001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign at this time I would like to call to order the Tuesday April the 4th 2023 school board meeting of Lynchburg City schools and we want to thank everyone who is here with us in person as well as those who are viewing us through our various uh means of uh broadcasting tonight's meeting I would like to begin with a which is our call to order and as we move to B which is our general approval for tonight we do want to make sure that everyone is aware that in City Hall tonight there is a public hearing and on that public hearing there will be an opportunity to speak to the budget and there is a strong desire that maybe our presence could be
002felt best there if we can dispatch of what we're doing tonight with substance but also to keep comments centered Salient and crucial to the conversation at hand we could be able to accomplish that as well as tonight's meeting and so with that in mind boy we don't typically do this I am going to ask the superintendent to give any potential recommendations for us to amend the agenda for tonight uh in light of what I just said Dr Edwards certainly so we have a lot of guests here and our students here and we are definitely going to make time for them tonight so we are going to keep that but in in an effort to really get us so that we can attend the city council meeting I suggest that our section I which is our
003school board member reports that we postpone any reports tonight and move those to our May meeting so in May you can do double duty I also recommend that under Section J we have a couple items of Unfinished Business number one is to talk about the operating budget which is the matter at Hanna City but number two and number three three being a springboard Retreat and two being the discussion about the mou I'm suggesting that we actually do those on our Spring retreat which is April 18th so we can move our unfinished business items to the April 18th agenda would like to continue with the new business and just um accept those donations and then my comments under section L and School Board member comments under Section M if we could hold those until our regular
004meeting in May I think that might afford us enough time to celebrate with all of the wonderful people who are here but also do the business of the board and join the city council meeting today all right Dr Edwards you did a fine job with that but can you just give me those one more time that what you just said something the test so here Ocean Eye so I one through eight will be postponed until the May meeting section J one through three will be on the April 18th work session section L 1 and M1 both comments by myself and the board we will have at the May 2nd meeting what's GG the committed report oh the finance report we can also if the board will and we can move G1 into our May meeting
005and kind of do two months worth of Finance report and health insurance summary as well in the portion of the committee meeting the committee reports each committee yeah I did that that was under um section where is that uh I all of I all of I so it just means we're going to have fun in May because we'll be doing two months worth of stuff but it's worth it to make time to celebrate all right second all right it's been motioned by Dr Gupta and seconded by Dr Carter uh that the Amendments that were uh proposed uh I one through eight would be moved J one through three uh L1 and M1 and even G1 if it comes earlier would be moved uh any board member at this time has a right to suggest that
006they would like something to remain uh there's a motion on the floor any questions or discussion all right hearing none Madam clerk could you please call the roll it's good but miss Preston yes school but remember Mr trust yes let's School Board member Dr Sinha yes let's go about member Dr Brennan yes scoop up moment Dr Coleman yes let's go about my Dr Carter yes Bill Bart member Dr Gupta all right so that motion passed we will now stand from the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States thank you all very very much yes my motion passed for after a very long time gave you oh wow I hope you'll do something all of you we thank all of you for your motions thank you Dr Gupta all right
007at this time we will now move to uh section c of our agenda for a special presentation and uh we've got a couple of those a few of those so we're going to start first with our 2023 excellence in science Dr Edwards yes and we are excited it's one of my favorite times of the year I'm going to invite Dawn wise who is the Education Foundation executive director up to talk about this special award and a surprise honor to one of our students it's so exciting thank you chairperson Coleman Vice chair Brennan and school board members good evening my name is Dawn wise and I am the executive director of the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation it is an honor to come before you this evening and announce the 2022 2023 recipient of the Excellence
008in science scholarship which is awarded to the top senior science student as determined by a comprehensive application process as determined by the requirements the student should be someone with outstanding grades in science and engineering related courses who demonstrates a deep passion for science or engineering who has created and mastered available science and engineering opportunities and who has a strong science or engineering vision for the future the application process is rigorous and includes a written application letter of interest three letters of recommendation an official transcript three essays to help gain application insight and from the scoring process the applicant pool is narrowed down to five finalists who then complete an interview with the Excellence in science scholarship selection committee where all candidates were asked an established set blind set of questions a side note that I
009have to share one of the questions we asked this year or who were your science role models and four out of the five students all said they're science teachers a little bit I know a little bit about the history of the Excellence in science scholarship in the fall of 2013 Dr Charles Pryor and his family announced a twenty five thousand dollar scholarship to be awarded every school year for four consecutive years to an outstanding senior interested in entering a science related field of study because Dr Pryor had a vision a hope that this science scholarship would make Lynchburg City Schools unique because there were no similar Flagship science scholarships being offered in any other division in the state of Virginia Dr Pryor has a long history of valuing and supporting public education and understands the
010important role that strong schools play and the success of our students and the economic health of our community he is a graduate of both EC glass high school and Virginia Tech and spent 25 years with the Babcock and Wilcox company serving as the president of the nuclear and power division while in Lynchburg Dr Pryor served as a member of the Lynchburg City School Board and chairman of Lynchburg City Schools Partners in education this time I would like to welcome Charlie to speak a little more about the scholarship members of the school board thank you very much for your service since 2013 when we started this program I can't tell you how pleased I am with the way it's evolved and the the wonderful students that have benefited from this scholarship over that time our first
011winner was uh a student named Sam fedler who ended up being the valedictorian of NC State University oh wow not just the head of the engineering class but the head of the whole school so that's the kind of student we are encouraging here so just briefly I want to thank Don wise who filled in for Jody Gillette so that wasn't an easy task to do she's done a marvelous job and Maria Yeager and others in the school system who make this program happen I feel that investing in our youth I can't think of anything more important to invest in than the Youth of this community and this program and emphasizing excellence in science sort of elevates that goal a little bit in terms of the investment and my thought was maybe one day we'll actually
012have a Steven Jobs come back here and set up an Apple company in in Lynchburg Virginia and I don't know how many of them intend to come back and and and make a career in Lynchburg but I hope some of them will do that but that was the whole thinking behind the program and I just can't tell you how proud I am that it's evolved the way it is thank you very much foreign thank you Charlie he is a joy to work with by the way so privileged to be able to work with people like him scholarships clearly benefit the student recipients as awarded funds ease the financial burden of an advanced education and create room for students to take advantage of often unpaid research and intern positions that contribute to their educational experience and
013professional development but a scholarship such as this benefits more than just the student recipient Lynchburg continues to grow as a national leader in nuclear engineering and a regional leader in medicine our community is also an incubator of Entrepreneurship and host many engineering and Manufacturing firms all of whom rely on a Workforce that offers strong math and science skills in order to be a thriving community and support these industries it is essential that we maintain strong public schools to cultivate and attract new employers and retain top employees as was mentioned before the Excellence in science scholarship is a unique offering not often seen in public school settings and it is and is designed to work toward this goal and would not be possible without the vision extreme generosity and commitment from our sponsors Lynchburg City schools
014and the Education Foundation would like to take this opportunity to recognize and extend our most sincere support appreciation to the following sponsors for the opportunities they are extending to our students and the prestige that they are bringing to our school division bwx Technologies framitome DTE Energy Foundation Mr and Mrs Lee and Sharon Ainsley Dr and Mrs David and Judy France and Dr and Mrs Charlie and Mary Jane Pryor now on to our recipient I do want to state that the applique applicant pool was exceptional this year and all of the students who applied were outstanding candidates with a passion for science or engineering each in their own way and have very Bright Futures ahead of them Lynchburg City Schools should be proud of the incredible students that public education has produced in this graduating class
015so who best meets the profile of an excellence in science scholarship recipient this year's recipient is an outstanding graduating senior from EC glass high school and also is enrolled in the early college program at Central Virginia Community College where he is on staff at the math achievement learning lab helping tutor students there I could go on and on about the academic record and his academic academic record and accomplishments including in your perfect SAT scores and science experiments with 300 plus samples that he did for fun but to best know why he was chosen I would like to quote from his application essay because you will get be able to get a glimpse of what we saw what struck the Excellence in science committee during his interview it was his pure unadulterated love of biology he
016writes it as if it's poetry I dream of learning about the processes that guide our natural world I wish to learn about Wetland ecosystems and the reptiles and Aquatic birds that flourish in them I'm gonna try not to not so beautiful desert ecosystems and the hearty brittle animals tailored to the hot conditions ancient ecosystems and the creatures of old that grew to colossal sizes and City ecosystems and the tiny animals that live among the Perils of Humanity's Creations I believe that biology is the key to solving many environmental problems in our current world such as viral epidemics species Extinction and habitat loss when looking at a broader vision of my future I know that I would like to become a scientific researcher in the field of biology but I'm not sure what field I would
017like to dedicate my life all fields spark wonder and a burning passion in my heart he goes on talking about the hopes for his academic and his professional career but then takes it one step further sorry when I looked toward my Elder face in life I see a weathered man a man weathered by time yet still proud and happy with what he has done I using this inspiration hope to contribute to the field of science by making discoveries if any one thing could sum up my personality it would be a certain Love For Life a love for all life on Earth I truly believe that this scholarship would help me continue this love that's powerful I know isn't it yes this year's LCS excellence in science scholarship recipient and bothers the embodies the very essence
018of what this scholarship was designed to honor it is indeed my privilege to announce the 2023 LCS excellence in science science scholarship recipient Mr Sage Karana thank you congratulations I'm glad she read through that because I was following you thinking if she starts crying I have to read and then I started crying like oh my goodness it is such an honor to stand here as your superintendent and just be a part of this special moment this is what we're all about right and we're not rushing this moment [Applause] proud of you we're excited about what you're gonna do um you've given us inspiration I love anybody who can combine poetry and biology that's what it really is all about so congratulations thank you we wish you well and you have the opportunity to say anything
019what you would like to say thank you I'll try that's a very difficult task hello School Board I've actually met a few of you through Professor naggy's class I know a couple of you know him Mr trost Dr Brennan Dr Sinha and Dr day I believe I've met you four and I must say it was really fun meeting you guys through that class and of course that was more politics and not science um but I did just want to say thank you for coming into that class and whatnot um I've been obsessed with science ever since I was very very young I mentioned it in my essay that when I was very young I got a stuffed animal that I named egg it was a Pteranodon a flying reptile from the time of the dinosaurs
020and naturally that exploded into something that I never thought would grow this large I love uh It Started With Dinosaurs I watched documentaries uh series YouTube videos DVDs I don't know if any of you have seen it but Walking with Dinosaurs is one of my favorites um there's also Walking With Monsters and a lot of others but it soon grew to all animals more biology especially through high school and the opportunities provided there such as he no longer works at AC class but Mr Garnett was really influential and especially during my junior year Dr Rhodes at cbcc Dr Tim Rhodes he was very influential in heavily sparking how much I love science and biology and it isn't just biology I love geology and many aspects of science too and I I truly hope I can
021accomplish something I I mentioned in my interview what I would specifically like to be I would like to be the backbone of the scientific Community I want to go into research I want to provide the numbers the data I want to do the as I put it the nitty-gritty work so that I can truly help everyone wow thank you [Applause] all right we want to take a picture with you yeah all right boy what an outstanding young man congratulations [Music] thank you I know you did you did great all right well there it is left a little more there we go I think I've got everybody Dr Edwards yep all right here we go everybody say the wonderful word cheese cheese [Applause] absolutely what a credit to Lynchburg City Schools and we are so thankful
022for the Excellence in science presentation that now moves us to C2 where we want to give another special recognition and I am so so grateful to have the opportunity to read this certificate uh then I'm going to ask Dr Edwards if she has any additional comments and then we certainly want to recognize this powerful individual and the said Church proclamation of appreciation whereas the Lynchburg City Schools administration School Board staff and students wishes to express appreciation to Pastor Chris Jordan and the West Lynchburg Baptist Church for the support provided to our division and community whereas the Lynchburg City Schools administration and School Board recognizes the generous efforts made to assist our TC Miller Elementary School for Innovation students and staff during a time of need whereas the Lynchburg City Schools administration and School Board are
023grateful to the congregation of West Lynchburg Baptist Church for opening their doors to provide a temporary location for our staff and students to ensure that the educating of our children was able to continue doing the repairs to TC Miller whereas the Lynchburg City Schools administration and School Board acknowledges the overwhelming kindness and care that was given two part of the Lynchburg Community during a time of need whereas the Lynchburg City Schools administration and school board says thank you for your efforts and afforded our staff to keep our students engaged and safe in an environment that was conducive to instruction and learning your partnership commitment and service to our community along with the gifts of your time and resources is appreciated and valued beyond the measure now therefore be it resolved on the fourth day of
024April 2023 that the Lynchburg City Schools administration School Board staff and students do hereby recognize and wholeheartedly say thank you to the West Lynchburg Baptist Church signed by James Coleman's board chair Crystal Edwards superintendent so come on up there yes yeah thank you seems like just a small thing that we can say but those were those were dire times when we had several buildings that went offline due to pipes bursting during the winter time and we are just beyond grateful with your hospitality your openness your willingness to do bus duty car duty feed our staff I mean it was just so much love that our staff felt um just coming from you and it was it was definitely at a time when we needed it and it really showcased what this community is about you
025know sometimes we watch some television and we wonder what this community is about that really showcased the the way that we collaborate come together support one another and are there and you just did it out of the kindness of your heart and with love and your entire staff like we didn't even want to leave to go back but I mean it was just it was that that's how welcome we felt and our families felt it and we appreciate you we appreciate you we have a small token of our appreciation but also wanted to just give you an opportunity to to say anything that you would like to say or share with our community as well and Dr Edwards before Pastor Jordan would share I just I just I'm somewhat speechless but I want to make
026sure that there's a connection I remember spending some time with Pastor Jordan on a trip that we were on and at that time he was saying anything I can do to be helpful to the community to be helpful to the schools I want to do it and where there's an opportunity and then when I heard Dr Edwards that this partnership had been established it's so powerful and I want to say to everybody else out there that's listening that may want to make a connection to help us Attorney Charles and others around the board with Community engagement thank you sir and thank you congregation thank you thank you Dr Edwards Dr Coleman the school board and it's been a pleasure I've been in Lynchburg for two and a half years but I serve a church that's
027been in this community for 117 years and so what took place there in January to take care of your school was built on the foundation of many years of trying to serve our community and uh just it was an amazing thing to see our church step up Dr Todd Hardin who is our associate pastor of worship who took on in a full-time administrative role with the school and doing all of these things thank you for your help Tim wilgus who is our family Pastor stepped up Blaine who controlled the traffic you know donated his time and so many people not only within the walls of our congregation but in the community stepped up said how can we help provide food for the the teachers of just snacks some words of encouragement cards letters all of
028these type things took place and I'll just say a great word about your staff from Dr I can't remember how to say your name Reed I know Reed so Reid and uh and the principal in the entire staff of TC Miller are outstanding what you've hired there and put together in this community is I don't know all the other schools but I know that one is an exceptional school that has done very well easy to partner with easy to work with because we are in our community for one reason how can we better everything for everyone okay we're driven as a church to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and even in the Old Testament it gives us marching orders in Jeremiah I just want to read a brief passage that I think is helpful uh
029that drives us Jeremiah 29 7 do good things for the city where I sent you pray to the Lord for the city where you are living because if good things happen in the city good things will happen for you also we're here to pour into our city because we are living in this city we are serving in the city we are loving in the city and we want to help lead in a servant attitude with anyone and everyone who's willing to partner so thank you for the recognition but it was our pleasure and honor to host our children from our community in our building and if you ever need it again I will say the kids prefer our soft cushion chairs where are the hard chairs that are provided that TC Miller but thank you
030again thank you you all come up and we want to give you this we also like to take a picture please thank you sir thank you well don't get it straight I'm happy yeah hey everybody no geology Pizza thank you all right we want to thank uh Pastor Jordan and West Lynchburg Baptist Church absolutely outstanding and now we come to uh the next item which is three and oh how we celebrate Beacon of Hope Dr Edwards happy so hopefully if you're watching and if you're here you've come to realize that we can't do this work alone that our school system thrives because of our Partnerships with non-profits Community leaders philanthropists and just people who just care about children and nobody really cares about children as much as this next person who I've had the pleasure
031of working with who has done some phenomenal things to open doors for kids putting Lynchburg on the map with some wonderful things that are unique to us but now everybody's biting on them and trying to trying to do what we do but I'd like to introduce Miss Laura Hamilton to talk a little bit about Beacon of Hope and our partnership and the wonderful things that they do thank you for those kind words it's good to see you all members of the school board superintendent Edwards Dr Coleman it's been a little while that pandemic got in the way of making visits and letting you all know what's going on so um we're just here I know you all have a lot on the agenda so I'm just going to give a brief update of what's happening
032in our world um and so that so that you all can be aware we are fast and furious moving forward just like Lynchburg City Schools so for those of you that don't know Beacon of Hope We are unique to Lynchburg City Schools this is the only place that Beacon of Hope exists we were launched in 2011 as an offshoot of this community's dialogue on race and racism which many of you participated in this community said that none of our student zip codes should determine how far that they can go in life and we grabbed on to that created a non-profit and the rest is history in motion so we are again a non-profit partner to the Lynchburg City Schools we provide services kindergarten through 12th grade the bread and butter the meat and potatoes who
033we really are happens in the high schools but in 2012 is when we opened our first future centers and those existed EC glass and Heritage and Dr Edwards alluded these are kind of the things that the rest of the world is now catching on to our little secret in Lynchburg um in 2019 we launched the very first Universal promise program in the Commonwealth of Virginia and that's a lot of words to say that any student who graduates from glass or Heritage can go on to college for free that's a big deal it's a big deal in Virginia and it's a pretty big deal nationally and we did this really for the same reasons that Dr Pryor and that group of amazing innovators created the Excellence in science that we want the city of Lynchburg to
034continue to attract the best and the brightest and we want the city schools to continue to be the shining star of the city in this region and I think together we're doing a pretty good job we Inspire we invest in young people and we equip them to become anything that they want to be so the future centers are non-prescriptive they really are kind of the Urgent Care Facility of what's happening in post-secondary everything so credentialing saying careers moving towards diplomas moving towards anything after high school we take the handoff help with the awareness the access and the affordability of getting kids onto whatever their next big thing is these are the four verticals of Beacon of Hope our kids to college program which took a pretty strong break during the pandemic but has come back
035roaring in several of our elementary schools this is awareness this is getting students to think about what they want to be and that program would not be possible without the incredible leadership of our elementary schools and the counselors they're in we've had several iterations to that curriculum that our counselors are responsible for they look at it they look at the standards of learning they look at the doe standards and make sure that kids to college meet some we have come in to do all sorts of different things from college fairs for third graders to Career Fairs for fourth graders to the vdoe fifth grade standards of all about me that can carry on to students when they hit their their middle schools running um middle schools so when we first opened the future centers in
0362012 we recognized as you all do that ninth grade is too late to start really planning what you're going to do in 12th grade and Beyond and so we introduced this is now we're in May it'll be our ninth year doing the eighth grade College and Career Readiness Symposium and the short version of that is we schlep all 600 a six all 600 8th graders in this system to one of our college campuses every year and they spend three days as college students thinking about what's next and if you've been on some of our colleges they're not big so when we come on there it is clear that we are coming on their campus and this year we'll be at University of Lynchburg it's a really fantastic event it really gets kids thinking differently as
037they make that tough transition from eighth to ninth grade middle school Heroes is a program that's post pandemic coming back and we nest um near peers so near an age near in geography our College age students inside the classrooms inside this middle schools particularly at Sandusky this year as significant others who are just there to create relationships talk about their experience all of those students qualify for federal work studies so they come from generally economically disadvantaged backgrounds so it's a really special connection that those college kids are making with our middle school students and then the future centers they are really extraordinarily incredible places they are completely and all of this by the way as we begin to talk about budgets all of this is privately funded 100 of the work that's happening is privately
038funded save the incredible generosity of the school system to give us heat lights email addresses and love in the system so we operate those two future centers one at Heritage and one at EC glass and they've been going um 10 years strong they are post-secondary Readiness hubs that work in concert with an incredible School counseling staff who is doing their job and Beyond and so we are we are the gravy on top of the work that they're doing connecting students to whatever is beyond and then the unique nature of what we do you know generally the high school experiences end when students get that diploma and walk off the stage and wave goodbye to Glass and Heritage but we get to take the football and keep going with our students so through the stay close
039go far scholarship which is now a 9 million dollar investment in students in our city schools and growing that program takes um 200 plus students a year to Central Virginia Community College and five other stay close go far partner schools the furthest of which is Longwood the closest is next door over here at Lynchburg University of Lynchburg and it's really been an extraordinary program we send 20 students a year on Commonwealth scholarships which are five thousand dollar scholarships to schools within Virginia and that's really special as well and now we're launching some really exciting new programs alongside these scholarships so I know I'm kind of rushing through because I know you guys have big agendas so you can keep rolling who yeah there we go so those are the two scholarships that we offer free
040Community College again this is a last dollar scholarship so any student who graduates from our city schools and is accepted to any of our local stake list go far Partners as well as the community college is afforded free community college or up to the equivalency eight thousand dollars at one of our partner schools so doing scholarships is hard I mean we just heard about what sage just went through to do that excellence in science and we recognize that it can become an equity issue for our students who need those dollars the most it's the time and the energy and all of the sweat it takes to apply for 15 different scholarships with 15 different applications where you put your name and demographic information on each one for those of you who have been through the
041college process recently you'll be familiar with the Lynch with the common scholarship application it's what you do you do one and kids just send it off to 20 different colleges and you just do it once for us we created the Lynchburg common scholarship application that mirrors that that program takes folks with Dawn wise's group with the Ed foundation with the rotary club with the Dunbar Legacy scholarship with Beacon of Hope scholarships and others and it puts it in one spot much like the Common App where kids can click Send and send to multiple applicants at the same time it's a work in progress but we're excited about about what we're creating and then the football gets taken and um the football is uh the quarterback carries the football which is our incredible students across the
042end line to ensure that we get our kids not just two but through their college career or certification experience um so all of that is the work that we've been doing for the last 10 years it's very exciting we can go to the next slide um we now um at this moment have more than 800 students in our scholarship Universe every single one of those students is a Lynchburg City School student we are not scholarshiping kids from the counties we're not scholarshiping them elsewhere they are all Lynchburg City school students and currently there's about six million dollars that have been invested in those scholarships with another 3 million raised and more to come um of those 800 students we've got 400 who are currently enrolled in their process we've got 81 graduates with another 110
043graduates coming and we have about 260 students who are in pause mode and we're going to talk about those in just a second but I'll keep rolling um this is a really cool program and it may be my favorite program truly that Beacon of Hope has ever done last summer at the request of some of our business partners they said when they get students or they get young people into their Workforce they're not prepared they're not prepared to show up on day one and show up again on day two and you hear this throughout the business community that soft skills are the most important part hard skills can be learned soft skills take time and so last summer we launched a pilot summer internship program we launched it in about six weeks we can just
044keep rolling through these slides because you'll see their pictures it's a an 80 hour program we ended up with more than 80 applicants to the to the internship program we seated 34 students in 12 different businesses across this community everything from framitome to Central Health to Bank of the James to Lynchburg Public Works to the academy center of the Arts and Beyond um the beautiful part of this program is that it was GPA blind meaning we had students from a 0.9 GPA to a 4.5 GPA and 33 of those 34 students were wildly successful in the program every single business that participated came back and we doubled the number of businesses to 22 current businesses and 80 students being placed this coming summer this month-long internship taught students all about self-identity and their asset in
045the workplace how to have conflict in a workplace how to address an envelope how to send a work email how to have small talk how to elevator pitch yourself and all of the things that many adults maybe could use a hand on these days and that leads us to the next project that I think you'll be interested in this is the growth of where this is what Dr Edwards alluded to um Beacon of Hope is just received last week a half a million dollar Grant from the growth and opportunities fund um from the general assembly and our job is going to be to take those students who have paused in their Pursuits and help help re-engage them into careers that promise upward Mobility that's the goal the goal is students moving to places of upward
046Mobility we announced this initiative in partnership with a national group called National College promise they lead more than 400 communities with scholarship programs across the country and the first lady Jill Biden was really excited about this project and Promises to come down here to have some conversations about it we can keep rolling all of these students you see up on stage there are Lynchburg City School grads from 2014 to current some of them are paused some of them have graduated and are now Fulbright Scholars some of them are in the Working World as functional adults and some of them are kind of Midway through their processes and they all talked about the value that Lynchburg City Schools provided them as they made their journey through and how Beacon of Hope and Lynchburg City Schools together
047help prepare them to be not just contributing but flourishing citizens so as we move forward part of that funding has created what we call a playbook for future centers and so we launched two new future centers no scholarships just future centers one at Amherst County High School and one at Alta Vista combined high school so in addition to our two future centers here at glass and Heritage and the future Center that we launched at Central Virginia Community College and the five future centers that we helped launch a couple of years ago in Richmond there are 10 functional future centers all operating differently all operating with different funding streams all successfully help helping to Shepherd students onto their next place so yeah it's pretty great recommend this for the foresight that you had 10 years ago
048when we first started talking about this project because it is a strange thing in the world of schools and for the persistence it took to pursue what we have which is a school officials agreement that allows us to operate within the schools and do the work that needs to be done I want to commend you for your continued persistence in these conversations because this is not easy it's not easy to dig in and try to do this work together and it's really been an extraordinary partnership together the world is looking at us and we're doing really great things here and I think you should all Pat yourselves on the back for your willingness to be Innovative and try something different and thanks for having us thank you Laura Hamilton I certainly want to thank you
049for your Thanking us but we want to thank you for the incredible work that you and your team provide I am almost in tears as I remember I'm probably the only person up here that was around when you just mentioned and um Azariah Cox and his family that young man would have probably had a huge challenge trying to get forward in life and now he's traveling all over the world and taking pictures at the White House and all of that because of Beacon of Hope and so we want to salute you your your team I don't know if board members have anything else to say but we thank you [Applause] I just yes I just want to also comment that this is part of a series we've done with with um Beacon of Hope with
050Partners education Education Foundation to thank these Partners who we have who really just functions solely for the benefit of Lynchburg City schools and we're so fortunate for their support and the support of businesses in other schools so in general I want to make that statement but I also want to Echo what Dr Coleman has said is that although Laura is very humbled to thank the board and other people you know her team over the last 10 years has done a phenomenal thing we have given them some space in the high schools and they have brought back literally millions of dollars to our school to our children to to be successful every every student by name I need and Beyond was really the beacon who follows that so well so just want to thank Laura your
051team your board everyone who just supports this project is so great thank you so much absolutely that now uh moves us to section D of our agenda which is the comprehensive comprehensive strategic plan uh Dr Edwards can you share with us with that absolutely so I am actually going to turn it over to Dr wodica for a quick introduction and discussion about where we are with our strategic plan thank you Dr Edwards uh and good afternoon members of the board I think it's appropriate um that those two those three presentations came before us um just incredible Vision uh that uh was seen by this community in the last several decades and we hope to continue that with some of this work as we move forward um so one of the things we talk about is
052of course the most important thing we do as a school division is to put incredible teachers in front of our students but of course a very close second is to make sure that the learning environments for our students are on this high quality and as impactful as they possibly can be and so for the last several years and a couple of different iterations we'll be working to develop a vision for what the future of our facilities in Lynchburg will be our school facilities in Lynchburg will be and as we've discussed a couple of times now we have now hired MGT Consulting in as a firm to help us not only understand what the conditions of our buildings are but also what do we do in those buildings and how do we craft a path forward
053uh in order to know what our facility should look like in a long so you will meet uh Dr Richards who will be standing up very shortly Dr Lance Richards is our project manager for MGT happens to be here this week meeting with city council members and school board members as well as touring a number of our schools uh over over the next couple of days but I wanted to invite him here tonight just to say hello to you and uh so you have a name of the face that we've been talking about for quite some time so welcome Dr Richards well thank you I appreciate that I I I really wish I'd gone first because I really I feel like I'm very anticlimactic to be up here at this point so I'm personally very
054excited about the Beacon of Hope initiative that was shared and your students Awards and things that's very exciting for me um MDT we like to say we're school people here to help school people and we're here about helping School communities make informed decisions and to gather information and most importantly to gather Community Information so we can bring that back to you and bring back responsible actionable items for your consideration so we're here just to to have your community share with us what their thoughts what their ideas will be probably not too soon to go ahead and announce that we'll be back in May to do some community events and we're still kind of working through the parameters on those but those will be active engaged sessions where folks can come in bring your smartphone or
055tablet and you can vote and bring and share your ideas live on the screen and it's actually kind of fun it's a little bit game showy but and we try to have we try to make it enjoyable we'll share some highlights and some an overview of the facilities reports and kind of condense that information so folks can have that as a ready reference as we go forward but we're excited about the process I also want to share uh Monica is with me as well my colleague she'll be participating as part of you can stand up and wait there we go so I go stand all right I'll I'll give you that um it will be a part of the process in these community events so I'm very excited excited about the process happy to be
056in Lynchburg today and to be able to kind of go through the facilities I'm very excited to get into some of your facilities and just see some of the great things going on a little background on me I it was a school superintendent until just last summer and a teacher a Elementary School principal licensed bus driver I always kind of share that with people so I I it's so it's fun for me to go around take a look at districts or divisions and to be able to share in their in their excitement about the great things going on in in the community and just in my short time and because we've we had our project kicked off a few months back and so I've been able to kind of look at your data look at
057your facilities taking just a 30 000 overview foot overview of your of your of your Division and there's a lot of great things going on here and so it's exciting for us to be a part of that process kind of help you perhaps reimagine or take a different Vision going forward and how and and be a little more purposeful in your facilities decisions thank you all right by the way Reed's been great to work with and yeah thank you very much and you guys have a great evening [Applause] all right very impressive thank you so much Dr Walter cran Dr Eric Edwards in that area now uh probably the highlight of every meeting of is our student representative comments and we're delighted tonight to have with us Prairie Mont elementary school and then of course
058after that uh Cameron and Kalyn will give their reports Dr Edwards absolutely so if you're Tuning In For the First Time one of the things that we started doing this year was inviting our little leaders to join us and share information about their schools and we have been doing that all year since October so we are excited tonight to have representatives from perrymont elementary school and those two Representatives I'm gonna invite them up to the podium are Aiden Scott and Isabella Latham all right hi my name is Isabella and my name is Ada Scott right in math we've learned about many things including multiplication and stimulif plot and in Reading we've learned about I survived and procedural attacks in science we've learned about light and the rock cycle and social studies you've also learned about
059the 20th century and women's suffrage we've done some cool part technology projects such as making podcasts about Finn black people in black history month and explored the three branches of government with VR and resource we did things such as uh draw monsters and have the Pacer tests I love pheromone because of recessing and field day and I love Paramount because of my friends in science and literacy night very nice [Applause] don't throw it away yet miss Foster I did not see you back there the principal Foster can you please stand up I did not see you back there principal Foster from Perryman great job yes [Applause] standing up here facing us and and speaking to us is even more unnerving to know that it's on TV too so which which would be a fun thing
060when you go back and look at it but part of the reason why we do this and as you've seen all night long the investment in our young people our young people have a voice and as adults we're responsible for listening to our children and we need to invite them to the table to share with us because this thing called education is for them so that's why we we make an effort to bring them in we know sometimes that they're nervous but that's okay because we love them we support them and you only get better at things the more you do them so I would like to honor these these students who came tonight Isabella and Aiden I have a special gift for both of you for representing your school and just to say that
061we are extremely proud of you and then we want to take a picture with you foreign [Applause] [Music] everybody smile no biology thank you congratulations [Applause] we're in good shape with these young folks I'm gonna tell you right now wonderful all right is Cameron going to share tonight okay all right then we're going to go straight to Kayla foreign I've loved hearing everybody's speeches and stories today just reminds me of how grateful I am to be an LCS student and I'm excited to tell you guys about what's been happening in Heritage so congratulations to three of our marketing students at Heritage uh nishana Essence and Maya who competed at the DECA State leadership conference last month in Virginia Beach this is an exciting opportunity for our marketing students at Heritage we have many career tech
062classes that really prepare students for the workforce and can make them you know help them to become well-rounded before they move on into their jobs so for National Honor Society the National Honor Society has recently inducted members of the junior class they did that this month we're also going to be some of the NHS members are going to be volunteering this Friday at the Laurel Regional Schools prom this is something that we did before kovid and we're very very excited to be able to to go back to Laurel and work with them again it's a great opportunity uh Pioneer theater and glass theater have been working on their joint production of the prom which opens at the end of this month this is another very exciting opportunity um for students at both high schools we
063it's been a very long time since we've been able to do a combined show and we're we are having a lot of fun and we're really enjoying ourselves this is an exciting and important show and we're very excited to present it to Lynchburg as a combined Force last month I talked about Nisha who was the regional winner for forensics poetry and she has become the Virginia class III State forensics champion in poetry which is very very exciting we're very proud of her another exciting combined activity between glass and Heritage was the indoor combined percussion group students from both high schools came together and competed at the indoor percussion competition the team placed fifth overall out of the 12 teams that competed and we're very proud of them as well that's it thank you for your
064time thank you Caitlyn for the fine work that you do we're very proud of you all right at this time we will now move to section F which is public comment and if it would please the board we are so used to this language that I usually read and as I look here all of the three presenters are familiar with the language and so as someone that someone stops me I'm gonna go ahead and call on the three people that I have in front of me and first uh if I have it right Sonia uh Harding if I have it wrong please forgive me hi um do I just go and then it starts yeah all right okay go ahead my name is Sonya Harding I'm a parent of a five-year-old entering LCS this upcoming
065year and a step parent to a child currently at LCS High School in person Lynchburg City schools are not safe for queer trans and gender non-conforming students the lack of adequate teacher funding and training leads to bullying going unchecked both from other students and staff while verbal abuse takes the lead physical abuse from other students is also a portion of this this is unacceptable and makes in-person schooling unsafe and inaccessible to many students I understand that some students caregivers contribute to this by teaching their children and children children an emphasis on uniformity at the expense of community well-being freedom of self-expression is an inherent part of well-being including gender expression as the social construct of gender is constantly changing there is no objectively right way to perform it the act of policing it per any
066group standards does not belong in our schools or society and is discriminatory as the in-person schools are not currently safe I have heard that the Lynchburg Virtual Academy has proven safer for some students while I appreciate that it exists as an option Virtual Academy is not an equal educational experience for households who do not have the necessary support resources households that can support students through lva often do so at the cost of their career and other commitments somewhat related there is a simple actionable way that LCS can support a wide variety of students I'm fairly certain everyone knows at least a handful of people that go by a name other than their legal first name many of us know people who go by Jerry Jeff Nate Liz Beth Or Meg some of whom feel very
067strongly about their nicknames being their proper name to use for them within Google classrooms there's a constant reminder of chosen names not being respected on assignments exams and the entire online environment I believe it would benefit many students feeling of well-being and engagement by having their chosen names respected within the school that that school context I asked the LCS provide an accessible way for students to directly request that their names be changed within the Google Classroom system as it is a broadly used classroom environment expecting caregiver permission for this would be a limiting factor that would have a greater impact on students within households whose caregivers have executive functioning issues or limited energy to dedicate to function or to actions outside of Baseline survival not to mention abusive households as it is LCS in-person schooling
068is inaccessible to my youngest the systematic discrimination and bullying of gender non-conforming queer and trans students is a large aspect of that I have heard many stories directly from students in the system that experience discrimination both from staff teachers and students as long as I am able I hope to keep her safe from environments like that can I make my final sentence you may go forward okay teacher and staff training regarding LGBT students as well as bullying intervention could be a substantial part of making in-person LCS schools safer for students the groups side by side is one organization that does that sort of training I am hopeful that the board will be able to initiate that soon thank you thank you very much [Applause] next speaker is representing a group The Lynchburg immigration support network
069and Vicente Gonzalez you welcome to come forward thank you hi uh my name is Vicente Gonzalez I'm queer and non-binary and I'm a graduate of Lynchburg City schools and I'm here to speak on lcs's failure to protect queer and transgender students against bullying harassment and discrimination We are continuing to pressure the school system to enforce its current anti-discrimination policy which protects students faculty and staff from discrimination along the lines of sexual orientation and gender identity we need to see this policy put into practice we need a clear outline protocol which is accessible to all students when it comes to dealing with cases of discrimination and harassment without such LCS is failing to ensure full access to academic success for its queer and transgender students when you are afraid you cannot learn when you are deemed
070A disruption you cannot thrive when your identity is stigmatized you cannot be a fully integrated member of a community we know that queer and transgender youth have higher rates of depression substance abuse houselessness and even self-harm and suicide we know that there is a national state-by-state effort to push transgender people out of public life we know that Governor Jenkins 2022 model policies strive to deny transgender students equal access to public education we know that there are members of city council who openly support measures which will dismantle protections for Equity diversity and inclusion for Lynchburg City Schools queer people are organizing to fight back against these attacks on our community and we need to see that same urgency from Lynchburg City Schools through advocacy for queer students we can build a better school system for all
071students we have to remember that students are being profoundly impacted by poverty gentrification and the housing crisis we have to continue to address issues of racism and anti-blackness in our schools we have to continue to dismantle the school to prison pipeline we have to ensure full access for disabled students we have to provide support for immigrants and undocumented youth all of these issues are essential components in securing protections for queer and transgender students we can demonstrate for our students that they have the capacity to imagine and create a better world we can show our youth that in diversity There Is Power in inclusion there is possibility and in solidarity there is hope I urge the Lynchburg City School administration to make the right decision our community is mobilizing and we need you to move with
072us not against us thank you our last speaker is public speaker will be Nicole spangen Berger and you may come forward welcome my name is Nicole spangenberg I use she her pronouns I'm a queer disabled social worker with an MSW and a special interest in working for and with lgbtqia plus Youth and adults today I'm here asking you to prioritize developing training for staff and teachers an anti-discrimination policy is nothing if it is not implemented effectively I will again bring attention to Urgent needs for Change and provide examples of what this professional development needs to cover this time as per the 2021 model policies for the treatment of transgender students in Virginia's public schools this is a critical time in both the city and the country to build in as many protections as possible before
073the seats on the school board shift and before any more danger in the form of state and National policy enter the conversation surrounding our students students as well as us are seeing news spread across the internet about adults in power making decisions attempting to eradicate transgenderness which can only be seen as attempts to eradicate transgender people polling shows that 85 percent of transgender and non-binary youth and two-thirds of all lgbtq youth say that recent debates around anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their Mental Health research shows that transgender youth are at higher risk of suicide because of living with transphobia trauma discrimination and other threats to their safety a 2017 study by the gay lesbian and straight education Network found that 84 percent of transgender students and 70 percent of gender expansive students are bullied and
074harassed at school there's a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about their lives when these students do not feel firmed or safe they cannot learn or participate effectively in school we need to make sure school is a place that all students feel safe queer students feel safe black students feel safe disabled students feel safe undocumented students feel safe we're a queer black disabled undocumented student can feel safe without a threat to their lives a threat of being removed from school a threat of being sent down to school to prison pipeline it's vital for students to have at least one trusted adult in their life the role model effect is huge for black students to have at least one black teacher dramatically improves the likelihood of them graduating high school and of attending college at least one
075accepting adult reduces the risk of a suicide attempt for lgbtq Young People by 40 percent if there was a medicine that reduced that percentage by 40 percent it would be a miracle drug we can get there if we provide staff in Lynchburg Public Schools with every opportunity to be that one accepting adult that makes a life-changing difference the next step is training and professional development for everyone staff teachers Administration I'm not asking you to reinvent the wheel I'm asking you to pull from what has already been put forward today from the 2021 model policies for the treatment of transgender students put forward by the Virginia Department of Education the goal of this public this professional development is to make sure that everyone understands the rights of students to a safe learning environment as well as
076the school board's expectations regarding the treatment of our students the Virginia Department of Education recommends to cover these seven areas key lgbtq plus terminology and the use of unbiased language challenges and barriers frequently faced by lgbtq plus students like implicit bias and discrimination federal and state laws and local school board policies and regulations relating to the rights of all students to a safe learning environment this includes expectations relating to preventing identifying and responding to bullying students write to privacy and why unauthorized disclosures May negatively impact the student's safety and well-being practices to create a safe inclusive environment for all students between students their peers and the school community knowledge of affirming resources for students and families outside of the school system and strategies to engage parents and other stakeholders regarding an inclusive School Community to
077affirm all students these components can overlap and be a part of other professional development or they could be an individual professional development topic themselves the 2021 model policies also include over three pages of resources for school divisions this can be found on the vwe vdoe website and I'll also be sending it to you for your convenience for students and others listening today you are not alone we are here nothing will happen about us without us if you're struggling today the new helpline number is 988 and the text helpline number is 741-741 we are here we are queer and we are not going to stop fighting for you thank you thank all of you who have had a chance to speak during public comments in person Madam clerk do we have any uh voicemail no sir
078all right so we will now move to the next item on our agenda which is going to take us uh we'll uh want to move G1 to our next meeting and uh the consent agenda we do need to deal with that not tonight and so uh in uh section eight we have H1 minutes from the March 7 2023 school board meeting minutes from our public hearing on March the 21st minutes from our March 21st work session we have the appropriate information for religious exemption Human Resources board report resources addendum report an addendum two and our special education annual plan and so uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda if no one is pulling anything all right it's been moved by Dr Gupta seconded by Dr Carter that we approve the consent agenda
079any further questions or discussions concerning the concern agenda hearing none Madam clerk please call the roll scuba remember Miss Preston yes yes School Board member Dr Gupta yes school but my doctor day yes school but Mr Andrews yes Austin carries nine to zero and now Dr Edwards is going to share with us some information you all School Board um in one of those addendums was the approval of Miss Sherry Shepard who is going to be our new Chief Human Resources officer and we are excited to have her join us she is coming to us from Mecklenburg County public school she's had three years of experience as a director in our neighbor Mecklenburg County Public Schools as well as over 20 years of director experience as an HR professional we are really excited about her leadership
080and joining us and just a reminder that Ms Scott who is our director of HR has chosen to step down still stay in HR and deliver the excellent service that she has been I'm doing just not in that leadership role so Mrs Shepherd will be taking over she is sherm certified which is the society for human resource management senior certified professional as well as senior professional in human resource management and as you heard today even with the presentation with excellence in science the connection that our kids have to excellent teachers and that starts with great leadership at the human resources level in recruiting wonderful Talent retaining the superb talent that we already have just to speak to some of the things that we heard in public comment the importance of training for our staff moving
081forward we do have wonderful training but our HR department helps out with that so we're excited to welcome Miss Shepherd and her start date will be May 30th all right thank you Dr Edwards and we are excited about uh what that means for us all right as it relates now to section I uh we have moved that to our next uh meeting and as it relates to section Jay we have moved those to our April the 18th work session and you're getting more information about The Retreat will be coming forward as it relates to K we do need to take care of these matters under new business and so donation from Virginia Education Foundation uh Dr Edwards you can go right here yes so we have done this in the past couple years this is
082where we've received um all of our books for our blizzard of books that we have shared with our students who are in pre-k through high school and the Virginia Education Foundation would like to continue to donate books um to us so 23 over 23 000 books valued at about 365 thousand dollars so the list of book titles they've been great grateful and getting great in giving us the list of book titles is there and per our board policy need to let the board know that we are receiving such a high value but very well appreciative appreciated donation all right okay so that's just for our information thank you Dr Edwards we are very appreciative of that and then likewise if you could uh comment on uh the donation uh second item absolutely so also per
083policy I just like to let the board know when we have wonderful Community Partners like we do in Terry Subaru who is donating three thousand dollars um to Bass Elementary in the form of adopt a classroom and what that does is allow teachers there's six teachers who can receive 500 worth of shopping money to go on adopt a classroom and pick out wonderful things for their classrooms and again we are grateful to Terry Subaru for their support of our teachers every little bit matters um and we just want to take time to acknowledge them right here and again this is for information thank you Dr Edwards we appreciate that and we so noted that for information uh um we are moving along so fast here and so at this point uh we are not going
084to have our superintendent comments we'll save those until uh May 2nd and likewise the board comments and you see all the informational items there that the Board needs to be made aware of we're looking forward to everybody having a good spring break a robust April the 18th meeting so y'all gonna come and be ready to do some great work during that time period you see on May 2nd meeting the finance and facilities and they may work session um now Boyd in terms of affection oh I don't think we spoke to that earlier but uh technically speaking I think we can dispatch of that by way of the telephone um but what is the pleasure of the board do you understand what I'm saying yeah okay all right there's a proposed uh closed meeting for us
085to just review what you already have in your possession and that is the schedule for the evaluation uh summative evaluation that we have to do for the superintendent you said we have the schedule in our possession well you were given in a previous uh oh in the dates I saw far distant and we just wanted to yeah okay we can just we will skip that all right you all are doing well guess what [Laughter]