LCS School Board Meeting: December 5, 2023

001[Music] for [Music] uh good evening the meeting is called to order uh I have item B1 approval of electronic participation by a school board member is there a motion to approve Mr Andrews um sorry let me explain Mr Andrews is traveling overseas uh for reasons explained to me and uh it it meets the guidelines for an electronic participation motion second Mr depal Dr day any discussion Madam cler would you please call the RO Mr jilo yes Mr Charles yes Dr D yes Dr Dr GTA yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs lry yes Mo carries Mr Andrews depending on his internet connection Mr Andrews you're there uh he'll join us depending on he's 5 hours ahead of us so um that dis the item C1 is Pledge of Allegiance Dr Day

002Your Allegiance please rise alance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you Dr D item D1 is agenda approval approval of agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda I'd like to make an amendment to the agenda for us to uh have a discussion um about the school board uh budget Retreat have a discussion about it so your motion is to add an item add an item to discuss the school board uh budget Retreat is there a second to that Amendment second T Dr Day second any discussion on the proposed amendment to the agenda Dr car yes what are we exactly talking about what what are the dates and time well

003for this meeting if this motion passes it would be in addition to an agenda and when we get to that point in the agenda then we'll address those issues other discussion Madam cler would you please call the Mr jilo yes Mr Andrews so Mr TR yes Dr D yes Dr yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes Mrs Laura yes motion carries so that will become our item in six uh thank you and the next one is uh chairs com so I wanted to uh let me put my glasses on so I can see everybody you know this board cares about everybody and I'm not saying for just for the purposes of speech so if you we have to make some tough decisions this board has made it but that not with the

004objective of leaving anybody out but as we move forward two important things facing us is the focus on academics because there has been a uh learning loss we know through the pandemic and students are left behind if you're a teacher listening to me you know exactly what I'm talking about so this Force this Board needs to focus on academics the second thing facing us is the budget in terms of budget you know last year Mr tros and Dr Carter you have been a proponent to increase the hourly wage for our employees so as we go through the budget and I'm going to let my cat out of the B I think we need to push for a higher wage for our hourly employees uh I know Dr Edwards said $16.5 was the living wage so

005I'll challenge ourselves against all the odds to maybe we can reach $17 an hour for our hourly employees and maybe we can attain that $50,000 we proposed last year for our teachers to have it which we were short by $3,000 so 1750 hopefully is our goal as we move forward let's work on that goal and see how far we can go so we should set a goal to take care of our students our faculty and our staff and community at large and that should be our focus and if anybody else I'll yield my time on the board wants to speak on what I said right thank you so we move on to item F1 uh student representative comic Dr Edwards sure um and we have a lovely treat in that we have two uh elementary

006schools in addition to our high school um reps here so I am going to invite up from TC Miller and there's Miss rhs hello Miss Jasmine Smith to share what's happening at TC Miller welcome good [Applause] evening thank you for giving us the time to talk to you about TC Miller I would like to introduce to you a fourth grader Miss Jasmine Smith thank you school board and Dr Edwards for giving me this opportunity to speak to you at TC Miller we are a place where everyone soures we have self-control ownership we are achieving goals respectful and successful there are a few things that I want to highlight as a part of students learn experience at TC Miller school for Innovation TC Miller gives us opportunities for students to be involved in extracurricular school activities

007this is the current list of clubs that we have at TC Miller for the 2023 and 2024 school year photography Theater Arts Fitness Fun environmental Eagles steppers singing ankles tech club rhythmic Regal Eagles and Library helpers one of re one of the resource classes at TC Miller is stream in this slide you see pictures of engineering challenges stream stands for science technology reading engineering art and math we have design challenges science experiments and we love when we code robots we learn collaboration cooperation and creativity as we work together to think outside the box to solve problems a part of our mission at TC Miller is that we believe in the power of Art and of Arts to inspire imagination self-expression and instill confidence our students are encouraged to explore various art forms using creativity as

008a tool for personal growth you may ask what is an open performance here at TC Miller we do one of these a quarter we take what students are learning and perform this year our musical performance is Shrek Junior December 6 7th and 8th at 6:30 p.m. and December 9th at 2:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. we have 51 students as a part of this production all of my friends are practicing very hard right now at DC Miller but we'll let you see a sneak peek since they can't be here with us [Applause] today [Music] way [Music] more or I I gave the I got oh yeah oh [Music] yeah I got I got I got then I saw her face I saw I'm [Music] aie [Applause] thank you thank you thank you [Music] J I can't

009wait to see that tomorrow so looking forward to it um our second Elementary School is RS pain and we have I believe two student reps from RS pay Clyde Smith and Eve [Applause] flaven there's Miss vicer I didn't see you behind the camera welcome hi thanks um hi everybody my name is Clyde Smith and I'm e Lavin and we will be sharing some highlights from RS pay from this past school year one Behavior incentive is Dragon dollar if students are respectful supportive productive consistently stand on task and complete their work they can earn Dragon dollars next slide please Dragon wagon then when we collect Dragon dollars we can spend in on things like slime little footballs or stress balls or save it for another day of dragon wagon next slide please another one is we

010have positive office referrals if we stay on task or respectful treat others how we want to be treated and are honest we can get dragon Dragon positive referrals PBIS monthly events my f favorite is when we get extra recess if we consistently been respectful supportive and productive we can go to Dragon Pride event every month next slide please and I'm going to give it to my friend Eve programs and after school clubs here at ours pain we have after school programs our programs consist of Girls on the Run math club chess club and Good News Club all of our clubs do the best to support the children that attend them next slide please community service projects within our awesome school we have service learning projects our service learning projects are animals literacy seniors safety friendship

011homelessness and hunger community development environment health and wellness and Military I am in homelessness and hunger and we recently made little goodie bag type things for people in need mayor visit just a while ago the mayor came to visit our school for a while she read books to classes and gave out some of the posit gave out some positive referrals to some of the outstanding kids she saw family events at the ARs P school we have events where family members of our students get to come and have fun at our school we had pirate night and the fall back to school event field trips our staff at RSP RS P Keep It Fun by bringing us on field trips some of the young grades went to an orchard farm and fifth grade go went to

012the Natural Bridge caves all of fifth grade was able to go to the Intriguing mayor Art Museum my personal favorite was the Natural Bridge thanks for listening to all that's happening at RS pain so I want to thank both of our schools at TC Miller and RS Payne for and the students for presenting and those adults you don't know how difficult that is to stand up in front of an audience of all these people and give a presentation but isn't that a great skill that employers are looking for leadership the ability to communicate putting together multimedia um presentations and you all did a fantastic job so we are so proud of it and we'd also like to support all the behind the scenes folks because we know that there is a lot of practice going

013on and a lot of adult help with your teachers and your parents so we also want to clap for the teachers and parents who have supported the children and okay so now we've seen how our little ones do it and now we have our older students are our high school student reps and I believe we're going to start with Lucy all right hi everybody I hope you guys are having a good December so far um and I know we're kind of getting close to winter break and as we're ramping up towards our winter break our winter sports have actually um been starting their practices and some have even had games uh the sports that have kind of that start in the winter are wrestling boys and girls indoor track and field um and boys and

014girls basketball and just a little on the topic of basketball we want to to recognize a member of the E Glass Family coach DJ is the um head coach of our Varsity Boys Basketball team and he was recently diagnosed with Wagner's disease so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as well as his family and we wish him the very best because he's um really important to us at glass next in the Arts this month our Tech theater program at EC glass is bringing back tech Thursdays and this gives students the opportunity um to maybe do more behind the scenes work on the Productions that we do rather than being on the stage because that's not for everyone so it's good that we have those opportunities and um as of right now the goal

015of tech Thursdays is looking for help on their newest production silent sky with lights um soundboard stuff and other Tech positions that they need next I want to talk about Central Virginia governor school because they're always doing something really interesting over there um right now if you look at the screen you'll see a couple of the activities they going they have going on um this one girl I know is actually doing an experiment on sea urchins so those are her sea urchins that she so kindly sent me a picture of and then um activities like studying the human sentence or senses and making quilts which I think is actually a really cool activity so I'm glad that they have the opportunity to do things like that uh next slide our student council Association at EC

016glass we're running a holiday food and clothing Drive uh to help provide people with clothes they need for the colder months and the food they may need for this holiday season uh there going to be bins in all the classrooms and I believe your uh the students donate to all of their first period classes and the uh teacher and class with the most donations get a prize so I think that's a great incentive to donate more academic achievements we have going on I I'm really proud to be able to talk about this because this is really cool on November 11th uh the students from E glass's AP African-American studies class were invited along with some faculty and administrators to attend the um naacp's Freedom banquet in downtown Lynchburg keynote speaker was uh glass alum kishu

017Smith robbers Rogers sorry and pictured in the um image are students relle Jefferson Joselyn good and Chester lob along with teacher Mr Reed and Miss Rogers after the banquet and apparently they had a great time sorry I may not have much for you guys this month but um happy holidays and thank you always a pleasure to learn about all the things that you all are doing all right sa perfect thank you so this month we didn't have quite as much as last month but we did have a lot going on especially with the start of our winter sports so uh boys and girls basketball they both open their Seasons with a victory so very proud of that and their upcoming games for boys that's going to be December 6th and 8th and then for girls

018it's going to be December 5th which is tonight so wish wish them luck and then they have a game tomorrow night as well um our wrestling and swimming teams wrestling opened their season this past Saturday and they placed first as a team um I know several of them who beat all their matches with like pins so I'm really proud of them this weekend uh swimming opened their season home at the Jamerson y um this past Friday and they have a couple upcoming dates up there moving on to indoor track they had their first meet last night um they did very well several placements across the boys and girls teams um upcoming they have a game home on the 9th and home again on the 14th moving on to student events we had our National Honor

019Society induction on the 15th of November um 39 of our junior class got inducted which is a huge number compared to some of the past classes and that's like really an honor for them because it shows just High academic and like moral achievement so we're really proud of class of 2025 uh Powderpuff volleyball so the day before Thanksgiving break um our SCA hosted a powderpuff volleyball game where guys from each grade level competed against each other in first place was the seniors and I believe second place was the sophomores so that was a lot of fun uh carpentry so Mr Daniels in his carpentry class went back to paramont Elementary and they helped third grade students construct wooden sailboats they had so much fun I heard stories about it so that was good and then

020upcoming we have our Christmas pajama movie night so students voted on the Grinch the live action one so we're excited for that this upcoming weekend um as far as student recognition Nisha mangr is a senior at Heritage and she was named top actor for both the seminal district and region 3C so we're really proud of her uh military recruitment we have several students um get back their enlistment acceptance we had Luke and Jacqueline they both got accepted into the Marine Corps and then Chris got accepted into the army so he'll be going to boot camp in the summer so we're excited for them and finally we've had lots of um early decision commitments and athletic commitments from our students but one notable one is Justin Porter he's a member of our wrestling team and and

021so he committed to VMI and it was really sweet to see him sign with all his teammates so that was just a nice moment thank you guys so much you may not know but sa did a great job at the National Honor Society item G1 again yours Dr Edwards special education advisory committee okay um from t to time we have our advisory committees uh give the board a presentation um special advisory is one of our committees and Miss Daniels Boler is here along with committee members to give us an update so Miss B good evening everyone um uh the seat committee um the special ed advisory committee is a legislatively mandated committee um that meets four times a year um they do several things as part of that discuss needs that for the students they

022review the annual plan which will take place in February we also participated in October as part of the trunk oret treat that took place at Brookville High School um there were 20 to 30 groups that were all in attendance at that um our president sorry our chair uh Lindsey Scott unfortunately could not be here tonight but Adriel Roberts is here and she just wants to go over some recommendations so a few recommendations that we um would like considered is the continued implementation of the Virginia IEP system to also continue to expand training for all teachers in the Orton Gillingham multisensory reading instructional strategies continue to review and train staff on IEP requirements for assistive technology to ensure use of state-of-the-art updated assistive technology continue the LCS disability Awareness Month activities as planned on an annual

023basis the vdoe parent survey was incorporated into the state IEP documents and case managers should continue to encourage parents to complete it continue to conduct collaborative IEP developmental training for parents and local supportive providers DSS and others focus on IEP critical decisions and clarification of the regulations governing special education programs in Virginia training was held earlier this fall and we would like to continue that as building closures and zone changes are considered please ensure that impact on students with disabilities is considered And Timely notice is given to the process change can be difficult for students with disabilities and preparation is needed to prepare student staff and families and expand the number of LCS special education instructional assistants who have completed the 40-hour online training specific to become registered Behavior technicians thank you for your [Applause]

024time can I ask some questions so you can stay please miss Lowry go ahead well my only question is number two I wholeheartly agree with you I love Ortho Gillingham I found it to be very effective especially during covid So when you say all teachers though do you mean only Elementary do you mean all reading teachers um like all Elementary reading in in high school in middle or because if I'm a science teacher I might not need the orthal you see what I'm saying so just more specifically who are um very specifically the elementary all staff yeah um but we actually interestingly enough have had some high school history and science teachers participate and while they aren't going to be teaching the reading section of it they found it very helpful in dealing with vocabulary

025and being able to help their students all students be able to learn the Vo vocabulary that's pretty specific for some of those science and histories so that they voluntarily participated um about four years ago right prior to co starting well I wholeheartedly applaud you on that I think that it's an awesome idea yes thank you other questions I just wanted to applaud you for doing the IEP training because I know it's very difficult I have experienced that so you know any sort of training from the system is very helpful and I need know I know we need to work harder on getting more special education teachers in our system so thank you for everything you do thank you thank you thank you public comments Dr D okay thank you um so um as we begin

026the public comment period I need to read to you um the our policy guidelines on this um persons appearing before the board will not be allowed to campaign for public office or promote private business ventures and should not use profanity or vulgar language or gestures make comments about a public official or an employee that are not related to the public official or employees official duties engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting or intimidates others or address the board on issues that do not concern the services policies role and or responsibilities of the school board in particular please do not clap Boo or Express approval or disapproval of speakers all 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

027group should limit their comments to five minutes the representative from a group should identify the group at the beginning of their presentation a group may have no more than one spokesperson total allotted time for for public comments at school board meetings is 30 minutes um and then if we have time at the end there are some voicemail messages that we will play um also um I was uh scolded at our last meeting for neglecting the priorities in which we uh bring public commenters to the podium the the the our policy says that uh priority will be given to in-person comments before voicemail messages in the following order first our students following them our staff following them our parents are Guardians and then fourthly community members now on the list of people who have signed up

028there are uh a number of students so I will call on them first uh the first is Chester [Applause] lob they haven't said anything so let me remind you you're not to applaud um people and I know you weren't applauding comments yet but please be careful about that please go ahead hi I am Chester lob my pronouns are he him and I am am a trans and queer student at EC glass firstly I want to say I'm sorry that you all are receiving death threats we do not condone death threats nor do they belong in our civil discourse believe me I've had friends receive death threats and other external threats of violence because they are queer so I understand how awful it is receiving them other threats queer kids face are high rates of suicide

029the eight gets better project was started because there was a high rate of queer Su suicides and they wanted to remind the world that it gets better regardless of the creators of the project the project is in place to prevent suicide in this hostile World hope for a better hope for things to get better is important and we need to hold on to that so it was disappointing when you all denied the Grant and it felt like you all turned your back on our community students cannot learn if they're suffering mentally or emotionally in academic performance and wellbe beinging are connected and heavily interact with one another policies should be put in place to help us students learn and help keep us students safe lastly please Rec reconsider your vote on the grant thank you

030thank you and thank you all for this instead of this uh next Britany Harris good evening members of the Lynchberg City School Board I will once again and introduce myself as Britney Harris co-president of the genders and sexualities Alliance at EC glass I am here tonight to express my disappointment and to show that this club and these people will not give up we have all fought too hard and bl ourselves dry to be heard to just simply sit back while you attempt to find funds and Supply us with tools to fit our needs we have all written speeches and told our stories just to be brushed off because of a piece of paper needing to be on a wall I am disappointed in this board and almost all of its members for disregarding our needs

031because of the organization this grant comes from I am disappointed that you have sent the message that no matter how hard we work how hard we plead how hard we justify ourselves and our ideas to you you cannot move past personal bias in order to protect students at the largest school in your District but not only am I disappointed I am sorry I am sorry for you board members and I apologize for the scrutiny you face due to your actions no one should have to face these alleged threats and it's simply ridiculous that someone would threaten your lives over this I'm sorry you all have finally felt what it's like to live under scrutiny and fear because of your identity I sincerely hope that you all had somewhere safe to calm down from the emotional

032toll of these threats thank you for your time tonight board members and I sincerely hope you all stay safe just remember it gets better for you thank you um next uh student on the list is Percy Phillips hello school board members part two I'm Percy Phillips vice president of the GSA Club ver very much like the first time I spoke to you I'm terrified to be up here today but I up here for myself for my peers and for my teachers but first I'd like to start off with if you can't find TC Miller how will you fund our room and and all the other rooms for all the other LCS schools that don't have one what money is there in the budget for us I thank you for the thought of donating US money

033I appreciate it dearly but we wouldn't have had this problem if you had just given us the grant sorry if that seemed rude I'm just fed up Fed Up of always being put last I'm tired of worrying about if I won't be able to use my preferred name and pronouns from Governor Yan's harmful and downright disrespectful and apathetic guidelines what are you so scared of honestly I find it gross that you don't want us to have the freedom to figure out who and what we are SL want to be and what you've done has proven to the students of LCS that you don't know our names or our needs thank you for your comments um I think the final student we have signed up is um Aspen L I hope I've read it correctly Aspen

034lose hello my name is Aspen Lewis I'm 17 a trans student in a senior at EC class I'm here tonight to stand with the members of our GSA and give testimony that our experiences are real there are more of us than just those who came to the F first meeting I have to constantly be cautious of my environment everywhere I go that unfortunately includes EC glass Although our former and current principal along with Vice principles faculty staff and even other students worked to create a healthy learning environment there's only so much they can do during my freshman and sophomore years I was in the beginning stages of socially transitioning from male to female at this point I wasn't sure what the bathroom policies were for Trans students and not wanting to cause problems I didn't

035ask so I used the voice on numerous occasions I was stopped by male peers who dother harass me about being in their bathroom or ask inappropriate questions about my body directed towards genitalia these kids were much taller and far stronger than me thankfully I was able to walk away from these confrontations unharmed but they could have easily ended with me being severely injured or even dead understandably during Co there was limits to everything but because there wasn't a place I could go to process these confrontations it I had to head to class and try to forget what had happened which in part led me into depression which led me to failing several classes freshman year and kept my mental health and poor condition sophomore year I've experienced many anxiety attacks in my life as well

036as had friends who experienced panic attacks those xiety attacks put you in a feeling of danger and put you in fight or flight paying attacks feel like and even have similar symptoms to a heart attack those moments isolation is key in calming oneself and being able to regain composure considering that glass has been a target for numerous threats and has had many lockdowns myself as many as well as my other peers have had a call or text friends and family to tell them that we love them you can only imagine how overwhelming it feels through that mult multiple times and have to get up and either go to your next class or just go home because you've denied the grant you've denied students power and opportunity to bring safety into our school and have set

037a precedent that LCS doesn't stand for its marginalized students thank you um on the list I see um [Music] two uh two staff members so they will come next um uh the first is Aaron Reed good evening my name is Aaron Reed and I am speaking for a group of concerned teachers at EC glass high school I'm a product of Lynchberg City Schools I graduated from EC glass in 1994 I'm a 26-year veteran of teaching I teach AP Language and Composition I teach AP seminar I teach public speaking I am the proud pilot teacher for the AP African-American studies class at my school I am the co- coach for our award-winning forensics team and last year the vhsl named me the speech teacher of the year in Virginia for 2023 and tonight I'm coming to

038talk to you about the Virginia education success account program you heard about this last month but let me quote from you House Bill 1508 which reads like this this bill permits the parent of a qualified student to use the money in these accounts for certain qualified expenses such as tuition deposits fees required textbooks at a private elementary school or a private Secondary School located in the Commonwealth now last month there was an individual up here speaking about the benefits of this Esa program and it's ironic that he trumpeted the nonpartisan perspective of this move as he represented Americans for Prosperity which is an ideological group funded in part by Charles KO who is a mega donor of hyper partisan movements across the country now there were two claims made at this Podium last month and

039I want to address both of those because I'm in the business of talking about arguments issue number one the individual at this Podium claims that the esa program leaves 50% of the per pupil expenditure by the state in the hands of a local school district what this fails to mention is that when those public tax dollars are funneled to private often religious organizations to facilitate that student transfer the local public system loses more than money it loses Staffing it loses a whole lot more put it another way instead of investing in public schools to help renovate or to help improve our existing facilities or train our staff this would go to private institutions who charge fees claim number two he said local funding decisions get to be made at the local level which means that

040city council is supposed to work with you if an Esa Bill were to pass the house but here's the problem the decision by city council last year to move to categorical funding tells you two things one they don't plan to take they or excuse me they do plan to take all of your decisionmaking abilities about school funding away because that was step number one second they don't see you as an equal partner in the operation of our schools and I'm sorry if you think that they do because they don't they've demonstrated this to you time and time again and here's why here's the claim that last week's or last month's speaker so desperately wanted to avoid saying out loud it's because people who advocate for the esa program and similar voucher programs all over the

041country programs that just got defeated in States like Texas they don't believe in the public part of public schools they believe that education is a private gain they they say I pay my money so that my child can get a good education but the education the children of my neighbor my colleague or the stranger I pass at Food Lion that's on them so I need you to see this Esa program and similar voucher programs for exactly what it is it is a continued attempt to defund our public institutions in this city in this state and around this country look this fight is not new in fact just last week in my AP African-American studies class we were talking about how fights about public education are inextricably wrapped up in things like the civil rights movement

042and in things like the manufactured outrage two years ago over CRT but here's the thing you are stewards of a public school district which governs Lynchberg City do you remember the students that I mentioned before your neighbor students your colleagues their children the stranger you passed at Food Lion you're indebted to them just as much as anyone else you're a public school system accountable to the public who deserves a strong education opportunity in this city they don't want the folks behind me don't want to resort to private schools or religious schools here's what they want they want the diversity and the Brilliance that comes from our tradition of Excellence I need you to resist Esa movements in this city I need you to work at making sure our public School stay public thank you please

043please refrain from expressing approval or disapproval thank you Mr Reed um the second teacher on my list is Brook Carson hello everybody um I'm Brook Carson you've heard from me a lot in these last couple school board meetings um so I won't talk for very long um I just wanted to to come and say thank you to the Schoolboard members that were supportive of my students um and to express my disappointment for those of you that were that were not um it's really not about the money um my students work hard you know it is something where we will make this project happen regardless of the money what I'm most disappointed in is that I brought my students here right all of us came here um so that they could sit in the audience while

044people who are supposed to be you know caring for them taking you know taking their needs into account um while those people debated whether or not they had a a righteous place in the school and that was what I was most disappointed with um so I want to say again thank you to um the folks who offered their support um and hopefully we can do better next time the folks that did not thank you thank you okay um those are the only uh staff members that I see signed up so next we move to parents Katie excuse me what Katie cyer staff member I don't know if she's on yourist I don't see the name on the list I'm on I'm Number 10 I was listed as parent but I'm a staff member oh okay

045so we just miscategorized here okay it says parent hi I'm Katie cyer um I have actually brought a section of the code of Virginia that I'd like to read aloud and that is section 22.1 6.1 menstrual supplies availability Public elementary middle and high schools a in as used in this section menstrual supplies means tampons are packed ad for use and connection with the menstrual cycle B each School Board shall make menstrual supplies available at all times and at no cost to students in such accessible locations as it deems appropriate in each Elementary School in the Local School Division C each School Board shall make menstrual supplies available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each middle and high school at the local school division this is not a recommendation

046this is state code and I've brought copies for each each of you um the code requires that these are provided free of charge at all times in all bathrooms at our middle and high schools um and we're not doing it this board has not done this um staff members are individually soliciting donations or we are purchasing these items out of our own pockets and yet even the donated supplies are not consistently stocked in bathrooms as required by code you cannot supplement this with donations it is a state mandate when passed by the general assembly the fiscal impact report stated that there would be no State fiscal impact because the cost would be born by local school divisions and now that you know the not code requirements you need to meet them given the number of

047bathrooms in each building the installation of dispensers just The Upfront cost is probably going to exceed $110,000 perhaps board members can solicit grants or donations that meet your political persuasion or you can return to city council for a budget amendment regardless of the funding source the school board must meet the state code personally I found that if people and or an organization offers resources for the benefit of the students the simplest thing to say thank you but many thanks to the EC glass students who sought to solve these unmet student needs and to defay the costs from Lynchburg City School Board and I'm looking forward to seeing this school board meet its statutory requirements at all schools in the division thank you cop okay um and so now that is the last of the staff

048member comments so uh the order of Precedence now goes to parents of which we have several um the first is Colleen lens each of you joined the school board for a reason rather it was because you wanted to bring prek to more kids close the achievement Gap or you're really good with fin finances and you thought you could help you had a vision for what you hoped to accomplish when you came here you have talked a lot about Vision in the last few years as LCS board Visions are amazing they help us know where we're going no matter what you cast a vision for a business a nonprofit a school system a vision does not start with destruction it starts with hope so let me cast a vision of Hope For You rebuilding and renovating

049all of our elementary schools and doing it for a fraction of the cost you may ask how would this happen just one state away in North Carolina movement Foundation is building beautiful schools for8 to 12 million I have personally walked through these schools as have many of my colleagues they are places that I would be proud for my children to go yesterday I dropped off a black folder to each and every one of you with your name on it in there you will find the information the contact information and more about these schools I've had extensive conversations with this Foundation they would love to work with LCS so let's get back to the vision let's start by asking city council for $15 million to rebuild Sandusky once you rebuild sanduski it takes away a lot

050of the issues of overcrowding in other schools because we won't be closed anymore there'll be more room you'll have a track record with a construction company that can build affordable buildings you can move and move to renovate all of the other schools that need it for a fraction of a cost this is a vision that LCS parents can get behind I know several of have you have said and this is a direct quot quote Chris faldi put your money where your mouth is only you can give him the chance to do that so ask for the $15 million for sanduski elementary not lump it in with anything else ask for it alone ask for them to stand behind the community they serve and rebuild a community because at the end of a day we are

051a thriving school that's what we've always been and can continue to be we can be a place of learning and growth and a place that many people in our community call family thank you uh Katie jurer or I'm sorry yes jurer is what it looks like good even my name is Katie jgler and I have been a Lynchberg resident since August of 2022 I've come to talk to you about the denial of Grant funds for the students of e EC glass I grew up in a Conservative Christian home and my faith in God has always been the most important part of my identity and the most important aspect of my life I was heavily involved in my church youth group and high school had adults who mentor mentored and encouraged me in my walk with

052God attended an Evangelical Christian college and surrounded myself with like minded conservative evangelicals in my experience though I felt disconnected I was ashamed to share a part of myself the fact that I'm gay I face judgment and fear for how my fellow Christians would treat me and respond to me if they knew that truth if they knew my truth and that is primarily because of the ways that my fellow Christians talked about the lgbtq plus Community using words like indoctrination grooming and Abomination I honestly wish I would have had a space where I could process what I was hearing and to know that I could be loved for who I am that God loved me for who I am maybe if I did I wouldn't still be working through the feelings that I'm unloved by

053God and hated by my brothers and sisters in Christ as a fellow Christian I urge you to consider the consequences of your words on this community and these kids especially as you discuss things like whether you're going to accept funds for a grant additionally I hope you know that I'm Not The Only Gay Christian in Lynchberg Virginia I can assure you that there's at least one member of your conservative Evangelical Church who is gay or trans so I ask excuse me whether they are open about it to themselves or you or not so I ask you would you tell that member of your church that they are an Abomination would you act in a way that makes them feel excluded unheard or judged or would you do whatever you could to love them accept them

054and support them I hope that you choose love Romans 15:7 says if someone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God who he whom he has not seen therefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God to the youth who are struggling with their faith and their sexuality I want to encourage you that your struggle does not make you any less loved by God your sexuality or gender identity does not change Christ's love for you additionally Galatians 5:14 says for the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement you shall love your neighbor as yourself thank you thank you um next is Megan Huffman good evening I

055can imagine that the VIN diagram of Lynchberg residents who watch and attend City Council meetings who also have a vested interest in watching and attending LCS Schoolboard meetings is probably a very small percentage who would choose to spend hours of their time in such a manner voluntarily well as an Engaged parent volunteer of two LCS students and a community advocate I fall in that overlap I am here to discuss what you might call strings attached when you listen to the city council meeting from last week and hear the comments from citizens defending councilman Marty misin from censure or removal from his position they each reference his heroic protection of our students from being indoctrinated and groomed by this evil it gets better Grant at the school board meeting I do not need to Foya Mr

056mion's communication to know there is a through line of false propaganda flowing from misch's keyboard to many of your inboxes likely there are indeed strings attached between many of your appointments to your positions to this very body and his bigoted and homophobic ideology and rhetoric that he spews in city council chambers every single meeting the misinformation that Miss Lowry and Mr dealul were sharing last meeting about how the Grant had branding and video viewing requirements were false they were false it is imperative that citizens and parents in this community speak up and shed light on this dangerous path we are headed down I do not want my children I do not want these children to be involved in a school system where one member of city council treats you all like puppets that is not

057the best interest of every child by name and by need to graduation and Beyond I am seriously beginning to question my six years of devotion dedication and defense of this school system with a leadership that is so blind to the needs of the very students that it serves again and again I'm seeing this board's decision-making rejecting our most vulnerable populations and making things worse for the kids who need our help the most there are over 2,300 comments at the end of the November 30th Washington Post opinion piece 2,300 comments the the the uh opinion piece is entitled lgbtq plus teens won a grant for their school adults sent the money back the majority of the comments encourage our e EC glass GS GSA students to write about this experience in their college essays and then

058move as far away from Lynchberg as they possibly can and never return to our backwards bigoted town to those students I want to say that these seven votes against accepting this grant are not representative of your Lynchberg Community there are so many of your neighbors and parents who are infuriated and will go to Great Links to protect you you are loved you are valued just the way you are we need your voices in this community and we most certainly need your votes to ensure that this leadership train wreck that comes with so many strings attached never happens again thank you um I just realized there is one name on the list for whom I don't know what their category is is is Kellen Knight here I'm just a citizen you're a citizen okay thank you

059okay so the next parent on the list is Carla Jones before you start my timer I was going to ask would it be possible for me to move back what I have to say um piggybacks on what Dr Roger Jones is going to say so it will make a lot more sense if he's able to go before me would it be okay if I just push myself back with the citizens well let's see where he uh stands here Roger Jones oh um yeah he's a Community member um and let's see you are the last parent so if you want to exchange places with him I'm sorry your name please Sarah I'm not seeing your name here Sarah best best b b c k number 13 ah there it is okay um you are also a

060Community member it says here I am actually a parent you're a parent am okay um can she go yeah if you'd like Sarah you go next then thank you I would also like to ask you I am a parent of former LCS students well I think what parent here means parent of current LCS students could you clarify that please in the in the record me look at how the wording is here um it just says parents/guardians so your your point is that that needs to be clarified in the policy yes and I think I should be allowed to speak as a parent because I has to speak over 10 days ago if we're going to do that I'm speaking our organization but I'm also a parent Contin okay I'm I I think I'm going to

061have to just follow the the list that I have here um Sarah please go ahead hello thank you for being here and listening uh my name is Sarah Beck and I am a psychology professor at Randolph college and an LCS parent the it gets better project was started in 2010 by lgbtq plus Advocate Dan Savage and his Husband Terry Miller with the goal of preventing lgbtq plus youth suicide several weeks ago I listened online as this school board discussed the slippery slope of accepting money from such an organization to be clear you all worried that accepting money from an organization with a goal of preventing youth suicide would somehow set a negative precedent or some kind of slippery slope I ask the board a slippery slope to what there is no downside to promoting mental

062health in this community we should all share the goal of reducing the risk of self harm and suicide in our teenagers I am an LCS parent although my children are still in elementary school this morning when I told my daughter why I was going to the school board meeting she told me we should raise money ourselves for this calming room she said it sounds like something they've had in her classrooms and it's really nice to have a space to wind down she also asked me why the school board is afraid of gay people I told her that I don't know but I think maybe they're just afraid and maybe they just don't know much about the LGBT community well many of us are here we're only a little bit scary and mostly not at all

063I am so proud of the gender and sexuality Alliance at e glass for envisioning a space to support not just their queer and questioning friends but all students at EC glass and I'm so proud that these local students successfully wrote a grant and received it I am embarrassed that our community is now nationally famous for going to the mat for ignorance and fear when we could be going to the mat to support mental health and suicide prevention to the board I say this please educate yourself on the increased risk of self harm and suicide in lgbtq plus populations and youth educate yourself I'll be happy to send you some research as a professor of psychology and a social scientist careful what you ask for though I will drown you in academic papers educate yourself about

064diverse identities and do not I beg you do not lead this community Comm with fear to the students at EC glass and every LCS School the community that I know and love here in Lynchburg is here for you you are my children's camp counselors lifeguards babysitters neighbors role models and we see you we are here for your journey of identity whoever you choose to be and to love and we will fight for you in this community thank you thank you okay now so um we we have a complicated situation because we've used our 30 minutes but some of that time was spent uh preceding the last speaker to talk about the sequence here so what I'd like to do um I what I'd like to do is honor Carla Jones request to have Mr Jones

065come first and then Carla can come back up Dr Dr Jones his name is Dr Dr Jones just says Roger Jones here there was another parent too that was representing a group that should come before them that's the only other parent here who that I have listed who hasn't spoken is Carla Jones but she's okay if we're going to argue about it we'll close a community the public comment period now let's do the Dr Jones Mr Jo Dr Jones would you please come speak more than 30 years ago I was asked by an LCS School Board member what was the unintended consequence of a policy I brought to the school board it's one of the most important questions I have ever been asked my comments tonight revolve around unintended consequences the current strategic plan ends

066at the end of this Academic Year and the new strategic plan may be the most important one ever approved by Lindburg City School Board as Peter Peter Ducker says culture eats strategies for breakfast culture drives a School Division and culture drivve schools you cannot improve School climate or create a great organization without addressing culture this school board creates that culture across the city by creating and supporting policies that lay the foundation for a great School Division it does not matter if you send school buses to bring parents to schools or feed them when they get there if when parents get there they do not like the way you are treating their children culture reflects your why purpose vision and values as a school board what is your why what is the school board's vision for

067the future what are the unintended consequences of creating a vision that addresses that does not address supporting every parent and every child are the standards of learning the floor or the ceiling how are teachers and principles recognized as two of the most important resources we have in this city what role do the Arts activities and Athletics play for strategic plans to be meaningful they must be driven by strategic thinking which includes four elements identifying strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats threats to me are the unint consequences of policy decisions that have not gone through a deep dive so tonight I ask you to consider some unintended consequences of board policy that you're going to have to make the school is the school division is requesting to come out from under the desegregation order I think you

068will find that coming out from under that order is not as simple as asking what are the UN unintended consequences that result from planning before you know you are are successful if the court allows you to come out from under the court order it is assumed you will create neighborhood schools if you don't take advantage of the really good idea already expressed of taking $15 million to renovate sanduski what are the consequ what are the consequences of the reallocation of sanduski students across the city what happens if housing patterns around schools result in elementary schools being predominantly all white or all black or having a Hispanic majority does this result in another lawsuit for violating the intent of the original court order public school choice is a positive statement and direction for school divisions with

069credit to Field of Dreams if you Bild what parents want they will send their child to city schools that is what we did in creating TC Miller Dunbar and darington is schools for Innovation we surveyed parents asking what a magnet school would have to look like for them to send their child we hosted 35 Community meetings and wrote The Magnet School Grant we built the program around what parents wanted parents supported and children came parents still support these schools and appreciate the choice what are the unintended consequences of closing TC Miller the parents take their children back to their base School s them to private school homeschool them move them out of the city or pay tuition to go to a neighboring School Division what is the intended conse or unintended consequence of taking away

070Choice nationally and Statewide schools of choice are what parents want this school division is positioned to be a leader in this movement you already have two elementary schools a ghost Center a middle school a STEM Academy and a governor school that are all successful schools are programs of choice Lindburg should be showing others how to do it not closing one of the schools schools have to play a role in comat in combating bullying and cyber bullying even off school grounds schools need to explore every option to prevent this from happening you've heard examples tonight that it does happen too many suicides are caused by these behaviors and such behavor increases absenteeism for those bullied at some point the rights of the victim of protected what are the UN point of order thank you your time

071is up thank you thank you now at this point I had uh Miss Jones had asked to trade her position with uh uh Dr Jones so I think she's entitled to come to to to make her comments I'm speaking on behalf of TC Miller PTO to finish where Dr Jones left off what are the unintended consequences of failing to do this and before you say schools have no authority to regulate off-campus Behavior readed Kowalski versus Berkeley counter fourth Circuit Court of appeals Universal prek should be addressed Lynchberg already has the a successful mixed delivery system for prek meaning that the 17 licensed private prek programs offer a state approved curriculum and receive state funding what are the unintended consequences of the school board continuing to discuss prek without engaging in a collective impact discussion of

072the best way to deliver prek in the city the key to your responsibilities as constitutional officers is to promote develop and improve public school education that means challenging the culture of public education in the city based on the 2020 census there are more than 2,000 young people of school age who are in the city in 2020 who are not enrolled in LCS the easy answer is to rely on the Wen Cooper study that stated parents were moving out of the city because they were limited single family housing are you sure that's the biggest reason that may be one reason but some parents are moving out of the city homeschooling are choosing private schools because they have certain perceptions of LCS we should be able to create safe schools where all children are accepted we should

073be able to create schools that focus on building developmental assets and identifying each child's unique talent strength and gifts we should be able to to build a system of public schools that keeps parents and students in the city rather than giving them an excuse to explore other options reading and math are critical if students cannot read and do math at grade level by the end of third grade it is challenging for them to catch up for students who are behind teachers cannot slow down instruction instruction has to be accelerated what are the unintended consequences of not creating programs that accelerate learning during the summer or after school this issue needs a systemic response what are the unintended consequences of not creating a powerful partnership with nonprofits and faith-based organizations that provide after school tutoring what

074would it not be best to share texts lesson plans resources and provide professional development for tutors what if with parental permission we put the tutors in direct contact with teachers to learn more about what the child needs parents are critical to the education of their child but it is important to understand that parents choose the parent in different ways there is no one way to parent every parent deserves respect regardless of how they parent recognize that what is divisive for one parent is critical instruction for another Your Role is to create policies that bring parents together not P them pit them against each other what are the unintended consequences of failing to do this now speaking specifically to TC Miller every board member has received an email with our latest proposal um and I want

075to read that briefly here by converting to a a hybrid Elementary School TC Miller can meet multiple LCS Schoolboard H School Board goals housing another much-needed preschool program as well as improving building utilization rates with prek and increased enrollment TCM will be home to 300 students serving vulnerable and diverse populations who deserve quality and Innovative education for preschool convert TC Miller to a prek to fifth grade elementary hybrid school we met with our principal and longtime counselor to work out logistics we have three preschool ready classrooms with no additional cost on the bottom floor this would house 54 preschool children 25% of the prek current weight lless population multiple classrooms allow prek teachers to have peer support an important factor named by Dr Edwards preschool in TC Miller a school known for its student engagement

076tightnit culture and excellent attendance will engage families positively in LCS early on in terms of long-term options MGT said TCM has room for expansion additionally a stream Grant could move stream into an outdoor bus providing another room for additional prek children however the proposal doesn't stop there using easy opportunities we can expand our elementary enrollment increasing the building utilization rates and pulling in more families the proposal to do so includes improving communication to open the wait list holding open houses and Innovation nights which have been very successful in the past sending home Flyers at preschools and Early Learning Centers and promoting the Lottery application process we can capture the 33% of families who are choosing private James River has seen record numbers of applicants and tours the last few months we also may be able

077to get more funding with s soq numb numbers I hope you will take heed to what Dr Jones shared and in the meantime while you are determining your strategic plan and discussing unintended consequences please vote to con to convert TC Miller to a hybrid school and commit to keeping it open thank you so we got five speakers left right uh if you want to extend I'll need a motion from the floor uh because our policy allows only 30 minutes and we've gone beyond that um a move the we extend the public comment how much or to allow those five speakers is that how many we have left two three four five I think S5 is what I count I second the motion is there any discussion on that motion mam call please call the r

078Mr jilo yes Mr Charles yes Dr day yes Dr gupter yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes M Lor yes motion C it the time is extended for 15 minutes go ahead five speakers well the motion was to allow all five speakers all there're a lot of time each okay I'm going to go through the uh names in the order that they are on the list that was given to me um so at the top of the list is Samantha cityy good evening members of Lynchburg City School Board my name is Samantha City I'm a parent of two students at Sheffield Elementary a spouse of a LCS teacher and a member of the Junior League of Lynchburg um so I would need an additional couple of minutes on prate org uh today

079I'm speaking on behalf of the period access Distribution Center otherwise known as the pad Center to address the issue of period poverty in our schools the recent school board vote on the 50 voices 50 states grant for EC glass has brought to light many issues one of which is free access to menstrual products in our schools period poverty is when people have limited to no access to period products due to limited resources according to a 2021 study conducted by you by cotex two and five people have struggled to purchase period products the number is exacerbated by the fact that menual products have gone up in cost year over year the average cost of menual products is $20 per cycle now that may not seem like a lot for you and I but every dollar counts

080when it comes to it additionally black and latinx people are most impacted by period poverty with 2.4 sorry 24.5% of Latin X and 19% of black people experiencing period poverty over the past year this contributes to furthering the achievement Gap among our students as a result young people are resorting to using substitute products such as toilet paper or paper towels which impacts their ability to learn or even attend school I know as a parent uh Sheffield Elementary has emphasized the importance of attending school regularly and on time many of our students are having to miss school because they do not have adequate period supplies that will get them through the day additionally there's still a stigma when talking about periods and period products especially in a young person's life is in embarrassing for students to

081admit that they were on their period despite the fact that this is a normal bodily function matter of fact there are adults who do not feel comfortable talking about it the first step to De stigmatize period is to bring awareness to the problem and to talk about it this is where the pad Center comes in the pad Center is a program of the Junior League of Lynchburg that was launched in the spring of 2021 we provide perity kits for immediate need to the community and also on a monthly basis currently we have over 180 subscribers to our monthly program since the beginning of this school year we have provided up to 400 period kits to LCS and we foreseen to provide more in the future Additionally the Junior League has raised awareness of period poverty

082in our community through our annual little black dress initiative which I believe I emailed the board back in October about that we are learning on a regular basis that this is a problem in Lynchberg it was disheartened to hear from E glass students about the lack of access to menal products especially since there's legislation in place that guarantees monstro products in our schools I won't be I won't quote that again y'all already have a copy of that from earlier our very own students recognize this as a need in the community in addition to the GSA Club at EC glass raising awareness of period poverty the National Honor Society at Heritage High School which was recognized earlier today is currently preparing a fundraiser supporting the path center with more projects coming down the pike that will

083address period poverty members of the board how are we f following the code of Virginia our young people have sought out a way to fund mro products in a safe environment yet the board has voted not to accept such funds it is important that students have access to menual supplies in order to confidently attend classes without fear of having period issues the pad Center will continue to partner with LCS to supply much needed products in order to reduce period poverty in our schools I ask that the board look into how mro products are provided at every school at all times and at no cost so that our students can learn and Thrive thank you for your time thank you um next on my list is Robert Floyd says Floyd here FL flood I'm sorry I'd

084like to uh thank the uh Dr Edwards and all all the members give me a chance to speak about behavior um I was talking to some kids that I work with at a school attorney School in Lindburg and the more that I talk to him the more I realize it's three sides to a story and these kids got good grades but 98% of them are over there for fighting putting the hand on somebody some situation and I thought about when I was young I used to get bullied I know it don't it don't seem like I would have got bullied too much but uh I did you know a lot and you go to their door and you tell them this person messing with me or this person picking with me and they listen but

085they don't hear you and that's what I gather when I talk to these young people over there because some of the things they said happen caused them to do certain things don't get me wrong I mean you know you got to do you know the right thing and not get punished but just listening to him you know and thinking about 95% of them look like me 95% and I'm saying to myself 95% look like me that's over here for Behavior problem and we've been talking about this off and on for years you know uh not saying that we have a lot of great kids right here a lot of great kids white black Mexican Spanish you call them we got some kids that got problems mentally but as soon as they do something the first

086place we sending them to the alternative school we setting them up for the pipeline everybody know what the pipeline is right you know from there to during from uh detention home from detention home to the penitentiary if some of them get there it might end up in the street with a bullet in the head or you know with the wrong people but the million dollar question how can we try to find out how we can find a solution to the behavior problem a million dollar question I don't have the answer because if I did I w't be talking about in there nobody up there has the answer because as long as kids get in trouble they'll be sent somewhere now I know the principal the guide and counsel teachers are the most important ones in

087that school some of the most important ones that teach that the kids go to but if they don't get no help from them who they don't get help from when they say something okay yeah he stay in trouble all the time no don't pay no attention to him then they go tell somebody else you know this person picking with me or this person messing with me they don't pay no attention to him as soon as they do something hey kick him out kick him out cuz he's the he's the problem not the ones that been picking on him but he's the problem and they just setting him up they end up somewhere he don't want to go that's the reason why I came today I didn't know exactly what was going on but it's been

088on my mind cuz I was that kid that was accused of su of DC glass and I lost basketball and football scholarship and then the person tried to apologize to me and said look come on I'm going to take you back to school you want to stop at the wi this stand and get a hot dog I said let me get out this car before I do something stupid I was accused of something that I didn't do how many kids that look like me has been accused of something they didn't do and end up over there to turn to the school or the detention home until you listen to three sides the outside the accuser side and the truth and find out it's totally different sometime than what they say cuz you know we don't

089listen to the kids a lot we think we know it all we we really don't know Jack anyway I leave it alone but I'm just saying and gentlem we have to listen to these kids today these kids are our future that's what we always saying and we talking about closing schools down because we ain't got no money and we talking about 3 3.45 million on the riverfront and we about ready to build something big you know but we can't fix a school over here that's tur I mean falling down and we got money allocated to do it but we talking about closing the school and these kids you know got more problems as it is when they go home cuz that's where it started the household but thank you think about what I said just

090a little bit thank you Mr thank you uh Gail Goldsmith is next hello thank thank you my name is Gail Goldsmith I serve as the priest of Trinity Episcopal Church multi-generational community that is all about flourishing God's belovedness for everyone and interventions for justice and I really hate to hear my loving God's name invoked a lot for Injustice it really bugs me but I'm not here to talk about that first I do want to thank the GSA and the students who have done tremendous advocacy work a 10 ,000 Grant that's amazing uh that's phenomenal work um thank you to thank you to them for everything that they've shared and for their bravery and for the heartbreaking stories that they told oh my gosh um these students spoke to you about panic attacks from bullying from

091lockdowns and fear of gun violence my heart breaks for them y'all sent the money back I there was a lot I didn't know about myself when I was in high school but I could have used a room like this my Dad was deployed as part of operation enduring freedom and I lost I lost time in the classroom and I lost concentration because I had panic attacks and I was sobbing anybody could use this room any of these students they designed something they designed this grant with generosity wholeheartedness and care for every other student in that building and the money got sent back I was so excited to see that discussion will continue on the agenda I'm really hopeful for it uh one principle of religion is that um we can always reconsider we can always

092repent we can always back it off we don't have to double down on anything I was really excited to see that that hope is still on the agenda here are some reasons to reconsider the sheer need for this room they wouldn't have written it it wouldn't have been awarded to them if they didn't deeply need it um you've heard powerful Grassroots voices from sanduski TC Miller for this grant invite you to respond for them not to Strings Attached not to special interest groups and not to astroturfing like the kind that um the manufactured outrage from AstroTurf groups that supports the yunan model policies you've heard offers and I'm sure your inboxes are full of lit reviews with best practices for student safety student flourishing student decisionmaking honoring their voices identity needs and their belovedness and

093their safety uh I don't want to repeat the Fantastic statistics you heard about the sheer cost of menstrual products um I gosh I I thought those would have been provided it's in the it's in the code and you know it's um 30 tampon cost between 7 and $1 oh right uh this is an anti-suicide intervention I hope you make it thank you okay we have we have two to go uh Margaret kick ligher good evening my name is Maggie kick ligher I am a proud graduate from EC glass High School where I served as my school board representative and the Central Virginia governor school I'm a current student at the University of Lynchburg and I grew up Walking The Halls of Lynchberg City schools and have had the privilege to sit beside the board before

094the stated mission of Lynchburg City Schools is every child by name and by need this school board failed to fulfill this Mission when it rejected the IIT better project Grant on baseless claims that the organization is to contentious and inappropriate this grant was earned through the exemplary work of EC glass students who in their application expressed that quote their school wasn't necessarily being sensitive to their needs particularly of the lgbtq plus students and quote this board's actions and decision demonstrate the truth of that statement the mission of the it gets better project is to quote uplift Empower and connect lgbtq plus youth around the globe they discourage suicide in promis that life will get better when the board rejected this grant you rejected these values citing Suicide Prevention and the empowerment of lgbtq plus youth

095as controversial and immoral you told the students you were proud of them but your actions revealed the hollow of those words it is insulting that you couch the rejection with lip service supporting these students when your actions maligned their identity as something shameful and indecent pleasin from making supportive or derogatory comments about the speaker if the school board was genuinely concerned about donations from controversial institutions then Liberty University would not be allowed to donate to the LCS Education Foundation since it has been the center of several scandals if the school board genuinely cared about misinformation then they would not spread it themselves by deliberately misrepresenting that the Grant had extensive branding attached to it or mandatory viewing of video supporting the organization's ideology if the school board valued the truth they would not base their

096rejection of this Grant on the supposedly corrupt intentions of the it gets better Project without proof beyond their own claims to do research it is an insult to this city and to these students when the board insists that they are proud of their efforts and that you support them while you smear an organization whose mission it is to empower and uplift them the board made a mistake when you rejected this grant but you have the opportunity to lead by example show humility and rectify that mistake you have a duty as a public servant to give these students the respect they deserve to embody your promise to serve every child by name and by need thank you I think want to go Gary Woodson Phil Phil stump has not sign stum I'm Gary Woodson the long-term

097resident of the city and I appreciate you hearing my comments tonight uh I want to give a special thanks to the Lynchberg Police Department for the wonderful work they've done in supporting that children during this school year and certainly in the past uh secondly I would like to thank the lynchford fire department for their and their Superior work that they have done especially with the recent fire at RS pain now I would like to thank the school board that recently uh passed on a 7 vote rejecting the Grant from it gets better uh it gets better project I would like to thank you for that addition I want to thank the school board for the hard work in developing a facility plan cut in two elementary schools this will benefit a shrinking uh School population

098and lower the tax burden on the Lynchburg citizens today I uh uh was got some information from the city of Lynchburg on taxes and we have a population that is over 65 disabled and certainly live below the poverty line uh this was started in two th tax relief in 2011 and every year the full Grant was given to the people that applied for it as long as it qualified but this year this year there's approximately 670 people have applied for that and it was $610,000 of money granted in tax relief we need to do things to help our uh citizens that pay the bills here uh next I'd like to have everyone that uh will be going to the comprehensive plan meeting uh for the city of Lynchburg starting next week I think it's next

099week go back if you didn't attend the August 31st uh economic uh planning between the city the council and Berkeley Group which has been hired by the city of Lynchburg to develop a plan that will uh help our citizens in the in the long run but uh in the in that uh meeting which I attended over at Miller uh education was a Core theme in the Roundtable discussion and we must address the school issue of educating their children with Core Curriculum in Basics science math reading and anology and technology we have seen there's one person stated we've seen our uh ranking in the state of Virginia move into the bottom tier in recent years this must change throwing money at a will not fix the schools as we have to as we have over the

100past couple of decades only good moral leadership will and in conclusion uh I have discussed slippage in the test scores with a with a former School Board member and a current School Board member we discuss importance of bringing Faith and family back into our schools thank you thank you um I think I think I miscounted the number of people who haven't spoken yet I see two more names here that I haven't gotten to they are uh Kellen Knight and Mr stump so Kell Knight will you come first and then Mr stump will be our last speaker St he doctor hi um my name is Kellen Knight I'm here speak on the refusal of the AIT better Grant there were several reasons given for this denial all of which were debunked in the discussion that followed

101first it was The Branding or concern over there being strings attached it was then made clear there were no strings attached and that the concern over branding was a misunderstanding of a simple acknowledgement there were then issues with the donor what were they we don't know these kids came to you with clear concerns statistics and testimonials show them the same respect by clear nearly stating your concerns and citing your sources it was brought up that this particular organization may be considered controversial on October 10th this board accepted a grant from J crew who has also received an acknowledgement there were no concerns to be had over there having products made in sweat shops their history with union busting or if they paid a living wage am I saying the board should have denied this grant

102no get the money but this isn't but is an overly over all objectively positive organization having a co-founder that at one time was a sex columnist worse than the previous concerns an analogy was made posing that if the donation were coming from Trump we would be in the same position let me be clear queer people are not a partisan issue Up For Debate I am here your students are here lastly when discussing a board funded room it was said that the room shouldn't be associated with any particular group of students or organiz ganizations stating that these children deserve neutrality to free this contribution that the school wouldn't have without their hard work from any ties to the GSA is not neutrality it's AER your personal attaboys towards the GSA are nothing but a spit in

103the face without the action and support to back it up this is about more than a room it is about these students right to be regarded with the same respect and consideration of their their peers the only assumption to be made is that this grant was denied solely due to its ties to the lgbtq community I know you care about these students prove the negative emails you got wrong stand up for your queer kids they need you thank you thank you okay uh Dr stump my name is Phil stump I'm the proud parent of three LCS graduates who had a wonderful education here and I want to thank the the students for their enormous courage and I want to urge the school board to reconsider their decision to reject the it's it gets better Grant

104in rejecting the grant it rejected our students who themselves have experienced rejection and bullying I can empathize with them because my own grandson was in a similar position in another school in another state and the help that he got the support in that school may have saved him from self harm and even suicide the board's rejection was precipitated by New School Board member Christian depal joined by two other school board members new school board members both I believe are members of Thomas Road Baptist Church my wife is very accepting of queer people her late brother having been gay when she heard about these people's objections to the grant she simply asked what are they afraid of I would ask Mr depal the same question what are you afraid of you surely do not need to

105fear queer students you do not need to fear the granting organization because of its support for queer students who have been bullied and and harassed by people who believe they are supporting religion I heard some members make illusion to the idea that the grant called for grooming queer students I have no idea what that means no one can make another person queer it appears that a number of board members believe that young people have a choice about their sexual orientation there is widespread agreement among Educators and health professionals that this is not the case the fears of board members reflect a deep misconception of the role of religion in public schools the religious beliefs of Schoolboard members are irrelevant to the education public school students when Puritans immigrated to North America to escape religious persecution

106by the Anglican Church they often tried to impose their own religious beliefs on others after they arrived the Baptist Roger Williams spoke eloquently against this hypocrisy and Thomas Jefferson drafted the statute of religious liberty that forbade such hypocrisy in Virginia how ironic that some of our school boards members seem to believe that they can impose their religious beliefs on the operation of our Public Schools we can and must do better and I believe we can it became clear during the meeting that the majority of the board felt guilty about rejecting the concerns of the students this led the board chair Dr gup Gupta to Pro to offer to fund the requests of the students personally by donating the money that would have been provided by the Grant I commend him for this and I hope

107he will follow through with his pledge especially since he assured us that it was given with no strings attached the students and their faculty advisers assured the board that there were no strings attached to the it it gets better Grant is the board doubting their word Dr gupta's generous gift would not erase the board's rejection of the students I urge you to vote again and this time to accept it gets better Grant and affirm our students thank you thank you thank you Dr D next is finance report Dr Edwards all right um our October 2023 Finance report Mr senson is online I believe so Mr senson is online good evening everyone uh but I'll just take it and if there's any further questions he might be able to answer that um so you have a

108updated board summary I did update it today because I just I noted a a change that needed to be made on that uh just an eror in a number um related to the incumbrances um you'll note that we are generally in line with our encumbrances to date as well as our revenues as we were last year again as we will mention uh the revenues uh related as a percentage of where we are uh this year versus last year is related to the contingency fund that this the city council set up um in order to reduce the funds available to operating costs as well that's why it shows that difference so um certainly take any questions may have on the finance report I have a question um so I'm looking at the uh statement of expenditures

109and um see there were a couple categories where um while the while the okay so let me be specific the the um Administration attendance and health category um function 2200 the personal services is uh overextended by 55% 155% is what it shows in the final column um the overall balance for administration is is is okay it's at 104% but I'm just wondering what the explanation is of that excess in that particular sure I I'll confirm this my suspicion is it's probably related to health insurance costs okay I'll confirm that okay and I think um security is the same the uh the on the second page the bottom line total non-instructional costs it's showing budget used 6,990 per. um that is that really right 6000% used I'm not sure what uh so this is a uh

110these are site improvements and so that's going to be related to encumbrances that from the previous fiscal year will be there so that'll be that'll be rectified as those those journals are gone back yeah it's so extreme that I'm not really worried about it because there's got to be an explanation and if you look just at the dollars numbers is about it's about $90,000 yeah okay um so let me see if I had any questions on the other parts of the report I did not that's the end of my questions thank you other questions going back to health insurance I'm just going to ask 16 so are we you know the the deficit if you look at it the year receipts were 3.6 and um the SPs were still higher are we you think we're

111tapering off and moving in the right direction to equalize I I think we have a challenge in health insurance again this year and now we're going to talk about that more next week um but we will have as we've continued to uh sort of dive into this budget um we're we do think we have a couple challenges around there uh so we'll we'll dive into that more next week and then uh but but we will have that increase of fee next month which will help some starting next month yeah thank you next one is a consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda item I'll move that we approve the consent agenda my second any discussion M cler would you please call the RO Mr J yes Mr yes Dr day yes

112Dr Guta yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr depal yes thank you the next one is School Board member reports finance and Facilities Dr day okay so as we all know um we have begun the the budget process we're going to hear a a bit more about that in a little bit from uh Mr watera um the most recent meeting of the finance and Facilities committee was November 21 and our next scheduled meeting is January 16th um what we will get a little bit later in this meeting is largely a uh uh the same information that was given to the finance and Facilities committee meeting at its November 21 uh meeting and our understanding is a week from tonight uh we will get some additional in information um the committee has not formulated any

113specific recommendations at this point because we are newly in receipt of this information as well um that's all I have to say thank you uh Governor school I think Mr depal you doing it for Miss Lowry Miss Lowry said uh that um there is going to be a governor school meeting tomorrow and that she will have an update next month she was she was not she did not have anything for tonight anyways thank you Laurel Dr Carter our meeting is tomorrow so I have a report in January STEM Academy Dr Carter our next meeting is in January next year bye Mr depal and yes uh we have the breakfast which turned out well um very good food not that we had anything to do with it but U it was well attended I thought it

114was a little bit sparse for the fact that it was a complimentary breakfast but our next meeting is going to be held in uh January so we will have a report for you at that point Thank you lscr Mr trust see we had our meeting on November 27th at that time due to scheduling conflicts with the legislators uh we went ahead and decided to cancel the legislative breakfast for this year in its place uh we made a commitment to go to um what I call Lobby day or lobbies day up in DC I mean sorry in um Richmond we're scheduling appointments with our legislators we're going to going to meet there and discuss our legislative priorities with them as far as what lacra would like to do after that particular event we want to turn

115our attention to not only monitoring the uh legislation that's going through the general assembly we also want to volunteer um some things in terms of volunteering prior you I'm sorry prioritizing volunteering in our school we want to get the community and the volunteers out from the community to help us with respect to um education of our children um and that was what we did our next meeting uh apps out is January 9th all right thank you uh beon of Hope Mrs Preston and Mr Andrews I think is up there's nothing new to report thank you Education Foundation Mr trost and Mr Jalil no new no updates at this time uh ad hoc discipline and policy Review Committee Dr D um we have not met since our last board meeting our previous meeting was November 2nd

116our next meeting is January 25 so there's nothing new to add beyond what I reported atev thank you um can I make make something on that committee um can I make a comment about a public comment I'm sorry is it appropriate on the committee I think about the yes about our about our process the committee okay yeah we've been doing a lot of good work with changing of of policy we making it tighter um with the I I really enjoyed um I think it was Mr Floyd from the AL head he made sense he one comment he made is that the first thing we do is send them to all Ted that's not the first thing that we do and I just want to bring it up for the board and for the record that

117there is a a an extensive process of of evaluating U student Behavior and the policies that we're putting into place are being straight are being followed better than records have shown in the past so I just want to say that I'm I'm happy to be on that committee happy to see the work that we've been doing and I think it was Dr Waka came in with some uh good numbers that were showing that the new policies are making a difference so to say that um we directly put any child I I'm not even going to go by gender or by race any child uh there's a there's new process through this through the system and I'm I'm I'm proud that we're working on that and I wish I had a chance to I know we

118can't talk directly to the uh speakers I wish I had a chance to just sit sit down and show him that we do have a process and it's not it's not that way thank you academic success committee Mr J uh yes sir we are going to have our next meeting on the 12th of December and we'll be making a lot of uh discussions on what we should be doing for the students one of the things that we're going to cover are the subjects that should be in our schools that are not and I'll just say a couple of the things that we're going to discuss uh taxes great subject that could be in schools coding Insurance uh basic home repair self-defense social etiquette personal finance public speaking I think we have speaking uh Stress Management

119things like that um we want to be able to uh present something that's good and we'll give the report in January thank you next item is M1 50 voices 50 states Grand followup I'll give the floor to Dr Edwards and Dr D do you want to take a break I would like to take may we take a break yeah Take aak 5 minutes break we reconvene after 5 minutes okay good all right thank you we're back in we're back in session um you were we left at item M1 50 voices 50 state Grant followup so I'll give the floor to Dr Edwards and Dr for updates yeah all right thank you um first let me just um um publicly State because it has been brought to our attention um several times tonight but also before

120so we are already in the process of rectifying the menstrual products in the bathrooms um talk to Dr woda and our facilities personnel and yes we will make that happen the way it is supposed to happen by code and that is already in process so I do appreciate everyone who brought that up um to to say uh to talk about that that being said I'm also grateful ful for our partnership with pad because um they have been helping assist students in need and we want to continue those types of Partnerships um and third just uh express my gratitude for students who did write a grant as a person who writes grants I know how very difficult that is um and you aren't always awarded a grant after you've spent hours and hours writing one so

121one of the things that we teach here is writing and clearly our kids know how to do that very very well persuasive writing and was able to get the Grant and that is a skill that we certainly want to um support our children and say uh kudos to for their ability to do that and those of you in the business World understand the importance as does this board in writing grants and achieving grants um because we've done that a couple times so just to cycle back to the last board meeting one of the things that um this board expressed uh and I believe it was mentioned that even Dr gupto wanted to donate um funds where are there ways other ways to fund the safe School safe space in the school um so a couple

122things uh we have done since the last meeting uh I'm going to talk about one and then attorney towns and Dr day will talk about the second one but after um hearing board member requests to uh support and donate as well as parents amilies uh community members have also reached out and expressed that they want to uh donate to support um the EC glass safe space um I reached out to the Ed Foundation who one of their missions is equity I had a nice conversation with Julie Doyle MC Frankfurt and Dorne wise and they have also agreed to be a flow through agent for anyone who wants to donate funds to the EC glass safe space safe room in in our schools so again I'm very grateful to our partnership with the Ed foundation and

123want to thank them personally um for meeting with us um and acting as a flowthrough agent for those of you who don't know the uh Ed Foundation has done that on several occasions for other opportunities in partnership with us where they've acted as a flowthrough agent where they collect the funds they don't fundrais for it they merely accept the checks and then turn the checks over to us to distribute to to um the school so they have agreed to do that so for those of you who have reached out to me um wanting to do that uh that is an option for you to do um and all of the Ed Foundation information is on our school website um or you can still reach out to me and I can give you that information the

124second thing that we discussed at the last board meeting was whether or not um it was a conflict of interest for school board members to donate and for that we reached out to attorney towns because as you know um Dr guper and several other board members expressed interest in donating we want to make sure that we do things correctly so we reached out to attorney towns to talk about the procedure for getting an advisory opinion and I believe she also shared that with Dr da but attorney towns are you there yes I am and yes I did share that information with Dr dayve the process of how to uh ask for and receive what's called an advisory opinion from the Virginia conflict of Information Act so Dr day has uh started that process and has

125SP an advisory opinion on the issue of if a school board member can make a monetary donation to the school division so hopefully the board will receive guance on that issue soon so let me just uh say that U first of all that um attorney towns instructed us that uh the request to the Commonwealth Attorney for an advisory opinion on this needed to come from a member of the board I volunteered to do that uh because I was not one of the individuals who expressed an interest in financially making a contribution uh so I thought I was sort of a neutral party there I wasn't asking for a benefit um on my own behalf that that email was communicated to the uh Commonwealth attorney's office this morning uh and she will receive assigned paper copy

126of my letter making that request tomorrow um and then we just wait until we get an opinion on that and that will clarify for us uh whether it's uh legally appropriate or acceptable for individual board members to make contributions to the school district specifically on this issue thank you now we move on to item N1 uh Dick Sporting Good Grant Dr Edwards sure certainly uh Dunbar Middle School submitted a Grant application um to Dick Sporting Goods in July of 2023 it was for $5,000 and just to to remind everyone that any grant that is $5,000 or more comes to this school board for review and approval um 4,900 who want to support our schools so uh back to dumbar uh they did do a Grant application to the exporting Goods they were awarded Grant funds

127for the purchase of um athletic equip equipment to support the DMS athletic programs specifically volleyball and then as the funds allow other teams um as appropriate questions for Dr Dr Carter well not so much this grant but going back to the 50 5050 5050 do we um will that have we do we contact the individual the judge that wanted to donate money for the grant I think I sent it to attorney town so all those emails are taken so she will follow up with that with the judge okay we we to because she can donate to the Ed Foundation which is what we were waiting for question for Dr Edwards um so we were uh I don't know what word to use uh told that we needed to be consistent in the scrutiny we gave

128to uh agencies offering a grant um we uh this uh particular agenda item just appeared very recently ly on our board agenda I think most of us have not had a chance to scrutinize the details um but um so I think before we take any action on this we need to be very careful to understand if there are any stipulations attached to this grant um and uh with regard to the uh 50 voices 50 states Grant we also had a budget that was attached to that that uh was part of our deliberations um we have a total here and the statement that uh it's to go to a volleyball and other teams um but is there a more specific budget that was provided as part of the Grant application I did not get a specific

129budget only that it was primarily you can apply for the grant up to that amount um and you had to have a um be a school or get a have a team and they they pointed out the volleyball team as first but if there were any additional funds left over they wanted to use the addition funs to support other athletic teams so is this for purchase of equipment solely for purchase of equipment yes that's what it says okay okay well it says support the teams and so I didn't mean it says to purchase athletic equipment for dunar athletic programs okay okay I see that now thank you uh I agree with you if we apply one standard to one we have to apply for a everybody yeah so there's not if it gets better project

130we were worried about branding so we should be worried about branding here too was that really the issue of branding or was it the issue of the source source it was because I when it comes down to let's say putting in a u advertisement in the hill Toppers um Publications for or being a supporter of the football team um if you give money you should should be able to be recognized I not a clear clear the clear the room if it is about the source has nothing to do in my opinion in my presentation had nothing to do with um W with with putting a sign him has has nothing to do with whether dicks puts their name on it nothing had to do with the source I never made mention about required videos or

131anything else as a string I don't even go to church so I didn't use that as a string but my point is that if it is a an issue of putting a name on something if I do it for advertising I'm gonna put my name out there with my business and whether it's I get a tax write off for it that's not a conflict of interest that is a standard standard offer opportunity from the the IRS that's being that's allowed for anyone that chooses to make that contribution so being recognized is not a string it's not a problem whether it's dicks and I did a cursory review of dicks and I found nothing but I still think we all should make our own uh value judgment as to whether it's appropriate I like the idea

132if there's something with sweat shops maybe we shouldn't be supporting people that do things with sweat shops I agree with that but when it comes right down to all these with all the misinformation is coming out on all on all the things that we've been hearing and receiving you know let's let's let's put it right to where it's supposed to be and there's nothing wrong with being recognized there's nothing wrong with with donating and getting a tax right on if you have a problem with the source that's what we need to discuss and if something's wrong with Dex I would be just as much please yep continue please if if there's something wrong with Dick's Sporting Goods please no we we talked about otherwise you'll have to leave the room go ahead uh then then

133let's bring it up and let's discuss it and that's what this is all about Dr Gard I see this is an action item I would like to make a um to move that we um that we accept the $5,000 Grant from Dick Sporting Goods there's a motion on the floor to accept $5,000 Grant there a second to that motion be before we before we vote on the motion I think that that part of the concern was well I'll say for me part of the concern with the with the first I need a second to start a discussion are you seconding the motion uh the motion has been made it needs a second for discussion so there's no second then the motion dies okay I'll second the motion so we can proceed with the discussion go

134ahead Dr M pres go ahead you have the well the the question I had and this is more in regard to the to the 5050 was we need to ensure that the funds that are appropriated are being used in an equitable fashion if if you will that it's not something that's going to be determined by the gender the economic status whatever of the students and that was my hesitancy with with the with the 5050 because so if we're going to have a a a room a safe space at EC glass is that safe space going to be a space that can be used for every student any student or a safe space going to be provided equitably so that all students are are privileged to to the same you know to the to to the

135same um benefit and so that was that was what my concern was so I guess my question is whenever we and maybe that's that's something we need to discuss whenever we are given the ability to appropriate some funds there ought to be some specific questions that we ought to either formally ask ourselves or we ought to ask ourselves in committee before we before we choose to vote on them you know what's it going to be used for is everybody going to have the benefit of it uh is this going to be is this going to be the fair usage of of funds am I making any sense at all okay because I think that was part of the concern that that we had because we got a lot of emails from different factions about whether

136we should or should not accept this money but I think part of it was because we hadn't talked about how's this money going to be used who's going to be the determined Miner what's going to be the benefit to every student because that's what our mission is every student by name and by need until graduation not just these students or those students or the students that live in this community or whatever and I think there was some lack of clarity in that regard and I think that led to some misunderstandings I'll put it that way so what what I'm hearing from you is um there was a lot more information provided with the GSA Grand their budget and everything which is not here in this current uh information I think I think we just need

137to make sure that it's always clear regardless of what the grant is so my question is are there specific questions that we should be asking about this one that we don't have answers to yet because if there are questions we want to answer before resolving this we need to wait till we get those answers okay and I don't know that I'm the only person that can answer that question right the the in the other case I think that the questions were more obvious they were more apparent I don't know that there's a specific question about Dick Sporting Goods other than we want to make sure that whoever's the the fun of these grants is an equitable business firm individual whatever we need to ask those kinds of questions and there were more questions about the

138previous donor than there are about this one but that's not to say that we shouldn't ask the same questions about every donor that comes about to make sure that we cuz I can't just make the assumption that because Dick Sporting Goods have been around a long time that they're always you know am you know we we got to be fair and and and and Equitable yeah that makes a lot of sense thank you um there's a rotary club saying is it helpful is it true they have a certain amount of um kind of a litness test for for that which is right or good I was just happen to have this here as far as thoughts if you have a thought you should say to yourself is it true is it absolutely true how does

139this thought make you feel is that a productive thought anyway it's just about having the same amount of uh questions for every organization that we deal with um that I would say in in the line similar to this does it follow LC's policy is it helpful to the student body as a whole is it come does it come with strings attached etc etc those types of things and I think that should apply to Dick Sporting Goods as well as other organizations so that's a good idea so Mr TR was yeah I just agree I think we need a consistent application of whatever standard we're going to apply and for me there is an issue with respect to branding I don't want to see branding asso whether it's dicks I mean or whomever I want to

140be consistent certainly uh think that's the most PR and I believe Preston that's kind of what you're at we whether it's a template whether I don't want to take it for granted that I know what Dix is about um and certainly I think this one's a little bit simpler but I would like to see a budget attached with to any kind of uh Grant request this is what we're going to spend the money on um in this one it says volleyball equipment but you know are they buying Nets and I don't know if we need that level of detail certainly we asked that of uh the GSA and they provided that level of detail and I applaud them for that I think to be consistent in our application of our um review of these processes

141we should if we're going to set that level of detail upon the GSA we should have that level of detail for all the grants it just it's it's fair and we should probably receive the same information that the U the gets better project has received as well from the the school the the club I agree we cannot have two set of Standards one for GSA and one for everybody else that's right it should be be the same standard which applies for everybody so um personally uh just as individual School Board member i' like to see a detail just like the GSA has provided us yes um so you just want to know what the $5,000 will be spent on if they can give us some more itemized okay um and should that money be spent

142on the the individual needs let's just say and I don't know but if a student doesn't have whatever equipment they need so they want to reserve those funds to get that equipment for that student you're you're you're imagining a situation where one student can afford uh athletic shoes and another can't and and is it okay for the money to be spent on the student who has different financial needs I yes I don't know specifically what they want to get for so it sounds like we're sounds like we're asking for a bit more information before we act on this is that is that what I'm hearing and May and maybe even what the donor's expectations are exactly yeah yeah well I think with this one in particular if you go to their website you can kind

143of click on there and fill out an application I don't know that I would get something back from the actual donor unless it's just a generic here is the information on our site if that's what you want I can send you a link to where they say organizations can apply for Grants unless you want something from a person I have an idea why don't we just ask everyone who writes a grant to ask those questions to the donor um do you have any other stipulations uh do we have to do any kind of branding would you like this or that you know a few questions to every every Grant wrer so there must be some kind of contact person for this grant sometimes they're online aren't most grants don't they articulate what they need to

144be used for and that's what I thought depends sometimes we get funds like we did for the art um to and they said just here's some money um actually when we got the money for um what is it a bath where the teachers got funds it didn't the teachers got to decide what they wanted to use the money for so each teacher got I think $500 I'm not sure from the auto dealership yes and there was no official somebody wrote to get like I need eight pencils that was a voluntary donation 13 pens yes yes so it just depends on what the school board wants well but it just lessens the chance of misunderstanding yeah and I think that's I think that has been problematic in the past that that we had some misunderstandings about

145what some funds were going to be used for or how or or whatever and if if all of that were were stated clearly at the beginning then that perhaps would have would have not been as complex as it turned out to be Dr C um I just the grants are um a lot of times this one may not has been as difficult to obtain but grants take time and this is just not a good look that we keep on turning these grants down or we keep asking for I was talking to another other school systems have their grants that have to be approved by the board way up there 20 or 30,000 more than that and they're like we wouldn't spend our time on a $110,000 grant they definitely wouldn't spend their time on a

146$5,000 Grant but we we did so much scrutiny for the other one that's why I ask are we're going to do this for everyone but some of these don't we don't need all of this what you're suggesting is maybe we need to review the policy of the threshold how much the threshold for well definitely that that's a definite yes some of these don't need to come to us that is K H z-r yeah khz we just reviewed it but we can certainly do it again yeah that's something the policy work group can look at other discussion Mr Jal I have a couple IDE ideas um perhaps we could ask for a reporting to the board of any donor that offers multiple grants or any grants that are donated multiple times to uh any entity in

147LCS and also that we require that anyone who writes a grant for us uh ask us first that would save a lot of time if we could discuss it beforehand whether or not we want to pursue that or allow them to pursue that would save a lot of time Dr D um there's one of a policies that concerns donations and I'm not sure if the if it's the one if it's if if it's khcr or another one that talks about the the cut off point refers not to individual donation amounts but to the total donation uh offered by that individual over the course of a fiscal year I don't and I'm not off the top of my head remembering which policy had that kind of specificity in it as far as the motion that's on

148the floor seems to me that the issue is whether we want to ask for additional information before we act on it or not so are you making a friendly Amendment to the motion I think I think it's understood what we want the motion on the floor can stand on its own if we want to accept it fine but we don't want to set a precedent of of different types of criteria for different groups so so if we vote down if we don't vote for the the motion to accept then we can work along have a motion to uh do the review for this and have it uh um considered another another meeting so or another way to do it is just postpone the action on this and give us uh at least a week until

149our next meeting to uh to formulate questions and try to get answers I'm saying you're making a friendly Amendment no if Dr car I guess I'm making a motion to postpone the vote till next week to give us time to or she can just re would you would you open to it died didn't no I don't no it was seconded I seconded it that's why we're having this discussion let's call for a vote all right call for a or restate it please um Dr Carter made a motion to accept the $5,000 Grant from Dick Sporting GS thank you could you please call the word Mr jilo no Mr trust no Dr day no Dr gter No Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston no Mr depal no motion fails so may I make a comment this is

150not intended I don't think the board's intent is to uh completely refute or refuse this grant we want to establish a better procedure before we before we adopt it since we have been asked to be consistent with the way we handle all grants and that's because the 50 voices 50 st's Grant was such a sensitive issue for us and uh we were I think very appropriately told that we need to be consistent with our policies and so we are now trying to do that if that 50 voices 50 states Grant hadn't come first we wouldn't be handling things this way but that has sensitized us to this issue and so I think our intent is to return to this at a future date after we have formulated exactly what we information we want to have

151in hand before we approve a acceptance ofic Grand we cannot have two set of Standards I agree we cannot put under microscope a a grant from a lgbtq GSA group and then let everybody go by the door with a blind eye uh with closed ey we got to be fair and consistent in our decision making so in that uh is there a motion do I need a motion to reconsider or what will be the process you parliamentarian motion that has been defeated can be brought up again at a future meeting okay right good just be you just make the motion again at a future meeting just so I'm clear on what the expectation for me and obviously the dunar staff am I waiting until you give me a list of questions or am I just

152sending them an email saying can you give me a budget and it's the budget that you want or are you formulating additional questions Beyond just what the $5,000 is just going to purchase and I I think what I've heard the board say is they want to formulate a list of questions that they will use uniformly in the future so I think we are going to need to formulate some questions and this was not discussed in our agenda prep meeting no this item was added after the agenda prep meeting so that's why I don't want public to feel that what are these guys doing goofy staff here had an agenda prep and then trying to discuss it just for a disclaimer this item was added 2 3 days ago after the agenda prep meeting so that's

153why we are having all this discussion so we'll bring it back uh at an appropriate time in future may and may I just suggest that I if people would like I will be sort of the Clearing House for suggestions for questions to be asked of uh granting agency so anyone who has ideas and questions that we ought to be asking is sort of a routine basis whenever we're asked to review a grant that's $5,000 or more send those questions to me I will try to collect them circulate them and then hopefully in short order we can have um a list that will help us be consistent in the future thank you uh item and to yeah Dr was there is this current volleyball team waiting for this um or was Dumar really looking meeting this

154I they just sent it to me and and you guys know we put these on the agenda as we Reed them when they come in and they don't always have the timing of coming in on the Monday before the Tuesday um agenda prep this one did come in on Thursday it was an email just sent to me that said here and that has been pretty much the procedure they've sent it over saying hey we've had this opportunity here it is and can you please put this information on the board agenda and that's what we have done in the past I I do want to say just so that the board and the public is aware that most of our teachers teachers and staff when they are applying for Grants um they are doing it on

155their own time um generally after work or something like that so there's not an additional compensation that they get for the time and effort that they put into um writing grants and then even the ones who come to the board meetings to answer questions thank you item into high school program of studies Dr Edwards okay so program of studies um we have done done this for the last at least the years that I have been here usually in November um and December because our high school students start to schedule their classes in January um and our counselors meet with the high school students and the their parents um so we'd like to give them an opportunity to to look at the program of studies we do have uh Mrs Cruz uh who is here our

156director of instruction and program um the board had reached out through m Pew and some questions um we made some changes um and some um some additions um and I will turn it over to miss PE and Miss Cruz so you go over that sure um thank you board and you tonight we are presenting the uh proposed high school program of studies for the um 20242 Academic Year um thank you to those board members who sent questions um Miss Cruz and her team um were gracious in taking the time um to answer those questions in a a Time manner so I really appreciate um the work I do want to recognize um Laura castler who is our supervisor over counseling and um she led along with Miss Cruz the efforts uh along with teachers and

157counselors um and administrators at the high school level so I'll let Miss Cruz take it over thank you so much good evening to the board um again I want to give a big thank you to uh Miss Laura Kesler who is our supervisor of of conduct and counseling she has played an intrical part in making these adjustments throughout the program of studies and what you'll see is a brief overview you all have had a copy of that and thank you so so much for the questions and allowing us the opportunity to clarify and if you do again have questions outside of this we're happy to address those and answer those as well um we go so again we're just providing a quick overview um of opportunities and there were not a ton of changes to

158the program of studies more so to extend opportunities for our students due to the overall goal is is providing our students those opportunities throughout their educational career and our high school program of studies what that is is essentially a backwards design for our middle school and Elementary School students and how can we better provide uh what Beyond uh graduation looks like for our students what do those opportunities look like so some of the oversight uh Career and Technical education changes um and we did note the pages on here for you all to be able to reference as well um when you're reviewing this document or as you continue to review but some of these are specifically name changes not changes to what is being offered or they are extensions to those particular uh those particular

159courses or tracks um such as the drafting course that's just an extension um of offering that through that architecture and construction um under Human Services for cosmetology with uh surveying our school counselors and administrators and them speaking and working with our uh teachers in the building what are their needs to grow their program to extend that and cosmetology is just an extension to look at uh more opportunities or offerings instead of just one and two what does one two and three look like uh and under that technology education and Engineering the big push for game design and advanced game design and having uh having an individual that's able to teach that uh within our buildings and explore those opportunities for our students and again what we can provide pathway wise uh to our students even

160coming from the middle school and exploring some of those options and opportunities some of the additions again from feedback from um from our Educators and from our school counselors and administrative teams one of those was the push for General music and uh having having students at the high school level who may have been not exposed at the at the elementary or even Middle School level that say Hey I really want to get into music and I want to learn more about it and I want to explore so how can we support those students who have reached the high school level and we came back with the general music overview so that more students could be involved and we could get them on a pathway that would support their their interest uh throughout the high school

161um instructional opportunities another one would be under that newspaper and yearbook journalism a lot of our students and we've seen tonight are wonderful uh wonderful writers and they have a lot to offer so how can we again provide some opportunities that would extend um in the pathways that we already offer and journalism was one of those that was uh not only did take to the table for consideration to bring to you all for consideration but it's one that was high level of interest and has been over the last couple of years um for our students so we wanted to make sure that we brought that in addition to for the 2425 school year as well so again I'm happy to answer any questions that I can again that's a that's a very broad overview uh

162you all have had the opportunity to look at at several things and I just I just want to say um on behalf of our schools I have had the tremendous opportunity and I can I cannot express opportunity enough to be in our school buildings and how refreshing that is to be around our wonderful wonderful kids and our wonderful staff over the last several days uh myself and several members of our cni team and our senior leadership team have been in classrooms and the work and exploration and just intuitiveness and class and respect that our students and LCS have I I want to give them a a big Kudos um we were at all of the middle schools today and observing and kids are producing things um our eighth grade students at dumbar are are making

163um using using some uh laser design they are designing these coins that go to their fellow students to celebrate their academic and athletic success our CTE uh CTE courses in those buildings are FL flourishing the growth um just the overall knowledge I'm just so proud to have had the opportunity to go in and see them and it makes me want to do even more than I did that is my why every day and I know that's our team's why every single day are our kids and why we get up and do what we do every single day and to provide them opportunities and the program of studies and just exploration of even more in dual enrollment and more outside opportunities um um that is why we do what we do every single day so thank

164you for the opportunity to come up here and speak to you about the program of studies which is just one small small piece um of what we can do for our students and what we can continue to explore through that backwards design model for all students thank you yes ma'am just my question is when it comes to very specific courses like the one that you had up here about game design I can imagine there's only a very few students between the two high schools that maybe would be interested in in that course or or something similar to that are there going to be courses like that that will only be offered at one of the schools or at certain times of day because I I would think that finding a teacher or finding two teachers

165to cover that one course is going to be somewhat challenging so are there going to be some collaborative kinds of classes or what will happen yes ma'am so um to answer that in in three phases yes is the the overall is we are going to address that uh number two we do have um do we do have Robbie douly is wonderful and we do have somebody that does teach game design and is able to do that so not we don't have to go out and seek and find that um that's a lot of the work he does behind the scenes and these conferences and just looking for um looking for individuals who will support interests that have been shown um from our students not only just our students but throughout the region in needs for

166that type of work outside again that Beyond mechanism but if we were not able to um if we were able to support one or two courses we would then start to do the work which he's already done Robbie has already done that but to do the work to support other needs within that Career and Technical education field that uh field that would be um within that certification realm as well if it's at one school if it's at two schools and it's a split schedule we'll do that if it's primarily at 1 and we need to work on transportation to make sure that those students meet that we will do that as well to make sure that they get those opportunities thank you Dr D what's the the procedure for adding a new course so a

167lot of it is to talk about with our teachers who are teaching that making sure that that individuals have the endorsements to do that and make sure that we have our staffing that could that can meet those needs um so there's a lot of background work and a lot of discussion pre-work that goes into that before we would even have the addition but a lot of that is certification needs and and overall interest of our students um and one of the things that um that we will do that we will continue to do is to get that feedback to ensure that we are meeting those needs and then seeking out those individuals and or getting additional endorsements that would meet those needs of the students for the staffing that we may have in the building

168so can I just add coures also have to be um you know they have to be approved at the state level to match the the standards of learning so you know the courses that we offer have to support our standards of learning and have to be approved at a state level under certain codes C certain course codes okay we can't just teach whatever courses we'd like to teach so the reason I'm asking is that at the University level there's typically a whole range of ways to offer a special course because you've got say a a dozen a unique combination of a dozen students that are interested in a particular topic and you there's usually on the books a an independent study course or special topics course that can be used to do that but it

169sounds like at the high school level that's much would be much more difficult because it needs to go to the state for certification before is there any mechanism that we have if say we had a dozen students who did the game design courses and they want to take it one step further so maybe we don't even have the staff for that but we find some staff person somewhere who's willing to come in and teach that course is it possible to do that I think that's the I think that's What U Miss p is alluding to I think that there are additional opportunities so once we get this coursework off the ground and if there are students who want to seek those types of opportunities as long as that's in alignment with what we can support

170then we would work with our local colleges universities and other areas and it's may not be one specific place but we would work with that student and we do have a form um that would go through our school counseling uh team that they would fill out and say this is an interest and then we would start to seek out opportunities to provide those to even families who may not know that that's an option so we are improving our communication to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our students to make sure that they have that Beyond opportunity good I'm glad to hear that we currently for courses that we don't offer that are U at the state level approved at the state level um they have options to take them through virtually if they would

171like to uh we do have students who are currently enrolled uh one student who had interest in taking some courses um at Randolph college and so she's currently taking those courses at at Randolph College this year uh we have one student who is at um Western Community College Western Virginia Community College taking Spanish for because we didn't offer that and so we do allow those opportunities so we're not um it's not doesn't have to be a local uh University or or college um it can certainly be online but um you know it can be we have those opportunities currently are available thank you Dr cartrid next I was glad happy to see or glad to see the music journalism and the gaming I know the gaming may be a huge sale now would that involve

172apps designed too or is that applic you know the apps digital apps is that is that what you're you're asking would that be part of that uh that is in the initial phasing of game design but digital apps could could additionally be another um Outsourcing or course as well the other thing is I always ask the students um that I see and talk to how many credits do you have do you know how many I knew that um but where and I looked for that is there some place that you find that like if you're in the ninth grade you should have this many where do is it not part of the programs of study or could it be so it can be easily seen or where do the students go if I'm the ninth

173grade this how many credits I should have I should have take take a math and this and this where where is that easily found thank you so much for asking that I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily say it's an easy fun but it is um it is intentional communication and it's one of the things that uh miss castler our supervisor of counseling is working with our teams and we're actually working with uh with it as well to ensure that we're utilizing um it it is a program or mechanism inside of um Infinite Campus which allows us to put in the coursework and allows us to track the appropriate number of credits for students so that we can have those conversations we are being far more intentional in getting ahead of the conversations that we're having at

174every grade level in Lynchberg City Schools about where your student is academically because that is important to start early and often and the importance and how that does carry over towards that graduation requirement for uh for the number of credits so there had been some changes um previously but that is the way that we are going about about communicating and working with students to build them an individualized plan that supports their needs and their work and that would include the verified credits for us so else as well yeah but is there a place now that if I was a student I can go and see exactly what I need and where I should be okay absolutely yes ma'am that all ties into V uh to VOE and we reference to that okay um also additionally

175it I believe it's under promotions in the program of studies um there's a section there that should list that um and with our work this is prior to Miss Cruz coming on board with us she wouldn't know this but we had conversations with our counseling teams at the high school and they do a audit every year and that's a practice that's been in place so they go through every student to see um exactly where they are when they have those meetings to talk about their enrollment the courses they need to take that's when they have those conversations about you have this many credits and this is um when you are going to be able to to graduate and you're on track and it's also found in our um data entry system under um the course

176credits that they have so that's tracked all those way and is under promotion in this program of study I do believe so yes ma'am okay page seven page seven okay um thank you page 58 of the document academic support I see the uh red lining of the S review courses um do we what what do we have in place to provide those students that need additional academic support the um the support they need to succeed right so we are um we do address that through Project Graduation and some other components um I I did um I provided a more detailed response in in writing but that is being addressed through um tutoring uh and that's in place we have we are continuing to work with um both of our high schools and they are both

177up and goinging and flourishing um our counseling teams at both locations are doing a wonderful job um towards that again Project Graduation and that academic success so it's providing them opportunities to take electives during the school day while we're still providing those tutoring opportunities opportunities to support their academic needs so even though it's not necessarily outlined in black and white in this program of studies we're actually doing it seems to me a more focused approach and maybe Prov providing a better service to those children that need the the support yes sir and still providing um instructional opportunities throughout the day for them to expand through um through those electives to ensure that their interest is there for school we do have a summer so course prep course so for those students who did not pass

178the so and they need that for the end of uh end of course or end of year of locally verified credit so we have a really intensive summer program that also addresses the needs for so um and we're also very lucky to have a partnership with Beacon of Hope to offer tutoring to our students as well so we have things in place but just not specific courses excellent thank you thank you Mr julan if going to classrooms and seeing children learn charges you up then we should have five more opportunities for you and your team to go out there and do that more often um so that's a good thing I I think that we should should have more opportunities for it um my question is also let's see teachers for tomorrow is that in

179one or two schools I it's it's uh we actually corrected that and it it would be both locations it again is just like um Dr Carter reference for uh the game design if if we have an interest in both schools and we're able to offer it in both of those places then we will do that um that would be the overall goal and we would split that individual's schedule to be to meet needs in both locations if it is prominent in one location we would offer it there and then provide the transportation to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity it's not limited to one place because we want to make sure that we we provide that opportunity to the students who are interested good may I have a list or could you

180direct me to a list of the courses that the state has already approved yes yes we can yes it's yes it's extensive and and I'm happy to talk through any of that with you but yes we can do that absolutely see thank you yeah Dr G and I did find all the information and I had seen it but I was looking for something else but it is here and so that's great yeah thank you thank you thank you Dr Brown you're sitting standing in the back but come here you you the needs the accolades too so thank you thank you Miss Pew um I thank you for the opportunity to present uh the high school program of studies tonight um and I know that uh it is on the agenda for um your consideration next

181week at the work session to approve so I would ask that if as you review it this week if you have any questions would you please send those to to um Dr Edward so that she can send them on to myself and and Miss Cruz and miss castler so that we can answer those um and hopes that you have the information that you need um to be able to consider to approve it next week Dr C and I would suggest that we go ahead and put it on the consent agenda we can always pull it if there L of questions this is um it's a work session it's a work session so there's no work session so all right uh item and three finance and Facilities committee followup Dr WKA and Mr saens well good

182evening again um so we had a a robust finance and Facilities committee meeting uh the day before Thanksgiving break at 3:30 in the afternoon uh so uh we did but we did keep uh keep the committee for about two hours so uh we were asked to give a brief overview of that meeting to the fin to the the school board uh just because it's such an important topic right now related to the budget uh but I won't go the two full two hours so we won't go through everything in detail uh but I do just want you to know we did have a very robust conversation so I'll go through a couple of items um and and for Austin if I if you can pull up a couple of these things so the first one

183would be the projects uh for finance committee item that's there sorry about that I probably should have forewarned you on that um so the first thing we that we reviewed was the fiscal year 20125 to 2029 Capital Improvement plan submission that we provided to to the city um this was formulated based on the decisions that were made by the school board related to the facilities master plan um as well as a number of other uh sort of Maintenance and Facilities items that are necessary in the school division these are sort of very basic items uh that that need to be addressed in the next couple of years the capital Improvement plan is a five-year planning document however given the scope and the scale of the projects that we've identified in the facilities master plan we

184extended that out to 10 years years letting the city know those items are coming so that they can develop a plan for finance for some of these larger projects I think that's really important so on the first page of this you'll see uh there's a the differentiation between page one and page two the first page is what we call our year of appropriation so that's when the number or the money is approved for each one of these projects if you scroll down really quickly to page two uh this is the uh the cash flow estimation on each one so the distinction is when is the money approved versus when is the money spent and from a number of these projects because they're very large they would be spent over a a period of a couple

185of years um in the case of a project like the RS pain renovation that would we we projected that to go over three years uh just because it takes some time so we did review that um certainly if you have any questions regarding what was submitted to the city uh we would take that be happy to take that um but if not uh yes sir Elementary School gymn an inheritage elementary school gym is on the list uh it's the first one uh uh so that's that's there so yes maam and now just because it's on there doesn't mean that it's going to be funded in that order or oh that's a that's a great point I'm glad you brought that up so this was the submission uh or request to the city um obviously the

186city has a financing plan that they've got to develop uh and so they will that will be considered by city council as we go forward so certainly need to advocate for these projects these are very important to the future of our city um as well and so um again these are this is our requests our recommendation as well and we'll see ultimately what what we are able to be provided um the next item um to to bring up is just an update on the fiscal year 24 operating budget um and we did a couple of items there um the the primary uh issue that we discussed here is related to the state funding allocations that we received so uh actually Mr Reed mentioned it earlier I think it was Mr Reed uh related to the

187additional funds that we've re that we will receive from the state um we do want to make sure that it's clear that those funds are related to primarily related to the all-in tutoring program and so when you when you when you take the amount of money that we received uh and net that out by the the changes in state Appropriations we for operating we're actually going to receive for this fiscal year about 3 $75,000 less than what we had anticipated in this budget um so we need to understand that that's it's on that slide there uh so particularly as in in the community we want to make sure it's clear that while we certainly are appreciative of the all-in program and and the funding the one-time funding that's there uh there is on the next

188page just a a recap of the overview that there is a $375,000 reduction uh in the available funds for this fiscal year we'll discuss that a little bit more again next week on our plans moving forward but we have some some those challenges and some other challenges in this fiscal year that we will need to address um particularly as we've uh we've been able to dive into this budget a little bit more um so again we'll talk more about that next week as well is there an update on the $200 million that was misplaced from at the state level this year and the the what there's a giant accounting error right oh that was last fiscal year last last fiscal year so that was that was addressed uh and then with the most recent update

189the budget um so the next item that I'll mention is uh this is something that will come back um that we'll just mention with finance committee this is the contingency request of fiscal year 24 City contingency reserve uh you will recall that in developing and approving this year's budget the school the school board uh certainly requested a um a budget in city council elected to provide categorical funding which uh some of which included a $1.9 million contingency uh that was not certainly not available to us for our regular operating costs uh the justification for that was related to increases for money that we would reive from the state um that money is sitting there uh there has been a couple of Appropriations the first is the legal fees for the unitary status um as well

190well as City council's professional development so what's remaining is about $1.6 million uh what we are planning to propose is that we try to bring uh classroom teachers that are currently cares funded uh back into the operating budget using those funds so we want to make sure that to the best extent we can as we move forward there is a u recurring uh Revenue Source uh and make sure that that money is not just sitting there and then ultimately what we would suggest doing doing is using those funds for capital capital projects um if you go to I think the last SL on that uh relates to that so uh we'll talk more about that we're not ready to quite make that recommendation we told that this the um the finance committee we'd bring it

191back we said December will probably be January before we're ready to bring it back but uh we just do want you to know this sort what we're talking can we go back to the previous slide just for is Austin listening well I guess yeah is that yes so what you're saying is we are basically backfilling $1.6 million in Corona minus funding the total we have used for Corona virus is about 9.8 or 10 million so the of of the positions that are there I think it's total 7.5 salary increase and everything else total backfill needed is about $10 million approximately approximately so 1.6 is used so we basically still need about $8.4 million more uh next year's budget right right and so the intent will be uh in this request is to take that off

192of new money for next year because ultimately that's what we will ultimately have to as well as some there will be some recommendations related to priorities and potential reductions in forc and those sorts of things we're not quite ready to have that conversation yet we just want you to know that that's sort of on the table uh and we think that's really important a really important strategy to allow us to move ahead with that and make sure we're protecting classroom teacher positions as we move forward Dr cter then I'll come back go ahead what is our sense or do we think we have Buy in from our Council regarding to give us those funds so we haven't discussed that with them that's not something that an action the school board's taken yet but certainly we

193hope that would be the case uh this is money that's been appropriated to Lynchburg City Schools we think protecting classroom teacher positions are really important uh we think you know investing in classrooms is is really important so that's that's and what was their what was their rationale for keeping that as a reserve so as I recall the rationale was that we were getting some additional funds from the state and so as a result there was a net sort of you know was still a little bit more money than we're getting um but I I don't know that there was ever an articulated reason for that choice what about for using some of the funds for their professional development we need professional development it's for your professional it was your professional development city council P okay

194if I said that I apologize it should be school board very well y so let me let me go back and I'm not trying to push you but because I'm trying to with the city council people who are watching we basically need a backfilling of about $8.4 million in this budget which will be presented to by the superintendent on uh January 9th right and if you don't find any means within the system then we'll need new monies that's right from the city Council to do that but that will amount to about $8.4 million that's a fact right well we will need new money and again there will be uh Nuance to that how much money because there will be as you can see there's there's items that are for RI consideration that 8.4 billion but

195does not include like if you want to increase the hourly wage to $17 or you want to increase the teachers minimum salary to 50,000 that's on top of that right so that's what we need just for an operating expense for next year additional about 8.4 so given what you're spending now you want if you want to remain whole to maintain the status quo of this train uh it will require additional cash new inflow absolutely of $8.4 million thank you you were saying something um yeah in response to your question there is a joint meeting with city council scheduled for January 23rd so presumably that would be an appropriate place to take the Pulse of city council if you can get close enough to them to take their pul we want to get close is that

196meeting on the schedule is it confirmed I don't know I just have it on my calendar because remember in the beginning of the school year we put in like tentative meetings for us to sort of save a date and be ready for joint meetings about the um facilities master plan was originally what they were for I don't know that they have been confirmed outside of the one we had on August 8th I have not received okay I'm just looking at the personal calendar I keep and there was an entry there so I don't know the status of that but typically we do have a couple joint meetings with city council which under under the uh most desirable circumstances we would have good Communications about what's possible and what's not go ahead Dr so Austin if

197you'll move to the one that says fiscal year 2025 uh just planning next one budget development next one over yeah that one uh so in this in this agenda item we talked about a couple of things um we just gave an update on the planning status so uh schools and departments have submitted their budgets uh that Miss Pew and I have been meeting with uh principles and directors just to go through their budget submissions understand what what's being pres presented uh and discussed um and we have just you have it in your in your briefing uh sort of where we are in that process obviously next will be we'll have a conversation next week we'll have a public hearing with uh the community hopefully will come out and provide us input and feedback on uh

198priorities for uh the budget uh then we will the school the superintendent will present her recommended budget um I'm sorry December around December 18th the governor will release his budget uh so that will give us an idea of what looks Revenue looks like potentially um so that'll help us understand where we are and then the remainder of January we'll have more board budget discussions as well as we'll need to submit our funding request to the city manager as it goes forward um the other two items um are a couple items are we gave a briefing on the local Composite Index I'm going to talk about that in the next agenda item uh so I won't go over that right the second uh we also talked about rebenchmarking which is simply a technical process uh that

199reestablishes where our Baseline is for funding from the state um there it's based on uh those those programs and so uh that is if you read in in the paper there is a there's been a there's an anticipated very large cost additional cost for public education in Virginia we'll see what that looks like again we don't know that uh until we get the governor's budget and of course the House and Senate budget as well uh but we'll we'll move through that so we're just sort of resetting based on where we do do it every every couple of years may I just make a comment on that we were told at the vsba convention also to expect a very tight budget year enrichment so it's that's not good news not good news uh and I have

200more worse news after that so that's unfortunate um we also talked about school administration priorities are sort of multi-year uh budget strategy uh which is just sort of our vision for where we want to make recommendations on um on where we're going forward that's not the right slide but that's uh we talk about the fiscal year 25 budget priorities real quick uh we want to make sure we're transitioning uh staff uh from cares into critical roles um sorry also go back one more back to that yeah okay there um those positions we have as a as a senior leadership team we've evaluated the positions that are in cares we've identified them as non-negotiable these are oftentimes teaching or other instructional positions uh we have a budget request Priority One this is related to the LCS

201restore programs that you've heard a lot about budget request number two is related to the Lynchburg Virtual Academy um and then the non-critical roles and items that we we may or may not uh recommend to continue forward with we also in the future we we don't know that we'll get here on this uh related to stien and supplemental pay uh you saw me talk earlier this year about coaches and that sort of thing but we think that continues to be important and of course uh one of our most major priorities uh is related to competitive wages for staff and we think that's really important um the uh and I'll just mention number one we' originally told principles that reassignment of Staff in light of school consolidations was going to be a priority of course that's

202not the case anymore because of the delay of that those Clos me as well um the last thing I'll just mention is our our multi-year budget strategy which I mentioned just a few minutes ago is really thinking about how in the next several years we are focusing heavily on classroom instruction it's our multi-year strategy what we're calling our highquality classroom approach um and this is focusing in on how we are investing uh to ensure high expectations of students and staff uh leading compensation for uh our our instructional folks and other folks uh and our commitment to Innovation and if you look in the PowerPoint uh that will be more clearly outlined uh as well I'm going to do this presentation again next week so you'll hear that but just wanted to give you that overview

203of what we talked about as asked uh and hopefully uh we'll look forward to our conversation next week and really looking forward to an opportunity to sort of brainstorm with you about what your priorities are uh for a budget that'll help us as we we sort of craft the final recommendations and of course after those superintendent uh presentation then it's it's your budget and uh you'll make the adjustments that you uh see F Dr Mar could you ask Austin if you can open up that file budget instruction PDF file do you have priorities please priority number two if you scroll down right there yes if you can increase the font size I'm an old guy I can barely see here if you scroll down to PRI to and that's what I meant by for the

204board members who are listening is item line number six uh that this means 2425 they must be funded by state because we will not have access to $10 million in car's funds so that's the back fi I'm talking about right it is so if somebody's looking at uh and we look at our priorities for both the board we got to mind we we have to be mindful of the fact that we need that fresh cash uh to sustain our operations in the next year I also point out if I can point out the next sentence there as I read it we said uh receiving additional $6 million of State funding and up so as it turns out we learned that was not true uh and that in fact we're getting $375,000 less yeah so that's

205challenging so that that's a misinformation that we getting 6 million in cash which we basically getting a negative 300,000 that's right so uh so we need to be mindful of this number as we move forward that we need about with that uh proposal of 1.6 we still need 8.4 million for the superintendent to sustain her operations uh at the current level Dr Carter um what what are student facing positions that's a term I made up so so these are these are things like uh teachers certainly teachers instructional AIDS but we're also really thinking about uh the the the core uh again student um directly impacting positions so those might be those positions like uh the behavior coaches and things like that that we think we think our really directly with well I'm not sure if

206I made that term up or not but it's we love it yeah so the N negotiables these are positions that like you said must go back into operating and the priorities I know so we have I know that you've done your homework and the administration team and these are the things I am all for restoring the LCS restore and mental health supports because that's very important um the well I was getting to some is oh I know at the um School Board the conference we just went to and I'll say most of this for my comments but they talked about one Workshop I went to said words matter that if we talk about the achievement Gap and some of the struggles the children are facing students are facing then these things really are should be

207our priorities um because this really impacts the achievement Gap and everything else and and I knew that the the extra support that some students are getting and the remedial remediation would be some of the things that we couldn't do without coming now um because you get used to it and the students really depend on it and to just yank it away so are we looking at some positions that we don't need say if we have three or four teach Math teachers that we have haven't been able to feel that we're going to look at that and see do we maybe we just need two now yes that are you know hanging out there s of and that's over the last couple years that's what we have been doing just because we've you know um I

208think gone from Level funding when I first came in 2018 at 42 million we just keep going down right each each year so we've had to collapse we've did that with the bus drivers we collapse positions off offered um more hours and retirement packages and things like that so we did that with the Math teachers when we were really struggling we've been paying extra stiens to folks to teach an additional math class so we're we're always looking at ways to repurpose um if we if we can do that I want to go back to what um Dr Waka said we're calling it the highquality classroom budget plan and the reason why we're calling it highquality classroom is because you hear our teachers really talk about the importance of behavior behavior um and we do have

209some things in place Dr Brown has been here um with LCS restore and those things which were added after covid which means they either were cares funding and I don't want it to be remiss that that department has also written an $8.4 million Grant um and continues to write grants to supplement what we don't have in our operating budget um and and all of our staff do that um but those positions are in Grant funds and um if we have to make a choice with a limited operating budget we we obviously have to choose classroom teachers over the behavioral coach you heard wanting to get our instructional assistance RBT certified which is a registered Behavior technician there's a lot of support and I also don't want to underplay the we talk about Behavior but social

210emotional um support as as well and you'll see that with some of the bullying issues and safe schools and helping kids really feel like they're connected to classroom so there's there's some things that we do that go along with that that support those as well sometimes they transition they translate into people um but not necessarily people that other folks would say these are important people they are important to to our kids um for that so other questions go ahead to the next one so that is uh so we can go to in4 if you're ready unless there's other questions um so the next item um we just wanted to provide a brief overview of the composite index changes so that's a that's a term that I know a number of you probably here and if

211you're like me before I worked here I I I pretended like I knew what it was but but maybe I didn't really uh and so I wanted to kind of just give you a brief overview and kind of tell you where we're going um so the composite index is uh is a school divisions a measurement of a school divisions or a community's ability to pay for its Public School System right so it's it's an evaluation looking at the mathematical formula of the characteristics of the community and it's calculated based on a couple of factors true value of real property the adjusted gross income uh and the taxable real real retail sales uh throughout the throughout that community and then comparing that in terms of the larger State uh context right so we're sort of comparing

212that as well so the each localities index ultimately is is reviewed every two years uh to maintain that 45% to 55% uh overall State funding share um and that number is just the way it's calculated can go from 1714 to 08 uh and ultimately a higher Composite Index says that the community has based on this objective information has a a larger ability to pay and as a result the state is going to pay less because of that so if you go to the next slide I'll provide you this formula which looks really complicated but uh is really not that complicated all we're doing is we're saying uh on basis on our average daily membership and based on our our uh population again those local taxes the uh gross income and the real the retail sales

213and put that in con um in context of the larger State environment and then waiting those factors that's how you come up with the composite index so if you go to the next slide um lynchburg's Composite Index so as a result what it means is Lynchberg City's ability as a community to pay for public education based on these calculations has increased in the last several years so in 2020 uh to 2022 the composite index was 3668 the next bium it went from to 3 3760 and then is anticipated now well it is now going to be 3872 is this new information that this is new information for you yes sir uh so because we just got this uh at the end of last week so we wanted to give you this information in and saying

214that the local Composite Index is increasing which means objectively based on the data that we have about our city and the state has the Lynchburg city has the has ability to pay more for public education than perhaps it used to and so as a result the state will pay less um and what that number will be as far as paying less again that'll come out when we get the governor's budget uh and as a result uh we just need to understand that for our budget process going forward yes sir but we're still below average of the state well I wouldn't say we're below average but I would say that we are no I'm talking about Composite Index 45 to 055 I assume that was the average for the state no so no no so the

215that that 45% 55% is is is 55% of the overall expenditures on education Statewide is supposed to be at for 55% versus low 45% so that 45 to 55% is not that's not that number it just the 55 is where it's supposed to be but we are below average or no totally totally separate thing okay right so so what what they're saying is in in the amount of money that is spent on public education in Virginia 55% across the state is supposed to be by the state and 45% is supposed to be by the locality and so they adjust these deposit indices by whatever they do in order to make sure that mix stays the same and so as we have continued to our the value of our real property has continued to grow those

216sorts of things our Composite Index is going to increase as compared to the rest of the state and so our compos POS index in Gross so they're not going to make up the where we supposed to do 45 they do 55 they're not if we're at 38 we're not going to get made up 62 the that the 38 is not is not a percentage it is it is simply an index it's not that those are two separate issues right so it's not a it's not a separate fa enough it's just it's just two different things I'm not sure how to say that differently the glr recommendation is it going to be implemented soon or it has to go through a Bill process I'm sure it'll be a bill process I don't know where that lands

217but so we talked a little bit about that today and I'll share in my comments at my meetings with um we had three uh two delegates and a senator at our meeting today and um a lot of the jar uh recommendations come with some high price tax so everything doesn't look like Mr TR say I got it's a 3% increase pretty much is it you can't you can't really do that you can't really do that it's it's just it's simply a mathematical index as compared to the rest of the state but it is higher than it was which is which means that our city can pay for more public education if the city pays more the state pays less right so end of the day for us as a school district right we are we

218are where we we were right that's right um so it's like one is this is this is the downside of economic success go ahead I was um I know the uh whenever we talk about this the composite index no one wants to touch it you remember that um U Mr tro regarding we did a presentation about how we wanted to increase that and um we were told just leave that alone don't even talk about it but but now I see why because if you do better so now we're really relying on our local funding local funding to match that's what it means yeah yeah so that I just want to brief you on that uh just so you know that's coming that's going to be a component of our fiscal year 25 budget um and

219and just it's another challenge we have we have a lot of challenges in this coming budget uh but we just need you to know that and uh continue to to to be with us and and uh and give us give us do we know this the budget process just bothers me because we do or we don't but the administration does so much work and then we go across the street and then we're just just [Music] berad if we save money it's called slush if we don't it's like we're not being stewards but do we H are we are we being given how much we can it'll be great if they will give us that formula so we can just say we're going to get this much and we can work toward that much and we

220can adhere to that instead of this or are we trying to figure out a way that it can be just less stressful for everyone yeah say I I agree that it would be a lot it would be a lot easier for the budget development if we knew we understood those those formulas and that there was a a clear agreement on that yeah I have not had any additional conversation about a funding formula since whenever that was was way back when these conversations this today is the first day you know will these conversations will continue as they Evol will'll be Reaching Across The Street go ahead so I was going to say that what the issue you're raising is the issue of a funding formula which um uh City councils are appropriating bodies that want to

221have their fingers in the pie they don't want to establish that because that means their fingers come out of the pie they don't get to control everything and and that's the situation we're faced with but I would suggest that as we go forward with this in addition to our priorities for how we build the budget I think we need to think try to think of a better way to present ourselves to city council to explain why the budget we're proposing is the way it is um we we'd like to persuade them right so I think what I'm saying is we need to do the best job we can to persuade them and um I I'm not sure what that consists of but we need to look for that and I and I think one of

222the things we need to think about and this is just I mean there's so many things we have financial needs for but we also need to think about if we just put add up the price tax for all the things that we think we need we're going to get a number that they're going to consider unrealistic it so we we need to have some pressure on the other end to be thinking about what's realistically too much to ask for not because we don't need it but politically because it'll never happen I don't so that's that's counter pressure to the things that the price tags on the things that we need I don't know how to resolve it we we're in an extremely difficult situation our decision to delay closures on two Elementary schools for a

223year is compounding that problem because that's costing us money uh to keep those schools open uh an additional year we've got lots of pressure here and we're going to have to make some extremely difficult choices uh before this is all over is it possible I apologize you had your go Dr day I wish I agree with you but we have done had flips and T twist and turns and Powerpoints and narrative and all types of things and it doesn't it doesn't matter how that's why I say I don't know how to make it better I don't know either but but I always say our first priority is to look at what the students need if we're talking about the achievement Gap then we have to put our words to it and we have to put

224the budget behind our words I hear and and those things they do not come with a um a low price tag but we can really we try to do big good stewards but I think they just like to harass the it's really harassment to to harass us is it too hard to just say give us a number how much are you going to give us asked and they they they have even taking the money back taking control of that back they won't give a number have we received a number who is they City coun counil I I'm saying can we go and say you know x million dollar this is what city wants to contribute and then build a budget around on that maybe we should each individually call someone contact someone on city council

225and say give us a number and then work with it and of course we always have what what the wish list is to make sure everything is covered show them the Delta of what is ideal for the situation compared to what they're willing to spend or dedicate to the education system put the ball in their Court he good conversation right so next topic next item I'll do it I'm going to I'm going to make some phone calls I'll make I'll do it I'll come back hopefully with an answer we with a number with a number hopefully with a number wish you my answer you know what the answer might be we wish you a Merry Christmas and should we say also that we are coming back to this General topic next week yeah next week

226yes there will be additional information we're not rushing through it it's just preliminary discussion go ahead Dr WKA N5 please so in5 um so this is an operations policy and and uh this is an item that was brought to my attention by our finance department as well as um our Communications and and community relations department uh related to uh policy kg rze um Mr tro we did not have a committee meeting because we felt like this was pretty straightforward uh but we felt that it was necessary to clarify in the policy for our facilities rentals when we have to when a uh a city school's employee has to be used for an event such as a custodian uh we will charge the the the fee but also charge the taxes associated with that so that

227the School Division isn't eating the costs of that that's not our policy right now other other communities have that in their policy and so we think that's really very important to have that clarified so that we are not sort of subsidizing programs that don't you know AR a part of our mission so so this is an action item you need an action from the board on this one right well we have it next week too but certainly if you want to take it tonight I see here it says uh type action I did I did that right yes so is there a motion to approve this policy a moved we approve this policy with the clarification at the bottom right second I second Mr tro and Dr Carter um any discussion just so it wasn't

228assumed that that would happen so that hasn't been happening hasn't been happening know 1099 at that point wouldn't they I think it's a very good catch I know it's not because I see that gymnasium beinged it's not happening M Madam Clark would you please call the RO Mr J abstain Mr trust yes yes Dr yes Dr Carter yes Mrs Preston yes Mr yes thank you Dr WKA thank you Dr Edwards uh we go to board comments uh and n6 n oh sorry why am I n6 n6 n6 is uh Dr D well so because um this this the schedule is that the the plan is that the superintendent will bring on January 9th to bring to the board her recommended budget and then um then it becomes the board's duty to evaluate that suggest changes

229and so forth but um um I think it's important that that budget be built on some guiding principles and we've been asked to provide those principles so um I think it would be worthwhile especially after we get the the additional information from our meeting a week from tonight for there to be an opportunity for board members to discuss the details of the information that we've been given to try to formulate um any uh additional uh General policy preferences that we have in enough time for them to influence uh the superintendent's budget I think the priorities have to be in place first and then we build the budget around the priorities so what we're hoping to do is if possible find a time to have a um we're calling it a retreat just a time for

230the I guess it's which is essentially just a special meeting for a particular topic to discuss for the board to discuss all the aspects of the budget that we will have at that point and formulate uh its priorities and we're trying to see if if we can do that so let's take a step back and somebody who's watching may be wondering why did we did what we did for last half hour going through what was presented to financing facilities the purpose of that discussion was because we have public comments on budget in the next meeting so for public to comment they need to see what's happening uh in like right no no no no no no so it was presented to finance and Facilities committee uh this the the public comment I'm sorry I didn't

231mean to go ahead but I I just want to be real clear that we have two public hearings on the budget one is required the one that is required is in March where the public gets to see the actual budget the numbers everything and the public gets to comment uh three years ago it was said that okay so the public comments but it's in March it's too late to really take in public input so we started in December before developing the budget asking our public to come out and say hey we're about to get to the table to develop the budget what are your thoughts about what should what should be in next year's budget or at least a top topic of conversation it was never designed to give them something to react to and

232comment on so this my purpose was not reacting this is at least providing them the information which was shared in the finance and Facilities committee so which basically list the administration's priorities uh you know all the uh data all the numbers we need the dollars and cents we need the composite index and everything else so public has that information now so when they come for comment at at least there is some um information knowledge base being shared and then we build up from there on as we move forward for the second comment in March okay or April I just didn't want the public to think that we were actually going to come with a budget for them to I've already said before that the budget will be presented on in January 9th meeting so all

233these things are in preparation for that budget build process um go ahead Dr you have something more to say well I so what what we're trying to do is see if we can schedule uh we'll call it a retreat um we've had Retreats before to talk about particular topics um and for the board to um chew on all this information and see if this leads to uh additional priorities or adjustments to the priorities that have already been presented so um I think the purpose of this discussion is to see if the board wants to do that and if so when you are you suggesting a separate or could we just do it in a work session next week well that's that's a possibility too uh that particularly if we could get the information that you

234would present us next week early so that board members would have um some time to R review it carefully individually then we could have um a a pretty thorough discussion next week um hopefully leading to the kind of priorities that the administration would like to have and so the uh you can build them into the initial superintendent's budget so if that's what people would prefer to do that's certainly easier it doesn't involve an additional schedule item go um my question is will are these priorities going to change between now and the priorities you just cited those are the priorities well we we've identified those as School administration priorities but but certainly the school board may have others uh and that's what you know we want you know the next week's meeting is designed for is

235to say hey we just want to you to be thinking about these things as you develop a budget we have this sort of built in uh to where not certainly that you're setting them in stone because that's what you do sort of after the the superintendent's budget I'll I'll give you an example I'm sorry so like Administration says non-negotiables are uh not touching those faculty lines for me as I'm just putting as an example so please don't take it for non-negotiable as for a school board member may be absolutely no school closures before 25 do you see what I'm saying so those type of things we need to have the discussion beforehand before it's too late you know and it comes at the tail end and we have to make those decisions like we did

236last time at Heritage High School remember was one meeting we were going through that pyramid of do this do that and so we are being proactive than being reactive so can we do this at the work section next that's week from tonight if the that's acceptable to to me if as long as we can have the the data that you're prepare you either are preparing or have prepared as early as possible I think we're pretty close to being done so I think we can do that okay quite done to is that acceptable then it's then it's there's nothing that needs to be done we'll just when we get to that point on the agenda next week we'll just talk about it however however long we need to talk about it to work with Miss day

237to give her language to add that item because we've gone through the agenda prep what time do we meet on the 12 oh I see what you're saying okay all right so I'll I'll formulate some language to be on the agenda in the agenda we can add the last item as board priority discussion he'll give you the exact line okay so we have gone through whole work session that's that's that's the whole point of next there's no other really work except there there's just whole one item I uh well there's like one like couple little things the recognition yeah theog that's why I was saying I don't know that we need anything okay that's fine as long as we don't you know if there not four bullet points you need a fifth one you're good

238I think okay so we'll have we so so then it sounds like what we're going to do I would just uh encourage all the board members to put in some time on the information that uh Dr wara will give us um in advance of that meeting next Tuesday because you need to look at it before we make decisions and I I and I really appreciate you Dr WKA and Dr gar but this is a legacy cost for you you came into the system and all these Corona viruses monies were committed and I don't want to do like a broken record and we approved $3.2 million and I was against it I was told that all the board members are gone you know except for me and Dr Carter and some are still on the board

239who at that time said we'll fire everybody and uh you know and then let's we will make that variable cost as a variable cost so I feel uh feel for you but thank you for everything you're doing uh because you're carrying a lot of Burden this budget cycle this will not be an easy budget so we appreciate everything you do with the superintendent so thank you very much um next item 5:00 is that what I'm 12th at 5:00 is when we're going to have this conversation am I correct about that public at 5:00 that's the a public comment period about it then at 6 o'clock oh that's right we combined the agendas that's right we combin the agendas so we have a meeting starting at 5 o' that has a public comment period specifically about

240the budget and then after that on the agenda will be the discussion of all this old times what happened is we start the meeting at 5: then we have 1 hour for public comment if nobody shows up then we wait for 45 minutes to start the meeting so this morning at Agenda prep we decided to combine the two items together if there is more public comment we can stay for more than an hour for public comment but if there's none then we can move on to the work session okay so I just want make sure I'm clear you good yes thank you uh next item is board comments we'll start with Mr deul oh my goodness what a week huh yeah from the uh moment that we uh were informed of the Washington Post article

241to the subsequent emails that followed um and the comments even here tonight uh I'm continually surprised at the way in which people will take something and without complete information blow it out of proportion and do some really horrible things very disappointing and for everyone that was affected NE negatively by the threats and the negative hate mail I I feel bad for I know we all have different life experiences and you all being here all of us being here tonight um makes me confident in this board and how pleased I am to be on this board um because we we're we've always had a backbone but we're just showing it a little bit more with some of the things that we're doing tonight I uh looked at the uh the way in which um we might

242be providing a disservice to these young people as they're coming up by having them think that uh um you know if you just whine and cry enough you're going to make it's going to make a difference we need to be an example of how standing up to those negative things that happen in this world that's what we need to do that's what we're doing here um and that's going to be a lot better than just saying it's okay you know yeah it's you're you're you're a victim we need to make people stronger that is our job for our community our state our country I'm proud of this board even though we don't always dis agree with each other and we don't always disagree with each other uh I'm proud to be part of this group

243and it's probably the best board I've ever been on we're strong we're doing the right thing we're following through and um uh just let it roll off your back because a lot of this stuff that's happening it's going to be gone in a few months thank you all thank you thank you m Miss Preston um I I would have to agree with with with some of what you said I think what's really critical for us is that we do not let the anxiety or or forcefulness of other people people make us respond or react too quickly or too negatively that we take our time that we discuss that we hear people's perspectives and then we act based on the information that that we are presented and I think sometimes we allow other people to push

244us into making quick decisions and quick decisions aren't always the most what's best for everybody thank you Dr Carter um like I said I went to the Virginia School Board Association and was able to attend several workshops one in particular as I've already stated was words matter and that we need to really when we're talking about anything um using whether we're using our mission statement or our um vision statement and or what our priorities are that we have to back it with our budget because that really tells the story um and also was just happy to be at the Friday morning meeting where uh Mrs Priscilla liins from amers a for a co- board member on the Laurel Regional School was honored for being um the I forgot the exact title but an advocate educator

245for for the state so that was awesome and also for the EC glass students I know that the football students didn't win but football team didn't win but they played great and I um heard a lot about that and um I think that's it oh for the young speakers that came today weren't they the they are really bold to get up and to do that they are just great and also for all of the students from the gender sexuality um Alliance for just being here and just telling your story and sharing that that is very courageous and thank you for doing that for coming thank you Dr Dr D um it has been a really difficult week um I don't think I got anything else done today other than various odds and ends Associated either

246with this week's agenda or next week's agenda um I don't think everybody realizes how much at least for the chair and vice chair how much time is spent behind the scenes uh contacting people who want to see something on the agenda or why can't it be this week instead of next week um did I understand you right um you know that it's it it it takes a lot um so to hear a fellow board member say that he thinks we're doing okay well that's that's kind of gratifying but it it is very taxing and I'm I'm not regretting doing it I'm just saying I hope people even if even if people disagree with positions that I personally take um it is costing me a lot both in time and um emotion too I spend many

247hours waking up in the middle of the night pondering am I doing the right thing here um so and so said such and such is whether it was a student comment a board member comment and those things go over and over my head I I just want people to know that I am listening that doesn't mean I agree with everything that's said it doesn't mean I do everything I'm asked to do because there's always multiple considerations but I do want everyone to know that everything that is said I go over and over in my head trying to decide if my is my position the right one or not um so what is that True Confessions or testimony or something like that that's just where I am thank you Mr truss and I I want to

248reiterate Dr DA's comment that we do listen and these are very uh we hear the students we hear the parents we hear the community members and these decisions are difficult decisions whether it's a budgetary decision whether it's this this 50 voices Grant decision um but ultimately all of us on this board care about the children all the children care about our staff the instructor um and sometimes you got to look multiple layers I had this conversation this morning with a person and it may if you look at the surface or one layer deep there may be four five six layers deep as to the reasoning and thought process personally I take looking forward um so we listen to you we uh we have to you deal with difficult situations and we deal it with the

249best we can on a another note I am so excited to go he Shrek I was looking at my calendar because I got the invitation and I want to see ask uh someone to put that on my calendar and it looks like I'm going tomorrow night so I can't wait to see it and uh looking forward to some great entertainment and I I I love the Prelude we got there and I can't wait to jam to the music and watch those children um perform I get such a kick out of it as I do get a kick at us seeing the students come here and speak they do a great job so keep up the great work thank you Jan I concur with Mr tro sentiments and the rest of the folks here as well

250the teacher Space Project was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students honor teachers and spur interest in mathematics science and space exploration the project would carry teachers into space as payload Specialists non astronaut civilians who would return in their classrooms to share the experience with their students on January 28th 1986 the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight killing all seven crew members aboard the safe the spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 ft above the Atlantic Ocean uh off the coast of Cape canaval Florida at 11:39 a.m. it was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in Flight NASA canceled the program in 1990 following the death of its first participant Christina molof in brief I think that I'm going to ask for a similar recognition or

251honoring of this event and these people who died uh in January uh like I did for the Constitution week just adding it to the calendar and emphasizing it I would like to discuss how that's going to be uh taking place because it'll be a little bit different but I think we should honor these people I think I don't think we should forget that is that is just something affects me every time I read it and I think that this would be something that is uniting is Honorable and I would like to put it forth in the next uh official meeting uh and lastly I plan on holding listening session Town Halls once a month at least from January to April and if someone in LCS would like like to help me set them up that

252would be appreciated and I'll be inviting people to join me at after dinner times at various schools in the division and I'll try to get one or two other board members at each one and if everyone wants to go then I'll just hold an extra session so it's only two board members unless we'd like to have uh more uh but I'd like to do that uh in the new year and um just long to let you know thank you you want to say for me Dr Edwards so you doesn't you go ahead and then I'll be the last guy to Jour and doie doie I can I can certainly go ahead um first just want to um give some kudos to um some things uh our students have been doing I am also excited about

253going to see um Shrek but had the opportunity to go see their TC Miller's open performance which was a really nice way of demonstrating the learning everything from parts of a book um and the turkey dance and of course one amazing young drummer who um was really outstanding but it involved the whole school it was very nicely done um I went to see elf at LMS so when I tell you We've Got Talent across the district We've Got Talent across the district um again a wonderful present presentation by our kids they just they just did a great job of um putting on the play and just making it a nice warm environment um then I was out in the cold with girls on the run and we have several teams um from our elementary schools

254and middle schools that participate in that and having done 5Ks myself I was glad I was not running because many of those girls would have outpaced me as well as they um trained but um and I got to spend some time with leorn elementary students who explained to me all the good reasons why they do what they do um pie breakfast again kudos to the pie board and Whitney for her amazing work and getting that together that was absolutely wonderful um we had a classified teacher social we have about 49 classified teachers in a division and just for folks who may not know what that is um you could be a substitute teacher and get a daily rate and wonder and still be trying to pursue getting a teacher degree but that's probably not a

255sustainable lifestyle um or you can join us and be a classified teacher um with a bachelor's degree still pursuing your uh teacher lure but at least making about 90% of a first year teacher salary so we have 49 people who have dedicated themselves to that program and really being in front of um our kids so we are increasing our pipeline um my wish is that we get um celebrated for it by vooe for outside of the box strategies rather than taking hits on our ipal report or other funding things that they do but we're still going to continue to to do that the response from them was wonderful um never a group of people were sitting there saying I just can't wait to get to work um during the day they gave us some great

256tips on some things we can also work with them um on to improve that so that was really great to be able to do that and I want to give a special shout out particularly in the last couple weeks to my staff who have gone through pages and pages of Foya documents we do not have a separate foyer officer that is my um secretary who once a foer request comes in you have five days to fulfill it that's pretty much all she does all day long and all of us join her in getting the um documents as well as um other folks in my office and um it has been a very timec consuming task that we have all done but the amazing thing about that despite the time consuming uming part of it um

257through Miss Pew um Dr Brown Miss Cruz Dr woda we have spent some amazing time in classrooms right so even though there's a lot of paperwork I am so pleased to see the downtown staff still committed and even our directors as well um spending time in classrooms with teachers being teacher assistants helping out with lessons doing lunch duty um and all sorts of things so I just want to say kudos to you all because the job can get very tough but you stay focused on the things that matter um and stay focused on kids and I appreciate the time that you spend with children while we do everything else including this part so thank you thank you and uh you know thank you everybody but I wanted to recognize an unsung hero uh she does

258a lot of work for us day in day out and never speaks a word so I'll yield my time to miss day Miss Tina day go ahead floor is all yours Miss day you you know you you do so much work every day including getting nasty messages on your voicemail on my behalf that they're going to come and do some do some violent act so please go ahead the floor you don't want me to speak I'mma ask for the gavel and a journ okay take your advice thank I got to do the informational items so uh student discipline committee data review Thursday December 7th 4 p.m. academic success committee December 12th at 3:30 p.m. public hearing uh Tuesday December 12th 5:00 p.m. in boardroom and next school board work session December 12th 6 uh 5:00

259p.m. here in the boardroom the meeting is aured thank you [Music] for