your wisdom decided to increase the um the the premiums and so you are collecting more receipts than you did prior year so I I I have some recommendations for the finance committee on maybe looking at some different ways of doing things should we should the finance and the school board decide to stay self-funded hopefully we can um cont control the volatility of some of those claims if we choose not to go to a larger pool as the St as the state funded so

127well I will put you on the agenda for the thank you sir yes sir from your initial ex um investigation would the state pool be better so there are components of it that are better and some are worse um so at of course those with larger families um are going to see a a larger cost in premium um because you don't know how many kids someone has on a family plan and the more children the more relatives you have that increases that drives up the cost of Health Care so they have to hedge their bets for lack of a better um term to make sure that they cover both all family types there is um some part of it looks good part of it you know I think we need to analyze and assess and

128which is one of the reasons why I'm inviting if at Dr day's approval the consultant to zoom in and you know us take a deeper dive into how it will really affect um you know our finances so you you don't have an what what what you're saying is you haven't come up with an overall General opinion of whether or not the pool would be better just on a cursory level not going to hold I think there are positives and negatives to stay both overall oh oh you're say equal so there's positives to stay self-funded and positives to go with a larger pulled environment where you have more costs that are equalizing out those costs um but there are um some negatives to both plans and what I want to do is unpack that with the

129finance committee and get your take on it before I make my recommendations not asking for a recommendation they're saying on the Seesaw it doesn't lean anyway it's even right now um yes because I'm looking at both the positives and the negatives and I'd like the I'd like the finance committee's input on weighing the positives versus the negatives in each um category before I'm I am in the process and have done some analysis that will I think set some light bulbs off and and maybe be able to to to maneuver that and be more Nimble in our decision making so basically it's [Laughter] no the commit so yes you know I think the pool I think going in larger pool for employee only would would be um seamless I think the the the our employee base

130that would suffer would be the family plan because obviously it's more expensive and we have a lot of Educators um that have families and we want to make sure they're taking care of as well as stay in the black uh financially so we you know we just need to do the analysis and run the numbers and see thank you yes sir I have one question and nobody else yes sir our loss ratios are more than one right now so how do your traditional insurance companies take that because they maintain no higher than 0.9 mhm so when you reached out and got this was that an issue they had in because he's saying you're saying they're even well they're offer on on some category they are even um so there's an administrative cost um appended to

131going into a pool environment that you're not going to pay when you're in self-funded so the majority of money that we pay are for claims it is for health care it's not in administering a larger um type program so our um our $400,000 um is is pretty generous um within the state I think there's only one other school system that is a little has a higher lost ratio than we do um which is at set at a half million so I I think the analysis that I'll provide you will look at it and I I think it'll help give us some you know some insight on which direction we need to go and that way the finance committee can recommend to the school the full School Board um how we want to proceed thank you

132um yes sir thank you the next is the consent agenda uh is there a motion to approve I move that we approve the consent agenda second there discussion I have um a question is M Shephard on line there she is good evening ma' how are you I am so when I how are you when I saw this report and I saw 30 designations my jaw just dropped uh help me out where do we stand in terms of recruiting and filling back those positions and have you done a survey of these teachers why are they leaving the exit interviews yes so I'm assuming you'll be sh exit interviews might be easier if I come downstairs if you'd like to come downstairs and talk to us in person that'd be fine that be wonderful yeah be right

133okay thank you go ahead Dr G well when I saw that list I said wow it's a shorter list my first year it was like two pages so I I was thinking we were doing pretty good you're more optimistic than I am cuz when I saw that list of 30 designation and the recruitment was like one or two and we are in month of May right now we'll be closing schools on May 24th and um so my issue was uh has every District hired the teachers they wanted to hire for fall or they still on in the market for us to be able to backfill these positions well most people are hiring we have the added challenge of having to um have some conference conferences with staff um regarding some riff positions at the from

134the operating budget not not just cares but operating um and based on the policies those folks have to be placed first before we post hire and and and so we have not with the exception of a few select positions we our hands have been tied in terms of being able to post while we uh go through the process of um trying to place staff who are in some of those uh division level cuts that were 9.5 and there's some school level um cuts as well welcome downstairs so much it's a pleasure to be here so uh forgive me for missing part of your uh commentary Dr Edwards um but we are not recruiting right now at all we do have a freeze on our job postings because we do have individuals that have been notified

135that they are being displaced we have shut down the Virtual Academy um those individuals need opportunity unities to be assigned elsewhere in the division and we do not want to open up job postings that external candidates may be applying for when we have internal candidates that have a need so the only thing that we are currently posting for is sped positions and Grant funded positions everything else is on a freeze we have begun notifying individuals if they were being impacted either by job elimination to the car's funding no longer continuing uh the closing of um the Virtual Academy and those kinds of things so we are seeing a mass Exodus voluntarily because of the uncertainty in the division at this time uh we did communicate on the Personnel agenda yes a very large number of

136individuals that have resigned we've got a few retirees as well that are just looking to uh move on to their opportunity to enjoy life uh outside of the workplace um but we've seen quite a few resignations just because of the uncertainty in our division at this time we have communicated the transfers or realignments reassignments of individuals that were displaced from the Virtual Academy Miss Pew has done an amazing job of having those conversations uh with respect and dignity and allowing those individuals to understand that this is not a performance-based concern but but that it is just the byproduct of that program no longer continuing uh and trying to find uh other opportunities for them to serve as students in the division Miss P yes I just wanted to follow up and say that all um

137staff from the Virtual Academy um minus one um have been uh placed and have um either um decided not to return and that's only one staff member the others have actually been placed in positions um we had conversations with some Department staff um last week and so they um were given until tomorrow to um let us know if they want to accept the options some of the options um that we gave them in terms of placement and in positions so hopefully after tomorrow or if not by the end of this week we will be able to lift that hiring frees um and post begin posting and and interviewing and hiring for those positions because we will have placed most of the people that we needed to because their jobs were eliminated yeah if I could

138just add to that um we just as a reminder we do have a significant budget uh concern and so there will be a number of positions that will no longer be a part of the school division anymore after this this school year so you're seeing a number of vacancies here we're going to obviously try to eliminate vacant positions first before we uh reduce uh positions as well um so you'll note also that as we transition to a seven period day there just are simply fewer positions that are needed so some of those positions will not be hired at some as we get to the next school year so um work working through that uh there's a lot of moving Parts uh in terms of the positions that we're going to need but just wanted you

139to know that that you can't just look at the at the sheet there's there's a little bit more to it no I'm not looking at what I was looking for was without naming a school in your first HR report had seven resignations from that school in the addendum you got three more resignations yes sir so if the school has only 12 teachers uh then one to one placements are not are a possibility or may not be a possibility so I'm assuming we have a plan to absolutely have that have that school operational absolutely we do yes sir and several of the individuals um from the Virtual Academy were offered op were offered multiple opportunities and one of them uh one of those opportunities could very well have been at um TC Miller as well thank

140you any other questions Madame cler would you please call the Mr jilo go ahead wait oh we're voting on adoption of the consent yes thank you go ahead lost it there thank you Miss shepher absolutely Mr jilo yes Mr Andrews yes Mr CR yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes yes Preston yes Mr Mr depar yes Mr Lori yes motion carries thank you next one is School Board member reports uh finance and Facilities Dr I'm trying to catch up with you um um give me a minute could could um could we go on and let me come back to this I have to find my go School Mrs Lowry okay um we had our meeting May 1st um some things that were on um that came up is that the scanning electric

141electronic microscope the sem will be purchased and replaced this summer or will be replaced this summer it's been purchased um after the general assembly decision the 25 26 year there may be a $300 increase for each student it has been the same at 4,700 for 10 years so but with inflation it could increase so there is a possibility it could be less though so we're waiting hear from um to to after the general assembly makes their decision and also um let me see Oh's okay um the science fair was held March 9th um the Virginia state Science Fair held on the 13th had nine students a stien was paid for each student um to that was hosted by Old Dominion um university uh cbgs uh research and osum was held on April 18th um at

142the Shu Hall University of Lynchburg campus and the students did a very nice job I was um one of the people that participated um the Virginia Junior Academy of Science the vjjs um is scheduled for May 3rd and 4th um and the College of William Mary will host a virtual they did this virtual virtually a virtual Symposium the international science engineering Fair will be held in Los Angeles California on May 12th through 17 Lindsay um Lindley I'm sorry Crosby from EC glass High School qualified to attend this Fair all expenses have been covered so um the CVS the cbgs faulty met on April 23rd and to select the recipients of the two NC Wells Memorial scholarships these Foundation um funded 60,000 Merit and need based scholarships are awarded to one male one female um of

143each year also May 23rd is the junior award ceremony and it's scheduled for 9:00 a.m. and our next governing meeting is scheduled for Wednesday August 7th uh 2024 at 1 p.m thank you la Dr Carter the law Regional School oh go ahead okay we just um voted on a budget we know that things are not perfectly set but um if there are no major changes then laur's budget will already be approved and they're already looking at also the 3% increase for their staff to remain competitive L also purchase will purchase a bus school bus for their school trips prior to that they had to go to each County to see if they could borrow a bus you know how difficult that is to try to get a bus from all the surrounding counties as well

144as Lynchburg so now they will have a 16 well 15 16 passenger bus that doesn't require a CDL but of course the drivers will be trained they had graduation the graduation will be May the 28th and there are two Lynchburg City school students that will be be graduating at 6 o'clock also the Laurel prom and Lynchburg City featured Lynchburg City Schools they featured the prom photographs are featured on the Lynchburg City School's Facebook page page and as the her High School representative stated the Heritage High School football team was instrumental in just being there and helping out which is always great and the law students they're going to create they're creating a mural at the Maan square and so that would be awesome to see and we'll keep looking for that next year Lynchburg City

145the superintendent and a board member will be the chair of the law Regional committee for next year thank you STEM Academy STEM Academy our next meeting will be um well I'll come back to that but we um the commencement is going to be May the 15th at cvcc and the interesting thing is that the students will graduate there before high school is it great and Monday May the 6th there's going to be the senior banquet and awards ceremony and their next meeting is May the 21st and also there was an internship appreciation or presentation April the 24th and our next meeting is May the 21st thank you Lea Mr tro no report thank you uh P Mr deal and Mrs low um the U board is always looking for new people to to be members

146and to develop Partnerships and we have several new members that are on the Slate to be invited to be on the board coming up at the next meeting the next meeting is Tuesday June 11th um well that's the summer planning workshop but the uh for the next meeting when they when they do declare uh do determine it would be uh good for uh any anybody who has the time to stop by and and learn a little bit more about what pi is about uh there are uh we're always looking for relationship building if you have some suggestions personally I like the way the vector vector space uh Vector re Vector source is um is is working with a lot of the students and it provides a lot of opportunity uh it's a really a great

147a great program a great business and um I just haven't gotten a membership yet myself I'm just waiting for the time to do it I think they're so such a fantastic uh organization um but we are we're always looking for more places like that uh more people to to be involved with that type of um uh of work um there's uh summer work sessions there's uh uh where we're going to be re evaluating what partnership really means when it comes down to Pi um Partners in education uh one of the uh celebrations we're going to be putting out is that they're going to have a uh cake and decorations for student celebration on May 21st that's going to be at EC glass uh if anyone has any ideas or wants to uh contribute or make

148reference as a referrals uh we're going to be open we're always open for those types of ideas just reach out and we'll do what we uh can to make things work better for the students um LCS thank you Education Foundation Mr trost Mr Jal uh this past let's see it was on April 28th Sunday we had our lyberg Education Foundation honor dinner and I was uh delighted to be there and got the opportunity to meet these wonderful students where we recognized our top Achievers from both EC glass or top achieving graduates from both e glass and Heritage High School um it's a wonderful dinner wonderful food some excellent speakers there that uh gave us some insight into how to succeed and gave the children some insight into How To Succeed um and then uh we

149got to see that our own Tish Lowry Miss Lowry was an honored guest so at this at this dinner the students get to choose or get to pick one of their past instructors or could be staff person principles or what have you to uh join them at the dinner and Miss Lowry was there and the student that you taught what grade was that student Norwell Harper first grade first grade first grade so we talk about the impact that our teachers have on our students this young person went all the way back to first grade and honored uh Miss Lowry with her presence or you literally said that she was the one who taught him how to read and he was thankful for that that's exactly right so the impact that our staff our teachers have

150upon these young people's lives is tremendous I think we saw that with uh the children here today the presentation is really nice so kudos to Lynchberg Education Foundation for that dinner we had a wonderful time food was fantastic the camarad was fantastic I learned from my son I gave a uh I guess an award to one of the children there and he thought this young man that I was a principal at one of the schools that was pretty good I was like I wish I don't have the skill set or the intelligence to be a principal at a Lynchburg City school for sure and kudos to are those principls that showed up they do a fantastic job so there you are thank you Mr Ross Beacon of Hope Mrs Preston and Mr Andrews okay um

151Beacon of Hope and I think we talked about this a little bit but um Beacon of Hope Has undergone a transition after after being in place for 14 years under the leadership of Laura Hamilton the new leader at Beacon of Hope is lra McQueen lra has worked with Beacon of Hope for the past 10 years and she brings extensive experience and um knowledge and just connection with the students and the and the and various schools they did do a transition link which you can you can get on the Beacon of Hope uh Facebook page or on their website or if it's something you'd like one of us to send you I think both um um both of us um have a have a a link to it they're also gearing up for their summer internship

152program and if you recall from last year they um did internships programs it's going to last from June 3rd through the 28th local businesses will host 95 student interns across the city which is a really exciting thing because it gives the kids an opportunity to get work experience as well as to investigate what careers they might be interested in okay you want to take it from there yeah so uh decision day is here celebrations to honor the class of 2024 and their plans after graduation um The Beacon of Hope will celebrate students heading directly into the workforce military service on four and two-year colleges and Technical and trade programs um Beacon will host decision Day Celebrations at EC glass on the 10th of this month which is in three days in Heritage on the 17th

153uh and of course the e8th grade College and Career Readiness symposium museum is scheduled for the 21st through the 23rd of this month um which will host each Middle School on the campus of the University of Lindburg students will rotate through various sessions including covering topics such as college career exploration and connecting to their dreams which is I think is a big deal uh representatives from colleges across the Commonwealth as well as the Lynchberg fire department Central Health and other local businesses will be in attendance as well so that's it thank you academic access committee Mr jite uh the Virginia literary Act was the prime topic of our last meeting and I was very pleased with the administration going around and planning to teach and update our staff and teachers uh to use the uh

154parameters of the regulations in the new uh Virginia literacy Act and the new curriculum I'm just pleased with all of those things put together so I um we'll leave the rest of it up to Tish as far as the rest of the meeting but that part of it was exciting to see and hear about GNA say what did we I didn't keep those notes we were supposed to do them um oh academic Sy okay yes um and Mr Ferguson um he came he didn't come to the academic success committee though that was the that's the that was the discipline committee I'll report on that in a minute okay we move on I don't have anything to report thank you okay it was to say the new curriculum in the Virginia litery Act was the main

155topics that I understood from that and that was it I doubt it but that was the thank you thank you thank you next one is ad hoc discipline and policy Review Committee well can I back up and do the finance and Facilities committee first yes um I apologize for being sort of disorganized this evening there's been an awful lot going on and I'm to be frank struggling to keep up with it all finance and Facilities committee last met on April 23rd um there were uh a number of things that were pretty much information pieces uh some of which I think has already come to the board Mr Wata presented about athletic training Grant um we had some discussion of the operating budget but there was no action to be taken at time at that time

156we're we're still waiting for more accurate information from both the city and the state um we did have some discussion uh with our CFO about uh information that uh whether the board and the committee was getting the information they needed uh to make the decisions that they have to make um and Mr jamas is going to uh is working on some improvements in that direction so that's I I think an ongoing conversation um I guess I would just invite any board member who has specific ideas of what financial information would be useful to them that they are not currently getting to uh communicate that to me and Mrs Jamis uh to assist in designing how we might improve things in the future um at that point we were still waiting to get the quote on

157our health insurance options which we now have and I guess the committee will hear that as its next meeting um one thing that's been uh being pushed back to the back burner since the fall as you remember uh in the fall we uh in in addition to the um uh Grant associated with the safe room at EC glass there was also the Grant from uh Dick Sporting Goods and one of the uh issues that came up at the time is that we felt the need to be consistent in what uh criteria we look at when the board receives a request to approve a gift or a grant and although we we haven't made a final decision yet we do have some ideas about that that were generated last fall and that's on our budget for

158our next meeting um which will be our final meeting uh so that would be if we decide to make recommend changes that would be policy KH z-r um so we're I think we're moving in the direction of trying to formulate something specific to recent to the board um in that regard so that's the end of my report on finance and Facilities Comm so here I am again um so lots of things have happened here um you may recall that um our uh previous meeting we uh had held early I'm trying to remember the date um when was our previous meeting um the one where we met at 4:00 in the afternoon everybody was invited to come uh we did have a presentation from Mr Ferguson on the uh behavior training that we are providing to

159teachers in the classroom the uh slides from his presentation are accessible to you they are attached to the meeting minutes of our meeting which was on the 29th of a April so if you want to see those you have to be logged in to board docs at this point because until the committee meets again and approves the minutes they're not publicly accessible um we did talk about the main topic at that meeting was a discussion of cell phone policies and if you recall the uh discipline policy Review Committee was contemplating uh changing our cell phone policy uh which currently prohibits the use of cell phones throughout the entire school day for both elementary and middle school but at the high school level allows them to use it between classes and in non-instructional spaces like hallways

160so we were contemplating making that policy to be uh disallowing use of cell phone throughout the entire day but the principles uh were pretty unanimous in in not supporting that um but they uh we did have a lot of discussion about a policy that EC glass had before Co which was a policy in which there was a procedure for um uh confiscating students phones if they were abusing them in class that was at least is as I understand it was minimal in what it required of the teachers there was a separate group of uh teachers at that time they were still on a seven seven period schedule not block scheduling and that meant that there were some some uh periods in the day where some teachers didn't have duties so they those teachers would rotate

161through serving on what they called the chatty wagon uh which went around uh the classrooms and when a teacher had a pro a student that was inappropriately using their so cell phone they'd call for the chatty wagon and they would come and confiscate the phone so the teacher didn't have to do that would be taken away and either return to the student at the end of the day when they were leaving on the first offense or parent required to come in so there was a fair bit of support on the part of the teachers that with a kind of program like that um it it it would be successful um I called and talked to um the former EC glass principal Rose Flor who is uh now at a private school setting and but she

162was principal during the time that that PO well I don't think she was she was assistant principal during the time that that policy was in PR in place and ask her what she thought about this chattywagon policy and she said she thought it was great and that it worked and since we are now returning to a 7even period schedule in the fall it seems um that we have an opportunity to reinstitute that policy so the discipline policy committee has not made a decision about that yet so we're not prepared to make a recommendation I'm just reporting to you the information I have at this point um this afternoon immediately before this meeting um we did have a special meeting because we wanted to be able to bring to the board tonight some recommendations about policy

163changes related to incidents of physical violence or threats of physical violence specifically against teachers and staff and adult Volunteers in the schools so the committee did meet and uh we looked at three policies uh k n AJ which concerns um reporting to law enforcement officials uh K KFC which concerns uh let me KFC is a student conduct policy and then uh J GD J a g and I apologize for not remembering them all by virtue of their acronyms um which is the policy for student suspension or expulsion so in brief uh the kinds of changes that we want to recommend are um making physical violence against a teacher a staff member an adult volunteer helping in the schools make that an offense that is subject to expulsion um uh now I think I understood from

164the staff that were present at the meeting that per currently they largely operate that way under the existing policies but we're trying to put this in place in the in the PO to by making some policy modifications um also would included would be uh incident of these types would be reported to the school board discipline committee all incidents of this type would be reported to the Schoolboard discipline committee now that does not mean the school board discipline committee would be involved in uh uh interfering with the administration of whatever consequences it's just that the Schoolboard discipline committee wants to know how many incidents of this type are occurring so that they can execute their oversight capacity and perhaps make recommendations to the policy board so um what we want to do is is recommend some

165changes to these three policies to take effect in the fall we want to ask for approval of these changes tonight but with the understanding that the appropriate work group will look at these and uh bring back a finalized uh versions of the wording uh at a f future board meeting uh for approval so I'm not quite sure how to do this because you have not seen the specific changes that that we have in mind um I'm only giving you a very rough verbal description of them um you want to delay to the work session till everybody has a chance I can do that I can I can send them send out copies of it to the whole board tomorrow and they can see for themselves what the changes are so in the policy word Bridge

166what you're asking for is right now do we use the word me we yeah so that word will be replaced with the word Shell Shell mhm so there's we want to make it mandatory expulsion of course there's always room for uh special circumstances to be considered there's always the appeal process to the school board discipline committee um Mr depal did you want to comment yes it was purposely put in there that due process is not going to be averted we have due process because it all goes through the appeal process it's not that it is without um um consideration so everybody there is no way that it's going to it's automatic but then there's automatic appeal so due process excuse me new process is guaranteed we looked at the Statue right the Virginia statue yes

167and it allows school districts to yes do that as long as there's a due process yes and sorry go ahead and sounds as if that it's something that we're doing now for the most part anyway we're just kind of putting in a policy for yes that's that's what staff communicated to us yes yes Dr car I'm sorry so is this is this group taking presidence over the policy group that already looks at this this group has taken the initiative to recommend some policy changes and we're asking that the the appropriate policy work groups then review the changes we're recommending so this would this be student services these so if if if I'm on the student services so if I if we say this is too punitive I know there was a push first to try

168to find a way to make sure we're doing U restorative Services exposion is serious and I know a lot of students when we did when we were really involved in student discipline when we served on those committees listening to hearing that someone hit a teacher and then seeing that the student was so upset and the teacher they weren't really aiming at the teacher but it was yeah just happened so so we're saying that if that child hits it regardless of what state of mind and whether it was uh intentional or not only one time that I see that there was really a true intentional where the the teacher was just standing there and the student just hit her for no apparent reason that we could see and we couldn't see any yeah precipitating events so

169we're exposion is a serious thing I'm looking for that and the difference between using the word May and shall is in that particular instance we have that already when it comes to carrying a firearm we have it already when it comes to drugs and we're just extending that to involve a physical violence against a teacher and we still maintain even with the first two with drugs and with Firearms they still have due process so let me read to you the paragraph that refers to this the because we're going to have time to look at it I know this is too serious to vote on tonight but the the other thing is are we putting this above student to student what do you mean student to student incident versus student to staff I think so that's

170striking a teacher is a is a more serious offense than striking another student I would like to look at those take you're going to you're going to yes let's circulate and then we bring it so I I will forward those I I have more to say but regarding those three I will send copies to the committee the or to the full board and um and uh request that the appropriate work groups uh look at those uh in uh quick enough fashion for the board to be able to make a decision um also um a couple other things um I've said that we are still considering the cell phone policy but aren't prepared to make a recommendation um one other policy that we have been talking about but um is policy jfca which concern concerns uh

171that provides Provisions under which a a teacher May request that a student be removed from their class not necessarily on a one-time basis but on a long-term basis there's already a policy in place for this um and in the survey that we construct conducted of teachers in the fall many teachers said they weren't aware of this policy they didn't understand how it how it works had never heard of it before um so we're we're trying to figure out what to do with that and um uh we have some some possible adjustments to it but we didn't have time this afternoon to discuss it so we aren't ready to bring that forward but I'm just telling you that this is in the works we want to understand better um what that policy really means what what

172teachers really need to understand about what it means and how to uh use it in a situation um and what the what the practicalities of it are you know if if if every teacher in a school doesn't want this particular student in their class because they are always a conflict well what what do we do so there are some difficult aspects of this and we're trying to get a better understanding of all those things before we come forward with the recommendation so I'm just telling you where that stands yes I know when we um that policy we we reviewed that policy uh we've always had some hiccups with that policy just how it's worded and that policy has been there but um regarding just the removal of students if someone upset you and you want

173them removed right away and how how that really is implemented yeah so it's a tricky one we need to look at more than just the wording yeah a question and not that uh anyone's trying to step on toes of one committee over another but uh the ad hoc committee the discipline ad hoc committee does set policy if I'm not mistaken well it recommends to the board recommend that's my point it recommends to the board and not that is when you're on policies on policy committee that doesn't step on any toes we're recommending it to the board of what the board wants and where is the semantic crossover of stepping on your committees versus what the board wants to have is is it just word crafting at that point just so we can clar just so

174clarify for me what are we where where's the uh The Gray Line the policy work group I have served on is looks at uh regular vsba recommendation for changes okay policy so we're not Ste stepping on Dr Carter's toes well it's not me it's the um the committee the what's it called the social work Group Policy work student student services work group okay I the board the board will make the final decision about any policy changes but usually we get the advice of the work groups want them to look at it uh before we do that so so when you forward information to us you're going to forward to us the drafts that you have prepared that's right that's right will you also forward to us the names of the other policies that you're looking

175at because that'll give us an opportunity to just um just take a peek at him to see if if um if we have some ideas or suggestions or whatever absolutely okay be glad to do that is it almost 8:00 would you like to take a 5 minute break or continue going continue continue what's right I got my snack I'm good let's [Laughter] go two three hours five minute break Dr Carter says we listen to Dr I vote with Carter yeah 5 minute break we come back in five minutes perfect and there a couple of new items so we'll figure out I think yours is one and you had um well that no mine is already in here and then the discussion of budget okay yeah that's an old business so we'll do it after the

176new thank you sweet yeah I always have mine down here do whereever you want to put mine yours will be the policy item number five no there four policies for discussion yours is number five e e e question uh J1 Dr Edwards okay um student service policy updates and Dr Brown is face up there I have arrived um good evening members of the board hopefully everybody can hear me okay um I am just here to present um couple policy updates but first I just like to offer my sincerest appreciation for all of our teachers Educators out there for Teacher Appreciation Week um it's also Nurses Appreciation week and tomorrow is school Nurses Appreciation Day so if you get the chance or opportunity please wish all of our School nurses a happy school nurse appreciation day

177as they are doing a lot of really hard work and one of our policies does um impact them and something that they take care of that I person not capable of doing so um as you've all had the chance to review the policies in advance nothing major here that um really warrants a lot of attention or discussion um in my humble opinion but it was just some policy changes based off wording some cross referencing um to align with vsba policies um and and suggested changes there was one strike through with the pediculosis which is the lice policy that we have and and it was just making it um eliminating a barrier for for parents and students because we already have a one step in place when the parent meets with the school nurse and checks

178their students to see make sure that they are knit free um when they are having an outbreak of Li so uh I will I know it's been a long meeting I'll entertain any questions if there are any questions for Dr Brown I have a question um I don't don't have the policy statement in front of me but regarding JH C- RZ um there was an item five that was struck out um yes sir that's the the nit policy the light policy I just mentioned um where it was stating it was just extra step and barrier for our parents because they're already meeting with the school nurses um on step six and step uh seven that we just didn't believe that it was a need to have that extra step in there because they're already communicating

179with the school nurses and complying and make sure that they're nit-free before they return to school so when a student returns to school after having received treatment is there some kind of certification that they uh no longer have the dev on them is there any kind of screening to readmit them or what ever is appropriate yes sir that's um Step six and step seven that's where they are checked by the school nurse who you know certified health professional um and it is a visible check that they are able to see and they do a really thorough job of that okay um and then let's see igb um this was about um alternative programs and I just wondered if you could describe for me I know we have Fort Hill but what other alternative programs do

180we have all the LCS restore programs we also have the transition program tap program uh for elementary students for Hill Community School restora of Academy secondary restorative Academy um Elementary and we also have the restorative suspension Center um all as all alternative programs alternative programs refers to all those things okay all right you you've answered my question thank you thank you any other question thank you sir next one is curriculum and instruction U Miss I'm sorry I'm taking I'm going to turn over to Mrs we have uh three and actually I'd like to do the first and the last one um the first is IC slid um all of these are vsba updates um the first one just has a wording update and then adding a cross reference um to ebcd uh the last one

181j o is administration of surveys and questionnaires and again that's a theba Waring update um and then the one INE middle Ika parental involvement with instruction um it was a legal update referencing um a homework policy and at the time when the committee met we were also looking at at and reviewing the homework policy um and we had great discussion on that vsba is suggesting that we they are deleting the policy on homework and so we brought it to the committee to discuss whether we should delete it or alter it and there were lots of great conversation but we decided to pull it and we'll meet again um in in June um because there's some work that needs to be done from the perspective of uh perhaps grading and um some instructional uh pieces some

182curriculum instruction pieces so the cross reference to ikb on policy Ika was our suggested change so we will leave that there um if we um if we end up removing the homework policy then we'll have to go back and strike that uh cross reference but at this point we wanted to make sure that parental assistance with instruction had the cross reference to um the ikb homework policy as it stands other than that so so we are acting on just that one change now but we're going to consider it additionally in the future yes sir okay good but I have this is where Mr truss um pursuant to my amendment to your agenda and I sent everyone on the school board uh an email with a policy that I um developed um just by way of

183background let me give you this I I think everybody has a copy of it but I printed out if anyone would like a hard copy have that forone as well you could give me one so I don't have to it there no problem I'll just let me just hand them out we have over there I think I printed one also for uh Reed and Amy as well they wish I'm good you good okay thank you what this is is um the title of it is honor roles and graduation honors and basically my gist and I've identified that in this policy is to kind of make sure we recognize the students that are um doing doing well from an academic standpoint um on an honor role level and then also recognize um the students at the

184commencement ceremonies now quite frankly we're doing I think we're doing the majority of this as it is now um and maybe Miss pu can give me a little guidance um I wanted to make sure we established some type of Honor role from the sixth grade level up and I'm not are we are we doing a sixth grade to eighth grade honor rooll at this point I believe so yes sir all right and what Wendell delegate Walker talked about I know he sends out letters to people I believe it's just High School to all of our students to all of them Elementary um all the way through yes all right so basically what I'm doing is I would like to put in policy what we're kind of doing now just so it's there with the exception

185of I know at Heritage High School I think some of the things that Bey does is very nice he establishes um not only you have the valorian latorian speaking but he also recognizes some of the um academic Achievers early on in the graduation I thought that was a nice touch that he did so I wanted to make sure we maybe uh put that process over to EC glass high school because I know in the past um there's been some different thoughts on how they're recognizing the valorian sorian and I do think I would like to see some recognition for the um distinction honors and high different levels of honors based upon the GPA at our commencement ceremony at EC glass as well and correct me if I'm wrong is isn't um Mr Bey doing that

186at Heritage High School I know at the graduation he has some of the uh the kids sit up front and he recognizes them as having a certain level of Distinction based upon the GPA they have a medal that he Awards as part of that ceremony and and I'd like to see that just kind of be more consistent across both high schools I thought it was a very nice touch and the students seem to really enjoy that and that's in essence what this policy does um in developing this policy I did talk to Miss euu at the Virginia um vsba and and she gave me some guidance and sent me out to do a little bit of a uh a study across other school districts in the state that do different things of this nature um

187So based upon that survey of the other policies um some input from Miss Ying um this is what I've come up with um and I'm happy to entertain any questions and really maybe get some feedback from either uh Dr W or Miss Pew in terms of is this that far outside of what we're doing now I don't think it is but I just want to make sure it's put into a policy so it's being done consistently um I don't think it is far from what we are doing but I would also want to make sure that our principles have an eye on it because if we're asking I see here number three that you want this to take effect beginning with the 2024 commencement right I want Dr rule to have an opportunity to make

188changes and I'm not sure that in in the short two weeks that we have until graduation that for him to recognize all of this in a graduation ceremony is realistic given given the end of the school year and the things that have to be done so I would really appreciate the opportunity to to at least speak with Dr Rule and Dr Mr Bey just to make sure that this is an alignment and that we can do these things um I I'm not really sure we can make it happen this this year and I and I'm that is not I don't think that is as important that we get this thing I I recognize that this is asking a lot and I certainly don't want to burden staff uh for this but I think in that

189I don't have a problem with whether it's implemented by 2024 or not I just have a question just because I'm looking at B so if the valid dictorian does not want to speak then You' go to the salutatorian I guess then you go to the third person and down the rank if you're looking at the end of a marking period and you're trying to give kids time to say whether or not they want you you kind of do something yeah I I I'm just concerned that if I am sixth if it gets all the way down to me then how many days have gone by before granted I'm CL closer so that maybe something that I I think the building principles and and school counselors and even the senior I think it's more senior advisers

190too who kind of work through because they practice their speeches and and do some things there so and I agree with that and I wanted to make sure there was some process that I would recommend recognizing that at some point there's not time for people to prepare for a speech and we certain certainly want to do that so maybe we have some end point that says at this point you know I think there have been times when um when students chose not to speak absolutely and then a forensics kid for example was given the opportunity to speak which wasn't a bad idea because obviously they students that that would would do a good job of it but this doesn't give you any latitude for making that kind of change so if we could maybe alter

191the wording a little bit so that there's some level of flexibility for and that's I think it's and maybe what we do is we say okay if the Valor or you know first or second and third don't want to speak then we turn it over to staff to find somebody I don't want to change what EC glass is doing currently in terms of having this you know student body pick some people to uh speak um and maybe that's you know the staff can decide hey we have enough people already speaking if the you know one two and three don't want to do it or one and two don't want to do it then we have the staff pick which goes along I just want to have that opportunity available for the number one and number

192two class rank to speak if they wish maybe that should be the modification to it to which is to say either or period either or because they're they have other people speaking right I apologize for Dr Carter I have concern with this policy not because of the policy itself but each school that has their own culture and EC glass I even um spoke with Susan Morrison and she this came up before about why doesn't glass do this or do that and Heritage does and they even have the valid dictorian speak but glass they have a different process where they pick three different people and this seems like we're going to force glass to to do what heritage does and we're going to force it through a policy and I just do have problems with that

193because they they do not do that because they already have the honors for the students at Heritage and glass the 15 top students and mo their valid dictorian salutatorians in there but I know and I was shocked because I thought it was great too and Susan said no this is the way we've done it this is way the students have wanted it when she was principal and all through and so why do we want her now force and this policy will pretty much force EC glass now I'm a Heritage person but I'm going pick up for them this time this will force them to say we we've got to do this because we have a policy now Mr Jal go ahead you had your hand up you want to speak that was before she talked

194now I can all right wait Mrs L um but isabeth Morrison taught a while ago maybe the principal now would be okay with it maybe you should get input from glass and see what they say and we don't and I still want to keep I don't want to change what glass is doing currently in terms of allowing the student body to do that I think I spoke to that um but I I think an extra few minutes is not going to hurt anybody in a graduation commencement ceremony at last a couple hours and that's really what we're looking at here extra three minutes of speech and one minute or less than that of transition time so I I recognize exactly what you're saying I think just to make it more consistent and quite frankly more

195traditional in terms of What's Done across the state um if you look at all you know lots of different uh school systems that's more traditionally the undertaking but I recognize what you're saying and appreciate it and certainly don't want to change that particular part of the EC glass culture this this is not something you just brought up you this was an issue you brought up last year too right yeah well um directly with directly I think with uh the staff at EC glass yeah valid Victorian needs to speak yes and the valoran at that time the uh the family approached me about that as well so last year and and I we actually we about to have those conversations um specifically for glass of their three three speakers I believe uh one spot was offered

196to the B dictor to speak and and they decline speaking and then they just chose I think the students choose the other we vote on the speakers and to my knowledge that was we just that's the plan going forward like we just told the new principal that This Is How We Do It um so if if and I'm sure Heritage the same if the valorium really said no that they wouldn't force a child to speak so if that is the the process that and and we're going to meet with them to kind of go over this is there a need for this if that do you have to codify that if that's what they're doing just because that's what we did last year and we said this do this from this point forward well who

197knows how what the future holds but if it's codified in a policy it's going to be done that way so basically what I'm doing is making sure it's going to be done that way in the future if that's the will of the board I mean I grant it and I think that's a good approach but we're going to you know if the will of the board is to have it codified you know that's my preference anyway I guess to me the issue is is speaking at com at commencement intended to uh honor the academic Achievers in the school and I would and in my mind that the answer is yes I mean there may be other categories of students that also you want to distinguish in some way but I think there should be at

198every graduation a place for the uh those who really uh were stellar and their academic performance to be highlighted um and that's what we're kind of trying to CAU think this is preventing uh students who maybe uh maybe they were athletic stars and and they have something to say that this isn't preventing that this is just saying we want to be sure that the high academic Achievers are represented in the grass graduation ceremony cor Mr taking everyone's uh position into consideration and understanding the time constraint um for all of this could a change to this just for 2024 be uh somehow word crafted to say that the valedictorian and salutatorian will be provided and no valid dictorian or the salutatorian will be provided the opportunity to speak if the valid atorian doesn't want to then

199it goes to the salutatorian if the salutatorian doesn't want to then they we don't go down a list but just for this for Time s time constraints if we were to do something like that and give both principles Dr rule uh just have the two or three minute um inclusion to the couple hour long process to just make sure that it is for now and then we can workcraft it better y exactly and I take you mean Dr Edward said that's the plan going forward and I just and I take her at a word I believe that right I'm just trying to get this so it's no yeah number three with the uh with you know make it do this this commencement is not that important I don't think I think it's more important to

200get it right right um and uh well I was just doing for the sake of when you when it mentioned about being codified yeah absolutely yeah absolutely I yeah I I think that's good right right thank you I think the discussion has started so yep very good thank you next is Governor's policy Dr okay yes uh govern's group met on March 29th we reviewed four policies but it's really three because the one in the middle is both in the B section for board and in the G section for um Personnel so I'll do the last three first the BG board staff uh Communications there is a footnote in there um that they added when um some divisions went to collective bargaining we just added it anyhow um way back when so uh you'll see that

201language uh in there and that's is the only which one are you referring to uh BG and gbd which are identical policies um so let me just open it up so I can tell you specifically there's a little one at the end of the first sentence um and then if you go down School boards who have entered into collective bargaining agreements should revise this sample policy to reflect the provisions of their collect bargaining agreements we don't have a collective bargaining agreement but we put that in the policy just if we ever did so it's already there so that's in um both of those and in the um policy CBE the severance uh benefits there is an update to I believe code or cross reference um was added to that no it's a one- sentence policy

202no word changes uh the one that we had the most discussion on is um get back to the agenda here is the advisory committees to the board BCF um vsba had some language changes but this is one where we actually had a z on it because we um we have committees that are not uh the typical like Equity task force the Lynchberg thing at least that's that's what I haven't seen uh too many committees Le there are some you have to have by code and then there are others that we chose to have the thing that vsba uh crossed out is that the uh committee shall s serve without compensation um for a one-year term that is optional so you can they took that out uh but Dr day had um several other things that

203he wanted to share with you yeah um so I've thought a lot about this process by which we uh select advisory committees to the board we have the equity task force help me remember there's a health Advisory Board and I'm not remembering the others CTE and special education okay um so there's a number of aspects of this policy that um I think we really ought to consider changing um looking at some of the committee memberships over the past several years years um it appears to me that in some cases we have the same individuals on those uh committees year after year after year and I don't think that's healthy I don't think that LE lends itself to making sure those committees really represent the community it becomes a sort of In-House kind of thing so

204I would like to recommend that we establish some sort of term limits um I have a specific idea about what to recommend but I'm just at this point giving you the the the topics that I'd like uh us to consider secondly all of these committees have something like 20 members on them but I am told by members of some of these committees that it's quite common that not all of those come uh sometimes it's it's on the order of half come I think what happens is with the committee that size an individual member particularly if they hold a position that isn't uh the majority position they figure well there's no point in me being here I stopped coming um so I would like to suggest that we reduce the size of these committees so that

205every individual in this committee feels like they their voice really matters um also uh the way we've appointed these committees in the past is that uh individuals wanting to be on the committee submit um an application and um Dr Edwards uh did share the uh the application information uh from last fall when these committees uh were uh their membership was approved by us it was announced to us in one of the weekly updates which uh to be frank I overlooked uh because um it didn't there was no connection to it in the board agenda um so um I would like to sort of codify the application process and I would like instead of Dr Edwards just giving us a slate of recommendations and we vote up and down yes or no on it I would

206like the board to be more act more involved in the selection of the individuals on these committees and what I would recommend is that each one of us be given the opportunity to appoint one of the applicants and if any remaining seats on um that are not filled by the nine appointments that we would generate uh would be handled uh similar um to the way that we've been doing the appointments in the past that there would be um some kind of a slate of candidates for the remaining ones um I would like to mandate that each uh of these committees do elect a chair and a secretary and we specify what their duties are um because that's that doesn't seem to be in here now those committee meetings can pretty much just be a free-for-all

207um because there's no order or structure to it and that we mandate attendance records and minutes and an end of term written report from each of these committees to the board about what they did um uh for any recommendation of these committees I think there should be a majority vote of the membership not just you know if there's only uh if there's only uh 10 members of a 20-minute member committee at a meeting and six of them decide what they want to do and we're getting a reme a recommendation from six out of 20 board members and I so that doesn't represent the board so or represent the committee's opinion as a whole so I think there needs to be a requirement that the recommendations of the Committees be backed up by an actual vote

208of the majority of the membership of the committee um so um I uh have taken our existing policy and written up a version of it with my suggestions written in uh which uh I haven't forwarded to anybody but what I would like to do is uh send this particular policy back to the work group um with my uh suggestions for changes and ask them to seriously consider um these issues that I've identified that I think we ought to change I have a concern about everybody nominating somebody because because for myself I can only speak for me there are some of these that I would feel comfortable um nominating somebody for I wouldn't feel comfortable for example suggesting the school health Advisory Board necessarily because that's not my area of expertise so maybe we could adjust

209that and say you have the opportunity to nominate one if you want if you don't want to you don't have to go ahead and I just want to apologize to some of these groups because these groups have chairs and they they do do reports the health advisory gives us a report the special ed they have a system where they actually nominate and get representatives from each school so they're not just just out there willy-nilly they do have struct are all the Committees that careful about it well and I know the equity task force they have a chair and vice chair and all that I don't know who the chair is well that's because we we need to and they um if the people here tonight said they wanted to present to us so the but

210the health advisory don't they give us a report every year of regarding this huge um youth risk behavior yeah youth youth youth Lord youth risk behavior and but and also the special The Advisory but for us to think that we that we are just now after all of these school boards that now we're the first to think that we need to structure these people they they're they're structured we just need to maybe um but now I always have concern about how many numbers but some of them because of the way they're set up they have to have that number of people well then I think for instance the CTE group I think someone's pointed out that it's important that they get information from all the people that are knowledgeable about those areas there's nothing that

211prevents any of these committees from having invited guests or asking people to come speak to them just because somebody has expertise doesn't mean they need to be on the committee it would be up to the committee to solicit their advice and expertise we don't need to have every consideration represented by an expert on the committee some just a caution uh some of the Committees I believe it's CTE and possibly special education have specific requirements or like CTE for the different um career clusters and things like that that I I don't know if you looked at any of those legal codes that are listed so is this state law is that what you're saying yes in terms and even special education I do believe you have to be a parent of a special ed I don't

212want to misspeak but I I know having spoken with um Janine uh uh Miss Daniels boser and U Mr duly in terms of their membership and and CTA is one that's they've got little subcommittees and things like that for it um Equity task force this year in their earlier meeting did um elect a chair um actually co-chairs uh I do believe they introduced themselves the first time that they spoke to this particular group and by structure what typically has happened with at least during my tenure here on the school board is um school health advisory and definitely Equity task force I do remember presenting their recommendations findings and and suggestions usually this time um we used to have work sessions that were specifically dedicated to um their work uh special special education uh they their

213presentations used a little bit early they do something for special ed education month and then they do some recommendations for the annual plan I believe they have to do they've also come to the board to talk about what their recommendations for the focus for the following year has been so as long as I can remember and it's not just miss uh Dr Daniels Boer who comes and does it it is members of the committee chair and vice chair who come and give the report to the board and make recommendations for things to focus on in the coming year yes so we add I'm sorry go ahead um when I was listening to this I didn't see any any difference between uh requirements for individuals to be placed on the board because I've been in board

214boards and commissions and there's always either uh an at large position or uh one or two positions that require you're an officer or you have this experience or that experience so I think that's includ it should be included with the decision or the nomination of anyone who's if we change it from the one way to the other way that's that that that was not in my mind that that's not going to be part of the process the persons who are nominated have to have some type of experience that's related to at least a number of the members have to have experience that's related to the top the main topic of the board's existence and the second thing is I agree with the the numbers the possible change of numbers because uh I was doing a

215study on uh effective leadership board leadership and somewhere between it's either 7 to9 or 7 to 12 is a much more effective uh efficient number of members to any committee than anything above that and that's been studied and that's a statistical fact so um so the existing policy does specify some qualifications so for instance regarding the school health Advisory Board the existing policy says uh it talks of what it says is school health Advisory Board may have a maximum of 20 members including but not limited to parents and Guardians students Health Professor professionals education Educators and others so there is a specification it it doesn't make it mandatory for every member of the board but it does say the members should include people with those uh those backgrounds yeah and the um um Miss day

216correct me but again in the in July of 2023 when you all had your work session one of the things that you did at that work session all these advisory committees were listed and there was a charge for what they were supposed to focus on this year so if you go back to the July 2023 board meeting uh a work session meeting um you'll see that and that's pretty much where they went for example Equity task force had the model policy that's why they kept coming back talking to you about the model policy that was their charge um to do it the other thing is um you had asked that we before we just had names like they would just come or or people would say me the the previous board had asked that there

217be that filled out application and that the person have to State why they wanted to be on that committee or what they would contribute and that that information would come to the board and the board would make the decision as to who what right so we did provide that information um to the board and hopes that perhaps some of that work session time would be used to vet that I'm not quite sure how the vetting process well so happen I know for my part I don't remember reviewing that information um and I just wonder how many of the rest of us actually reviewed that information before voting on the approval of the memberships of these committees and um I think I am at fault and any of us who did not review that information in

218advance is are also at fault and I'm trying to remedy that I'm trying to build into this a way that we really have to look at it before now that's on us but but I think um I think somehow giving us that information in a in a more direct way than rather in a in a weekly well it's a separate document that's 17 Pages longs so um you all have a a link uh to the document and you was it in the was it in the board agenda or something no well we didn't because people put personal that's so we did not put that in the board agenda um you all at that time said you just wanted it sent to you so we quickly compiled it um put it together and then um I

219forget which weekly update where there is a here's a link and there an explanation and then it's straight all 1 pages of every individual of and some people put that they wanted to be on more than one um committee on here side so I'm just suggesting I think there needs to be a better way to get that document uh access to it to the whole board in a way that's associated with the agenda uh for the meeting where we're going to take action on it uh I understand that there's a confidentiality issue but if it's posted on a you know you know Google Docs page you can just give access to the specific individuals on the board and no one else will have access to it um so I I'm not trying to be critical

220of how we've done it in the past I'm trying to suggest I a way that I think would be better in the future all right the continues discussion will continue so so I'm asking that this policy go back let me make it a motion I move that we ask the policy work appropriate work group to reconsider this policy because we're not voting up a discussion so it's just a first read so yeah okay but I I would like the policy reconsidered before we take a final vote on it who who's part of that group I am okay well you all do it can I call a meeting of the work group yeah doesn't have to be a motion well typically you might want we just TR to make sure that me and Carrie and the

221attorney can also um uh be present and and it depends on if you wanted any Community input because it's a advisory committee so sometimes we ask other people maybe Robbie uh Mr duly um the people who work with the Committees you may want to have them at that work group meeting just to give you some information there are things I might not know I don't run them all so I'm not clear on how I should proceeded I can schedule a it sounds like you want like any other policy it sounds like you want this policy to the existing policy to be reviewed we schedule a work group meeting okay I can invite the other the for the for the committee uh to join us um similar as we've done it all Mrs Cole will set

222up the meeting dates by zoom and get together do that way that's fine we can all come to we want no we all can't come cuz then it's a board meeting so there's only two on the oh got you next yeah that's may I ask a question so is is your is your concern the policy itself or is it the availability of the information that results from the policy because what it sounded like you were saying was we don't know who belongs to which group and what the responsibilities are of each group I I want the board to be more involved in the selection of the individuals on these work groups and to have a a stronger influence on that um and I want the groups to be smaller in number okay and I want

223um more consistent uh information back and forth in fact another thing I would suggest is that each of these work groups have a representative from the board that sits with them not as a member but to be there at their meetings uh to to facil facilitate Communications now I know everybody here is already overburdened with being on whether it's Beacon of Hope or Partners in education or something this would be four more assignments of that type but um I know people on the equity task force in particular have expressed concern that they don't think their communication with the board has been sufficient and I think having one of us who sat with them all year not as a as a member not trying to influence them but trying to be a communication Le I think

224that might have helped and perhaps likewise with the other advisory committees that having a board being participating in their discussions being there to hear their discussions and understand what the what the the collective opinions of those committees are um would be helpful so I'm trying to improve the process so it's more so it's more effective Mr CR yeah and I understand I agree with you uh um I think the Committees are you know they get too large and nothing kind of happens and I for one um I remember reviewing some names on a a one of the Committees I think it may have been the equity task force committee we had a list of names there and I did not know there were resumés or other things behind it um so I did inquire into

225people on it specifically um but that wasn't that was I think two years ago I don't know well your suggestion was one of of the reasons why we did the whole um survey and got the additional information exactly um and then I agree also I think we do lose and the equity Task Force member said that we kind of do lose that little bit of communication so not that I think we need more work to do but I believe that having a board member involved some way does give a little bit of a conduit because I would um I'd like to hear from the Committees either through a you a board member this is what's going on and this is what they'd like to present so I I mean I agree I think it makes

226the Committees more effective in terms of really helping us uh achieve specific goals so that's good I think I agree Mr Andrews uh to your point I just joined the equity task force their frustration is that the board doesn't allow them to to report out what their findings are they have to report during public comment not did have a they did at one previous meeting they did have a part on the agenda where they yeah but I think they just like anybody else they just want a an opportunity right like to share with the board their findings right just like a health committee you know so I think that's one of the concerns they raise in terms of what like because they have requested to be on the agenda and when it comes from my

227staff it's on the agenda but then they don't end up on the agenda so what is if they an advisory committee is it just a one time at the end of the year that they do a report out in addition to you should have in board docs since um there was some confusion about information um in board docs when you guys log in you should be able to see the meeting dates you should be able to see the meeting minutes you should be able to see the attendance so that when you get to the end of the year if you're concerned that somebody hasn't shown up you you could have you are monitoring that um and that's one of the things I know Miss day is working with the um committee Lea on on my

228team to make sure all that information is in there for you all right we want to keep that 9:00 so we'll continue this discussion right well what what are the next steps it sounds like the uh the um this is the governance task force is that right governance policy work policy work group um will'll need to reconvene and have some further discussion about this yeah and along those lines not to hijack your your discussion next steps for my specific thing is I'm going to make that change send it to do you want it to go to only you miss Pew okay you can send it to whoever but I will follow up with the princi I'll send it to the entire board Miss P Pew is going to follow up with the uh principles and

229maybe we can come back I realize it it's probably not possible for this commencement to have the policy in place but we'll um bring it for a vote good okay okay thank you operations policy Dr Ward uh yes sir thank you uh the operations policy committee uh our group met April 8th we have 10 uh policies that I'll go through briefly uh most of them are just largely uh small wording updates um jjf student athlete uh sudden Cardiac Arrest uh it's just simply a wording update from vsba to uh change a pronoun to a more descriptive noun um the jjac student concussions this is a three-year review uh just simply warning updates one thing that the committee did suggest with staff input was adding specific training on chronic traumatic and styop ofy which is uh

230it is um the brain damage as a result of concussions is the is the best so we hear about that uh sort of the less positive CTE right that we we hear about um and we also uh wanted to specifically point out the sideline concussion assessment tool and just change the wording instead of the specific versions of that just say we're going to use the newest version of the sideline concussion assessment tool and just as a a reason for that the the scat two and Scat three that are listed we're now on scat five and we just Haven it updated so it'll just ex Bo doesn't have to update that future um ebcd is school closings um this just provides the opportunity to have a u an a a virtual day instruction day uh unscheduled

231uh in case there's a need to close schools um as we we'll have to do from time to time um and that is just reflective of state code as well um policy EC is building grounds and maintenance that's a just a I think it's a code update um reference code reference update um EA is inventory reporting of loss or damage again that's a we're moving a cross reference uh to JF fcr um EDC is authorized use of school owned facilities and materials this is actually a policy that esba suggested removing uh but we would like to keep that and so it would become we add a z to the policy U we just think it's important to have that in policy and write that there may be certain or appropriate uh uses of school buildings

232uh beyond the sort of instructional day we just want to have that spelled out that that uh can those regulations can be can be established policy Fe playground equipment uh this is simply just wording update uh just clarifying that the principal is responsible at a school by code for uh at least review of the playground equipment um public complaints this is a vsba update update that removes AC cross uh updates across reference adds IIA and KB uh kma relations with parent organizations um just updating legal reference and then charter schools at LC uh LC is Charter Schools which is a wording update in legal uh update as well none of the links went to the changes you have to log in bardocks for the links to go but well I was yeah mine mine works

233so it does it does okay I must have got logged out I have two question Miss lry I have two questions on the ebcd I know this passed uh was it maybe in the fall or winter time or something when we closed schools early um but the teachers had to stay and some of them had kids out in the county and stuff so are we G to make sure that if we're letting kids go that we let the teachers go as well not necessarily there will be a case-by casee basis depending conditions are but um that that's spelled out um when we have our school closing so there may be times when we do that but there may be times when we don't do that because they felt that they weren't important yeah that's but

234also the other one was kmla uh do all the schools have a PTO is that like something they just choose to do you know not not all schools have a PTO certainly that's something we encourage and want want to have uh but um not not every school does have an active PTO okay good I think we'll move to K2 then we'll come to the old business Dr Ora since you are on a role adopt a classroom J J crew art donation okay you want to skip to that sure thing um so uh you um I think we communicated out to the board last week um just to uh let you all know this is coming forward we also had a public event um at Heritage El Elementary School where J crew in partnership with the

235adoptaclassroom.org has donated uh $7,500 to each school for art supplies and art opportunities um and those particular projects uh here uh in this in this award is related to the painting of murals at both of those schools um so at at um at Heritage Elementary School there'll be a mural painted in the cafeteria um and at the high school for those of you who remember the old Heritage High School you'll remember the really cool murals in the gymnasium uh that were there uh so we're going to start recreating some of those um over time and so we're going to be working with students uh to be involved in that process to uh paint those murals with these funds um in addition to $500 of donation for uh the tools and materials needed for classroom art

236supplies so that's very exciting um great to work with the principls uh and the art teachers on that project as well as Mr joury who uh has has been a huge part of that and so we're really thrilled with that and I think we'll just need a um a motion to accept the donation from J crew is this is informational item or I move that we accept the donation from J second second Madam cler would you please call the r Mr jillo abstain Mr Andrews yes Mr tro yes Dr day yes Dr Gupta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes M Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries thank you then we got the old business was discussion of the operating budget for 2425 uh is there anything new to add Dr um uh

237right now we're sitting um where we were with our last um budget request of 437 um was which is what the board voted and I recognize that we have um many new board members so just to kind of go back in time uh part of what we what we have done as a school board is um in between deliberations and going back and forth with city council uh if the board chose to change their number which you did once already um after I think we were up higher at 475 that requires discussion and a vote uh we are scheduled to go to City Council on may may um 14th is their first reading of the budget and um uh the city is going to put in um I guess a a number uh for us

238in terms of what they are going to um recommend so at this point I just want to be clear unless we decide to take additional action that in terms of what we my administrative team and and whomever from Finance board are going to be defending asking would be still based on 40 75 um in that initial budget that um we approved and uh guess a couple weeks ago I kind of sent you like a little short blurb just to show you that that's that's what that that is but um this is our last board meeting unless we schedule something where the board would have an opportunity to take any additional action should they want to take any additional action L did we work out the the water bill issue that hegels brought up I'm not

239sure I understand out well did did we give them an explanation for why it's 500,000 thought I saw something you should have that every time I answer a council question I do send the exact you guys are copied at the same time so when you send something so when you say when you sent it back to him he did he get the explanation he needed to I did not get a response so I'm gonna okay assume yes we may send Dr G we may send the explanation may not be what they need but we explanation s we're going over on well we there two things on May 14th at 400 PM is a discussion regarding the board's contingency the request to have the contingency funds this year's contingency funds come back to LCS so that

240and that request um was submitted a couple weeks ago I think uh the two of you went over for the what what budget briefing I think is what he calls it um but I've been asked to come on the 14th to kind of go over that um that and maybe that's where that discussion went all right I hope board members come to the those meeting Mr Jal the sandeski elementary and TC Miller's uh issue is still on people's minds very much so so it's very important and the city council really needs to know that we really can't do anything different than what's being done at this time I personally would like to see the TC Miller become a hybrid school but if there's no funds there and if they don't provide funds specifically there's no

241room for us to do anything different than what's going on so they uh have to take that in consideration and I really think that they should if they want to save TC Miller as a hybrid School uh or make it such then they're going to have to make the adjustments that will enable that to happen other comments I had um one uh you know in this budget presented to us in a session the savings were 3 million of those savings 2 million were coming from the Corona virus money and 1 million was coming from health insurance Reserve adjustment and this is not new over the years I've have said using temporary money for uh fixed costs is recipe for disaster we are at a $17.7 million deficit right now my fear is the next year

242whosoever is on this board I may not be here you may not be here may not be here they'll be starting with a $3 million deficit because that Corona virus 2 million will go away right there's no uh automatic backfill to that money and 1 million of health insurance Reserve will depend on where we stand on our insurance policy uh on January 1st right we're assuming there will be changes so we're taking the reserve out right now knowing we are in hold by about $1.67 million um uh it's just it doesn't make sense to me it just uh creates a fear that we'll be starting the next budget year knowing so wanted to put it on record R 4 one is not in favor of using temporary money declared as savings because savings are for

243good right these are temporary savings and what will we be doing in next fiscal year unless the administration presents a plan that what will be the plan to backfill that $3 million uh because we still have not answered what the 1.5 million for salary increase will come from you know the governor uh the general assembly budget goes 3% will require about million and a half contribution and all these numbers um just are influx but the biggest influx is this um and I've been thinking about that for last few weeks since we had that number I've seen that and I thought I got to say something because uh we have a fiduciary responsibility we have a responsibility to uh make sure that uh we we don't do things knowing now that where we are we are

244we use 9. some million dollar of Corona virus money right and we trying to backfill that money now knowing that what we are doing is doing the same thing and trying to use another $2 million of Corona virus money and $1 million of insurance Reserve I can understand the concern that we may not be able to balance the budget right that's that's a legit concern but let's work through the real numbers so that um the new board which takes over on July 1st is not starting the fiscal year with the $3 million in whole well I mean I think that's part of what um school boards do um over the past couple years we have advocated for um the increase to keep Pace with let's just say the raises that the general assembly has um

245given uh we we could always make a choice to say if we don't not not that I would recommend it but if we if if there's no funds additional revenue for from city council to support raises then we just don't give them it's not a great place to be it contradicts another goal that you have in terms of just recruitment tool our very own EC glass high school student did some research on that and showed that you know competitive salaries do matter our resignation list and our neighbors are um probably making out pretty well right now from um you know just where we stand uh so that is an option to not do some of the things that we have done as previous boards decisions have been made uh the budget that we presented to

246you the one that we um presented to city council uh did include the 1% bonus uh and um based on the governor's budget along with a whole bunch of cuts which pretty much that's what we've been doing um as an administrative team is just going through those cuts as a board you you can decide cut more I mean it it's not a place where we like to be no one wants to be there but you can decide free salaries you can that's what boards that's the board's fiduciary responsibility and we should be discussing that now I can make recommendations um as to where how what um but even at some point when the belt is as tight as it is to you know to say where are you how are you going to get that

247money I mean I don't have that money right now outside of asking can I show on a board the numbers so that I'm not talking in air your initial ask to this board was $42.5 Million if I don't take that $3 million of Corona virus savings and you add 3 million to that that this $ 45.5 million of ask because you're not able to realize the savings of uh $3 million city was proposing and my market is very down so forgive me m do we have a bigger better 39.4 I don't have one down here okay people can see 39.4 was their flat funding s last city council meeting what I heard Miss bit say State as per her calculations could give anywhere from 4 million to 6 million so let's look at the low

248end number that adds up to 43.4 and let's look at the high end number that adds up to 45.4 correct me where my numbers are wrong so here if you don't real take those Corona virus savings based on what the superintendent has asked the school board we were at we should be at 45.5 with this High number we are at 45.4 with the low number we are at 42.4 so it means the Gap here is about plusus $2 million not counting the contingency money with city was willing to give us so my point is when you say Cuts I'm I'm trying to figure out where those cuts are coming from because the numbers are right in front of us right unless there are other savings which are not realized and which we don't know about

249so that's what the numbers I was running with Dr D last night and with my funny accent and this numbers up in the air I thought I'll ask Miss day I said could I have a board so I can write like a professor but those are the numbers um these are very simple you know 42.5 million was the ask if the ask does not include uh that $3 million of uh short-term money then the ask becomes 45.5 I just added money back into that account Mr well I I even said in the quarterly meeting we had I don't agree with using temporary money on a permanent operating budget that's because where you going to get the rest of the money from for the next year it just doesn't make sound sense and I think that's

250something that the city council has had a problem with when they look at our budget and how we are asking for things and it seems like I've heard people saying that well we need to be more fiscally responsible so but for me personally just speaking for me I wouldn't use temporary money on a a permanent operating budget that's just I mean where you going to get the rest of the money Dr Carter and Dr gupter I you I heard you when you were saying that when we were using some of the um car's money but if we think about it those funds were sent and if we hadn't used any of that some of the programs that the students really needed the remedial the remedial um the medial services and some other programs the afternoon

251Services some extra teachers readers we wouldn't have been able to support our students coming back from that and I also said that we needed to make sure that we told the individuals that we hired upfront that you are in car's funds it's a threee and after that third year you may be um you may you're going to be told that we can no longer use you as long as we were clear and transparent about that but um the other thing my memory is gone so but that's I have to say that and um but a lot of we're not the only a lot of school districts are in the same same situation because of that and when the government or gave us those cares funds then the local agencies took their monies away and said

252you have all this money use it so we have to you we had to use it what else are we going to do turn it all back in and then all these services and the programs and the devices and everything else that came with it they would just been we wouldn't have been able to use it in the Staffing support and you and I had discussions about that off camera long time ago but look at this way you give me a piece of candy every day for 6 months and then you would draw after 6 months that's what you're saying how will it feel when you provide benefits and you start providing those benefits form a short-term cash which is not sustainable then what happens after that cash dries out there's an expectation to keep

253providing those Services which the district cannot and that's what's happening this year Lynch Virtual Academy is a classic example it was a Corona virus money now the need has come to where parents were saying keep it open I need for this I need for that so uh if I take your logic and what do you tell those people they said I I'm enjoying the benefits of it look at all the benefits can't you find $1.2 million to keep it open you know I can go you I I I just need to we we can debate the car's money but even if we take the car's money off the table let's say that never happened what's the plan to keep up with salaries what's the plan to keep up with increases right what's the plan when

254we get 5% 5% and 2% without any cares without any expansion of anything let's say we kept all the services the same didn't hire anybody else how do we meet the salary requirements when as you saw in my um City Council budget presentation if you really back out we have to to find 67% of whatever that raise is for everybody else 67% if I only had 20 staff members one bake sale I could make this happen about 83% of our budget is Staff that's a lot of money that we have to find just if nothing else changes and we just want to give staff 3% 3% or what whatever the the the raises are I am so open to hear how and where do we get those funds because over the last couple years part

255and parcel that was the part that we were asking for that should have never changed with cares right cares was supposed to provide the temporary service to the the Virtual Academy uh all that uh PPE all the stuff that we had but salaries continue to increase and our cont contribution continue to decrease from city5 I'll give you another example um when we got that mental health Grant we gave out $1,000 bonus to a lot of people as part of the part of the plan at that time too I said what will happen when this money dries up so you watch out two three years when the money dries up when you take those bonuses away from those individuals will they be still sticking up with the dist in the district you see what I'm saying

256you provide those benefits on a in a short term with a short-term cash it's not sustainable in long term so where will the money come at that time and U but that's the um I I post a question you know uh so did I I'm still waiting for I really would like some help on how we manage you the superintendent and I'm not the superintendent well I mean it's not a favorite idea I was part of the generation of teachers that went 10 years without a pay rate they put a freeze until they balanced out the budget and then the city council could see we're not able to get more teachers because we need more pay so I mean that might be the route we have to go until things even out and then when

257things even out and we they see that they need to give us more monies for those raises then we can start giving them back Mr J the ones this is very related uh Dr Waka have you uh come across or considered uh two options that I've seen elsewhere and that is instead of cutting certain positions like there's I can name a couple but um you cut salaries and I'll come back to that and the second thing is demotions but you don't say just like it was mentioned that uh this this issue of of the position being gone is not based or removing a person is not based on their uh acemic performance that's the academic performance but simply based on allowing us the room to save certain like for instance I like the family engagement

258Community position not sure um what it's called but I like that because it it reminds me of other positions that help so much to make things better overall um uh relation wise um within the organization and in uh communication with those who are outside of it but very much related like like parents uh so that's that and then the the the the cuts can be promoted as a saving of a position like that if you go across the board and you make a and I did have it somewhere where I put it in rank order so it wouldn't have to be everyone but You' cut certain positions based on it parameters that you develop that are pretty fair and it's it's a certain chunk amount from from for everyone across the board in either department

259or however you want to to place those parameters and and and you say it you say a promoted it's for the purpose of saving this particular one or five or 10 positions and that way everyone is actually participating in a little sacrifice to save this person to save that person save that person and that gives it a different Dynamic on losing 10 20,000 in your in your whatever it is salary from and I think what he is saying is what happened what happened was for example when Christie was the governor in New Jersey and the unions wouldn't cooperate with him he just had to cut people out so they came to us at the time and said hey we like everybody to keep their jobs but we require everybody taking a pay cut and we

260all agreed so that people could keep their jobs and it wasn't a huge pay cut but it was it was it was able it was something that we could do cuz we didn't want anybody out on the street so that's how the 10 year you took pay cuts or pay freezes no we took a paid cut I got I made less money mhm yep I sure did so so that that is not a strategy that we have we have looked at yet um certainly we're open to to that uh open anything particularly if we can't use certain certain funds um we have looked at you know multiple things where we've said are we're going to we have whole program reductions the Virtual Academy is is is an example um we have tried to take advantage

261of uh attrition where appropriate um and where we can so that's a lot of the school-based reductions are saying you know we have an i that's leaving and so we just won't refill that position and so we've done that we tried to do that pretty strategically around uh the division and trying to find uh positions where we may have cut it needed to cut a position and moved another you know person that would be cut ripped into a position that we did want to keep for a variety of reasons so we' we deployed a number of different strategies uh in order to get where we are um but obviously again all of this relies on what the end uh Revenue number ends up being from both the city and the state one thing I will

262just also say is is to remember that some of those numbers at four to $6 Million number we'll see what that looks like but a a significant portion of that number is that compensation supplement so at least two million of that uh is is related to that compensation supplement so if you don't won't give a pay increase you can't count that money right and uh furthermore the other other sort of large thing the difference between the general assembly budget and the governor's budget was this at risk money which is found in a couple different places in the budget we don't have any idea what's going to happen with that um hopefully the general assembly will come back quickly and give us some some decisions and the vdoe will be able to quickly turn around and

263give us a calc tool that gives us actual numbers but that that's it's a difficult position that we're in right now because I think we we'll hear people hopefully the decision will be made sort of miday um certainly at the city city level and then hopefully at the uh the state level as well but but turning that that those actual dollar amounts around to us so that we can put them in and understand what our deficit is that that becomes the challenging part and has been the significant challenging part in terms of administratively managing this budget process the last couple of years now think about in the past what's happened in school budgets is that budgets have been adopted by the general assembly in signed in February March we're now may and hopefully we'll have

264numbers from the vooe hopefully in May but probably in June and we had the same issue last year as well so uh we're trying to employ every possib possibility we can uh in terms of strategy uh definitely had not talked about a salary reduction hopefully we don't have to do that we'll see what those numbers look like but certainly that that could be on the table if we need it to be Dr Carter and then Dr Dan that's the end of discussion just one clarification about seven years ago go at the very end of the budget before we approved the budget Susan Morrison spoke up and talked about the need to start looking at salaries and that's what started this not the city council because we are responsible for doing that and she initiated that

265and we've been trying to keep that going to make sure we stay competitive Dr D I just wanted to make sure I understood something you just said you said that this this extra money that's being being expected from the state somewhere between 4 and 6 million if I understood you correctly you said a certain portion of that is part of the celery supplement so let's just say that that portion of it is 2 million so if they if it turns out that we're getting an extra 4 million essentially 2 million of that is already spent because it's tagged to the salary increase so we're not really getting we wouldn't really be getting 4 million add to our budget we'd really only have 2 million and some of that is going to have to go into

266our portion of the salary increase too so we're down to about nothing yeah made made that clear to the city's finan man because that's not how it was presented to the city council I watched the recording yeah absolutely yeah they know they know exactly know yeah yes did Dr Edwards want to you were look like you were wanting to say something well I just want to remind us that even just last year when we were really excited to get additional money from the state to find out that 3.2 M 4 4.3 or $4.6 million was taken aside and just for all in tutor so we couldn't even use that to pay our portion of yeah the compensation supplement which pushed us back into if we were going to give those raises then we had to

267um you know go with the um cares funding uh it does make for interesting conversations because we do come up with um things like um living wage uh conversations about we want to start at Living wage whether we want to move the dollar amount up to $15 an hour we went with 1547 1550 I mean those are all things that as a school board if we're in a a situation where we don't have it then maybe it makes budgeting pretty boring because you just don't have any of those but again as a collective body those are the tough decisions that you know we make all together I mean again we can go back and run numbers for you but ultimately the board is adopting a budget which we want to be able to um defend

268along with your priorities uh that you share with us in terms of the things that you would like us to move forward with and I this year you we didn't get chance to do it but I think you wanted to bring them up to $17 an hour which still isn't beating I don't know I think sheets is at $20 an hour right now so great way to move them up but we we just we don't have the funds to do this I don't have a good handle on numbers this year to be honest with you it's really hard I don't have it because I heard 4 point you know all these projected savings we need to have I don't have a good handle on those numbers and uh I'm just one dumb guy but to

269me uh I don't have a good handle on where the savings are how much the savings are you know they were presented to us in a close session on that sheet of paper so where do we stand in those numbers I honestly don't have a good handle on those numbers yeah so so we' identified about $10 million worth of of cuts um that's based on the school and the division P based Cuts uh and then that's where we were balancing with those additional $3 million wor the funds and some hope and we hoped for some additional funds again if had the general assembly and the governor done their job uh when they were supposed to do it we would be having a different conversation right now whatever that number may be right and that's that's

270that's the reality now I I'll just say Dr gup I'll go on the record too and say uh that I think as Finance or budget people right in in every other single budget year in my life uh I fully agree with you in terms of not using one-time Revenue uh for balancing a budget absolutely 100% uh agree with that I think that we just have to recognize the reality that we're in uh and there may be a need to to use that for one more sort of what we call soft Landing but I I fully fully agree with you in terms of the sustainability of the budget um but I just it's we're in a very difficult position right now Dr D I just wanted to make another one other comment that the uncertainty that

271we have right now with our budget both because we don't know what city council's going to decide we don't know what the state's going to decide that uncertainty is propagating throughout a lot of the issues we're facing all right it means we we want to keep sanduski and TC Miller open till the fall of 2025 but it's conceivable and I said this be once before and it caused a lot of distress don't say it don't say it it's conceivable that it'll Force us to something uncomfortable how about that it also because we uh of that uncertainty it it means that designing our attendance zones is also uncertain at this point because we don't know for sure and that propagates into a lot of very understandable frustration and consternation on the part of our teachers and

272staff this budget uncertainty propagates through everything so all the stress that we are feeling that our staff and teachers are feeling I think most of it can be traced back to the fact that we are so uncertain about our budget for next year now I'm not suggesting that there's an answer to that except wouldn't it be nice if we just had a funding formula and we knew up front we've got this much money and we'll just deal with it and we can tell everybody for certain way back months ago here's what we've got to work with here's what's going to happen instead of telling them like we are now well wait and see wait and see wait and see and they're all pulling their hair out waiting and seeing so I just wish city council

273would just establish a funding formula and all this grief would be resolved and state will adapt the jar recommendation for funding of public schools which they were supposed to do this year but I don't think they went ahead because that takes care of U special need kids you know the differential funding for IEP and non IEP students so anyway we'll continue this discussion we're almost at 9:20 uh Dr Edwards superintendent comments oh goodness um yeah happy Teacher Appreciation Week and um just looking forward to uh the fun things at the end of the school year graduations at various uh places um Field Days opportunities to spend with kids um and let's just make it a very happy and memorable time for all of our children and our staff and we'll get through this but let

274not let let us not let this dampen our smile and our engagement with the very people who actually made a smile at the beginning of the meeting so Bo come and Mr Jal teachers are great I do um think that we should honor them and I hope to be a part of this special event um a number of events that honor them and thank you for serving all this year and uh seeing it to through the end coming up very soon I I do uh hope that I get some feedback on this IEP situation that the doctor uh Hensley brought up to us um concerning reading those of us who believe in the power of books worry all the time that reading as a Pursuit is collapsing eclipsed by depending on what streaming video internet

275or other media uh etc etc yet somehow reading persists persists more books are sold today than the were sold before the pandemic though print book sales were down 2.6% in 2023 they are still 10% greater than in 2019 and some genres genres adult fiction Memoirs Rose in sales last year but right now there's one sector of publishing that is in freef fall at least among one audience books are dying among them alarmingly it's the one one exact audience whose departure from Reading might actually prage a catastrophe catastrophe for the publishing industry and for the entire concept of pleasure reading as a common Pursuit this is an article from Slate just sumarize it it's basically middle school middle school pleasure reading is dropping where other places uh in the grade uh ranges are not and the

276companies like Barnes & Nobles and other book publishers they have a policy that says due to a new new corporate policy focusing on books a company can guarantee we be will be bestsellers means that they're not going to put more attention on this Middle grades so there's a lot of data concerning this and there's a lot of different things that I could go into but just keep that in mind that we need to focus um a little bit on pleasure reading for the kids because they're tested and they get they do little excerpts and not whole books and it just as much as they used to so it just it's it's not helpful or conducive to reading for the kids really quickly on model policies my understanding is we will be sued if we do

277and we'll be sued if we don't so that is why I brought that up and I um could talk more about that but there's not much time I'm still for that hybrid model of uh TCM um I would like to know things I think someone brought up no more understanding of what's going on in our schools and I I I want I would like to know certain things that do happen so that we're informed I I understand that there have been arrests of students um recently a student but I would like to know this um and and just get a gra grasp on it right away uh I am not for the tardy policies as it exists from what I've seen giving students 345 before you send a note home is too much it's it's

278it's just there's too much slack there I think it should be less and uh lastly I don't have any discussions with any board members or anyone else about not loving any student no matter what their makeup is in any category of Life everyone deserves respect respect and deserves our attention and our love not only as board members but just as fellow community members so I don't have any discussions about that or or think about uh anything else um I do know that you don't want to have seriously heavy lawsuits come against us for either for any decisions that we make uh I do not like the politicization of what's going on right now and I don't like what it seems to be happening is a type of idolatry to uh regulations and government policies that

279have to be better than ours because they come down from the national level that is not correct I have in my lifetime never heard of or seen a more irresponsible illogical unscientific regulation or policy change or introduction of a a a a rule or law than this new title 9 policy I have never seen anything like it and it's it's like a it's it's a bully in from a na and governments do that from a national level uh you can look in world history around the world that you you smart people who you call them elitists or not can make really bad decisions and this title n policy is wrong it's unconstitutional it can't stand the only good thing I know about it is that it doesn't take effect until August 1st and there's a

280lot of things that can happen between now and then and I'm thankful that our attorney general is working on this issue but but it as it stands and as it reads and I haven't read the entire thing it is not a good policy to force upon people the when I hear these discussions I don't hear anything about d transitioners one minute and I don't hear anything about other students all I hear about is this um certain subject that covers uh a number of students that need a lot of attention and help for certain things but you can't force things upon everyone I I really actually like was um touched by the audio that uh this person was going through these things and I don't want that to happen to any student during uh during their

281entire time through LCS so we really have to focus on giving them a safe space and I know that the 90s were a different time but uh even then I know that there were there were people helping people who had issues um and finally uh two finally we going to have yes this is the finally on the same we got to have biology is so important that we have a scientific basis for our actions and there's a lot of word itry going around a lot of phrases and the one I see here is biology is not bigotry and that's something that also has to be taken into account we have to be scientific and accurate with our actions and that's what we're trying to do without being a bully ourselves thank you Mr Andrews I

282yeld my time Mr Ross i y my time Dr D um just I want to say two things um I want to Echo the appreciation to our teachers particularly under the current circumstances amen a lot of them are in a stra state of distress right now because of the uncertainty and um but even in the midst of that they remain dedicated to their students and what they're here to do and to me that's service Beyond the Call of Duty but we're fortunate to have Educators who are willing to accept a lot of personal discomfort sacrifice and uncertainty for the sake of their students and so my hats off to all the classroom teachers and their support people who are in the thick of it right now and they're Champions and we're lucky to have them

283um secondly uh last Tuesday uh Miss Lowry and I uh met with Danny McCain and a number of other community members over at the Jubilee Center um just to summarize that they this was a meeting they asked for and uh they are very concerned and frustrated with the lack of any significant Improvement in the achievement Gap and that's primarily what we talked about various uh things that we can look for in the future of way ways that we can try to move that forward um we have many times Dr gup and I over the past year said to each other we need to keep academics in front of the board but there's always these other pressing issues whether it's a budget or something else that keeps pushing that off our agenda and so I am

284hoping that particularly next year's board will maybe be able to do a better job of keeping academics up front and trying to really make some progress I feel like we're just kind of spinning wheels on that right now and Mr Tross will keep them in check and no you I agree 100% in fact I meet I call it them Danny McCain group we meet at my office and uh it was uh to be honest I was a little bit anxious going because I thought at first it might be some kind of an ambush about U people that wanted to scream at us but it wasn't it was a very respectful but candid a meeting it was very good it was very helpful to me and I really hope that we can find ways to to

285respond to their concerns thank you Dr Carter and I would like to Echo Dr um day regarding the teachers teacher Happy Teachers Appreciation week and also for the school nurse appreciation tomorrow and you were talking about the stress of the teachers the families and also children are stressed too and I hope the a lot of the dumaran that come in and celebrate their history of dumbar are able to view this um delegate delegate Walkers and the resolution of number 2 226 regarding the 100 Years of dumbar middle school and one more thing I think that's it okay good um again to to all of our teachers and Educators that are that are still up watching us thank you for all that thank you for all for all that you do um I know it doesn't

286seem like you're being thanked or appreciated but trust me you are those of us who have been in classrooms whether as teachers or as students we know what you do we know what hard work it is and please know that we appreciate you Mr deal to all the teachers and staff um all the people who are being recognized this week I want to say thank you I appreciate you I wish I could be there and shake each one of your hands to say it personally but um you're appreciated and um wish we could do wish I could do be doing more for you Mrs L and I had reached out to all the principles to ask them the four to email to their teachers and the staff thanking them for all the hard work but

287also I know it's so time so um just know that we're rooting for all the kids to do well and hopefully all the extra tutoring and things that have gone into it will the kids will see the teachers will see that difference um and we're just hoping um that we have a lot to say celebrate at the end of the year Dr Carter you had something just I forgot I attended the sanduski stars and there was performances by their the students there and we will I know I will see some of them on the American Idol they were that good great next is informational item discipline uh committee data data Review Committee meets May 9th 2:30 p.m. finance and Facilities May 15th at 5 3:30 we're we've res scheduled that to the following day so

288it'll be May 20 uh May 16th May 15th May 15th that's what it is May 15th that's to clear our schedule so that if any of us want to go to the city council work session we can and then May 21st uh is the second annual LCS board student recognition celebration Dr Edwards mentioned at 5:00 p.m. at EC glass high school and the work session following here at 6:30 p.m. so 21st we come here at 6 6:30 p.m. 5:00 p.m. will be at EC glass and ad hoc discipline policy review committee meeting May 23rd at 3:30 academic success committee meeting May 28th at 3:30 next SCH board meeting the regular board meeting is on June 4th at 5:00 p.m. uh we we cannot adjourn we got to go to a close session yes so um

289let me uh read uh puru to Cod virgin C of Virginia uh 2.2 3711 A1 the School Board needs to convene a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing the following specific matters non-renewal of licensed professionals superintendent evaluation and Personnel matter involving performance of two specific division employees is there a [Music] moot is there a motion to go into the close session motion second Mr dep Dr Day uh Madam clerk would you please call the role Mr julo yes Mr Andrews yes Mr Char yes Dr day yes Dr Gupta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries should we stay ahead sure yeah so just make sure that we turn off