001for e meeting is called to order l the sorry the item B1 is approval of electronic participation by a school board member and the school board member has explained to me and it meets the criteria for electronic participation is there a motion to approve the electronic participation I second trost in Dr card any discussion Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr julo yes Mr TR yes Dr day yes Dr Gupta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries Mr [Music] Andrews yes I'm here you're good to go all right Dr D pledge of yes I'm here please rise for the pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
002justice for all thank you Dr Day the next item is uh approval of agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda I move we approve the agenda second Dr Carter any discussion Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr julo yes Mr Andrews yes Mr TR yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion CES man to zero thank you the next item is uh cheer comments I have only one statement that tonight uh you will see city manager is presenting his budget to the city council so we are in a wait and watch mode to see how much money is being allocated to LCS tonight and uh our next work session will be devoted to those discussions in much more with
003a deeper dive um including our members of the finance and Facilities committee and then the second item on the chair comment is recognition of uh uh some journalist Dr D Floor is yours so from time to time we do um well some of the professional organizations recognize members of the media who've done an Exemplar job and tonight we uh want to do that for three individuals um Emma Martin I'll read the statement for is Emma here ah very good good to see you um I'll read the statement here um and then we have uh something to present to her yes so this award comes from comes from this School Board member Alliance uh so the Schoolboard member Alliance of Virginia is proud to announce that Emma Martin is the recipient of sbm's integrity and education
004reporting award um Miss Martin's exceptional work was showcased in her article entitled LCS may have to cut positions program in fy2 budget um an important topic but unfortunately a sad one too um this was published in the February 8th uh 2024 issue of the news in advance um Miss Martin was nominated for this prestigious award um by a school board member who praised her for her outstanding contribution to journalism this article did a great job informing the public the nominator said the writer focused on facts without bias the school board member also commended Miss Martin's consistent dedication to balanced reporting um um the school board member Alliance of Virginia is dedicated to promoting transparency and fiscal responsibility and education um something that Miss Martin's article exemplified so we would like to congratulate Miss [Applause] Martin
005come on let's see where you want you want to right in the Horseshoe oh yes to give you [Applause] this thank you also we uh have an award for Hayden Robertson and Robert Williams um um of wct TV are are they here very good okay um so again the Schoolboard member Alliance of Virginia is pleased to announce that Hayden Robertson and Robert Williams are the recipients of spm's integrity and education reporting award their outstanding coverage titled Lynchberg School leaders wrestle with deep cuts to combat 17.7 million deficit in the 2025 budget aired on wct TV February 7th 2024 and has been recognized for its excellence in education journalism Robertson and Williams were nominated for this award by a school board the school board chair who praised their unbiased and fact-f finding reporting their unbiased fact-f
006finded reporting helped communicate to the public the reason for change the nominator said both are very fair reporters working for wct TV again the school board member of Alliance is dedicated to promoting transparency and fiscal responsibility and education values that Roberts and Williams coverage exemplified so congratulations to both Hayden and [Applause] Robert we get the photo off here congratulations congratulations J congratulations we got do this Dam app thank you I think you guys really do an excellent job u in reporting and covering it's a tough beat sometimes our meeting goes on for 4 hours and you see them sitting there quietly without even asking for a bottle of water so thank you we appreciate everything you do for this community um the next one is student representative comments Dr Edward y all right on to
007my favorite part of the meeting where we have our student reps share with us things that are happening in our schools um and as you all know we started last year with having student reps from other schools come and join our high school reps and show us um what's going on in their schools so tonight we have two schools um and we are going to start with principal Donna bear and paul mon Elementary School and please help me say your name correctly if I do not because that is very important so we have from Paul Monroe Landon Cody Ariana googly goog googli okay um is it Lark cook or okay thank you uh Margaret MOSI leev corent Corto cor cor corotto all right got it corinto Mr Corin Toto and Elana white are going to
008Be Our Guest is it Alana or Elena Elena Elena see don't let me get by with that Elena white are going to be our guests tonight um and they're going to share with us all the wonderful things that are happening at their school Paul Monroe so we welcome you come on [Applause] up hello everybody I'm Arya and today we're going to be sharing all about our school and what's been going on so far in the year thank you hi my name is l cook and I'm a fourth grader from pal androe Elementary School one of our clubs is Girls on the Run as you can tell from the name it is an organization for girls the purpose for this organization is to empower girls and also build self-esteem going to work together and to help
009the community this year we raised $1,200 and donated it to the Humane Society every year we have a 5k this year Girls on the Run ran at Sweet Brier college girls on the run has been at pal Andro for a long time over 15 years another thing I would like to share with you tonight is the readathon the readathon is a school activity where families and or community members can donate money based on a certain amount of time students have read students need to log their minutes and turn it into their classroom teachers once they have done that the minutes are added up with all the other students and then you have a classroom score every morning there's a leaderboard saying who has the most at the end of it if your classroom one you
010get a party unfortunately I do not have the results yet because the winners will be announced [Applause] tomorrow well you all already know my name my name is hi my name is Arya and I'm a fifth grader at pal Monro elementary school tonight I'm going to talk about the field trips that our students have taken or are about to take our little prek friends will be going to sequ Quest on March 19th and the 20th in April they will be going to Lynchburg grow this past fall our kindergarten unit went to Johnson's apple orchard and Layman's Family Farm they were planning two more field trips in the springtime our first graders will be going to Lynchburg grow on May 9th our second grade students will be visiting popular Forest this spring for a hands-on experience
011of colonial life to learn about to learn more about our third president Thomas Jefferson our third graders will be going to Metro Richmond Zoo on April 15th they are looking forward to comparing their knowledge about animal habitats to the zoo setting fourth graders went to the downtown Fine Arts Center in November and they are going to Jamestown this coming Thursday finally our fabulous fifth graders are this past fall we went to the mayor Museum and earlier this month we went to appa's courthouse thank you for listening hi I'm leev I'm a student of pmes and I'm here to talk about the 24 contest 24 is a game where fourth and fifth graders compete against each other by using division multiplication subtraction and addition in first place we have Walker Williams second place we have Jo
012milum third place Braden Cody finally and fourth place we have annabal L 24 students competed in the 24 math challenge I'm also here to talk to you about Spirit Week we've had various Spirit weeks throughout the year where students dress up pajamas forite Book characters color with rainbow Etc to bring students together and to show their Patriot [Applause] Pride hi my name is margan mcclusky and I'm a fourth grader at Palomo Elementary I'm here to tell you about Young author contest in Randol College scifest poetry contest we had several classes participate in young authors the winners include include fifth grade poetry Amber sales kber Robbins and Annie Richards fifth grade narrative Harrison kishner Ella Grace Thompson and Amelia Porter her second grade narrative Max Franco Alia morison and Ruthie yman and finally fourth grade narrative
013Haven Collier Anna shul and Ria Patel we also participated in Randol College scifest contest The Poetry comp compet it is a poetry competition where students write poems about science or math the winners will be announced on March 14th 202 boy that's P day we had about 80 students participate in this [Applause] contest good evening my name is Elena white and I'm a fifth grader at pme this evening I'm going to share two things with you our violin concert and an upcoming kindergarten play this year we've had lots of violin concerts they include Dan and the park Veterans Day program beginners winter evening concert winter evening concert for non- beginners two preschool performances at peakland and St John's day school and before the holiday break we had a holiday sing along this spring we will have
014more concerts we will have the evening of the Arts performance on April 18th our largest concert of the year is the annual Suzuki festival at the City Stadium on April 21st in in addition fifth graders who have finished books will have a solo recital finally we will perform at Bush Gardens at the end of the year the second thing I would like to share is our kindergarten play the name of the play is EI eii oops it is a funny musical about a barnyard full of animals some animals can sing some are funny but the cow can't moo the play will take place on April 18th in the evening for families and on April 19th during the day for Palm and Rose students the most exciting part of the play is the end will the
015cow be able to [Applause] Moo good evening my name is land and Cody and I'm a fifth grader at P pal Monroe this year we have had two Book Fairs the Scholastic Book Fair took place in the fall time the second book fair was from a new company called Bedford Falls which took place at the beginning of March during our second book fair our students and families participated in an evening event where they came for a book tasting about 50 families attended this event we also have our annual spelling be the spelling be took place in January we had 11 participants and the winner was Anna B lob she won with the word poisonous finally I want to share some information about our show choir our choir has 27 students from grades four and five
016the choir is an opportunity for students to sing in a choir setting according to Mrs Moore our music teacher she the show choir offers a unique opportunity for them to develop important skills such as teamwork discipline confidence and artistic expression in this in the show choir students explore their musical talents and experience the joy of singing a choir setting thank you for [Applause] listening I'd also like to recognize our wonderful Le instructional coach and our gifted teacher Miss [Applause] Oliver all right well thank you I like the book tasting that looked pretty interesting so something for me to something for me to do and I did not know you had a show choir so that's something for me to come out and see can't even see you over there but um that's something for me
017to come out and see so that sounds exciting as well because you all know that we are really trying to build our drama and theater and artistic programs here in Lynchburg City Schools it's great we do math science and social studies but let's not forget the importance of Arts in our lives as well so I'm I was pleased to hear that so and thank you all for coming and sharing that information with us you did a great job thank you next up we have students from our Virtual Academy and we have principal Josh Bo Josh Boyd here with us um and our Virtual Academy is K12 so it looks like we have a Full Slate of students Rebecca mink representing the Elementary School uh Kennedy uckan representing the middle school and Kayla Robinson representing the
018high school and did I get all of your names correct yes so we actually asked if we could have one additional Middle School okay that would be okay that's eel glass okay Ezekiel glass and Ezekiel is with us oh back there and Middle High elementary middle middle school okay well welcome all of you my name is Rebecca mink and in Virtual School I like the amazing teachers and the fun principal I love that I get to have the flexibility of virtual school while still being able to socialize with my classmates during in-person events recess days outdoor club field trips and also virtual events like literacy nights cookie nights and more I've gotten to know my teachers better than I did when I was in person and I get more one-on-one help from my teachers Miss
019Crowder individually invites students to meet with her to get help on different skills as needed which has been a big Health a big help to me personally I like the virtual Academy because it allows students a flexible learning environment and schedule I think learning at the Virtual Academy is the best of both worlds thank you ladies and gentlemen of the school board for taking time to [Applause] listen hello U my name is Ezekiel glass and today i' would like to share about why I love the virtual Academy um so I like the Virtual Academy because of the social aspect that doesn't immediately overwhelm me online classro environment helps me feel not as pressured as an normal in-person school environment would be um Lynchberg Virtual Academy has a friendly Community surrounding it and the teachers are
020always helpful and kind no matter the situation um science for example one of my favorite subjects for this reason has interactive work that is intricate and unique and always makes me feel engaged uh we are currently learning about ecology um and that's basically the study of of environments and stuff but um a funny story I have about science is when we were learning about cells my teacher Mr quickley had put on a video for us to watch about it video is super funny and the entire class of singing along and laughing and I still remember the words to this day CS SS the made of organ naels summary online set and the amazing teaching staff make Lynchberg Virtual Academy the perfect learning environment for me thank you for your time um uh hello my name
021is Kennedy and um the Virtual Academy is what saved me before I entered seventh grade I used to go to monor school and monor school the way of learning is very different from traditional schools I was nervous that I would go straight into public school and then fall behind so when I had the chance to go to the Virtual Academy it made such a difference I learned quickly and kept up with my peers while being able to ask questions and get one-on-one help from my teachers I also made friends through our in-person events and I wouldn't have got to meet them if we had all gone in person I think the Virtual Academy has truly changed my life for the better and I think it's a wonderful program that should be open and available for
022other students I think it's great for kids who might have learning disabilities or for kids who have anxiety and might feel scared being in a classroom or kids like me who need a good transition into public school that's easy and stressfree [Applause] hello my name is Kayla Robertson the reason why I like the Virtual Academy is the flexible schedule I could be absolutely anywhere and still be in class for instance I work at a barn and it's a very demanding job at times so I can still attend my classes while also doing my job at the same time I also enjoy all the teachers there they will do absolutely anything thing to make sure that you understand what you're learning about for instance my H not history my English teacher Miss Hustler she would put
023on so many assignments just so we could get ready for this writing so and at the end of the writing so she rewarded us with a bunch of treats which was very just amazing for that um another reason why I like the Virtual Academy is the small classrooms it's very hold on let me slow down for a bit um I love the Virtual Academy because of the small classrooms it feels more one-on-one with the student which is very helpful for me because I kind of suffer from anxiety a little bit those are my main reasons why I love the Virtual Academy so thank you thank you a lot of people don't know that the Virtual Academy does have social events inperson events opportunities for families to get together it's it's not just behind a computer
024screen and isolation they have created a community and a culture all their own so and I hope you were able to see that through the students who are speaking and one more time I'm just going to remind all of us adults how incredibly difficult it could be to stand at that Podium and speak to all of us and every one of these young people did it with Excellence so let us really celebrate [Applause] y all righty well we're going to move on to our high school RS and I want to thank those folks and if you need to leave in scad go ahead um and as always we're treated by two of the most fabulous High School reps here so we are going to start with Lucy at e glass first okay well hello everyone
025a Happy March Mar uh I want to start off by um shouting out to our winter Athletics who have just sort of started dying down everything went really well for all of our winter teams and athletes especially for swimming we had um one individual event go to States for um swim it's Emory Hill and her two events are the 50 free and the 100 free and for the 50 and for the 50 free she won first place with a time of uh 23.25 she got first place so congratulations and then for the 100 free she got second place with a time of 5135 so congratulations to miss Hill um and then the Arts opening night for EC glasses Beauty and the Beast is coming up really quick so make sure you get your tickets um
026and on March 9th they actually did their annual Character Breakfast at the Depot grill uh showcasing some of their bigger numbers and you could buy tickets and go to the Depot grill and some of the profits would go to the Depot grill and some of it would go to um glass leader for fundraising and um they performed they greeted children in costume uh they just to kind of spread the Disney Magic and get people excited about the show um and they sold out uh the Character Breakfast so that's great and then opening night is this weekend on the 15th uh they're doing performances this weekend and next weekend with their um ASL interpreted performance on the 22nd so uh get your tickets at ECG ec. booktix.com and then um on the 20th of this month
027we have our um forensic State showcase and the man on the screen there is um George Ley who in 1924 was the state champion in poetry so it's actually a forensic 100y year anniversary so uh please feel free to stop by and watch our six state champions come on and perform the pieces that they're going to be performing at their state event so um that's going to be in the Marie Waller lecture hall at 5: on the 20th and um getting into kind of the big part of the presentation that we were asked to talk about a little bit it's the um cell phone and cyberbullying issues that are happening throughout the school system so I actually created a survey and asked Dr R to send it out to um all of the students at
028glass and I got some really good information back and I kind of put in the highlights but I'd be happy to send the results in their entirety to everybody if that's something that y'all wanted um but first of all I wanted to talk about one of the first questions I asked I just sort of asked students whether or not they agreed with the statement and the first one was are the cell phone policies at EC glass enforced and as you can see the majority of the people said that they agreed uh with about 80% of people saying they either agreed or strongly agreed so that's good news and then next um I asked if they thought they were Fair reasonable um towards students and the results are around 6040 uh and there are some free
029response questions that are coming up that I think can better explain that and then next um a heavy majority of students said that the cell phone policy should stay as written with about 33% of students saying it should be changed in some way and then next are the free response questions that I asked that I got some really good answers to um and it was if you disagree with the policy what would you change about it and I got a lot of similar answers across the board and they were all along the lines of it depends on the teacher and whether or not they care and that as long as your work is done and it's not a distraction to you or others in the class it should be be fine um but feel free
030to read those those are just three that I pulled from the survey I got a bunch more but I'll give you all a second to read them if you would like has anyone asked you to send this to Heritage as well uh we had our own oh great service which was very similar to okay and then next we got into kind of the cyber bullying issue isues and I started this one off by asking people if they themselves have been a victim of cyber bullying and most people said no but on the next line on the next slide you can see that there's a greater percentage of people people saying that someone they know either a friend or a peer had been a victim of cyber bullying so it's around 5050 I would say for
031that one and then the next one is free response questions um asking what the school board or the EC glass faculty and staff can do to help prevent cyber bullying and I feel like the answers echoed what I think the problem is it it's really difficult to prevent because a lot of it happens on personal devices like phones which school systems especially Public School Systems don't really have access to unless there's I think probable cause but um I think it's just it's hard to prevent so there are a few good answers on there from the survey results a lot of which being just like kind of try to catch it before it starts by teaching kids to be respectful online and um just kind of mon monitoring online activity that's in EC glass's name and
032um again I'd be happy to send out these results in their entirety but um last little thing I would like to mention is that um on the first EC glass actually had an evacuation due to a bomb threat and I just wanted to say that the staff faculty and students did a really good job about getting everyone out in a safe timely manner so just good job to everyone for that but that's all I have it's kind of like where someone can anonymously send in something they heard and it'll just get posted so because I Instagram I just yeah it is on inst okay gossip thank you thank Youk you okay all right sa you are up all right thank you so this has been February end of February beginning of March um to start
033off with States and our winter Athletics our indoor track team did pretty well our boys team got 11th and our girls team got got third at States wrestling did very well they uh won regionals and then when they went on to States they had fifth as a team and some of their individual placements Justin Porter got second for his weight class Ronald black got fourth for his Aiden over Street got fifth and then Matt Garland got sixth swimming and Diving also did very well their combined team got third their girls team had Fifth and their boys had sixth moving on to our clubs uh forensics is doing very well well so they have two different levels of regionals in their competitions they have regionals Super Regionals and then States so inra alasco placed third in
034impromptu speaking at Super Regionals so she's going to be able to move on to States so congratulations to her and that's later this month um cyber security Joey Martin and Ka Ford earned the gold for cyber security at the skills USA competition and then our Pioneer theater they opened and closed their production of Anastasia which was an amazing production if you had the opportunity to see it it was so worth it they had a special student night where it was kind of like buy one get one free for students and they also had ASL nights uh lastly Beacon of Hope um they do several events coming up they have like a hope X event uh we're so grateful for Beacon of Hope and what they do not just for LCS but for surrounding schools so
035they held fafs and nights at both EC glass and Heritage for our seniors to help get them prepared uh for financial aid and they also held a college night for our juniors uh which we call Junior's night at Heritage um but it was open to anybody in the community so you were seeing people from LCA people from glass people from Heritage I mean it was so cool just to see all these kids come together and interact with colleges planning for their future and then lastly our cell phone policy I had a survey very very similar to Lucy's um and first I just started off with a blunt yes or no do you think the school board should amend the cell phone policy and it was very 5050 so 50.4% % of students think they should
036and the remaining said they should not um there was I got about 130 responses which I'd be willing to send you guys if you want them um so you could read all over all of them but there was a bit of a divide um some people said get rid of it completely some people said we love the policy um some people said the policy is good but the enforcement is where we're struggling which is seems to be the majority of people um so only 29.8% of students believe that um consequences are applied fairly and consistently among all students um 19.8% believe they are not at all applied fairly and then the rest are somewhere in between um so some of the suggestions we got were cell phone referrals a lot of students seem to have
037grievances with them um they think they're a waste of time they're never effective um students tend to get more and more and it just doesn't really solve the issue um some other suggestions that students said were like a warning or a holding system so some students were like it's not that serious I don't need my phone in class I'll put it in a basket when I get into the classroom and just not have it for a class we'll have it in lunch in the hallways um and other students proposed a warning system which is similar to what we have right now um and then some students even mentioned engagement um those were kind of the far to one side students get rid of the policy you know if I'm engaged in class I won't want
038to be on my phone but yeah there was a bit of a divide so but they were very interesting to read over if you would like them and lastly I was having some technical difficulties so that's why there's no images on this PowerPoint today which I know you guys like so I gave you guys a bunch of resources special shout out to Renee Shelton and Malcolm Johnson they do so many photos for Heritage we love them they're so good um I've bought some of their photos so see you're and I images up there for basketball wrestling swimming Etc but yeah thank you guys so I just want to say I appreciate the two of you I know you're like another email from Dr Edward asking our opinion about something but um you know I do
039just want to thank you both for going back to your colleagues and just asking and and being able to share that here with us and your your opinion does matter I mean you you are the ones that are in schools um so we certainly want to hear from you so thank you and before the two of you go I would very much like to see the the detailed responses that you got so if you're willing and you can send them to me um and I'd be very grateful thank you for the effort you put into that of course you can share with everybody yes thank you thank you guys next one is public comments uh Dr D yes okay um so um I will read our standard statement of our policies about public comments um
040persons appearing before the school board will not be allowed to campaign for public office or or promote private business ventures and should not use profanity or vulgar language or gestures make comments about a public official or an employee that are not related to the public official or employes official duties engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting or intimidates others or address school board members on issues that do not concern the services policy role Andor responsibilities of the school 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 three minutes a speaker representing a group shall limit their comments to five minutes the representatives shall identify the group at the beginning of their
041presentation a group may have no more than one spokesperson the total allotted time for public comments at school board meetings is 30 minutes voicemail messages may be played uh voicemail messages to be played are also 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 or Guardians and fourth community members public comments are reserved for the public to provide input the board does not respond to comments answer questions or otherwise engage in discussion at this time now in order to help me uh go through these four categories in the correct order uh I want to be sure I have the names that have been entered in the correct categories I have
042Mr stump as a community member is that correct um uh Carly schaffers as a parent yes yes speak up if I have it wrong okay uh Colleen lens also a app parent uh Carla Jones also a parent Jennifer Staten um Community member yes uh Vincente Gonzalez Community member yes uh Kimberly Dyke harsley Community member yes and Nicole uh spangenberg also Community member okay thank you so we will begin with um we don't have my name y I did it just as you were walking and you probably didn't hear me um so um we don't have any students or staff signed up so we will start with the parents first on that list is Carly Schaefer and I'm with the um PTO okay T PTO for the five minute Mark so proceed I know you're tired
043of seeing me here honestly I'm a little tired of seeing me here you've heard me explaining the overall impact of closures on our students teachers and Community the research the data the concerns the reasons to keep us open today I come to you as a parent among other frustrated parents who see big LCS future plans with our current School listed nowhere and absolutely no direction on how our kids will be cared for or what promised home might await us you constantly say you want communication and conversation with parents but won't actually have them despite us asking over and over so I'd like to walk you through a parents current concerns if TC Miller indeed closes after the 2425 school year here's the stress circling our minds if we stay at TC Miller next year who
044will be teaching our children how do we know the classrooms will be filled with a licensed teacher two of our best have already left for admin jobs and many others are looking or have left as LCS has given no reassurance with a teacher shortage and impending closure how do we know that our kids will have more than a warm body in front of them for that school year our Zone children have no choice and thus the achievement Gap grows 90% of our Zone children are black or brown and already face systematic disadvantages you are throwing them under the bus again I know my own daughter and son would not get the same education we've been getting at TC Miller for six years Miller will be a shell of what it has spent so many years
045creating so let's say some parents sadly feel the need to look at their options for next year with tcm's future looking so dire first one darington a current excellent School of innovation with awesome leadership and teachers as you saw this fall but with very limited facilities and space remember all that talk you had about how the programs will stay in place just in a different building will our students be able to transfer to darington will any of the Arts and extra programs transfer where will these be held in such a small school while TCM space and theater goes to waste will our teachers receive opportunities there as well and once this rezoning occurs and supposedly more schools of innovation open will we simply need to transfer again another option the ghost Center only available to
046third through fifth grade students who achieve certain test scores and academic accomplishments most gifted TCM kids turn down invitations to the ghost Center because they have a more integrated positive experience at TC Miller but let's say these families now want to consider it as an option with a supposed future ghost Center in every Elementary zone or area will they once again need to transfer after one year into their Zone making their experience unsteady once again or the simple answer our current zoned schools we're zoned for linor others are zoned for perrymont RS P Sheffield Heritage Bedford Hills Etc if we go to our current Zone because TCM doesn't have adequate staff next year we know those zones are only changing again in a year and once again our kids could be shipped off to another
047school we don't know additionally many of these schools are already overcrowded under funded and don't have anywhere close to the level of facilities or programs for example linkor doesn't have a stream program and I'm sure they're not the only one they're doing the best they can with what they have but it begs the question again why on Earth are you closing a beautiful strong useful facility with established student centered programs and success we've asked to become hybrid no answer we've asked about how this will work no answer we're looking at each of these options I've explained with no information from you our leaders on where to go from let us be clear we understand why rezoning needs to occur our argument was that the complex rezoning should occur first along with an educational study before
048closings that ship has long since sailed unless you by some miracle decide to change course but if it's a matter of software detering Equitable rezoning how has it not occurred yet seven months after this original decision in the meantime our children who are five and six years old 7 8 9 10 years old are facing years of significant upheaval emotionally and academically they will have no sense of stability and have you forgotten that these kids have already lived through a pandemic perhaps you can see why we as parents and caregivers are struggling we need more than just fluff General responses repeated explanations budget excuses and vague timelines we need decisions and communication and a stable future for our kids right now you are failing us on every level you may see a tired mom up
049here but instead please imagine the kids I represent hundreds of them who need you to step up and actually lead thank you thank you let me remind you please do not applaud or Boo or otherwise Express opinions about the speakers uh next on the list is Colleen lens complicated when I get asked about the condition of LCS my answer is complicated a lot has happened since the last school board meeting there's been fights there's been fires there's been a lot going on being someone who comes to a lot of these meetings and stands in front of the camera for people to see I get asked about LCS a lot it's complicated I get that we didn't end up in a school Clos situation because of one issue because of one set of people it's complicated
050there's politics there's leadership there's funding you can't control some of those things and I understand that but there are some things you can control it's been six months since the closures were announced next week it will be exactly six months not one phone call not one text message not one email has been sent to parents when I ran into a school administrator at Dunbar uh not expecting to see me I asked about this very thing their answer was we've done a great job communicating I was floored I didn't know what to say because no communication has reached us it's time to make a plan Dr day when this first came up you had mentioned that sometimes when there's a fork in a road you have to take the fork and see where it leads you
051we are 6 months down that fork and there is still nothing to be said or seen for where we're going as for the funding you've asked go across the street we have I have personally gone across the street with my family with stusy families and we have advocated and we have advocated prior to this we've gone to the comprehensive planning meetings we will be going to bruis in budgets with the city man manager we understand this is not a one issue but we also understand that people in this room need to be held accountable for what is their responsibility that is a plan for what our children will do we are being ignored so much so that some of the people in this room were at sanduski elementary during an event and didn't face a
052single one of us parents they sat in a conference room a conference room we are still going to have kids in LCS after this we still deserve a voice and we and our children still are important we are part of that every child by need and by name are sanduski kids just forgotten do they not matter because that's the impression we're getting my child will go to sixth grade next year he will likely go to sanduski Middle will he matter to you then because he doesn't feel like he matters to you now and I don't think any single person in this room wants that to be the case thank you next is Carla Jones I'm speaking on behalf of a group sometimes I wonder why I keep coming and why I keep speaking at these
053meetings because you clearly don't care and you clearly don't listen we are seven months down the road since we got the announcement that we were closing although considering there is nothing on the agenda tonight we can go ahead and make that eight months from your initial decision with no additional information how can you make such a huge decision that will change the entire landscape of our school system with nothing planned on how to move forward I think you thought that by delaying the closure a year that would give you time to figure it out I stressed to several board members in the fall that we didn't have time teachers would leave and students would leave can you imagine if your employer came to you and said well we're going to downsize in the next year
054and a half and walked out of the room without giving you any kind of plan of what that would look like and how that would affect you and you didn't hear another word about it for seven nope wrong eight months would you be looking for a new job would you have a lot of confidence in those Le ERS would you feel valued at all Carly talked about a ve very real possibility for what's going to happen at TC Miller next year we very well may lose half of our teachers if not more because they're not getting any answers and they don't feel valued so who's going to teach our kids next year who's going to come to work at a school where there is no job guaranteed beyond that one year and what an awful
055position to put our principal in to try and staff our school are you going to look up in July and decide it's not possible that you can't find the teachers you need and decide it's necessary to close it those are our fears and let me give you about a 1% glimpse into the emotional struggle that you're going to create for the kids if that happens my daughter who's here tonight she's nine she's in third grade I picked her up the other day and she burst into tears uh because a teacher of hers had left and she didn't get to say goodbye the teach teacher announced on a Tuesday that her last day would be that Thursday she was sad but the group had planned a little goodbye party with cupcakes loads of hugs and on
056Wednesday she didn't end up seeing that teacher because of a a different scenario that happened at the school and when she showed up on Thursday it turns out Wednesday was that teacher's last day there was no party no cupcakes No hugs goodbye but most importantly there was no closure she loved that teacher and she only had her for 30 minutes a day can you imagine if that was her main teacher luckily for my kids school is not their only safe place it's not the only place they get support guidance love or meals so we were able to talk through it over a long time found a way for her to gain some closure but not every kid has that and all I keep thinking is what happens if some of these kids come back next
057year expecting to see teachers that won't be there and I'm not talking one or two teachers that may leave and the rest of them are still there and the culture of the school is still the same I mean they very very well may walk through the doors and recognize only a handful of teachers and what if you close TCM this summer because you can't staff it talk about zero closure these kids expecting to come back to their school where they feel stable safe and loved suddenly won't be able to they'll have to go to a different school with teachers they don't know classmates they've never met only to potentially be rezoned again the following year and go through that process all over again and that's the one thing you promised all of us from the
058very beginning that would not happen but this is a very real possibility because of your lack of forethought in making this decision and your lack of planning because of your desire to pick a scenario and get on without get on with it without having a plan we are now 7 months again essentially eight months down the road since that August decision and all you've created is is Havoc with zero plan on top of that you've told some of us to our faces that you are communicating with us no you are not we've sent emails texts asked for meetings and all we've received in return is silence my kids keep asking me what's going to happen and I have to keep telling them I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I
059don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know are you tired of hearing me say I don't know because I'm tired of telling my kids that okay uh next uh Mr stump good evening my name is Phil stomp um I am a parent of three children who received a wonderful education in the Lynchburg City Schools I want to thank you all for your Devotion to our schools and our children and your great commitment of time and energy to this cause I want to urge you as strongly as possible to advocate for as much funding as possible for our schools please use all your powers of persuasion to urge city council to reconsider this the enormous Cuts they are proposing in the school budget those of you who
060are new to the school board did not hear me speak in past years on behalf of Virginia organizing about restorative practices in our schools and we worked for 10 almost 10 years to try to get that brought about it is an alternative to punitive exclusionary discipline and I want to return to that subject today I want to thank the board for Prov providing funding for restorative practices in our schools you enabled LCS to hire a full-time staff member to implement these practices although the use of these practices in US schools is relatively recent there is mounting evidence of their success and reducing suspensions and expulsions and encouraging the success of all students the full-time staff member you enable Dr Edwards to hire is Dr Derek Brown he has been a virtual Dynamo in implementing restorative
061practices in a very short time period specifically he has established restorative academies of crucial articulation points in students Journeys one Elementary alternative program for kindergarten through fifth grade students and the restorative Academy that addresses K1 6th and ninth grade students in these TR crucial transition grades these academies serve students who might have otherwise been suspended or expelled imp menting their academic education with development of social skills and strategies for success enabling them to transition back to their base schools and progress to graduation on time there is much more to do but these programs will enable all students to have a better chance for Success when they return to the classroom and thus to graduate and have meaningful careers and here is the bottom line these restorative practices will actually save money for our school schools
062and our city and they actually reduce teacher attrition yes we need to pay our teachers much more and I thank you for your advocacy on this crucial issue however restorative practices where teaching and administration are intertwined are equally important for our teachers and our students and our public education moreover by helping to disrupt the school to prison pipeline especially for students of color they will save money for our society but by eliminating the need for new prisons thank you very much thank you um next uh Jennifer Staton good evening I'm Jennifer ston um my daughters both graduated from LCS and both got into their Top Choice colleges and are doing very well and I am incredibly grateful for that how many every years 16 years or so that I spent as a parent in LCS
063um I'm happy to currently serve on the equity task force and I'm here tonight representing that group um I'm here to represent the equity task force as you know we are a committee appointed by you the school board to assist with the evaluation of Equitable practices in six areas as they relate to the Improvement of student outcomes staff Recruitment and Retention academic and school culture and climate increased access to opportunities and removal of barriers family community engagement and responsiveness staff training and awareness cultural diversity celebration and recognition as a um the committee has been requesting to be put on the school board's agenda for three months so that we can present to you and we have not been we are disappointed that the school board is not allowing us to share the information and recommendations
064we have all created through thoughtful deliberation and concern for for all LCS students and their families please put us on your agenda so that we can present our work thank you uh next is Vincente Gonzalez hi it's great to be back here um hi my name is viente I go them I'm here representing the Lynchburg queer Town Hall I'm also on the equity task force so I Echo what Jen just said um we would like to expr continue to express our solidarity with the communities of TC Miller and sanduski Elementary in the effort to save our schools we are here to continue voicing our support for EC glass GSA and lgbtq youth in the LCS family as of today we have still seen no action from the school board to make a concerted effort to
065provide support to queer in lgbtq youth in fact I was surprised that during board comments of the February 6th school board meeting a member of the board chose to resurface the junkan anti-trans model policies the board also chose to ignore the guidance of the equity task force when they clearly outlined how the board failed to follow LCS policy in relevance to approving grants the board's commitment to be aligned with policy seems extremely arbitrary in reference to Yan's anti-trans model policies I wanted to highlight a release from the ACLU which I think would provide the board with a better understanding of what direction to take so this is according to the ACLU this is quote school boards have an o obligation to comply with various federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of
066gender identity the 2023 model policies fundamentally conflict with those laws and their adoption could expose your District to Legal liability the equal protection Clause of the US Constitution and Title 9 of the education Amendments of 1972 both prohibit discrimination against trans transgender students which is considered discrimination on the basis of sex in 2021 the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a school board's discriminatory restroom policy and held that a transgender student must be permitted to use the restroom that aligned with their gender identity to site Grim versus loer County the 2023 model policies contain only vague references to these obligations under federal law and frame them as exceptions to the general policy mandate set out in the document as a result school districts are left to determine the reach of both the model policies
067and federal law for themselves especially where the model policies appeared to mandate outcomes that conflict with federal law the 2023 model policies directly conflict with the Virginia Human Rights Act by requiring districts to disregard students gender ident identity enforce participation in activities and Facilities access based on biological sex only because biological sex is not defined in the 2023 model policies and is not always determinable by clear and objective criteria the application of this policy will inevitably be inconsistent resulting in indiscrimination we urge all school districts to enact policies with regard to the treatment of transgender students that fulfill their obligations to comply with federal and state non-discrimination laws end quote of the ACLU and I would just like to point out that the Virginia Department of Education is currently facing two lawsuits which are challenging
068these model policies which include Handover and York County we recommend the board holds off on addressing this conversation until these lawsuit suits have been decided thank you for letting me speak today thank you next uh Kimberly Dyke harsley hello uh I'll take the smiles as a speaking back I'm here on behalf of of women in leadership and I would like to say thank you starting with my first teacher my Earthly Creator my mother in the room still teaching by the way assistant at EC glass go Hill Toppers thank you uh I looked at a list of principles I see Lisa Lee at Sheffield Kristen rhods at TC Miller Dr Kathleen deals at linor middle Dr Kelly bwin at dumbar middle Dr Anitra Lee at my alma moer I should say sandeski middle Dr Donna Lewis
069at Laurel Regional Miss ply Smith at Carby Hutson Early Learning Center micher steel at Beford Hills Dr Lillian gusowski known as Dr G at Lorn Elementary Miss Donna bear Paul Monroe Elementary Dominique Foster perrymont Elementary Lori McVicker RS pay Sharon Anderson at Heritage Elementary and someone who impacted my children's lives at darington when she was a third grade teacher along with her secretary Miss White at William Marvin bass miss Monica Hendrick thank you also to Casey Jefferson uh formerly at the empowerment Academy and doing work in the restorative Academy Schoolboard clerk Miss Tina day this again I'm speaking on women in leadership Deputy superintendent Amy Pew I'm honored to see three women sit on the school board who look like me Dr Cheryl Carter Miss Laticia Lowry and Miss Gloria Preston my English teacher at
070EC glass women in leadership Bill stump spoke earlier his wife has led numerous Girl Scout Troops I was honored to be her co-leader for my daughters uh troop she's at several schools and From The Trenches all the way to the admin building Miss eth Reeves two student reps were here today women in leadership two Paul Monro students asked me three years ago Miss K why aren't more Women written about in our books I said I don't know maybe it's because they're his story books last but not least with the help of your Administration team Dr Crystal Edwards superintendent it was your picture outside that I saw the marker erected for the radical republican Samuel Kelo thank you for holding responsibility for day-to-day operations of Lynchburg School Division thank you for hiring and supervising staff seeking
071and engaging Community Support I've seen you in the trenches thank you for building and maintaining relationship with city council and city manager thank you for implementing policy setting expectations for staff helping develop the budget and providing an example for staff thank you for being one who responds with integrity and calmness especially when fingers Point voices are raised thank you thank you to all the women who I forgot to mention and thank you to those stepping forward in the future our last uh speaker tonight is Nicole spangenberg I'm just representing myself good evening School Board good evening again my name is Nicole spangenberg I use sh they pronouns I'm a queer disabled social worker here in the Lynchberg area I'm here mostly today to name and honor next Benedict I'm here after the sad National tragedy
072the death of next Benedict NEX Benedict a 16-year-old chock Nation non-binary student died a day after an altercation in a high school girl's bathroom their mother Sue Benedict said in an interview that their gender fluid teenager endured more than a year of abuse simply for being who they are a 2017 study by the gay lesbian and straight education Network found that nearly 84% of trans students and 70% of gender expansive students are bullied or harassed at school there's a misunderstanding and lack in knowledge about their lives and when these students do not feel affirmed or safe they cannot learn or participate in school activities effectively The Bullying targeting next Benedict increased in Earnest at the beginning of 20203 school year a few months after Oklahoma governor Kevin stit signed a bill that required public school
073students to use bathrooms matching the sex listed on their birth certificates there's a direct dire link between policy and practice policy and outcomes for youth 19 days after nex's death there were more than a dozen aaso students walking out of their class in protest for their fellow student they said they want action against discrimination and bullying of transgender and non-binary students there have been vigils held in Oklahoma and across the country we all care about our safety we all care about our safety in restrooms and it's important to remember that non-discrimination laws have been around for a long time more than 400 cities have enacted and successfully implemented laws to project protect lgbtq people from discrimination and allow transgender people to use the restroom but that matches their gender and there's been no increase in
074public safety incidents in restrooms in any of these cities or states in addition to allowing everyone to use the restroom that matches their gender single stall bathrooms are a solution that is best for students with disabilities students with medical needs students trying to have a safe place to go use the bathroom and maybe could could have prevented incidences like what happened with next Benedict if they had had a safe place to go ferally this supports inclusion laws there's not communication one way or the other in current LCS policy and it's key that there's a difference between offering this single-use bathroom and forcing it on a student um as we heard with the Grim versus Glouchester case that the ACLU has brought up that viente brought up um there's inst instances where the current offering is
075not available to students where it's in the nurse's office only um so we suggest changing the staff only single use bathrooms to be able to use by anyone this is something that's being done across the country and just saying that for students and others listening today affected by the death of our queer Community member next Benedict that you're not alone and if you're struggling you can use the help line number 988 or 741741 thank you that concludes public comment thank you Dr day uh next one is H1 find report all righty um so we are on to our LCS Finance report and I will turn it over to miss Jamies good evening chairman gupa members of the board and Dr Edwards I just have a few items to note this evening um as of January
076which marks 58.33% of the fiscal year passing the percent of revenues collected versus our original appropriation for the year was at 50.7 year to date Revenue collections are up by 9% more than our prior year Revenue collections for the same month which month which was 41.7% um it is slightly lower than our fiscal year passing of the 58.33% the amount of expenditures versus original appropriation is at 53.0 5% more in line with that collection of 50.1 7% of revenues um total expenditures inclusive of encumbrances equates to 95.2% so there were some notable variances that Finance um and administration are keeping our eye on and I thought we might uh discuss or Point some of those out tonight function 2 which is your attendance and your health personnel there we moved funding for attendance clerks to
077function 1,000 and there is an unprocessed journal entry to move the expense associated with those positions from 2000 so once that unprocessed journal entry is made it should equalize out that percentage year-to date percentage a little better uh function 3100 your Pupil Transportation other uh there are unbudgeted expenses associated with a private Transport company that's required to transport students with extreme issues who are unable to be transported by conventional methods so that's why that percentage is uh a little high there function 4100 which is your operations and your maintenance personnel there's an unprocessed journal entry to move identified building service FTE to function 4200 to align the budgeting amount for those positions function 4400 which is equipment Services other um there are capital expenses associated with an approved sign for Dunbar Middle School and the
078timing associated with those invoices that were coded at fiscal year in so those invoices came in a little late and got coded to a a different fiscal uh year and that's why that line is a little elevated function 4600 which is your Security Services personnel there are expenses associated with a local match portion of a grant to provide funding for ssos at the schools that came in a little more elevated than expected function 46 600 Security Services other there are expenses associated with LPD charges for Off Duty Officers for school events and meetings that that is kind of one of those uh expense lines that we don't have control over um we have to have um officer representation at events function 6200 side improvements for personnel um there are pass through charges in that for
079C IP staff that'll be reimbursed by grants um we're just waiting for that reimbursement to to happen function 8300 which is technology other is expenses related to upgrading the network as we all know um Network and it expenses come in a little higher than normal we do expect for that to lower we're waiting on some reimbursements on that as well um the health insurance receipts Ed 1,384 56266 for January 2024 versus 991,50 3967 of January in 2023 a portion of this increase is attributed to the increase put into place by the board but a portion is also attributed to some receipts from school nutrition that were being held in a due to doe from account and they were released in the health insurance account in January so we'll have a better picture of what those
080increases um look like in February because the due to Due from expenses will have um passed through into the health insurance account so last week I uh interacted and spoke with two different experts in the health insurance industry from two different Consulting agencies um about the pros and cons of moving from a self-funded platform to a state or regional health benefits program um a health benefits program as you aware decreases the volatility of claims and it provides a more fixed methodology and it caps increases but those come at administrative cost and um a self-funded plan allows for more flexibility but it only spreads the cost across 2800 participants versus a state or Regional plan that has 140,000 participants so those costs are spread amongst 140,000 so I'm currently filling out the paperwork to apply for
081a quote these days you have to fill out a paperwork to apply for a quote um with a health insurance benefit program vendor um to to try to get quotes on what that would look like versus what we currently pay um and so once I uh get that information I will take that to the finance and Facilities committee we'll have some discussions on which scenario looks best um for our future going forward and then we'll bring the those recommendations to the full board for discussion so that's the end of my the conclusion of my report tonight unless you have any questions I'll be happy to entertain them um I don't know if it's appropriate for me well I can ask but don't respond if it's not appropriate can you tell us who these other vendors
082are that you've made are making application to or is it better not to say well so from a contractual um standpoint I I would rather discuss that you know once I have filled out the applic and Garner those that quote information I would rather have that um you know all solid I respect that that's why I was being tenative about my question yes sir any other questions Mr Andrews thank you Mr J are these um are these policies covering everyone at LCS who work who gets a paycheck at LCS Pol the insurance um everyone who elects during of an enrollment to have those that those benefits provided to them it is we don't require them um but during open enrollment we offer to everyone okay and you're trying to save some money by uh looking
083at other vendors um a a different type of health insurance provider self-funded versus a regional or a state vendor that can spread cost across multiple participants beyond our pool of participants okay I'd like to ask you more questions later certainly absolutely thank you next one is consent is indide is there a motion to approve the consent agenda Dr Carter second it any discussion Madame clerk would you please call the room Mr jilo abstain Mr Andrews yes yes he said yes Mr trust yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries thank you next one is School Board member reports finance and Facilities Dr day okay um let's see here um our last meeting was February 19th we had a presentation about school Construction
084Grants and the board received the same presentation the next day on February 20th we also had a discussion about health insurance options and we just had an update about where inquiries into that stand um our next meeting is scheduled for April 16th but I'm we're exploring moving it to the 23rd um so I'm just giving the members uh a chance to tell me if if that will not work but I won't be here on the TW on the 16th so that's why I'm trying to move it thank you next one is govern School Mrs Lowry um yes we had our meeting um um because we meet once every three months now and um we went over the budget and next year there will be no increase for students due to U Mr Smith doing such
085a great job on um budgeting um which is a plus on no uh they have a new five-year contract with the University of Lynchburg with no pay for students for dual enrollment so they won't have to pay for it for five years um a sem which is a scanning electronic microscope is going to be purchased um after the board voted due to the present one being 20 years old and it keeps needing repairs so there will be a tradein of $12,000 too to help with the purchase and also on um today the Brookville Middle School toward cbgs and the 18th Amherst Middle um this 22nd of March and the 29th cbgs will host the annual Middle School day for selection um for eighth graders and on May 5th um there will be a recognition ceremony
086from 2: to 4:00 p.m. at the Heritage High School auditorium which will be really nice and our next meeting will be on May 1st to um at 1:00 p.m. thank you next one is Laura Dr Carter the Laura Regional School board meeting was Tuesday March the 5th and we are now looking at our budget and looking at what items we need to address and also regarding teachers and any vehicles that we're looking to purchase the students are working now with um Jojo's Pizza having that opportunity and also working with more enhanced work with DARS for extra or additional vocational opportunities and they're going to have their prom March the 29th for 9:30 to 12 and they also getting the assistance from the EC girls EC glass girls basketball team and the Heritage High School's honor
087program so happy for that that's all STEM Academy is also and the STEM Academy our next meeting is Tuesday the 19 thank you laer Mr trost yes our last meeting was I just had that up here and didn't write down um believe it was February 20th and at what time we kind of talked about some of the bills that we were watching in in our legislature and it looks like one of the bills of our particular interest to us was the uh sales tax Senate bill 14 sales and use tax just to give an update on that it did pass both the house and the Senate and went to it's on to the governor's desk and I believe he has until April 8th to decide whether he's going to sign it or veto it and
088once again that's one that's the bill where it allows the localities to decide if they want to put it out to the voters whether to add an extra percentage of tax um sales and use tax for the Capital Improvements our city school system so something that may we here at LCS could be used for being very useful for us and our next meeting is March 20th at five at I'm sorry our next meeting is April 30th at 3:30 right thank you Partners in education Mr deal and Mrs L our last meeting was the 7th last Thursday and we were preparing most uh intently for the Pi Day celebration which is 3:14 it's going to start at 3:14 last till about 4:30 those of us in the discipline committee we will not be able to get
089our little pie so sorry about that right it's not a big pie I hope you didn't think you're going to get a big pie they're little tartlets and stuff like that but maybe they'll save some for us um the uh a lot of work's going into that that's an opportunity we have sponsors and uh it's an opportunity for the community to get together and look at the way in which they can be a part with the students of um uh expanding their opportunities to uh um have jobs here in the area or at least have internships so the again encouraging all members of the board that if you have time go go visit uh if you know people that could uh benefit from interacting with the school uh the school's this school's systems students this
090would be a great opportunity for you to learn more about Pi U Partners in education and uh have uh have have the opportunity to create the relationships that are going to better the community um on the 27th of March we're going to have a career day and these are both going to be at glass from 3 to 5 um we have we are encouraging businesses to come in that could benefit from meetings some of our CTE students and um possibly having internships for summer jobs so if you know people um please uh direct them that way if you uh want to experience it yourself please attend and let them know where the highe on Thursday is being he no that's the career the career fair the um the one we're doing Pi committee is held
091at the Lynchburg Regional business on oh okay my my bad on that Pi is going to be down at the chamber the former Chambers uh event um last I knew that but uh it was in my mind that it was going to be at at the EC glass so it's going to be down at the business Alliance um um down in the corner of Fifth and um Main and on L okay so that's where the that's where it's going to what time um starts at 3:14 on 3:14 MH nice ends at 4:30 okay thank you go ahead just want to add to Pi since you guys are doing it that we do have about maybe a little bit over 65 Middle School teachers who are all going to also attend Pi for the purpose of
092um developing those connections with the businesses so that they can bring back to their schools what they can actually do in their actual classroom so we're trying to do some ground zero connections and I'm grateful to the three middle school principals and the Middle School staff for signing up and being excited about coming over and learning from our businesses and bringing that back to the classrooms and I think that's a very important piece of the pie that we need to be talking about because our teachers um are making the magic happen and our businesses are certainly supporting that as well excellent thank you next one is education Foundation Mr trost and Mr Jal only that uh I'm I'm very glad that the Education Foundation is so much involved with LCS and it's it's the purpose
093I think it's right here advancing excellence and equity in the Lynch Lynchberg City Schools through advocacy and Educational Funding from the teacher Warehouse to The Innovation GL grants they're doing a great job so I'd like to commend them for it and I'm sure everyone has seen all of the wonderful emails from dawn wise on the day of Wellness I want I urge you if you have not signed up to take advantage of that fantastic program that the Lynchberg Education Foundation puts on for us at LCS the deadline is March 13th at 5:00 pm to sign up for some of the different opportunities I did even see one that I'm a fan of I think they were giving away uh gift cards for Wendy's single and a frosty don't get much healthier than that but maybe
094McDonald's shout out shout out to Wendy's so if that doesn't make you feel well I don't know know what will but uh thank you uh Lynchberg Education Foundation and Don wise for that fantastic program also I'm coming up on Pi Day at 7:30 a.m. uh which as you guys know lawyers don't really do a lot before 900 a.m. so I'm going to get up early and go enjoy a nice breakfast it's a Lynchburg Education Foundation breakfast with the superintendent matron of honor Lady of Honor Dr Crystal Edwards so I'm really happy to be there and um again thank you to Lynchburg Education Foundation for putting together that event and all of our Community Partners that help make that event possible thank you thank you thank you and we really truly appreciate the support that you
095provide us at LCS thank you uh next one is Beacon of Hope Mrs Preston and Mr Andrews okay I don't think Mr Andrews is with us right now but Beacon of Hope is busy as they usually are they recently hosted u f T night for both Heritage and glass students and their families um with with the counseling teams involved and that was followed by uh college night for juniors geared towards helping them prepare for whatever the next steps are for getting into college and for the all for the stay close goar College Partners the future center team also took some students from both Heritage and glass to Rono college and James Madison Beacon of Hope is um working closely to formulate the High School summer internship program the application date final date was Friday March
096the 8th they have over 200 applicants and students will participate in a speed interview day on April 18th at the regional business Alliance there are 30 employees who have signed up to host LCS interns and so they plan to place 80 or 90 high school students from glass and and Heritage uh let's see what else they've asked that I remind you to save the date for the Lynchburg Beacon of Hope hope X event which will take place on Friday March 22nd at the Academy um this year's speaker uh is a it's kind of a storytelling event but some of the speakers are elcs grads Jamie spinner is one of the speakers marus Graves Franklin and you know some of these names perhaps Emily Mullins and rashed Christian they will all be speakers and or storytellers
097at that event and May 15th is the deadline for the stay close goar promised scholarships these are awarded to any graduating senior from LCS schools and that are pursuing college or technical certification and so if you know students that are interested in that May 15th is the deadline and students are through that process are awarded for free tuition to Community College or to an equivalent scholarship at one of the local colleges Liberty Randol sweet Brier Longwood Central College of Nursing and University of Lynchburg thank you next one is ad hoc discipline and policy Review Committee Dr day our last meeting was February 22nd mostly we discussed cell phone policy and uh we are considering policy recommendations which would tighten restrictions on cell phones and this is growing out of the responses to our survey um
098I guess I would say that the response from those who filled out Sur our survey teachers uh administrators some bus drivers was much more strongly in favor of restricting use than we heard from the high school Representatives today so we are aware that there's there's a divide of opinion here between the students and the and the teachers and administrators so we will be talking about in the that in the future we also had a brief discussion of behavior management training programs that are already in place and we asked for a more uh uh in detail presentation of that to be given to the board on April 25th um um another thing that uh has been mentioned though the board the committee itself has not discussed it is having an evening meeting of the discipline policy
099Review Committee in which we would want the whole board to come as well as perhaps inviting school principls to discuss proposed policy changes in particular the cell phone policy because that's going to be a pretty controversial thing um our next our next scheduled meeting is March 28th thank you Dr day next one is academic success committee Mr Jalil today was our meeting at at 3:30 p.m. and we discussed our academic coaching our Pal's data review comprehensive data review our first draft of the elementary resoning which is just a draft we're not making concrete plans yet and our LCS brochure I don't have enough to pass around but here is No I gave one to everyone oh yes a trifold of our brochure that we uh you see we' like to uh solidify and get published
100soon once we have some edits done but that was a great job uh being put together mainly by Miss low thank you our next meeting will be April 23rd at 3:30 p.m. thank you the next item is item K1 2425 operating budget discussion Dr D you want to take it over or no okay he's honest because we don't have any additional information right till the city gives us a number we sort of in a bance right holding pattern right now although maybe we should say that at our next meeting a week from tonight I think we need to finalize our initial recommend budget recommendation to the city there will be a closed session at our next meeting in which we talk about certain aspects PS of that that have to be kept confidential and we'll
101have some additional discussion after the closed session but I think it's important that board members realize we're a week away from making um a decision about our initial recommendation of the city now that won't be our final budget the city will do what it wants to with it um um but we do have to finalize what we are going to send over to the city and that will happen a week from tonight do the conversations that have taken place with the general assembly and so forth are they going to impact the city of Lynchburg and perhaps their willingness to change the budget or uh be be more likely to adhere to our budget requests do you have a feel for that at all I don't know what to say about what's happening at the state
102level and how it impacts us I don't know if Dr Edwards or or Reed has any anything to say about that yeah I mean just looking at the state the things that are different from the governor's budget because remember our budget was built on the governor's budget and and that did not Mo the one of the bigger things the governor's budget did not in include the 3% increase for um teachers which I'm looking at is in each year over the bium not 3% over the two so in each year over the bium um there are some other changes in um Ells how elll students accounted for funding as well as um atris add-on and some other things um with that that will impact us but the the salary increase again it was a bonus um
103in the governor's budget which did not require a local match and you all know that the salary increase in the um General Assembly budget will be for S soq funded positions so we would have to make some decisions about nons soq funded positions as well as have to factor in the local match with that so it it does impact the budget but again see It'll be go ahead and Dr Edwards these are substantial I mean it's say a substantial impact that these budget numbers can you know quite frankly be imposed upon us and put us in some uh making having to make very difficult decisions and I think the public needs to understand that because I as a lay person prior to being involved in the school board did not understand and kind of the
104trickle down effect of some of these budgetary numbers made outside of our area of control that have an impact on us here local local so this 3% salary increase for nons soq is an unfunded mandate and division has to so we've been uh to go back to your uh question Mrs Preston uh the level funding is 39.4 superintendent asked for 42.5 the board voted uh for 40 7.5 million but none of these number included this 3% General Assembly nons soq salaries so uh uh I'm not putting you on spot but we talked about to come up with the number how much that 3% contribution for division will be U it could be about a million could be a million and a half on top of uh what we have right 3 1% is almost 600,000
105so it will be a significant impact on our budget which we don't have in our current calculations okay so we don't know how it's going to impact us bottom line is that what I'm hearing you say it will affect in a worse way not in a positive because we have to the locality has to uh come up with that unfunded uh backfill I think we'd all be happy we'd be grateful if all our teaching staff got an increase in their salary but the problem is that requires money from us as well as new money from the state and that we're not in a situation right now where we have excess money we're actually pretty deep in a hole so um that makes it very difficult so when the state gives 3% the headline is teachers
106are getting 3% increase but the the subline in that is only for 50% of the people I'm giving you money you go figure for the other 50% from your own pocket and we don't have money to right now in our current budget to sustain what we have so I don't know where will be come up for the other 50% well just and just to for historical purposes yes and there's also a local match to take the money so first there's a local match to take whatever the state gives and then we still have to figure out how to support the staff who are not s soq funded and even the staff who might be in another Grant like a title one um reading specialist who may not be state funded uh the other thing just
107for historical references and I know this is a 33 and with the local match that we are coming off of two years where we did a 552 and our budget went down on the city Side so the the boards that voted in the previous two years to give the 5% or what was in our 47 um 1547 which was uh the 5% and the 5% and the 2% so 12% over those two years we did without the additional funding um from City and we were able to do that because we had the car's funding right um but now we we don't we don't have the car's funding so that presents a little bit different challenge just in case someone says you did it before um the last two years without receiving the local match um
108why can't you do that again so see this year the locality will be in a difficult bind if you look at 60 mi from here Charlottesville has a deficit of $13.3 million for the same reasons the match was not coming and the pay raises were going up and 80% of the budget is human resource so you you know when you're 100 million 80 million is going in salaries that 5% 5% increase takes a toll in terms of the expectation for the local matches so those will be the difficult questions uh or we will have to answer but it does affect the morale if our our people don't get that 3% and some locality gives that 3% yeah so um would you like to add anything yes sir it is what it is yeah good we
109move on to item K2 uh fiscal year 2024 City contingency fund request Dr Edwards okay yeah so just a reminder um more for our public I think our board understands that the 39 million that um is the revenue support from the city was actually about 37 million and 1.9 million put in a contingency fund of which is not part although it's in our operating budget it's not part of the money that we use to uh do our budget this year some of it was um uh allocated back um for um some board professional development as well as um some legal fees but the majority of it has not been about 1.6 I do believe is still a little over 1.6 is still in the city uh so we are coming to the end of our
110year and if my memory serves me I think one of the statements was um that we they were doing this in case we needed it um so uh we would like to present a case of need so that we can ask for the contingency I'm going to turn it over to Dr woda Who has a much more detail present well thank you Dr Edwards and good evening members of the board we've had conversation at length regarding the fiscal year 25 budget we've also had uh in previous meetings some some robust conversations regarding the fiscal year 24 budget we've discussed this at the finance committee and this particular request at the finance committee on January 24th uh of this year um so there's a couple items that we just want to review um just to make
111sure everybody's on the same page as well as just kind of give you an update on where we are with this fiscal year and making sure that we end the year uh end uh in the positive we want to make sure we do not um extend beyond our our appropriation um and as Dr redwards said there is a concern about the 1.9 and which is now 1.6 million uh that was set aside in contingency without sort of School Division input uh was just sort of done um and so the ability to make sure that we are leveraging that uh to to balance the budget for the year is is really very critical so we'll talk about the fiscal year 24 Reserve balance uh the sales tax reductions uh the EXP some expenditure concerns that we've
112talked about in detail with you all before but we'll reiterate those as well as our plan administratively to address uh just an ability to reduce those those expenditures and ultimately we'll make it recommendation uh based on the finance committee's recommendation uh that uh City that there is a request that city council appropriate the ring LCS contingency funds to uh to finish out fiscal year 2024 um so as you can see on the screen uh the original contingency reserve again that was established by city council this was the first time uh that this was done at least in recent memory um again this was not an additional set of this was an additional money that was provided or set aside for the school to division this was removed from the operating budget so it took that
113amount from about 39 million down to 37 million so um that was cause a cons considerable concern which is why we put a number of folks in cares and all these other positions in order to save those jobs but uh that's sort of where we are it's you know very close to $2 million of that expenditures uh city council appropriated $250,000 for legal fees related to unary status as well as $11,000 for Schoolboard member professional development leaving us$ 1.67 million in the contingency reserve available um on the revenue side on the next slide um I want to start off with just some concerns about the revenues uh where that we have right now um if you take a look at the VOE Cal tool that was published on January 4th what we call the Caboose
114calc tool because it's sort of the end of the bium they re recalculate based on what you'll get based on what your ADM and a variety of other factors ultimately we rece about a million4 less uh in state operating Revenue a million2 of that comes from reduction in sales tax revenues compared with was budgeted in fiscal year 24 um another $80,000 of that was related to the grocery tax hold harmless uh was previously less than they were anticipated there's a couple other smaller s soq uh line items uh that were also reduced I see I didn't fix my typo from the original time I did this presentation on that so I apologize for that um this again of course does not include money that was provided for the all-in tutoring program is about $3 million
115uh because those are funds are designated that are designated for that program and cannot be used for General operating funds so so it'll be easy to take a look at that if you don't take that context you say oh actually you've had some more money and additional funds but that was actually designated for the all-in program about $3 million and so that can't be relied upon for General operating Revenue so that's sort of the the Revenue reductions concerns we've had that puts us at about a million and a half um we've also shared with you previously a number of you expenditure concerns in this present fiscal year based on lines that were just simply not sufficiently budget budgeted uh We've we've talked about that in detail when we started first talking about the fiscal year
11625 budget uh a significant part of the concern with the fiscal year 2 budget is that we're trying to rightsize those lines to make them more reflective and accurate on what it cost to run the School Division uh but that means that we also have some expenditures in fiscal year 24 based on the way those are trending um as I said at the time we talked about that before I can't explain why those those budget lines were reduced in the way they were by frankly a previous staff member uh but that's what happened and that's where we are in this budget um about two million of that is from utilities and health insurance uh we have you know a number of concerns as as we know we've talked about in detail um as well so
117we uh we do need some additional money we need that $1.6 million uh in infusion of that contingency reserve but that doesn't mean that we're not trying to to stop spending right uh we need to we absolutely need to continue to run the School Division uh but we have put a number of items in place administratively uh that hopefully will slow some spending slow as much spending down as we possibly can um about this time every year we asks principles and and Department directors to go ahead and encumber uh costs that they think they're going to incur for the remainder of the fiscal year that allows us to try to figure out exactly how much we'll have left over and if if anything kind of figure out where we are in terms of the financial
118position for that year um that was a very long list of items that came in um and these are things that are related to direct student student experiences but also other things that are really critical for running a school system but uh may not have direct student impact so part of the first uh step is that we are canceling all purchase orders that are not directly associated with an immediate and direct student learning experience one of the things you'll note uh is that when the students spoke tonight they talked a lot about field trips we've been very intentional about not trying not to cut those experiences uh that's a simply a matter of making sure that we are providing experiences for our students and making sure that we are not uh cutting those opportunities uh
119and that is I think very very important and that's the strategy we we've chosen to take because we think that's the right thing for kids uh though those are sometimes the more public cuts that do get made it sometimes so we're cutting we're trying to eliminate as much as much many of those purchase orders that again are important for things like furniture and things like that that that do need to be bought they they are a core part of our instruction and core part of uh are running a School Division but perhaps can wait a year in those sorts of things so we're trying to to reduce that as much as we possibly can everywhere we can we have Frozen all non-grant funded hiring so if you're if we have a position that is open
120that is not funded by a grant we've Frozen that hiring um there are some occasions where it may make sense that we do hire do hire a position as an example there was a someone who's been hired to drive buses for athletics is cheaper to do that than pay another bus driver overtime so that makes sense to do that um that's a volunteer coach that that has will be paid to drive a bus U that's just one example uh but but generally speaking all non other non-grant funded hiring has been frozen we've also Frozen all non-grant funded travel uh so as professional development occurs um we we will not be paying for that if it's not funded by grants uh we have an electric electricity consumption reduction challenge uh that we've started that looks like
121a taking a look at a year ago what the consumption of electricity is in each building for April and May and we've said the school and there's two divisions the elementary Division and a and a secondary division as a percentage of what you use last year the school that reduces the most gets to keep some of those funds for uh School uh school pride kind of things so um that's that's that's a consumption reduction challenge that we have we also are reducing overtime as much as we possibly can uh there are times when overtime is not possible to be reduced but we are reducing that as much as we can asking principles and directors to take a look at that on a weekly basis provide that provide that oversight in a much more clear way
122um and then again um in we did this a little bit earlier in the year uh but some of those cares funded positions that or cares funded costs that were important but maybe not as critical were redirected to help us kind of cover the the final part of the year so we have uh done our very best to reduce expenditures in every way we possibly can in in in ways that do not directly and immediately impact student experiences and learning um that will not be something that is something that we can keep uh doing if this continues uh there will be continued uh impacts to students but uh we just we feel like as Educators we are trying our very best to ensure that our students have again experiences as as they deserve um and
123and that's where we are a key part of that again key part of the strategy for finishing the year is uh requesting that return of contingency funds in this operating budget and and we will plan to make a a finish off the year hopefully in the black you said it was discussed in finance it was there was a motion was approved by the finance committee I believe so I I don't know if it if it needed a motion because it had to come to the board but at least the finance committee was informed and one thing I don't know that we reviewed all the expenditure reduction right we hadn't done it yet um but that's but we wanted to tell the board that go ahead Mr I wanted to make sure I heard you correctly
124you said that you have in order to avoid over time great you're going to have volunteer coaches Drive the buses no I didn't hear you correctly yeah so so this is just just one example of of where it didn't make sense to do the the freeze so you know we're H we're um we pay drivers potentially over time to drive to athletic events and that sort of thing there's a volunteer coach that uh that has been hired to drive with a CDL that's cheaper it's cheaper to do that than it would be to hire somebody over time I didn't hear the CDL part y thanks Dr Carter and also with this um reduction of overtime what parents need to be aware and other people stakeholders need to be aware that sometimes you may have had
125different people come in early and they've gotten used to that to be able to drop her child off early but now the staff person may need to come in closer to the time they're supposed to so not to say and call and say you all are not doing your job but they are but they just are not going to get paid for being there a little earlier as they usually have been but those things a lot of times we don't look at that but take that in there's a motion from fin so we well so we need a motion to for the board to approve this to go to city council is that correct yes sir so I will move that the board approve uh the request to uh release that contingency fund money into
126our budget um on the finance committee it does I'm making a motion to the board it's the board second yeah so Dr Carter second the motion any discussion on that motion uh I second Mr Andrews go ahead he seconded it Mr Andrew second okay Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr julo yes Mr Andrews dropped out yes Mr char yes Dr day yes Dr gter yes Dr Carter yes release the funds Mrs Preston restate the motion please the motion is Dr dayve made the motion to request that city council release the contingency funds okay back to n city schools Okay I accept Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion car is 90 thank you next one is uh special educ education annual plan Dr Edwards so uh each year we have the um
127special education annual plan that comes up for the review and uh yep there she is I look back um Miss Daniel's Boler who is our special education director um is here to just talk to you a little bit about the plan uh Dr GAA members of the board Dr Edwards um this is the special education annual plan that comes to you all um once a year it is for um and it is a requirement between the two uh between the school board and the State Department of Education um we are asking for 2.5 million a little over 2.5 million in funds that goes for uh staff uh uh salaries and benefits um there's about 178,000 that goes for staff and salary benefits for the staff work with private schools um and then there's H A
128little over 69,000 that will go to prechool funds for special preschool students um and this was uh reviewed by the seat committee on February 26th and there were no questions and then it's not currently on public comment this is for information tonight it will come to you all for consent in April so I need clarification this is a request for funds any question this is a request for funds from whom who would be providing These funds it's the state this is for the Virginia Department of Education this is federal funds that come to the School Division every year to be used uh for salaries and benefits for special education staff and students okay that answers my question thank you and the board cannot vote on it till your public comment period is over which is
12919th and the day our next meeting is on 19th so can we vote on that day that's correct can she's she's going to put it on back on the board agenda in April uh no it it can't come to a work session it has to come to the next board meeting okay yes thank you very much other question bre next one is thank you very much uh next one is Middle School program of studies Dr yep so uh Miss Cruz is here to share with you um the middle school program of studies and this is the program of study so that it outlines the courses for the next school year I just wanted to you have shared this information with the academic success committee this information was uploaded previously for review thank you so we
130had very minimal changes on this program of studies um and if you all have had an opportunity to review um just as we did with the high school program of studies we tried to maintain consistency so a lot of the changes that you see is to maintain that consistency for our middle schools and our high schools and to update the verbiage in the program of studies one of the major changes that you may note in there is probably our history section that you'll see and you'll see the addition for the eighth grade section for World Geography that is the suggested or the recommended um progression for Middle School uh history and we started that work last year which you all approved with our fourth excuse me our fourth fifth 6th and 7th that was all
131changed and now we're making the full change over for 8ighth grade again the recommended was World Geography we have that for regular uh and in advanced if you notice all the way through that section we have updated for regular sections and advanced uh sections of those we did receive feedback from our current staff um and we had a 95 actually it's a little over 95% um we're in agreement with the World Geography change as well that'll also offer our students here at LCS uh another opportunity for a verified and standard credit moving into the high school which puts them um ahead and on the seven period day itself it provides just additional opportunities for them moving forward one of the other updates that you'll see is for World languages and it doesn't just specify that
132uh if you notice on there the Latin change it doesn't just specify that one particular school if we have overwhelming interest in other areas we want to be able to offer it in those locations as well so those are our major changes and impacts is again listening to our faculty and staff and and implementing those pieces for them as well as for our students moving forward for the 2425 school year is there a would you like this to go through the board tonight what's your go ahead so um I have a question um I noticed the entire math instructional sequences section is cross out so that was that was something that should have been removed previously and had been discussed and did not make it out so um if you will flip to that it
133it is repetition of what's already in the program of study so we just to not be as wory or um as difficult of a read We just cleaned that section up okay thank you yes sir what page is that on page 13 13 okay Dr Carter can you just um refresh my memory to and just for the public how students are selected for the regular versus the the Advan courses I mean is there a set u criteria or just how is that done because it says they're pretty much the same they just may have a little more hidden types of um assignments or assessments yes and if you notice specifically for the World Geography that was updated that it would be more depth projects writing assignments as well as additional reading assignments and research so
134that they're better adequately prepared and some of that pre-requisite would be teacher recommendation Andor Advanced Civics and economics so stating that if they had previously taken an advanced course they would be on that pathway but that could still be a recommendation that's why we put the indoor recommendation of the teacher uh for suggestion as well so if I'm in the regular World Geography do I have an opport opportunity like the next time or whenever I change courses to move to a more advanced type of I'm more rigorous yes ma'am we're not at that's that's the overall goal in reworking these program of studies to ensure that it's not one set way or one set path to be able to allow students to explore different opportunities with that recommendation and then we Al also uh that
135work starts with our counseling department very very early on to go through to take the recommendations of what students want to take and then they have those communication uh components with the parents as well and is it safe to say that some students they may be in a regular class in math but in more advanced class in a different okay yes ma'am absolutely and I see that the um the Virtual Academy is marked out in the where where the other middle schools are but then it's a huge write up that Still Remains on the on page I just lost it on page um 15 to page 15 so yes that's just talking about that's talking about what the Virtual Academy Partnerships offer um on there for page 15 and I'm not sure what you're referencing
136for the oh for the markout because we had removed that specific piece for the high school one as well yeah just to be more consistent but it has nothing to do with okay no we offer virtual forms of coursework in both the element I excuse me both the middle and the high school anyway so there's virtual coursework being offered in several different components and in different facets as well since this was vetted by the academic success committee a desire to make it an action item or should we leave it for the next meeting we can make it go ahead if it's again if it's already been yes we can make it you want to make a motion to make it an action I move that we adopt the middle school program of studies we're I
137think your motion is to make it an action oh yes I move then we make this an action item second second any discussion Madam clar would you please call the RO Mr chileo abstain Mr Andrews Mr Andrews we'll come back to him Mr Char yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes Mr Andrews it's going to pass regardless of how he votes passes motion car Mr Jal uh relatedly M uh crw are you aware of what Danville is doing for their he voted yes he said yes thank thank you for bringing that up um one of the pieces that we did is we contacted our neighboring divisions to to see what they were doing as well while we were in this adoption process and
138several of our neighboring divisions are actually adopting that World Geography component if they are not doing so already so that we can maintain consistency I cannot speak to what specifically dville is doing at this moment I know that there was discussion of that in my previous time there very good it's always good to see what else other people are doing uh just briefly mention so you can look it up one one of their they have four programs they're doing at this time one is offering students tutoring offer options before during and after school the other is offering a second uh school time which is Saturday school uh the third program is expected to start this month which will prepare kids for so exams and the fourth program will allow kids to make up any apps
139es and that's all part of the all-in program which you know much about so yes sir nothing to consider yes sir and there there are several conversations for us as we're moving into the next school year with the all-in program as well very nice is there a motion to approve it now since it's an action item yeah move I move we approve the um revised Mass uh discussion mam CL would you please call the r Mr julo yes Mr Andrews yes yes Mr tro yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston I'm going to abstain only because I want to have a little bit more time to read through it Mr depal yes Mrs Lorry yes motion carries thank you thank you Mr Cruz um superintendent comment we couple of minutes
140we should be done here okay go go the comments okay um first um you guys may have noticed that uh Mrs Pew is not here um but I do want to just take a moment to thank her um for her leadership while I was on vacation uh some people don't know that we have two Deputy soups like um the fire department has two Deputy Chiefs the police department also has two deputies but in our in my absence Miss Pew um did a great job of managing um the situations that occurred at our at both high schools actually one at Heritage at the beginning of the week and one at EC glass which Lucy referenced the the dismissal that you know went pretty smoothly at the end of the week um so I just want to
141publicly thank her uh and she in part with her phone calls to me all week long were was reason why I could send you all confidential updates about what was going on um and also could send my statement from um being on vacation um but again just being she's not here tonight but just publicly acknowledging um a thank you there also just thinking about our kids um making choices that aren't the best choices and I know that we have given that a lot of time and energy talking about kids not making the best choices um but I do want us to take a step back and and you know even over the last two weeks if we have 10 or less kids that have made some choices that aren't representative of what we are trying
142to instill in them as to how to H handle conflict there are still over 7,500 what 90 kids who are making the right choices and I don't want us ever to get lost in um the ones that don't and forget that we have a tremendous impact on the ones that do um the kids that come to school every day the kids that think and reflect on their own behaviors and the kids who think about doing something but maybe not the kids who talk to their teachers about things that are going on in their lives in their schools and the kids that generally want to do the right thing so here's my commercial where I always say all the world is a classroom and each one of us adults have an opportunity to role model the
143behavior we expect from kids and you know I'm all about that role modeling and having been um some adversity just recently um I do want to say to my kids and my staff um and faculty and all of those people who have called me written me emailed me just a huge thank you we will continue to be that positive role model for our children that even in times of conflict even when trust is broken or gone and even when you may find yourself on a news story or newspaper there's a level of Integrity there's a level of how we handle conflict and there's a level of responsibility that says that you know what I choose my behavior I choose the response that I want I choose to have a high level of integrity and I
144choose to be a good person and everyone of you around this table would be so upset with me if my bar was lower than that for children and if we want it for children we got to model it as adults so again to All My Children out there who are doing the right thing to all my children who may have gone to the restorative Academy or the suspension Center who have changed your ways to do the right thing thank you thank you thank you I praise you I salute you my staff you're just amazing because no one knows what it's like to be a teacher an educator a principal and dealing with some of these extremely aggressive behaviors and they are 100% Troopers so just wanted to say that and I'm thank you Dr Edwards
145Dr D um I would like to move that we uh bring our closed session up to now and postpone board comments and the informational items till after the close session we have an attorney waiting on call for us and we told him to estimate 7 o' where so he see he's build already for 15 minutes yeah I think it's that's prudent financially prudent so I've made a motion that we is there a second to that motion second any discussion on that motion Madam fler would you please call Mr Julio yes Mr Andrews yes Mr Charles yes Dr day yes Dr gter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries we going into we making item P1 before item and mhm so we're going into the let me read
146the notice of the school board chair recommends that the school board approve a motion to convene a Clos meeting to discuss the following as permitted by Virginia code s 2.2 3711 parenthesis a close parenthesis again 8 consultation with legal council on employment law issues specific to the school board is there a motion to go into the close session motion second Dr D Dr Carter and any discussion Madame clerk would you please call the RO Mr Julio yes Mr Andrews yes Mr Charles yes Dr day yes Dr Gupta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries thank you we are in close session we'll go upstairs and we'll come back downstairs again [Music] for [Music] e [Music] certification of c meeting in accordance with the Virginia code s 2.2
1473712 uh D here here and um the board board chair moves that the school board certifies that in accordance with the closed meeting just concluded nothing was discussed except for the matter or matters number one specifically identified in the motion to convene in a closed meeting and number two lawfully permitted to be so discussed under the provisions of Virginia Freedom of Information Act cited in that motion is there a motion to certify motion second um Mr depal and Dr D um Madam clerk would you please call the RO Mr jilo yes I don't know if we still have Mr Andrews yes we'll come back is that Mr TR yes Dr day yes Dr Gupta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Lori yes motion carries so we we're out in the
148open session now yes believe so so we move on to item n N1 board comments Mrs Lowry will'll start with you okay I have a lot but I'll say it in 60 seconds we got one minute for each board member okay um I thank you all the students who presented tonight they did a nice job um I visited cbcc dual enrollment it's wonderful the students involved absolutely love it and I visited Fort Hill It's a Wonderful math class um working on Geometry I took a tour of the project search with Miss remirez which was amazing that all they do for our students and train them for the workplace and help them get jobs um I visit Laurel today and Jay the whole staff does amazing job and like uh principal Lewis said they have all
149hands on board they're doing a wonderful job and my other comment was I wonder if the students will be able to get their snow days they did not use at the end of the year I'm just curious thank you Paul I'm um pleased with all the involvement that we're getting uh from business from people and Community I know that there can be more but people live their lives I'm very appreciative of the involvement that this board has this has been a very good experience very good board I'm very proud even when we don't agree uh we do such a good job with each other and I'm just happy to be part of a board uh that that includes everybody here thank you Mrs Preston no comments Dr Carter want to um do a shout out
150to the social workers that was Social Work week last week and we weren't here so just for all that they do because they do a lot and also for all the schools principles programs teachers students who made the different gifts and send the messages on Via cards to for the school board appreciation and also Beacon of Hope Laura Hamilton for the wonderful popcorn that was great and also I attended the sanduski elementary school bring a buddy to school with my niece um Carter Hughes and we did a stem project which was very uh effective and Dr Mr wack has has some type of ability that he gets a huge crowd at those showings and I wasn't the board member in the in the the guidance counselor C counselor's room hiding I don't think and just
151another thing regarding cell phone policies um I just read an article today from the National School Board Association that states a lot of teachers complain that parents are part of that too by calling in saying what did you make on that grade calling in what do you want for lunch what do you want where do I need to pick you up so may have a lot to talk about in that policy that's all thank you Dr D I'm timing myself um you may have seen news stories about the adult high school being planned in ronoke by Goodwill's Industries I called and talked to their vice president for business and Community engagement uh Zenith Barrett to get some information about that um this is going to be a stool School for students 18 over 18 years
152old who only need a couple more classes to finish their high school diploma um this is not a public school effort it it's um been made possible in Virginia by a recent change in state law but there are over 40 of these operating across the country the first was in 2010 started in Indianapolis this will be the first in Virginia under the new law um it's going to be at the uh Excel it's going to be called the Excel Center it's being located in a in a I guess I'd say downtrodden part of Rono with a lot of what they call wraparound strategies there'll be a bank there'll be a grocery store there will be um what they call Life Counseling to help the students who have trouble coping with things so um it's possible
153the same kind of thing could get started in lburg at some point but um I thought that was interesting and that's why I looked into it what's your clock says I went over by 18 seconds right thank you I yield my 18 seconds I I want to just uh give a quick shout out to all the staff that are promoting our CT e program I think it's a fantastic uh opportunity for us we're moving forward I also want to give a shout out to Dr Derek Brown in his restorative Academy I agree uh and and you will not find me and Mr stump probably agreeing with very much but I agree with him that's a fantastic program and I do believe it is a investment early investment in the greater potential down the road of
154some of our students so appreciate those two programs thank you thank Mr Andrews Mr Andrews can you guys hear me yes sir yeah we can hear you I just want to say thank you to my colleagues for being patient with me with my audio on Zoom tonight I truly appreciate you guys um so yeah thank you for everything thing that's it cof I'll take a frosty thank you sir Mr Jal yes thank you to EC glass high schoolers who put this together for us very nice gifts thank you um there was a 2024 classroom hero Miss Katherine sharp at sandeski Middle School sixth grade math and she got the ab bc13 hero award so congrats to her and thank her for her great work to uh earn this and um we should always uh compliment
155and bring forth the uh commendations to those who Excel I'd also like to uh congratulate Ginger Paris because the greater Lynchberg Community Foundation announced that a ginger Paris LCS strings fund to support our LCS Strings program in perpetuity it's a unique program in the state of Virginia that is free to all LCS students it enriches their academics and lives for the last past 50 years Miss Ginger Paris alongside her fellow strings teachers has have been in instrumental in providing the opportunity to learn and appreciate great music as this uh website says and I just want to congratulate her and and mentioned that there is a it's okay there's a liberty baseball educator appreciation series May 16th to the 18th uh tickets start at $4 uh baseball versus LA Tech Liberty University and I would like
156to commend Amanda who took me on a tour of the special research in uh uh partnership between Sentra and LCS where these special education students are working in Sentra hospital and at Dawson in with all these particular skill sets that will help them to transition into the workforce right when they when they graduate they're able to get into this uh program where um oh my goodness they're doing so many great things I yes Miss Larry took a tour as well and unbelievable how big Centra is first of all and then how many things that these special kids need uh kids can do in in there to help doctors I mean they're they're putting together all of these packages of supplies in their in the work rooms putting them in cards taking them over to where
157the doctors are and uh there there's they're filing things they're they're they're getting beds I was there right when they got a young man named Larry to get a large bed to move it and transition it to a particular level of the building and and uh we just had a great time seeing this this large facility and all these all these students or former students that were there they were helping them LCS is helping them transition into work where they live or in the hospital itself tremendous program to be involved with fantastic thank you Mrs Preston you wanted to say something just yeah just really quickly um Dr gupa had asked us earlier if we had something specific that we wanted to do to to acknowledge our our uh reporters and I I didn't have
158an opportunity to do that yeah we kind of ran out of time but since you're still here I'm going to acknowledge you right now just to tell you that we thank you for serving our city so so well and and Lynchburg City Schools I was reading and I saw a quote that said that the ABCs of news reporting are accuracy brevity and Clarity and if you think about that for just a moment we give a lot of accolades and attention to the to the people that are the new news makers in town but we don't necessarily give accolades to the people that are the news reporters in town but if you were not accurate in delivering that information or if you neglected the brevity so that you didn't get right to the point of what
159it is that needed to be said or if you weren't clear about what it is that needed to be conveyed then we would not be nearly as successful as as we are or efficient as we are in getting our jobs done so I just want to remind you don't forget your ABCs and Dr gupa will Mr Andrews know he's got a package here uh I will just put Mrs D take care so thank you very much I have few informational items um um there's a Southern Regional meeting March 13th in aomax high school superintendent breakfast as Mr stos mentioned March 14th at 7:30 a.m. at University of Lynchberg discipline committee data review committee meeting March 14th at 3:30 p.m. public hearing and work session March 19th at 5:00 p.m. here in boardroom Joint City Council
160School Board budget meeting meeting 4 p.m. March 26 in business Alliance building ad hoc committee on discipline and policy March 28th at 3:30 p.m. is's a motion to adjourn thank you good night e