001[Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign call to order the March the 7th 2023 uh school board meeting for the Lynchburg City School Board and as we call our meeting to order tonight uh we are grateful for the opportunity to serve and to come as a governing body to make the best decisions possible to move our School Division forward having said that uh I would like now for Section B uh each board member you have had the opportunity to see the agenda for tonight's meeting is there a motion to approve the agenda for uh the March the 7th meeting that we approve the agenda for the March the 7th meeting by Dr um Carter seconded by Dr day any further questions or discussion uh Madam clerk please call let's go but
002Mr Charles yes yes my Dr Coleman yes we'll put my Dr Carter yes Google remember Dr Gupta sorry that President school but remember Dr day yes Mr Andrews yes most encourage seven to zero thank you very much I do want to also Express to the board that school board members Gloria Preston and the two Gupta will not be with us tonight uh we do have a quorum uh and we will proceed accordingly to make sure that our board members are up to date on any matters uh necessary for at tonight's meeting uh section c is a notice for a closed meeting and as permitted by the code of Virginia Section 2.2-371182 the School Board needs to convene a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing or considering of admission or disciplinary matters or any other
003matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the Scholastic record concerning a student and as I bring this motion before you when we pass it we're going to stand and do the Pledge of Allegiance before we go to the room all right anyone want to make that motion let's go into closed meeting I said move second okay if they move back uh School Board member Charles second about Carter that we will go into closed meeting and further questions or discussion on the matter ma'am clerk please close the roll School remember Mr Charles yes school department Dr Sinha yes Dr Brennan yes let's go up on my Dr Coleman yes super member Dr Carter yes let's go but remember Dr day yes go back my Mr Andrews yes Austin carries all right before we
004go into closing meeting we're going to stand I lead you to the flag which is very important for us to do the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right I do want to let the public know that we are going to hopefully be no longer than 30 35 minutes as I hope but we're going to be back as quickly as we can uh and uh so we're now in close meeting [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music]
005foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign at this time the chair would like to entertain a motion for us to come out of our closed meeting I'll second it all right so the motion is made by Dr Carter second about Dr Brennan that we would come out of closed meeting and if further questions or discussion hearing none Madam clerk please call the roll let's go but remember Mr Charleston yes scope remember doctor said hi yes goodbye Mama Dr Brennan yes bill but mum and Dr Coleman yes let's go from Dr Carter yes let's go up Mom and Dr Day yes still remember Mr Andrews yes
006Austin carries as permitted by the Virginia code section 2.2-371182 I would now like for us to certify that in the closed meeting convened for the purpose of discussing or consideration of admission or disciplinary matters or any other matters that all that was discussed uh was pertaining to that and nothing else Mr Charles yes goodbye Mama Dr Brennan yes school but remember Dr Coleman yes go by Mom and Dr Carter yes let's go but remember Dr day yes government member Mr Andrews yes motion Curry is seven to zero thank you madam clerk I'm asking this if in in fact all board members will agree we did approve the agenda tonight but I think this is a simple switch uh would there be any challenge with us doing e first and then go to D which would
007be our student representative comments and follow that with public comments yes I make them I mean you want a motion for that or if everybody accepts I think we'd be all right okay thank you all right we're going to now go to Dr Edwards for our student representative comments uh tonight um I think Mrs Lee is still upstairs so I am going to switch the order of our student reps and just for those who may be joining us for the first time we have invited student reps from all of our schools to join us at school board meetings to share some of the wonderful things that are happening at our elementary middle middle schools our Virtual Academy and other schools in addition to our two High School reps so tonight we have with us from
008our Virtual Academy we have the principal Josh Boyd who is here and we have several students from our Virtual Academy who are here with Mr Boyd and we have Reagan earthside Moses Earth Skye Gemma sheets Dave Garrett and Savannah Hicks awesome thank you everybody um Gabe actually could not make it and Savannah is on Zoom so when we get to her she will share her piece but Dr Coleman members of the school board and Dr Edwards good evening good evening I want to thank you all for allowing us to speak to you this evening we have four wonderful students with us who like to share their educational experiences at lva with you it will share what a school day is like for them personal connections with teachers and classmates that they've made and what other
009opportunities they've had while attending lva but without further Ado I'd like to introduce is Reagan Erskine hi my name is Reagan here's our typical day at the Virtual Academy we all get on Zoom at eight o'clock and we all get to watch morning announcements with Mr Boyd after announcements our teacher takes attendance and then we jump into our day in third grade we have math reading and then either science or or social studies after Zoom we do homework and we have help sessions if we need them we use at home learning kits and other websites like braining camp and I excel sometimes we have celebrations in class and if everyone shows up with their cameras thank you oh thank you Raven hi my name is Moses your skin and I'm in the third grade we
010also have hubs I enjoyed the outdoors Club I get to see my friends and play with them outside once every month we also have in the person event we also have field trips thank you okay [Applause] Savannah is on Zoom so can we get Savannah we can't hear you we can't hear you yet Savannah give us a second make sure she muted on her end they're fixing microphones try it now Savannah can you hear me now yeah yes good yes okay um sorry um hi as Mr Boyd mentioned my name is Savannah Hicks and I'm a 10th grader currently attending the Virtual Academy when Mr Boyd approached me with the prospect of speaking to you all about the program I knew I'd do it because of how great the Lynchburg Virtual Academy is I'd like
011to highlight staff and more specifically Aquila green my Geo trig teacher math and science have never been my favorite subjects that being said I've never felt more accepted in a math class than I do in Mrs greens if I ever have an issue understanding the curriculum she's quick to make videos for me log on Zoom even if it's outside of her office hours send me extra notes and Etc she always has different ways to teach topics to her sleep it's clear that she's dedicated to making sure every single one of her students log out feeling more confident than they did when they logged in enrolling in the Lynchburg Virtual Academy has expanded my knowledge in more ways than I can missed I think there is a common misconception that the Virtual Academy is completely virtual
012which is understandable however it isn't we have in-person events at the end of every month we have field trips we have many fun activities as well such as clubs mock trials Etc I say all this to say Virtual Academy is more than a computer screen it's a genuine experience thank you [Applause] you want to make sure the mic is adjusted so that we can hear yeah okay hi my name is Gemma sheets and I'm a sixth grader at the Lynchburg Virtual Academy I can't wait to tell you all the awesome things about the school first of all I love all my teachers they make a lot of the class enjoyable and fun to learn different things they are also great with getting in contact if I need help with anything or if I have a
013question another great thing is the in-person events we often have a good example of this is our field trips we go to a lot of different places that have really cool backgrounds and historical significance I went to the Ann Spencer house for one of my field trips and it was really interesting and fun they're also regular in-person days where we do Interactive Learning activities where I have made many friends that are now very close to me also we have a big variety of different clubs some example some examples of these are the art Club outdoor club and photography club each one of them is very interesting and I learned a new thing every time I go to one I'm able to self-pace myself with my work and get done earlier than normal there is a
014lot of flexibility when it comes to classes due dates and independent activities thank you thanks that's it don't go anywhere because I have a I have a special gift for my student reps you all come back so don't don't leave don't leave um we also have from Sheffield Elementary we have principal Lisa Lee who is here with us and our student rep from Sheffield Jackson Browne I just want to introduce to you a fabulous fifth grade student he has lots of super experiences to share with you he is a great leader his teachers quickly advised him as being a great speaker for our school so Jackson Browne um good evening school board and more my name is Jackson Browne 5th grade student at Sheffield Elementary fortunately I have been been a student at the school
015since kindergarten I am excited to share all the things that make our school a special place every day I love the leadership opportunities that students especially fifth graders get to participate in the Sierra School brought back the safety patrol members of the safety patrol model good citizenship for other students by being safe respectful and responsible we get to help out in the hallways another fun leadership experience is leading the morning announcements we get to lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance um and upcoming events at Sheffield we have high expectations for academics and behavior each quarter we come together to celebrate good citizens in each class attendance behavior and grades it is always fun to cheer on our classmates students can earn certificates to Seaquest and Golden Corral at the end of the second
016quarter we had a new experience one Community One Voice came to our school and gave away four bikes to students that have been working hard and making progress we were also excited to see who won um yeah one of my best friends actually won a bike um of course every student loves a field trip earlier this year fifth grade took a trip to Mayor Museum to enjoy art soon soon fifth grade we'll head to the pamphlet Pamplin Historical Park to experience the life of a soldier some of the field trips other grades are experiencing this year are seed Quest amazement Square Richmond Zoo in Jamestown the very best part of Sheffield is the students our teachers staff and families many of the students at Sheffield are learning English as as a second language and are
017bilingual we learn just as much from other kids as we learn from our teachers before winter break we had a school-wide sing-along with songs from all over the world that celebrate different customs many of our families came to sing along with us our PTO put on a winter wonderland store and every single student got got tiger bucks so they could pick out a gift for to give to someone special to them our teachers come to school every day with a smile and work hard to help us Learn and Grow they they plan exciting lessons like our annual SCI Fest for scifest the entire School spent the day doing fun science experiments and that night our families were invited back to the school to join in on the fun with us our PTO provided dinner for
018for each family and we had different stations that include electrical circuits watersheds simple machines and more we also got to use our creative minds and ended the night with a pumpkin decorating contest some of the winners included included pumpkin decorated like desserts hit and they were very realistic we had over 300 students and family members to attend this event the playground was packed last week we celebrated to read Across America the the book fair was at our school and our families were invited to come shop with us it every student was able to pick out a new book family literacy literacy night was on Thursday Thursday each family got a pizza and learned how to support reading in the home we also got to see scorm the second grade play the cafeteria was full the
019second graders that worked hard and did a great job singing and dancing the last thing I would like to say is that Sheffield is a place where I have made wonderful memories and have learned a lot along the way anytime I have a new interest like Titanic or the history of War my school supports it and helps me to find books that relate to the topic I will miss this school next year but I know that they have done a good job in preparing me for Middle School I hope you all have a wonderful night thank you for letting me share [Music] [Applause] thank you so hopefully you can see what we do to close the achievement Gap weaved into all of that science night throughout the school family engagement I think he talked about
020literacy my Virtual Academy kids made it real clear it's not just a screen it's an experience with field trips and clubs and engaging activities and there's a lot going on in math and science that support this and that's what we're about with when we talk about the whole child how do we combine all of the experiences to help children as they're on their journey in this Learning Journey that they have so I'd like to thank them for being here you all know it's not easy to speak in front of all of us and on television where everybody else is going to be watching but they did a fabulous job doing that so let's give them one more round of applause and then I do have special gifts for you all and we will take a
021picture so I'm going to ask the students to come up into the Horseshoe here along with their two fabulous principles did a great job both groups all right there we go can't see me I can't see you right here foreign thank you Dr Edwards I've just a wonderful wonderful sharings tonight uh from the Virtual Academy and Sheffield Elementary thank you all vote for coming tonight and now we'll hear from our student Representatives uh always grateful to hear from Caitlin and Cameron in that order but first off our track team both the boys and girls indoor track team both won the state championship [Applause] this is the first boys indoor track state championship since 2006 so that's very exciting oh our wrestling team competed in States on February 18th Dylan Lamar Justin Porter and Marquez wood
022all placed in there in each of their respective categories so very exciting there as well um it's February 6th through 10th was National School counseling week shout out to our counselors Mrs Hester Miss Baker Mrs beckles and Miss Davis they are all incredibly helpful especially this being my senior year it's been really wonderful to work with them uh scholarships college applications all of that stuff hi Ernie Pioneer theater had two successful weekends of performances of Cabaret on their closing performance they celebrated a senior night all of the seniors were honored by underclassmen it was a very nice event the pathways to graduation event was at Heritage The Beacon of Hope participated at this event and students and parents could see all of the special programs and clubs that Heritage offers this was very exciting like
023I said each of the clubs they had a table for themselves there's a band table and an orchestra table and they could kind of walk through the common area and just see what heritage has to offer our cosmetology program the students competed in skillsusa District competition earlier this month seven students placed and three will move on to States our cosmetology programs really interesting too because we have glass students who come over to Heritage to take the class so it was kind of a combined effort and the students that placed were a mix of Heritage and class students and lastly our forensics team Nisha mangratti placed first in the regional competition for forensics poetry she'll be competing at States later this month and she's actually the first pioneer in five years to make it this far
024[Applause] and that's all thank you excellent job Caitlyn thank you for that's powerful all right Cameron good evening good evening so we've also had a very busy month at glass on February 25th our indoor drumline the Lynchburg City combined which includes all of our high schools and our middle schools they placed first at the Atlantic indoor Association competition out of eight bands across the state our forensics are the super region runners-up congrats to Sophia hopped who is the Poetry Champion for our region congrats also to Bria Seifert Luke King and Amory Dopp who will all represent EC glass at States wow we are so excited to welcome our new football coach Jamar Lovelace he has 12 years of experience and is coming to us from William Fleming High School we are also so excited to
025say that he is lcs's first African-American head coach wow our boys soccer team will be having a fundraiser car wash this weekend and our boys basketball will be at state finals this Thursday in Richmond which we are so so excited about [Applause] and Arc School has two charter buses currently taking students to the game on Thursday to have school spirit and good luck to our basketball teams as they play Arena I'm pretty sure for the championship on Thursday thank you excited about that thank both of you um as we are now in March and moving closer and closer to to June thank you both for doing such a great job as you have shared tonight in in the past where you've had opportunity all right thank you both and that ends our student representative section
026again very beautiful presentation from the Virtual Academy in Sheffield as well uh we're going to go back now to D which is a public comment and I do want to read that person's appearing before the school board would not be allowed to campaign for public office or promote private business ventures and should not use profanity or vocal language or gestures make comments about a public official an employee that are not related to their official duties engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting or intimidates others or addresses school board on issues that do not concern the services policies roll into responsibilities of the school board individual speakers should limit their comments to three minutes a speaker representing the group should limit their comments to five minutes the representative shall identify the group at the beginning of
027their presentation a group may have no more than one spokesperson and they total allotted time for public comments at school board meetings typically is 30 minutes of the comments are reserved for the public to provide input the board does not respond to comments answer questions or otherwise engage in discussion at this time and the clerk has shared with me our list for tonight of course we start with a student if we have one then move to our parents and then community members there's no student for tonight so we're going to move right to the parent category and we welcome tonight Jessica Coleman who is coming as an individual uh to speak to us tonight about some of Governor yonkin's proposals that person here all right might I ask are there any voicemails or anything like
028that for tonight yes one voicemail that may or may not be that person so we'll come back to that not that person oh it's not okay well we're gonna move on now and I'm gonna go to the top of the list and we'll go to Vince and Gonzalez who is going to come to us um from the Lynchburg immigrant support group [Applause] I don't think hi my name is Vicente I'm queer and non-binary I'm an alumnus of Lynchburg City schools and I'm here to discuss the lack of support for lgbtq students in LCS first I would like to applaud LCS for updating the anti-discrimination policy on the LCS website this is a great first step in making the anti-discrimination policy more accessible to his families and students what we need now is this policy to
029be enforced we need more comprehensive training for teachers faculty and staff around lgbtq issues in a more transparent and accessible process for addressing discrimination bullying and harassment we also need LCS to begin to prepare for the push for governor juncken's 2022 model policies which Target transgender students policies which many members of city council openly support and intend to have passed an LCS these policies would push transgender students towards higher rates of depression substance abuse houselessness and even self-harm and suicide I urge Lynchburg City Schools to take lead from other Virginia school districts which have already passed resolutions rejecting these policies there is a clear effort to deny transgender students equal access to public education under the guise of parental rights what does that even mean and which parents who decides that what about the parents
030of queer and transgender students what about queer parents this argument is Not Practical and should not be utilized in any conversations by this board regarding policy also it is extremely concerning that the school board voted on an opt-in policy pushed by city council that is not the city council's role we also know that many members of city council have publicly attacked queer and transgender students have supported measures which would eliminate programs which celebrate diversity and are working with constituents actively pushing to defund public education are these the voices that we are choosing to prioritize when it comes to our students when it comes to our Public Schools there is already a process in place when it comes to proposing policy it is Dr Edwards who is already on the direction of the Virginia boards Virginia
031school boards Association it is Dr Edwards who has the experience in professional background to formulate policy it was Dr Edwards who was vetted and chosen by this community and it is she who should be presenting policy to this board not city council it is also concerning that even after multiple teachers from LCS presented their case in front of this board several members chose to ignore them and vote in favor of the opt-in policy what message does that send to our students and now city council wants the school board to become an elected body because they know these positions will go to candidates who have access to the most wealth when in our school system 62 percent of students are disadvantaged economically who will speak up for them who will run on their behalf we are
032facing major potential changes in Lynchburg City schools and it is black youth disabled youth undocumented and immigrant Youth and queer and transgender youth who are most at risk I urge the Leesburg City Schools administration to take action now to prepare for the potential sweeping actions against diversity equity and inclusion and to protect queer and transgender youth thank you foreign [Applause] [Music] Town Hall organization all right give me one second to pull up take your time good evening School Board good evening School Board my name is Nicole spangenberg and I use she her pronouns I'm a queer disabled social worker with an MSW and I'm representing queer Town Hall I have a special interest in working for and with lgbtqia plus adults and youths a mentor once said to me how we do the work is
033just as important as the work we do today I'm asking you to turn this anti-discrimination policy which as mentioned we appreciate you bringing forward onto the website more visibly and turning that into practice a policy is nothing if it is not implemented effectively I will bring attention to the glaring urgent needs for Change and provide examples of what new professional development needs to cover students are seeing news spread across the internet about adults in power making decisions to eradicate transgenderness which can only be interpreted as attempts to eradicate transgender people narissa Rahman executive director of equality Virginia said even though these policies aren't in place yet it's causing harm 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
034their 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 nearly 84 percent of transgender students and 70 percent of gender expansive students were bullied or harassed at school there's a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about their lives when these students do not feel affirmed or safe they cannot learn or participate in school activities effectively schools must be proactive in creating change now is the time today a Lynchburg City school counselor shared a story with me of a student that they're working with facing constant bullying he's been experiencing about his sexuality he does not feel a sense of belongingness and he responds with anger a reasonable
035response to a threat when we are threatened our bodies go into survival mode of fight flight or freeze from there we cannot learn we cannot make rational decisions many students experience this distress every day and bullying based on queerness is just one example imagine yourself being questioned and tested by your adults and peers about whether your lived experience is correct whether your body is correct at a time when your body is already growing and changing imagine being in a classroom with your body body signaling that there's an emergency and you're expected to remain calm and collected we need to make sure that school is a place all students feel safe and calm queer students feel safe black students feel safe disabled students feel safe undocumented students feel safe where a queer black disabled undocumented student
036can feel safe without a threat to their lives without a threat of being removed from school or being sent down the school to prison pipeline research shows that it is vital for students to have at least one trusted adult in their life at least one 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 them attending college for lgbtq youth at least one accepting adult reduces the risk of a suicide attempt by 40 percent the next step with this lgbtq plus anti-discrimination policy is training and professional development for all staffs and teachers an example of what this professional development needs to cover I'll take lead from our neighboring County of Albemarle for their professional development they outline eight
037areas current terms and Concepts on the understanding of gender developmentally appropriate strategies for communicating with students and parents about student privacy federal and state laws School planning guide for gender and expansive students equal access to facilities and activities classroom management practices and medical and physical considerations of safe transitioning for transgender students in accordance with their medical professional Nia Ola said that people need more than anger to thrive people need more than sorrow to see a path forward all people deserve respect dignity and product protection when they're being targeted for something like their identity especially when that person is black disabled undocumented queer already struggling so much in this Society we need to protect them in schools we can do better to protect everyone in schools for students and others listening today you're not alone we
038are here nothing will happen about us without us if you're struggling today the new helpline number is 988 and the new text helpline number is 741-741 we are here we are queer and we are not going to stop fighting for you thank you [Applause] I do um all right we will now uh hear from Mr Phil stump who is coming to us as an individual tonight to talk about non-discrimination policy good evening good evening thank you for the opportunity to to address you today as a former teacher as a parent and a grandparent all three of my children attended Lynchburg City Schools from K through 12. and I am so thankful for the education they received at the last school board meeting several of us addressed the district's policies regarding non-discrimination with regard to lgbtqia
039Plus or queer students however at that meeting the related issue of opt-in and opt out took priority and I want to thank the school board as Vicente did for their wise decision to continue its opt-out policy today I would like to return to the anti-discrimination policies regarding queer students as I explained at the last meeting I am the grandparent of a child who is exploring his gender identity born a girl he identifies in most situations as a boy he lives in a school district in another state where teachers and administrators have not discriminated against him in fact they have been exceedingly supportive to him and helpful in preventing discrimination and bullying by other students and quite frankly they have probably helped to save his life his school district has clearly stated anti-discrimination policies that are
040public and are implemented in practice I want to strongly encourage our school district to do the same please do not listen to the voices that would divide Us by fomenting fear Among Us our district has developed good anti-discrimination policies with regard to square students now we need to make those policies known to all teachers staff and students and develop protocols for enforcing them queer students need to know to whom they can turn when they are being bullied and they need to find support when they turn to a teacher or staff member and that teacher or staff member needs to be trained to know how to provide that support one simple step that could be taken right away is to provide training for proper use of students desired pronouns I have forwarded it to all school
041board members a short and very well crafted video that could be used for this training many other resources are also available for those who are of good will what it really boils down to is a matter of what Aretha Franklin calls respect respect for differences it is similar to respect for the different ethnicities cultures and racial histories of our students our learning about and practicing this respect can truly be a matter of life and death for our students thank you feels good and uh last uh speaker in person uh we welcome Jeffrey wooters who's coming to talk to us also in regards to anti-discrimination policy thank you in accordance with the law the board prohibits harassment against students employees or others on the basis of race color religion national origin ancestry political affiliation sex sexual
042orientation gender gender identity age marital status pregnancy childbirth or other related medical conditions military status and neck information disability or any other characteristic protected by law based on a belief that such characteristic exists here and after referred to as protected group status at school or at any school sponsored activity student or School Personnel harassment based on the aforementioned characteristics or any other characteristic protected by law by any student or School Personnel at school or any school-sponsored activity is a violation of this policy further it is a violation of this policy for any school Personnel to tolerate such harassment directed towards a student or employee at school or any school-sponsored activity good evening my name is Jeffrey wooters I'm a first year at the University of Virginia I'm also a graduate of EC glass high school
043and Central Virginia Governor's School class of 2022. um you know I've spoken at this Podium a lot about different sorts of issues I've talked about masks I've talked about science I've talked about critical race Theory I've talked about all sorts of topics and I've been very privileged to speak from a disconnected perspective who doesn't have to deal with the ramifications of what those policies entail for our most vulnerable students and I don't have that luxury tonight um I am gay I've known this about myself about since about halfway through sixth grade so I've spent six and a half years half of my LCS career um being a member of the lgbtq community and I'd love to tell you that listing that anti-discrimination policy Works um let me tell you a quick story I'm going to
044set the scene I'm in my 10th grade history class and I've got my head down I'm working on a paper and two kids behind me are you know joking around pushing each other chatting it up and one of them turns the other and they say take that hat off you look like a I'm not going to say the word but to suffice it to say it rhymes with hag and he said it loud enough that the entire room heard and burst out laughing and you'd think something would have been done about that uh but it wasn't he was taken out into the hall and I was sure he was very contrite and very apologetic and he came back in and he sat back down with this wide grin on his face and he was in
045class the next day and the day after that and the day after that one and nothing happened um LCS says a lot there's stickers on every door at EC glass or almost every door I should say that say you know this is a safe space we've got teacher teachers with pride Flags in their classrooms we've got anti-discrimination policies which incidentally defined that one I had to go through three pages that resulted in an arrow for error 404 but we need something more we need these policies to actually be enforced we need greater training for our teachers on how to deal with students in situations like this one it's not enough just to pay lip service we actually have to take action for our most vulnerable students thank you thank you Mr Jeffrey wooders thank you
046thank all of you for your in-person presentations tonight and uh the clerk has informed us that we have one voicemail so we'll listen to that at this time foreign greetings chairman Dr Coleman Vice chairman Dr Brennan ladies and gentlemen of the LCS School Board my name is Zach kranovs I want to say the LCS has great programs for academically and intellectually gifted students such as RS pain go Center darington and TC Miller Innovation program Dunbar Middle School Innovation programs the deaf program in the elementary setting as well as advanced and AP classes in the secondary setting the Governor's School located at the Heritage campus and the STEM Academy located the cbcc campus I was wanting to address the depth program in that the gifted classes are done by the instructional coaches I would love to
047see the debt program expand to all elementary schools and possibly the middle schools in the district as well as have the position of the gifted teacher and instructional coaches to be separate Physicians with the exception of bats Elementary due to its small size and year-round calendar by splitting up these positions this will be very beneficial so that the coaches can spend more time with the faculty to provide instructional support for them as well as to observe and Coach the new teachers into campuses and so that the gifted teachers can spend more time on lesson planning as well as instructional delivery for the resource classes of gifted students in various locations such as elementary and middle school campuses thank you for your time and support and I hope the best for you and once again thank
048you for all that you do for the LCS faculty staff and family members and students thank you and have a great evening wow thank you for sharing with us this is the message for the LCS School Board greetings Vice chairman Dr Brennan ladies and gentlemen okay we thank you so much Madam clerk uh thank you for the voicemail thank all of you for coming uh tonight you are very articulate and expressing yourselves and uh thank you for coming all right we will now move to section F uh the finance report Dr Edwards certainly and I'm going to uh bring on Miss Capozzi to go over the January 2023 Revenue expenditure and health insurance summary okay so the first thing you'll see that's different is that rather than there being a picture that may or may
049not be sized correctly there is an attachment instead that says monthly board report we'll be adding that as an attachment instead of attempting to put it directly into the agenda going forward just because of formatting issues this just makes it easier and it's always going to be the same size but you can see our adopted budget for this year 106.3 million the prior year encumbrance the return of fund balance as discussed before it has been approved by city council however we will not see that in our fund balance because that is going to our Capital Insurance budget will remain at the 107.9 million dollars Revenue expenditure summary year over year January of 22 January 21 you can see that our expenditures okay our expenditures including encumbrances are a little bit higher this year we have
050put into place a spending freeze um so this will probably show a significant difference that spending fees um kicked in the first one here just uh last Friday so you'll see a a significant difference come March health insurance Reserve over at the city stays the same the health insurance summary from December to January both in 22 and 22 to 23 and then the previous years 21-22 remember that is for the year it is just the receipts and the claims it is not any additional monies that have you know were put into the budget at the bottom in the green In the comparison of 2122 school year to 22-23 school year that is where you see the additional expenses that were added on top of those uh receipts and claims is there any question about that
051the the percentage that's in the bottom right corner of the green part yes what is that the percentage of that's the comparison of last year to this year so if you see last year at this time we were at a deficit of 1.3 million and this year at this time we are at 1.3 million in the black that's because we put in the additional funds okay any other questions I conclude a report yeah we're going to talk a little bit more about health health care health insurance when we get down to the actual budget as well all right thank you uh composite for that and you all see the format has been stated and I think we're moving continuously in the right direction under Section G for our consent agenda tonight uh board members do
052you see five items the approval of the minutes from February to 7 2023 school board meeting the approval of the minute from the February 21st 2023 school board work session uh the religious exemption with the appropriate documents uh provided and then we have a human resources board report and the human resources report addendum and so is there a motion to approve the consent agenda a move that will approve the consent agenda a second removed by Dr Carter seconded by Dr Brennan where we will approve the consent agenda any further questions or discussion on the motion hearing none Madam click please call the roll still by my brother Mr trost yes scope of member Dr senhai yes school department Dr Coleman yes government with Dr Carter yes goodbye Mama Dr day yes go back my Mr
053Andrew yes motion carries all right I thought that was nothing further to be said about human resources tonight correct correct all right we're going to move into section uh H School Board member reports and as we've done in the past I'll go through each if you have something that you need to share you can if not we'll pass uh we'll start with our very capable finance and Facilities committee chair Dr sonar well our last Financial facilities meeting we discussed some uh the budget issues uh we're pretty well settled on where we are with the um salary requests for the upcoming year the real issue we discovered uh discussed in depth was funding adequately funding our health benefits medical benefits and so um and I apologize that we didn't prepare you well for the discussion at
054the work session last time when we went over the budget I I wasn't expecting it to go that way and I should have so uh but we are going to go over it in detail um this evening so that you can see what the realities are what we're up against and what we're trying to do in a way that um is least burdensome to our teachers and staff and we have a meeting then coming up next week on the 14th very good and that'll be in advance of the work session correct well uh it's a lot of work with that group so any questions for the chair at this point oh and one other thing because of my I chair this committee I'm included in our vsba training for um fiscal governance and we attended
055our first training today the first of four and uh happy to be included in those discussions with some of our top staff here thank you Dr Sinha and we're very proud to know that we are part of that Dr Edwards in Charlottesville and so that's just another wonderful way where professional development training and all of those things are happening as we do what is best ultimately for uh the children of Lynchburg City Schools thank you Governor's School committed Dr Gupta is not here uh tonight he did not give me anything in particular to say on that matter uh so we will move on to the law Regional school committee Dr Cox our next board meeting will be May Wednesday May the 3rd at 10 o'clock thank you Dr Carter likewise with the STEM Academy in
056the STEM Academy the next board meeting is March the 21st Tuesday at 11 o'clock likewise with the legislative advocacy and community relations [Laughter] the legislative advocacy and community community relations committee we met in March no February to talk about the legislative breakfast to look at what things we want to do next year and how we want to plan for that and our topics and different things and we'll do more of that doing the when we get together doing our workshops to talk more about that and also we made sure that the finance committee could meet in April since the budget is ongoing and we will meet sometime after that thank you Dr Carter any questions for her as the capable chair of the legislative advocacy and community relations committee and we've been doing a lot
057of that and I want each Board number to let you to know we thank you for your time that you spend in this matter and thank you for the committee and how well you all are organized thank you so much all right Partners in education Dr Sinha well unfortunately I was unable to attend the last meeting which I believe was last week and Mrs Preston isn't here to speak to that meeting so I apologize I don't have her that's okay we'll we'll get it the partners in education is moving right along and we're thankful for that the Education Foundation Mr trost and Dr Sanaa we haven't had a meeting we meet quarterly with them but they sponsor our breakfast with the superintendent which is upcoming and uh is uh expected to be very High attendance
058and so we're all looking forward to that excellent very good all right and then Beacon of Hope Mr Andrews uh beginning of Hope had their their hope X talk this past Friday at the Academy there's a lot of people I don't know the numbers and attendance but it's a lot of good feedback on Facebook obviously a lot of people attended so I'm looking forward to next year's but uh yeah that's the only thing I have to report back thank you Mr Andrews and thank you for being on that group and I do want to say thank you to Dr Brennan and uh to Dr Terry Brennan for a wonderful way in which you all extended um your appreciation and your attitude for the work of the Beacon of Hope I don't know if anybody else
059wants to say anything on that doc that was that you want to say yeah it was a fabulous event and um a great way to Showcase LCS graduate talent and my graduate I mean recent these were young 20 21 22 year olds who are just phenomenal and impressive in the work that they're doing which is a testament to our partnership with Beacon of Hope and the work that our schools do in preparing our kids for the real world so grateful um for that partnership and also want to thank the britons for their generosity in getting us some great seats for the event we did have great seasons yeah that was really excellent so thanks thank you all thank you Mr Andrews for that all right we're going to move to section I with the comprehensive
060strategic plan which we do have I want the public to know we have one and we also try to align everything uh to push us forward so the facilities master plan is huge in that regard Dr Edwards for Dr Whitaker yes but before we get to the facilities master plan just about our strategic plan our strategic plan ends in 24. so uh after we get through the budget season we're going to jump right into planning for the next strategic plan so that when we get to May June of 24 we're ready to move into the next five-year cycle so it's going to be a lot of work on the part of this board we'll have some discussions about how we want to organize the work as a team but the Strategic plan as you know
061all of our budget items are lined up to our strategic plan our agenda items are lined up to our strategic plan and the work that we do lined up to our strategic plan so it's very critical that once we finish with the facility study the work that MGT is doing that we take a real deep dive for what the next five years look like so with that I'm gonna turn it over to Dr waterka to talk a little bit about where the where we are with the facilities master plan thank you Dr Edwards and good evening members of the board so two things that I'll discuss tonight is just some updates on where we are at the MGT uh facilities master plan study as well as you have an update on where uh the CIP
062plan uh rests right now just so you are aware of that um so first of all on the facilities master plan if you recall the scope of work and the schedule that we discussed in the last couple of meetings our first component of that was our environmental scan which is where we take a look at all the massive amounts of data that we provided to the consultant they're making very very good progress on that looking at demographics and outcomes and how we do lesson planning and all sorts of other things they're starting to talk to some of our directors and other folks that are critically involved in some of the key things we do and so that is ongoing right now they're also looking at uh making good progress on the benchmarking for other districts
063in Virginia that are similar to us other cities in Virginia the next step is for them to do their first initial visit which will be on April 3rd or the week of April 3rd and so that will be when they will come visit our school buildings that we have hopefully if you are available they'll have time to meet with each one of you as well as other key Community stakeholders if you're available that week if you're not available we can also set up a time to meet with them on Zoom or whatever or phone call or whatever may work for you so that week and then the week of May 8th is when they'll be back to do the engagement in the community from the information they receive from you and other community stakeholders we
064will craft the conversation around the educational opportunities that we have for our students in the division on that week of May 8th we'll do several Community engagement opportunities as well as doing some virtual events and opportunities for information collecting from them so once all that information is done then we'll have they'll be they'll be developing at least three scenarios for the future of the mat of the of the facilities and then presenting that to the school division hopefully sometime uh in mid uh mid to early to mid June um one concern of course with that is that of course will be out of school and we want to make sure we can engage with families on those collections as we move forward so we're working through how that engagement the second sort of Engagement process
065will continue to work so that's where we are on that process um as well happy to take any questions on that particular component any questions for Dr Walter and I hope we all can appreciate the sensitivity process and we're doing everything we can to make sure as much input is obtained as possible Dr day I just want to ask you to repeat what you said was going to be happening in June so that was so part of the scope of work is that they'll get all the information all the engagement all the feedback and they will then develop at least three scenarios probably more for you know renovate the school move this program here there wherever what we wanted to do is not provide the school board just one option and here's what you have
066to take right we want to provide several options for the school board and city council to consider as you deliberate among the ultimate results of what will become the facilities master plan is the result of that going to come to us in June is that what you said that's okay okay and then and then from there I envisioned sort of an engagement process on our end uh supported by the consultant to help the school board make a decision or whichever direction you want to go thank you so just making sure there's lots of voice lots of opportunity it's true and just uh the April 3rd we're going to be the whole week I was checking my calendar to make sure I'm available or specifically April 3rds when you want us to meet no sir it'll
067be during the week sometimes so we'll work to a scheduled time for you okay thank you Mr trost any questions for Dr water for tonight on this uh very important matter we getting a sense of a timeline and work is moving forward and Dr waterka we want to thank you for your leadership disregard all right thank you uh we will now move oh I'm so sorry I intend to do that I'll slow down just very just very briefly uh in your board docs you have a list of uh the capital Improvement plans that were requested and versus what we're actually included in the city managers uh Capital Improvement plan that was submitted to the city council last week there are two questions that came up from board members that were very good uh that I
068think Merit conversation and a lot of the first one is about how the CIP process works and how that relates to what the school board adopts or reviews of course we make requests to the city uh to uh to include capital projects in the budget just like every other City all the city departments do as well and obviously the city manager has to find ways to balance his budget so some of those things will make it in some of the mold you can see the ones that that were not included um now what happened was ultimately there was probably some of the next two years worth of projects oftentimes were included and some of the ones that are sort of the out years were not included um I think that's because uh the because of
069the facilities master plan is sort of ongoing and so looking out past that might we might want to wait until that's done before we make some definite commitments on those projects and so there's a couple items that were not included I think that are that are um at least on my mind that I think we just need to talk with them about a little bit and that is uh the Athletics improvements mechanical electrical improvements as well as the gem editions I know those are things that are very important to the board and I think that um just we just need to have a conversation about where that's going to go the other question was about the debt capacity for future projects you'll see that we requested specific projects um and that was instead of naming
070specific projects what this uh the manager did was so let's take the the amount of money that we would have spent on that essentially and put it into a sort of a generic placeholder for what we call debt capacity and what that means is that there's only so much money that the city can borrow over time for both the statutory and sort of practical purposes and so essentially what this does is it sets aside some of that money for future future school projects and so what's actually uh used down the road we'll see but it is good that we have that placeholder set aside for the school division so I'm happy to take any questions on that and we'll see where we go as we move forward questions on this portion of Dr Whitaker's presentation
071yeah there's some things on there that we need to have continued talks about but we will have those talks all right thank you leave that concludes that section of our agenda for Ida item I I mean section I we're going to now move to J if I would like us to do J1 and then I'm going to look around the Horseshoe after we finish day one and if I can tell that somebody would like to take a break before we dive into J2 I'll do that if not we'll keep pressing all right J1 is going to be an item for Action tonight we've had an opportunity to look at the LCS calendar draft and I think in our previous meeting that there was some thought about some of the earlier questions and there may be
072others I don't know but Dr Edwards sure so um the calendar is up for approval tonight um there was a calendar committee that met for several months prior to bringing the calendar for an intro and then a first read and a second read some of the questions that were asked during the first read was can we take days from the winter break and use them to make a later start date in August and the calendar committee did do a survey prior to putting together the calendar and from that survey sixty percent of parents 82 percent of students and 90 percent of Staff rated the keep full two weeks 10 days in the December as a very high importance with a level five so I think that was the only thing that had that level of
073a high rating which is why they did not touch the um two weeks in December the other thing was about a later start date in August and that received mixed results with about I think 30 percent of the parents and 22 percent of the students and um 18 of the staff felt like that that was of high importance and remember the calendar committee was charged with looking at a start date but also trying to get us get in the calendar in early June with graduation being on the second and the last day for staff being on the third of June the last question was about the um the PD day that is the day after MLK on June I'm sorry January 16th and whether or not that day that professional development day would be better
074placed in either February or March because it's a long long road to um April where the the spring break was and the committee did wrestle with that and one of the reasons why the professional development days are located throughout the school year where they are is they're located at the end of the marking periods where teachers wanted a teacher work day at the end of the marking period the other thing that came up is as well yes it's a very long stretch from January to March and this year probably isn't a good year to to use but often that's when we would have delayed openings or snow days or emergency days that we may have off but um they they felt like the discussion that they had were regarding the the PD days and not
075trying to add more days during the school year off for students because each day off for a student has to be added to the beginning or the end of the calendar with that so I just want to share that feedback from the calendar committee all right you all have had a chance to look at it I think that Dr Edwards has tried to give us um reasons for some of the questions that were raised as to why the calendar has been adjusted and or remained the same uh hearing that is there a motion to approve the calendar 2324. Dr Brennan I just like to thank the administration and the committee for looking at those aspects particularly once again look at the questions that have come up about the discussion so in later that like to
076make a motion to approve the calendar for the 2324 Academic Year second it moved and properly seconded any further questions I do have not a question but Dr Edwards what you just said tonight um I guess meetings become one way that people can understand but just making sure persons understand that there's some fine information you gave to explain why you kept the Block in December by this why that just making sure people understand that they are being heard things are being shared and we're trying to do what's best for students and staff uh in this calendar so any further statements to be made hear me I'm correct please call the roll for the approval of the calendar for 23-24. goodbye member Mr trust yes the department Dr Sinha yes goodbye remember Dr Brennan yes school
077department Dr Coleman yes the apartment Dr Carter yes School Board member Dr day yeah let's go about moment Mr Andrews yes motion carries seven to zero all right I'm taking my little look around the table to y'all uh I see one head not in so we're going to take five minute recess and we will come right back and jump into J2 thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] everybody you've heard Dr Sinha earlier mentioned um um that we would be getting to this point in our meeting tonight and so I'm thankful to Dr Edwards Dr water cook and Mrs capazzi for all that you're doing as we uh take another dive into the FY 24 uh proposed operating budget component and so Dr Edwards if you don't mind absolutely so for the public what we've
078done is try to keep a little historical record of everything we've been discussing um regarding the budget and you can see those links to previous meetings in our board agenda but we we want to sort of pick up with two items tonight one of them is the draft 1550 salary proposal pay tables and we are so grateful to our staff and just this level of transparency that we have where we put out every pay table and to help folks to look at it try to find yourself and see where you're going and we did a good job but it wasn't perfect so we did have to make some corrections that were brought to our attention on the admin pay scales where um we were trying to combine some pay scales but we redid those admin
079pay scale so you can more clearly see if you were on you know pay scale g260 where you're going if you're on f260 where you would be going um for the next year so that section has been revised that is what is in the um board docs and I've dated it for March 2nd so if you have the old and this is for people who are listening as well as at home the only changes are made in the admin pay tables not in the classified or in the teacher paid table so the 15 an hour proposal is still in there the fifty thousand dollar starting salary for teachers are still in there but we added more clarity to the admin pay scale and that was under the advisement of some of the administrators who were
080looking at it and had some questions as well as when we met with our Personnel advisory committee they had some questions um and we were happy to make those changes so just take a look at that but the big part we wanted to talk about tonight is as Dr Sinha spoke earlier the finance committee meeting did meet a couple weeks ago to talk about health insurance we brought it up last time but we felt like we could do a better job of kind of having that discussion and that's one of the things I love about this board you are the lead Learners and If This Were a classroom and we didn't get it right the first time what would we do re-teach revisit and make sure that we check for understanding and do the right
081thing so that's what we're going to do here we're going to kind of re-teach revisit and great classrooms use you know if kids didn't get it the first time then if I'm the teacher I'm going to use different materials a different process because my end game is to make sure that people understand so we brought some different materials to this meeting to kind of help our school board and our public follow along and I'm going to take you through those materials as well as we'll entertain some questions as we move forward and I will say we tried to do this from the lens of those of you who like charts and numbers and Excel spreadsheets there's something for there and you those of you who like bar graphs there's uh lots of bar graphs for
082you and then those of you who just like scenarios what does this mean for the average person there's something in there for you too so we have multiple ways to try to go over where we are with our health insurance premiums and funding of that so I am going to start with a document that says if you are looking online or in boardox health insurance notes and the date is um zero three zero seven two thousand and twenty three V2 which is version two very good that document so if we could open that document and you can follow along at home with me it starts with two bar graphs so that first bar graph which I'm calling figure one represents the historical and I'll say historical because covet sort of blew it up for us
083so we had to go back in time and kind of look at the this is what we are supposed to be doing chart so when we look at how do we we account for the premium for our health insurance plans which we have those five plans listed you have employee only employee spouse employee and one child employee children and then of course the employee as part of the family plan we do have 14 staff members that are grandfathered into a previous um health care plan that existed before me and once those 14 staff members retire or leave LCS that plan goes along with them so but they are grandfathered into that plan but I'm not going to talk about that tonight I want to talk about just our active employees so for our employee only
084plan so any employee who just takes health benefits just for myself the school board pays a little over 95 percent of that premium and the employee pays just under five percent of that that premium um when you look at employee spouse employee child and employee children you can see that the school board pays anywhere from a little over 66 to 67 percent of the premium and the employee pays the remaining 32-33 and then of course the family plan the school board pays about 56 percent and the employee pays almost 44 that is our historical percentage um that we have been paying prior to going into covet and seeing the increases now what has happened is the last two years particularly as premiums have risen we moved away from this historical um sort of allotment or
085cost sharing model and we did it for good reasons the board wanted to not pass on any additional cost to the employees so what we did two years ago is this board decided let's add a little bit more money in another pot that we can add to health insurance that was the 575 thousand dollars that you said FY 22. and then we went through FY 22 and claims went up some more as well as the premiums went up some more and then we said okay let's up it a little more and add another 815 000 to do that and that brings us to where we are right now where the price for the premium is about 15 higher than what it was that we were paying which is what's what's listed on our website but
086I wanted this board to have some historical information about well how were we paying the premiums up until this point where we got into the business of adding this extra money for good reasons and that's that then I also thought what well not just me but my team thought well what does the city do so that second graph is the city's distribution of the plan and you could see we are similar on the employee only side and the city actually pays 68 of the premium for employee spouse employee child employee children and employee family and the employee pays 32 percent so they have a little bit more consistency across their the remaining four options um than we do we're pretty close with the exception of family so you have visually um two options so clearly
087from a cost savings perspective for our employees taking the employee only plan if that's something that you can do you would pay about five percent of that preview so that is page one okay if we go to page two and you're like me you're probably like how many people are on each plan Dr Edwards what does this look like when we look at LCS active employees so if we look at LCS active employees this is not Cobra and not our retirees this is just the active employees who who are taking health insurance at all we do have some employees that don't take it at all that they may get it from us different from their spouse's job but of the 1234 individuals who take insurance 782 of them take the employee only plan so you
088can see the bulk of our staff who participate in our health insurance participate on the employee only plan and then we broke down the percentages in a pie chart for all the other plans which are about seven percent for employee spouse seven employee child 9 and 13 for employee children employee family and then there are those 14 individuals that are in that grandfather plans as well uh figure four can be found on our website that is what is posted or what was posted at the beginning of 2022 um for what the employee actually pays towards that plan assuming that there are 24 deductions so for most of us we get paid twice a month for 12 months so that's the 24 deductions and you can see that the monthly contribution so that is um the
089total for two pays on the employee only is about 30 dollars and eighty cents that is the current what we're collecting from them and if you go down that column you can see what the monthly contribution on the employee side and the employer side so all of this on page one and two is to set the stage for somewhat factual information so that we are all at least understanding uh where we stand now the interesting part about figure four on the bottom of page two is when you actually look at those monthly costs which I'll take the one that's employee only 567 dollars and 13 cents per month those aren't the actual costs and I suspect that those were the costs that we thought they were going to be early on when we put posted
090this at the time that we put this together but the actual costs are a little bit higher which is on Miss Capozzi sheet when you look at the actual cost for the premium so are you saying those were sort of anticipated costs and projected costs at some point in the past I believe so they were but we've got plans so that we can update this and keep it pretty accurate going uh questions Dr Brennan I'll keep going okay so now we're on page three of our document and we're looking at some historical health insurance information for the last uh five years or since 2018-19 and then some of it is projected so I'll point that out total premiums collected from the multiple groups so that's the employer that would be that the board the active
091employee and then of course we collect premiums from retirees and people who elect Cobra if they choose to do so that column is the total premium that is collected and if you look at the current year it's projected and the reason why it's projected is because we haven't finished the current school year right and then just just for fun I am a former math supervisor I put let's say we took that projected amount and that's what we did next year even though I am not recommending that that's why it says not recommended but just for comparison so I would have a number I took that same 12 million 168 517 and put it in that column and then you have historical data on total claims paid and if you look at 2018-19 as Ms Capozzi
092says we were in the black because we were you know our claims were less than what we collected which actually impacted some decisions we made at that point because we were like hey this isn't so bad we're doing pretty well um and then the next year um not so well but still close so you can see up until 2021 um the actual uh claims that were paid and then you'll get back to the current year and that's a projection that we think that's the claims now that last column is the difference between those two numbers so I've talked about premiums collected I've talked about claims paid nowhere in that conversation that I talk about the extra money that the school board added in FY 22 or fy23 so that's the piece that if you go
093well wait a second what happened to that money Dr Eric that's the next column or the next section you can see in FY 22 this board approved 525 thousand dollars of hey add this money and help out with the health insurance and then the following year we upped it to 815 000 for a total of 1.3 million dollars to help with the health insurance and remember the board did this for those two years because that board this board was committed to not pass any cost onto to the employees that's why we made those decisions so what I did was redo the same chart and now say well if you add all the premiums we collected and you add the extra money that we decided to fund so there's that 525 the 525 and the 815.
094um what does it look like now and that's why if you look at 22 23 the current year if all stays well that would explain why Miss Capozzi has been saying that we may be projected to be in the black but that's due to that extra money but even if we did that next year you'll see there's still a deficit of about 634 so some of you last time were like where does the 700 000 come from that's where the 700 000 came from so in Dr Edwards head if this board decides Dr Evers we just want to continue doing what we have done for the last two years which is we're going to figure out whatever extra money we need to cover the costs that we need to cover how much would that be
095it's projected to be about 634 which we rounded up to seven hundred thousand dollars so I'm gonna pause oh take some questions because Dr day looks like he has a question yeah today go right ahead um 12.97. so um going back to the top of this page and your chart you're showing and for fiscal year 2022 um the column words difference shows a shortfall of uh 1.4 million dollars right okay all right and the board approved the uh employer Edition for that year of 525 000. yep yep well that doesn't cover the 1.4 million so where did the difference come from so if you go down to the the third chart where you'll see it's about 877 000 short okay so here's part two of that conversation what happens when I think I'm going to
096hire 10 extra bus drivers five extra teachers and an administrator that doesn't show up for six months and I budgeted the family plan for them there's money that satin benefits that I could use so you can move that over to coverage yeah but we wouldn't do that until the end of the year which is why Trends negative for a very long time okay and then a second question the um the board approved employer Edition for fiscal year 2022 was the 525 thousand and then board approved employer Edition for fiscal year 23 was 815 000. um and then so that is that on top of the 525 000 mm-hmm okay so it was an addition right to the Edition yes okay thank you Dr D okay any other questions so far she will continue the presentation
097I will continue so we are now on page four so some recommendations for the school board to consider so these are the things that we discussed in finance committee which the full board did not have the benefit of having that meaty conversation which is why we're back at let's have this meaty conversation here so one of the things that we noticed was that the retirees and those who were electing Cobra who are are not our employees perhaps gone to a different division should have been paying 100 percent of their premiums but had not been paying 100 of their premiums and in this first option even if we decide we still want to take that approach with our active employees this includes a recommendation to have the retirees and the Cobra people pay the premium so
098if the premium goes up it goes up for retirees and those electing Cobra but it would keep this option one would say this school board is going to keep those same flat dollar amounts for the employee they won't be the same for us employers because somebody's got to pay the difference and I put that chart back there so you wouldn't have to keep going back and forth and back and forth that's the first option the Administration is not recommending that option but we felt like because this has been a practice that we have done for the past two years you need to see what that would look like on the previous page you have um what what that might look like in terms of money um option two says that's right can I test questions
099when you say that um the retirees are covered should have been paying a hundred percent is is that why should they have been paying what is that what is that part of they were so they were paying a hundred percent but then when the premiums went up we did not charge them additionally okay so they were paying a hundred percent until the last two years or historically that's weird okay thank you thank you for clarifying that so if we use option one we're in a sense saying what we said the last two years that we're gonna figure out a way to add more money to an additional pot of health insurance helper pot so that we can keep these flat dollar amounts for our active employees that's what option one is and the only way
100to do that is we're projecting we need about seven hundred thousand dollars to add to the 525 and 850 and that will be a recurring thing that we would have to do if we stay in that area so that's the first option that we wanted to present because we did hear conversations last last time that said some board members felt like they did not want to see the um cost sharing premiums go up for the employees so that's option one option two on page four um says well what if we go back to that original cost sharing percentages for each of the groups that LCS has historically done so it really doesn't change employee only because that's at the 95 4 but it's getting us back to 67 32 and all of those percentages so
101what that is saying is LCS is committed to this cost sharing model percentage-wise but if insurance goes up five dollars then I the employer would pay 95 percent of the five dollars and Dr Coleman as the employee would pay five percent of that five dollars so we would share in that cost saving model if the premiums went up a little bit yeah I just want to make sure I'm understanding you you're saying in option two the percentages stay the same that the absolute dollar amounts will go up to match what it's required to meet the privilege correct and let me also say that I do believe we're going out for an RFP in July to look at health insurance so on the off chance the wonderful chance we get something that has more favorable premiums
102using that same cost sharing which is something that Dr Brennan had wanted us specifically to do correct and we're gonna that is going to occur in July when we do that okay um and then this will sticking with a cost benefit model like we had is a little bit more predictable in terms of us when we know like if health insurance is going up 50 bucks we can predict what that means for us we can predict what that means for the employer and we don't have to add the seven hundred thousand dollars but would we keep the 525 000 and the the two amounts from before yeah so what we would do with that money since it's in the line is because if the premium goes up the employer share goes up as well so
103what we owe goes up so we would use that money to cover our employee share employer share of that increase going forward so we're not talking about eliminating those supplemental amounts that were approved in fiscal year 22. we're just talking stop the practice of keep adding just leave them there but we're not going to continue to escalate them yeah we're going to need some money to um if the benefits go up you know 15 we have to pay an additional amount free so let's leave those things there to cover that okay I got you sir okay and then option three on the page five looks like option two except we just said what would it look like if we did the same thing the city does and we use their cost benefit sharing model and
104that's what option three would do we still would not need to add an additional 700 000 but we would use this benefit model and then I'm going to show you why we did what we did and where it's um where it's beneficial for some of our employees to look at the different models so but before I get to the scenarios I just want to take a pause and see if we're still good on them so the option three gets us to the 32 percent uh that the city does the city does and it would be no need to do an option to compare with the other school divisions do because we're doing better than they would with with with uh health insurance correct yes yes but we're still going to go out for the RFP
105don't look it'll also be better for the employee family the cities the cities um cost sharing plan is more favorable to families people taking the family option than our current plan the others are comparable Okay so I live in the world of what does that mean for me Dr Edwards so I went to the what does that mean for me Dr Edwards so on page six I went in and found one of our Title One instructional assistants one which is on our lowest pay scale and I made these names up but I'm a good helper is the employee so this instructional assistant currently makes 13.11 cents an hour and proposed next year is the 15 an hour they work six hours a day 190 90 days and you can see the difference in their salary
106right the difference between 14 945 and 17 100 would be that increase if the 15 were fully funded and that's that's um pretty good that increase is about dollars and then of course the conversation is you gave me a raise but now you want me to pay more in health insurance so this particular person if they were just on the employee only plan the addition that they would have to pay is 58.44 which would make their increase 2096 dollars so the overall percentage would be about a 14 raise from last year to this year even with I'm paying a little bit more for my health insurance and that's if they did the employee only plan so that's the most beneficial plan in terms of the least amount of costs and to the employee this is
107under options two and three right because the employee only plan is the same right I wouldn't pay a change right correct now what if I'm that person I'm still a good helper right I'm a good helper I'm still an instructional assistant but now I have a family so same salary right same increase same 14 945 same 17 100 next year same 21 I'm 54 60 would be my increase but the difference in the family plan the family plan is the most expensive plan um that we have you can see that that is 9.57 for the whole year so what does that mean for my raise my raise would be 1197 so I would be getting an eight percent raise if I took the family plan so part of our goal was just really to make
108sure that our our folks we weren't giving them a raise and then they end up with a deficit and having less money as a result so they would have an eight percent raise and this is if we go with the LCS model that says the family plan the employee pays about 43 of that so that would be option two question questions Dr Carnival right here okay so Dr Edwards you're saying that the annual family plan increase so the increase would be the 957 okay and I think that's how my employers would look at it they would say what are you giving me as a raise and what are you taking out of that pot and that's why we did it sort of this way um so that they can see what that additional cost for
109the increase would be okay so okay and then I did go ahead sorry on the uh that scenario oh yeah we're dealing with the family plan family plan takers or Insurance of 168 that's the population as it currently exists how many of those 168 are going to be impacted as drastically as this I'm a good helper scenario would be I would have to go back and actually look at you follow my log yes I do okay I absolutely do and I'm assuming but I don't know it's a very small sample size um so I would think hopefully there I mean it'd be wonderful people health benefits for the family but that's a that's a tough road that they've picked if they're making them 15 an hour to support the whole family which happens I understand
110that can you go back I'm not getting this so the increase will be uh more more okay so for the individual they will only have to pay an increase of 58.44 per year they're only paying five percent of the premium if the premium goes up about five dollars and over the course of the year five percent of five dollars is minimum so that would be the increase so instead now they're so what's the actual amount they're paying do we know versus the increase so yes a missed Capozzi sheets for those of you who like the the charts um the actual cost for the um whoops which one is it here it is the actual cost for the employee only plan where is 30 something what um yes 35.67 is the monthly total that they would
111be paying for that and it's going to go up to what that is the where that's going on right now it's thirty dollars and eighty cents it would go up to 35.67 so that difference in which the family employee family plan the employee family plan is hold on here bleach out to family family the new monthly payment for next year would be 584 67 per month which is an increase per paycheck of 39.89 so what we have these charts too that break down that increase per paycheck each okay so the the other thing that we did was what happens if we do if we took the city's version of cost sharing option three which is option three remember the city the employee only plan is exactly like ours so that didn't change so that top
112scenario didn't change but the bottom scenario does change because that that would reduce right now our family our employees that take the family plan pay more than those counterparts at the city level so that would actually reduce the cost um and you can see for those individuals that same I'm a helper same instructional assistant the amount that they would have to contribute to their family plan would go down by 930 dollars which would make their increase 20 right so that's how we they'd be pretty happy with it yeah I'd say yeah I'm thinking if there's polling and voting right now it might it might be out there um but we also wanted to just do it because you know we don't always want to look at you know just the an instructional assistant so the
113next page is the same information except I took a bus driver um that is in I believe nope this is starting this is still starting salary for a bus driver so the current starting salary is 14.85 the proposed starting salary next year for bus driver is 1674. and again you can see the differences in the percent increase so employee only 12.37 if you took the employee family plan on our cost sharing it's 6.92 percent of it a salary increase and then of course up to 18 um if we did the city's savings and then the last one I did because we have a lot of folks who are teachers so I think I took the teacher on and this actually might be a fifth year teacher not a first year teacher just to mix it
114up a little bit to see and you can see the differences in those same three scenarios the good news about all of this and whether we're you know sitting at a five percent increase right now is all of these scenarios are above a five percent increase right we're still waiting on the the rest on the um House and Senate budget but based on the governor's budget okay so I'm gonna take a pause and take questions and comments and ask my team to jump in and share any additional stuff and ultimately at the end of the day what I'm I'm going to know is what direction do you need for us tonight as we prepare for the the facility and finance meeting on the 14th and then ultimately the work session on the 21st where I
115think we might be trying to move towards some action correct so we had to give a sort of a placeholder where are you right now figure to the city so that they can start doing their budget and remember we gave them the scenario B which I'm a chart here and we had these charts from way back when we gave them the scenario that we thought okay they're going to work out the grocery tax issue but it includes a seven hundred thousand dollars so we aired on the side of it sounds very favorable that the work that's being done on the grocery tax is gonna help us but we weren't sure about health insurance so what the city has currently across the street for planning purposes for us includes seven hundred thousand dollars extra in health
116insurance because we weren't sure which way this board would go and we didn't want to be rushed in a decision so we went on the higher end knowing we could we could back it down as well but ultimately yes this board will have to say Dr Edwards keep the 700 go with a different option or wherever the board lands okay any any questions uh Dr Carter I just want to um add that we need to address or put in here also to start looking at and really pursuing the other boards that we that they would they have that pass-through Monies to um start paying for their portions oh you're talking about them I didn't find out some information about that so um what we were formally referring to as the non-lcs entities which are employees
117that work at STEM Academy gov School Laurel steps with links and I always forget one but there's there's I think it's five of them um part of the discussion for those of you who were here last time we visited this conversation and what happened that made us sort of stop in our tracks those 44 people were added in with our total active employees and I'm not sure how Insurance works but the more people you have somehow your pool is a little bit bigger and you get a little bit more favorable rates and one of the things was if we take those 44 people out or those 44 individuals who are selecting Insurance how might that affect the pool that we were in and at that time there was a little bit of discussion and then
118we just aborted it right then and there but I did want to bring that back up that those the those 44 people are included in our totals when we do those things so Dr Carter and can we look at that um when we you said we're going to look at this insurance process we can ask that question then of the agent to see how that factors in or if we took them if we took the 44 the non-lcs employees out when you I'm not sure I don't want to lie and say something but if we go out for an RFP would that include them or would we have to I think that would be a larger conversation taking Laurel as an example in their rental agreement it says they will pay us this in rent
119and we will in turn do this that and the other and one of those being that they will be on our health insurance so however in options two and three it brings everyone up where we've been paying the excess ourselves it brings everyone up so that they also then are you know covering that excess if that makes sense are you saying that that agreement obligates us to provide health insurance for a specified premium amount that we can't change the premiums no no it just says that that's one of the obligations such as we will do uh cleaning will do i t in the building so we'll we'll manage their health insurance and payroll but it doesn't it doesn't prohibit us from adjusting the premiums Dr Brenner I have a question doctor was in a comment
120um do you do you know if we go back to recommendation of school board because they're option one I'm sure option three what what would each of those options add to or help us with are deficit or predictive or previous year so how much money would we gain by the different options and I printed that too because I answered the question and I what to say that say that should if we just do the retirees it's somewhere about a hundred thousand dollars just bringing up cover and retirees which doesn't put a nice Chunk in in our in our deficit if we if we go back to our original cost sharing the LCS it's closer to five hundred thousand dollars and if we use the city it's closer to three hundred thousand dollars that we would
121um that would be an increase from the employee side which theoretically would sort of go towards that seven hundred thousand dollars that you think would be the deficit so either a hundred thousand three hundred thousand or five hundred thousand without that deficit so just as a comment and as I've said before I'm an English major so I'm not very good with these but I love the pictures so if we can go back to the the picture on on the page three which is the nice tables that we have and first of all I also want to say that Dr Edwards and her team has once again raised the bar as far as the amount of information that we have about this stuff you know each each budget discussion they always provide information to us that
122we've never seen before meaning they give us more information that is helpful to do this as compared to previously and I think this this health insurance information is something that is raising the bar as far as how much information we're getting which is so great and thank you all very much Dr Edwards and your team for doing that so looking at this another way to look at this is we look at that top box which is historical health insurance information when we look at total premiums collected for and and I know you all will comment this if this is not correct but help me with this if you look at 22 23 and 20 and I'm sorry 21 22 in 22 23 those are just including the premiums that were paid by the employer by
123the active employees but did not include the increase that we had gotten in the budget for the previous year correct so when we asked for five percent increase in our budget in 21 and we got that we got a 10 or something in last year those funds were not included in those premiums collected as someone has said they're kind of in a health care Savings Plan they're in our savings account but they were not applied I think most have assumed they were applied I mean we kind of thought when we when we asked for that that we were increasing we're using the funds to increase the amount that the employer LCS was paying and and but instead of that they were put into a separate account so as Dr Rose has pointed out if you
124go down to that next box the bigger box at the bottom that says historical health insurance information with additional School Board money that is those funds from the last two budgets so when you look at 2122 you have that same amount of 11 million that was what everybody paid but then you now have 525 which was the money we thought was put in as far as Revenue goes so it now is instead of 000 uh even is now eleven thousand five twenty two and then when you go to 2223 you now have our claims plus you had that 2025 from two years ago premium right coming for the look at the premium you have that 525 because it's carried forward right it was added to our budget and then we have the 815 which was
125added to the budget last year so therefore Dr Dr Daniel answer your question they're going to begin to carry forward including in 23-24 because they were what we asked to go towards the employee amount that we are paying is that fair so far is that there was that okay yeah so that's to suggest that over time the sustainability would be in question without increasing the information exactly right so it's sustainable because it was including the budget and it goes year after year so if you look at that box and you look at 2223 and you look at 12 million adding 525 adding 815 you now have 13 million 13.5 million compared to our 12.9 million that we have for claims so we actually unfortunately have now a a um not a deficit we now have
126an asset is that Dr Waters Surplus Surplus all of that of 533 thousand projected for the end of the year as compared to the previous one two three years that we've had a deficit and this is why when we see on our our sheets that we got this evening that we have a 1.3 million Surplus currently as of year to date which which Dr resident 198 percent is because those funds are now put in there so this year we hopefully if these numbers are correct which I think are fair numbers would have a surplus of 533 thousand dollars and we have to then factor that into the seven hundred thousand dollars that we're trying to figure out how that fits in the budget so one of the issues is sort of you know so that's
127that's I think just trying to be helpful that it was put in a separate account but I think from here on it's going to be put in the real account which is is the is the revenue coming in for claims so that from now on we'll have those numbers correctly the numbers were there they were just in the savings account and not in the real account but it to me it kind of raises the question then as to if we have a 533 thousand dollar Surplus at the end of the year What Becomes of those funds for the next year so yeah any surplus so let's just say we do have that that becomes fun balance which we already know the conversation of fund balance goes back to the city um for discussion as to
128how the city wants to use or give us back or we can make a plea depending upon what we do with the fund balance unless we decide to use it somewhere else before the end of the year correct right correct but other any any surplus that's unused is going to go back to fund unless it's already in a reserve account and Dr Edwards even though we're not discussing that right now I do want the board to know that we are meeting with the council leadership Friday because this matter will be on the agenda to prep for future discussions about the whole fund balance issue yeah thank you allow me to give the English Majors interpretation of this fund because I think it's really right I think it's very complicated and very difficult but it kind
129of as is laid out it makes very much sense kind of trying to interpret it with the pictures I like the picture colors are good thank you very much and I think that's why I have been hesitant to increase the premiums because we do have a surplus sometimes because we are we have been very careful and I don't consider slush I consider it being careful and being good stewards of the funds and at the end of the year we will have to take that back to council and say here and we have no assurity that they're going to say you all have done great instead it may be seeing you all at this slush and give it back and then we're going to increase the premiums for our staff and that's a hard pill to
130swallow for me huge discussions but we're going to have the discussion we're going to do some good negotiating go ahead Dr day so on that topic would it be possible for us if we did whatever we decide to do but we end up at the end of a fiscal year with a uh positive balance a surplus more premiums taken in then claims paid out could we simply return that to the employees as an end-of-year bonus or something as and I'm the point of doing that might be if we were going to make some celery increases we could at least say if we're asking too much we're going to give it back to you it might soothe people who are upset about premium increases if we decide to go with some premium increases it's just a
131thought interesting faces around the table you just need the legality of it I don't know I think we get that I believe there's a I know on my premium I get a rebate every once in a while because if it's over a state corporation which I think dictates it I don't think it's an issue and then that really protects us potentially against the 23 24 budget which is concerning for me um that year so that's kind of a thing I like the idea it's a great idea but man I'm clear please so note it we've done notices before but if we need to check the legalities and the realities of it whenever that bullet has to deal with all of that all right now anything else on this matter that we need uh uh Miss
132Capozzi I just want to add one thing regarding that um that that Surplus assumes that our claims are going to not exceed the projected amount that was projected the year prior so for right now 22 23 we are on course two exceed that so just just so that you know what so that say this again that projection the 12 million 975 that projection was formulated when or basically a year ago so that doesn't take account of how things have transpired since then correct is there a way to get a more up-to-date projection yes and but exactly based on our current claims we are projected to exceed that dollar amount by roughly how much do you know I can't say that for certain right now just that's my inexperience more than 500 000. okay um the
133other and help me with this one miss Capozzi so when is health insurance shored up so when like when calendar time are we sure all the claims from the previous year have been paid it's on the calendar year so December is the end of that calendar year but as far as for us because we're budgeting on a physical year that's why we always have this right but if I have to do a return to function so let's say this is here right and I have to do a return to fund balance but when will I know what the June 30th everything I had to spend because I can't say I'm giving it back until I clear up June 30th good point right do you understand what you're saying this week we would have money encumbered
134because claims haven't been reported back to us yet right there's a lag between when a service is provided and the claims and the reason why I asked that because with that impact so if I'm trying to give a bonus at the end of this school year but I have to wait until August or September to say how much of the health insurance is left because we got to pay June claims right did I now put that money in fund balance or where I can't give a bonus because now I got to go back to the city and ask for that do you know what I'm saying we have control up until June 30. and the thing is I don't know when we get that bill okay you deserve a free projection I guess that was
135used that was a good question Dr Edward says is there a fun maybe we want to hold out loud thinking right now is there a health insurance Reserve yes the weekend that could be used to cover the sort of yeah I mean you're talking about your CDL driver breaks her leg on June 29th and the claim doesn't come in until who knows how much later uh so which fiscal period does that claim come under um but if there's this health insurance Reserve maybe that would be enough to cover those kinds of say two-month discrepancy I don't know that might be a way to handle that issue I don't know and we're all in Uncharted Territory so I'm with Dr Coleman I don't like to speak out loud when I don't know so I think we
136need to do some research okay okay so Dr Edward before we move on I just want to make clear I agree with Dr Brennan uh it's amazing of every group prior to us did a great job and so I what makes you unclear but this is just incredible the amount of information how it's broken down so board members any other questions relative to this matter well we're heading towards March the 14th then we're going to come back on the 21st and see what happens all right questions talk to them go ahead please so just so that we're very clear about what the process is so on the 21st we have a public hearing and we once again share information with the public these are the priorities this is where we are engaging questions um but
137at that point we are presenting when we get to the work session we're presenting a budget for you to approve and if you remember if you've been on the board before it's the sheets that we have to send over to the city that outline all the revenue all the expenditures and the grants if I'm not mistaken on one document so if you're making a decision on the 21st of what to do whether or not we're doing 700 or not but we also have to have a budget that has to be approved on the 21st so either you're defaulting saying the finance committee could make that decision and give us that direction so we come back with this is what it looks like throw the phone on that then keep talking I'm just one board member
138I kind of like the idea we've got a financial commitment and don't vet it out and then the chair is rejected and that's fine and then they can bring back a recommendation but you all enjoyed these two major things and that's all right it's a timing thing because they're at we're at March 7th the next time this whole group meets is March 21st so we would have put together a budget that the public could have seen prior to being here on March 21st so it's it's that's why I'm saying it's a timing issue we need to know where you stand on on these options or at least the 700. tonight yeah that would help me all right boys so that we can now move it towards so uh whether or not we can do that
139tonight or whether or not we can do some things uh in the interim to get there prior to the 14th or the 21st Dr Brennan you want to say I just think it's very complicated and I think I think this is great information we have two board members who are not here true I think I think it's a a bigger topic than we can take on it at this board meeting but I appreciate what Dr Edwards is saying and I think we've had a lot of discussion about the budget and there's some still areas in there as far as people in the comments on so I'm not sure how maybe you want to receive our comments before the the work session individual board members or how do you want to do that but I I
140as as someone who kind of understands a little bit I still find it hard to digest and decide which option I would pick and I do understand that each option is not going to make that seven thousand dollar goal that we want to get um all right um we when you all are speaking I hope we're moving us closer to decide what we're going to do about this well I was gonna okay all right go ahead Dr Dave please I'll just tell you what my choices I choose option three which eliminates the need for the seven hundred thousand which puts us in keeping with the city yes yeah Dr Del Carter I like option three and I know that we can't continue with the third but I'm going with option one I think we just
141need to call a vote so that the dark errors were no and her team will know how to proceed are you are you making the motion yes or what option I move that we adopt option one is there a second motion dies through the lack of second all right who else wants to say anything else about today I move that we adopt option three a second I'll second it all right it's been seconded for option three now with floor is open for further questions and discussion on option three Dr Brennan can you can you just clarify what you said before as far as if we did option three which is approximately three hundred thousand dollars what we're saying about that would no the way I understand this is option three specifies the the uh District's
142percentage versus the employees percentage but the dollar amounts are adjusted so that we don't need the extra seven hundred thousand it the dollar amounts would go up to cover our anticipated expenses and we would not need that additional 700 000 anymore I thought the the doctor was saying that the the extra amount that we would get from option three was about three hundred thousand dollars employees not new but we always budget family plan for news so there's some other variables that factor in that as well but when we were looking at it we felt reasonably comfortable that we could do it if if we move to a cost sharing model we could with the existing money that you've already put in for health insurance that we can move in that direction and not fund it
143with additional 700 000 or additional money even though it's only three hundred thousand dollars that's what's projected and that's part of where we're and I think that I share I think a little bit of Disconnect because yeah I'm hearing a seven hundred thousand dollar figure option two gives us a five hundred thousand dollar Surplus or and then three gives us a three hundred thousand and I'm trying I'm trying to eliminate that I'm worried about that seven hundred thousand dollar shortfall but remember this the seven hundred thousand dollars was if we just didn't do anything so remember how I did the math that's why it's very complicated it's Dr Brennan says if we just collected 12 168 in premiums and the money that we already had in the two little slush funds which we I don't
144like that word no take that back the health supplemental supplemental health funds there you go that would only give up get us to the to the 13. right that would be if we only collected the same amount of premiums from everybody the way that we had been doing that in the past in the current year so do you see where I just kind of use the current year we're still going to increase the um retirees and the um Cobra we have to do that right so that's going to factor in into that as well so that's where we're kind of calculating uh Dr Carter and also uh Mrs causa you stated that it will also automatically increase the 44 individuals that from the other boards with this number three option three okay so boy at
145the present time we do have a motion on the floor made by Dr Dave for option three seconded by Dr Sinha I have heard Dr Brennan give some level of unreadiness and maybe if we vote tonight we enact as clear on what we're voting for Mr Tross is figuring some things out in his head your thoughts ought to be when will we ever be absolutely clear on this and does that mean calling a special meeting of the board I'm not suggesting that we have such but all over the state people spend a whole bunch of hours on this and we don't appear to want to commit it to do that as such so are we suggesting that we're going to have a special call meeting just for this matter and and how many hours to
146get Clara to understanding on this complicated issue or are we ready tonight to do this folks you all have had a history of coming to the work session in whatever year the Voting is and change your mind so um that like this has to be an instant Stone tonight so uh I'm in favor of us doing something tonight but I just want to throw that out so that nobody walks away thinking that we will rushed pressured it's giving you some sorts of options but is there any further questions or discussion on the motion before we ask the clerk to call the roll I just want to make sure I'm interpreting these um these histograms correctly so so comparing the health insurance premiums by plan for the schools if we switch to the a distribution comparable
147to the city then the major beneficiaries of that are going to be employees with children employees with family because we will the schools as part of our operating budget will take on a larger share of their premium but if the total cost goes up the total premium goes up but our share of it also goes up for those groups okay thank you oh let me uh Dr Carter the this is off the point but on the point with our advocacy we're going to have to do a whole bunch of Advocates to have it this goes down right after the 21st if this board was resolved to do all the Advocates that you need to do what we're going to have to do to go across the street absolutely aren't we all right okay thank you
148Dr uh just another question that check my understanding so under option three would we still be just collecting the 12 million one six eight assuming all other things being equal this year to next year we're just shifting how much it already pays it will probably be more because I don't have the what the premium would cost for next year's I don't have that projection so and that's why I just try to be real clear about I added the exact same number for premium collected next year as this year but it will probably be more that we collect from everybody than we've done in the previous because there's more people or as a premium goes up oh it will go up oh yeah the insurance agent says it goes up about at least seven to Seventeen
149seven percent I can count on at least seven percent okay yeah okay do acknowledge that uh Dr group time Mr Preston I'm not here tonight but um Dr Brenda you want to say I would just add that I think that if the board does decide to vote tonight that the that that option three is the um most advantageous to the employees as far as the benefit that they're going to get the increase in the premiums for for all the other categories can be relatively small there's going to be a significant benefit for the employees with family um there's going to be some significant contribution which will be somewhere 300 000 Plus so I think in light of the fact that we all know that at some point we're going to need to increase premiums this
150is this is probably a reasonable start and a relatively small star again more than half of our employees our employee only and they're going to go up two dollars per paycheck exactly that's the biggest group and there's gonna be a group that's good and specific benefits so I think if this group and their wisdom decides they do want to vote tonight I would vote for option number three because I think that's probably the most beneficial to the employees thank you Dr Brennan Dr day so I just want to make two points um what we're deciding here is going to ultimately affect the budget that we send to city council and then whatever they approve even if they just approve what we ask for that doesn't bind us to this as I understand it they just
151approve a bottom line a total then we can then rejigger the distribution of it once we know what the actual dollar amount we have to spend is so we could fine-tune this after it's approved by city council if we as we look into it yesterday I think you would let us do you that's the way you're saying it I just want to make sure that the beauty of what you're saying is still covered by the fact that whatever we say we're going to do that's what we want to do we are very purpose we must come together no you're right we try to do that that's right I'm not trying to I got you no I'm with you I'm with you I'm with you and the second point I was going to make is that
152if just in terms of parliamentary the motion on the floor is to proceed on the basis of option three if we're not comfortable making that decision then you should vote no on the motion it doesn't obligate Us in any way other than that very well said any further questions or discussion and one other stroke I was toying between different options here but I think option three in terms of going across and advocating for it it does give us some consistency with our city employees true so that's a good basis for that decision um and it protects us I think for the future so I guess I'm talking to myself [Laughter] amongst myself right I think that's yeah I think everybody's had something to say Mr Andrews that you want to you feel okay yeah I
153feel good okay all right then if there's no further questions or discussion if the emotion on the floor is that we would Embrace option three and then that will carry over into discussions on the 14th the 21st all right Madam clerk please call the roll yes you approve no you disapprove thank you thank you board and uh uh Madam clay let's make sure that Mr Preston and Dr Gupta oh immediately are made a way of what was at least discussed tonight on this I think you all did a fine job on we've done a fine job on Dr Edwards we're getting much better excellent all right let's move into new business and these items uh would be for information Lodge in part and so the specification education annual plan uh item one Dr Edwards for
154Miss Daniel Marshall yes and I believe she is on Via Zoom the annual plan comes annually for uh discussion and then board approval so uh oh there she is Miss Daniel's buster uh good evening Dr Coleman Dr Edwards members of the board this is an annual uh uh document that is done it's an agreement between the local school board and the Virginia Department of Education um it's to implement um Services mandated for students with disabilities and this accordingly uh deals with the distribution of the funds that the division is contingent upon uh approval from the board uh Lynchburg City will apply for approximately 2.5 million and flow through funds this is funds that are supporting um salaries and benefits or a special education staff um again it does require approval so that the finances can
155be reimbursed to us from the state the total amount will be used to provide salaries as well as 000 of it will go to flow through funds for parentally placed students with disabilities that are in local private schools or home school we will also use uh apply for 60 little over 68 000 in section 619 preschool funds this funding will be used to support Hutcherson Early Learning Center and their programs and provide special education and related services for students ages two to five who are determined eligible for special ed these funds will include some staff development instructional materials and some special education placements so it's for information tonight it will come back in April for consent so it looks like we'd be okay to wait on April for this any question from the board all
156right thank you Miss Daniels bolsha for giving us the clarity on that and we appreciate it greatly and the work that you all are doing Dr Coleman yes please that um if there aren't any questions right now and then could we put it on the consent agenda we can always pull it Madam Claire put that on the consider agenda unless it's somebody that objects to it tonight for April meetings yes Dr Carter I just didn't see any figures on here yeah I didn't either so that's why it's not yeah like that with uh well I mean there are you get the score on one of the tabs oh yeah on some of the tabs yeah you need to go all the way over which tab is it oh yeah I'm looking to go to 611
157those are the six eleven funds that are being requested the 619 tab as the funds that are being requested for 619 um so each of those tabs has different amounts that are being requested in the grant these are different requirements from the states and each of those tabs are set up throughout the Department of Education things that we need to complete as part of this annual plan that we do all right foreign so in a way I think we can work out the tabs at the bottom Etc this will be only consent agenda for the April meeting uh first meeting unless someone decides to request for it to be pulled all right yes sir all right sounds great uh K2 thank you again Mr Daniel K2 uh donation to Heritage Elementary School Dr Edwards all
158right so um we do have a policy that says if a group wants to donate anything over five thousand dollars that I just need to share it with the board so um Miss Katie rosavare and the McGuire Foundation are donating nine thousand two hundred dollars to Heritage Elementary for their fourth and fifth grade students to attend their upcoming field trip so this will defer the cost of that um fourth graders going to Jamestown and the fifth graders are going to Virginia Beach just a question about how do does a a group uh what's the process for making a donation do they contact you so you know if a Civic group saying we want to buy some new playground equipment for such and such a school how what's the process good question typically if it's for
159a school they'll reach out to the school principal so this group reached out to the school principal School principal is like oh this is over five thousand dollars so they comes to me to put it on if it's over a thousand it can come just to me for me to say but if it's over 5000 I bring it to the school board and that thank you Dr day for that question because some people in the public may find ways in which they want to do likewise and if it's acceptable through the process so thank you for that uh K3 donation to Sandusky middle school that's right we have very generous Community here and we had a donation for musical instruments under the Mr Holland Mr Holland's Opus Foundation which is about 25 a little over
16025 000 worth of the following instruments which will be going to Sandusky middle school so you can see that there are saxophones flutes trombones drums clarinets which I used to play um all for a donation so we're grateful for that questions on there thank you Dr Edwards I do want to thank this board for your uh conversation in the last meeting I want to thank Dr Brennan for uh really uh trying to dig in and find a good place for us to land on a concern he had so I want to turn the floor over to Dr Brennan now in relationship to the Joint City Schools facilities study work group thank you Dr Coleman and I know the hour is latest I want to try to keep this under an hour [Laughter] it'll be very
161short so at the last meeting we discussed the fact that um that how important the facilities plan is going to be for the schools as far as redistricting new schools closing schools education and we all I know we're all on the same page with that so my concern really was communicating the process to the community and to ourselves and city council so that as the process progressed as Dr woodick has pointed out over the next several months that no one feels that they've been left behind or not knowledgeable about it Dr vordick has made some comments tonight and as as I think is very supportive of the fact that the community is going to receive information on a regular basis through various uh venues so I think the community part is taken care of um
162I'm still concerned about city council and to some degree on board mostly about city council so last time we did this I suggested a motion that we make an ad hoc committee under policy bcfg to the school board Dr willick and Dr Oz are nice enough to meet with me and calm me down about that idea and say why don't we just look at this this I'm sure you should thank them in your agenda you have that there's a facility study work group under this item and that is listed that we have administrators from City of Lynchburg and we have administrators from Lynchburg City Schools led by Dr wodica so we have this group of working already and what I like to suggest is that rather make a new committee that we actually use this
163committee and that we appoint two members of the school board invite two members of city council to participate in that meeting and ask Dr wodick and his team to to embrace those individuals as far as being able to come to meetings that they can get information to then bring back to their respective boards so not talking about it at ad hoc advisory committee like to work with the committee we already have and invite two school board members or whoever like to volunteer and then go to city council and ask them if they'd like to participate hope they would appoint two people so to facilitate things I like to make a motion just to get this going and we can discuss then if there's a second to it then we can discuss it and move on
164so my motion is that um the Lynchburg City School Board recommends that two members of Lynchburg City School Board and two members of city council be appointed to visit the facility study work group if the motion is approved by the board then the LCS board chair and vice chair would accept names from interested board members who would like to be appointed and the chair and vice chair would ask the mayor and vice mayor to appoint two representatives from City Council and if approved by the board the LCS Administration would facilitate the participation of these members in the work group and a regular report from the board Representatives would go to school board and would go to city council to keep them up to date so that is the motion for tonight Mr chair all right
165second all right we've been seconded when you go to second to Mr Andrew yes sir okay uh Dr David Mr Andrews go on record this oh so I think I think Dr Brennan has made it clear on what this is not and he's trying to articulate what it would be and how that process would come in in that piece if if it did work out where the chair and vice chair would be selecting too just letting you know it wouldn't be me I wouldn't I wouldn't be one of the ones at all uh that would be representing the board but I I do want to acknowledge that Dr Gupta who is not here tonight uh uh I don't want to put words in his mouth but I think he feels better about it since it's
166going to be more of what you just said uh but it is concerned that we do not give the uh the group that we hired any impression that we do not think that they're doing anything but a stellar job at what they have been doing am I articulating your understanding I'm trying to convey Dr guptas that we that we're not suggesting that uh something haven't been done right as much as we're trying to increase communication right okay so it's just a question it's my understanding that this facilities study work group is part of the process that the consulting firm has intended so we're just suggesting that four new individuals be included in that group that we're not tipping over the apple cart any more than that I think that's the goal of this motion is
167to try to dovetail this group into the group that's already meeting Orient working with the consultant we'll continue to work with them so I think this is much better than the original idea which would add a new layer to things that wasn't part of what MGT had intended anyone like to speak against the motion on the board all right and if there any further questions or discussion on it a Madam Clerk we have a motion it was seconded so we can vote on it tonight if you're in favor of what Dr Brennan just said with two governing board members from the school board and two members of council being selected to add on to this group vote Yes if you're not in favor of that vote no ma'am clerk scoop I remember Mr trost yes
168let's go about member Dr Sinha yes school but remember Dr Brennan yes let's go book remember Dr Coleman yes open member Dr Carter yes beautiful member Dr day yes Mr Andrews Dr Andrews yes all right but what I'm proud of you all night good job uh section L uh superintendent comments it's a very busy month uh since last month let me just skip uh some of the things that we've been out and about or I've been out and about with we continue to meet with our community safety group and we're grateful for the partnership also with LPD and the Ed Foundation to help us with some safety initiatives that we want to Pilot at glass so I think we have another meeting this week with that community group as well I had an opportunity I
169don't know how good it is to make a celebrity Bowl as a part of the Lynchburg Daily Bread the their soups event that they have so looking forward to seeing my bowl and whether or not it can actually hold soup but that was fun just community members all together and we had a great time to do that um met with other community groups to look at the possibility of having an education block party later in April to get families more involved in their child's education Optimist Club celebrated kids at the Oakwood Country Club just some amazing things that our kids are doing in the area of CTE of course got to read to pre-k two Pre-K classes in fifth grade fifth graders at Bass so that was I always enjoy that and and if you
170haven't had an opportunity to read to our kids please do so they absolutely love it and they will keep you engaged in the conversation uh MLK walk we did that and very wonderful and some a nice stop at the cemetery which was an excellent addition to the whole program that we had there of course let me scroll down because it's a lot here we'd like to thank Senator Kane for visiting bass Elementary School last month and again he read to our kids and he knows that they're very engaging ask them lots of questions and we we're just thankful for his team to that want to thank Dr gupt is not here but he did join us on bus driver appreciation day as we served breakfast to the bus drivers and bus aides and the transportation
171staff kudos to my team for the education career fair that we had on Saturday February 25th where we were trying to get new people to join our wonderful LCS team and it was it was a great event I have participated on in addition to getting us ready for our strategic plan I also helped the Ed foundation with their first strategic plan meeting because they're doing a new strategic plan as well and the business Alliance is also doing a strategic plan so LCS has their hands in a whole bunch of community things because our Community Partners are important to the work that we do and I wanted to mention that I did attend the pie board meeting which was held at the downtown y in the teen center and we got to have a wonderful presentation
172by tarika Grooms who is a teen center counselor and they are doing some phenomenal leadership work down at the downtown y it was just a really informative presentation that she gave for the kids that attend and we have kids that actually go and participate in their programs and they're looking to expand so I did want to mention um that as well and again congratulations to all of our teams basketball team track team forensics I mean you name it I heard States states skills USA our kids are doing it so we are excited we're planning what we're going to do in May so we're going to be moving our may work session I think to Heritage High School that's the largest space that we could find that wasn't occupied so that we can celebrate our teams
173our students who have accomplished these Regional and state um State accomplishments Awards whether it's the forensics team and the other thing that I really like is you're hearing a lot about combined groups so the combined Drumline team that is Middle School and High School you heard the kids talk about the cosmetology which is a combined class at Heritage and glass so this board along with us will be taking our show on the road and honoring our kids at the beginning of our work session in a similar fashion as we did for the two football teams at city council thank you Dr Edwards and again you're doing a remarkable job she gets to every aspect of this community and it's just very admirable you and your team always see it's just amazing all right we're going
174to go our comments and start with Mr Trust I want to Second Dr Edwards uh mention of the education block party coming up in late April it is so important I think to get the parents Guardians family members involved in our children's education and I really uh hope we get a nice turnout at that block party and hopefully my schedule allow me to be there I'm really looking forward to that um also want to give another shout out to the Education Foundation looking forward to our breakfast with the superintendent and I appreciate all of the Education Foundation is doing for our community and specifically our education of our children thank you Mr trolls Dr Sinha well I have a few things first kudos to Pioneer theater's production of Cabaret if you didn't see that show
175you missed something really great and the way they transformed the theater the audience was part of the cat Cabaret and as you know this is a story that's set against the backdrop of fascisms rise in Germany it was a bold choice but appropriate given fascisms rise currently Resurgence and including here in America and the students I am so proud of them their production demonstrated their ability to handle controversial subjects and adult themes and the maturity of their performances because you know for a High School play it's watered down and a lot of these the characters become caricatures but the way they portrayed them they were people it was really well done I'm so impressed so the maturity of their performances match the seriousness of the story and the student performer showed a level of maturity
176and complexity that some adults in our town would be wise to model so I congratulate them I enjoyed board games with buddies at Sandusky Elementary School where I learned how to use games to reinforce the things that students are learning in school that was fun last week I spoke to the Early to early college students in the political science class and that was a very engaging conversation those students I wish I would have allowed more time less time of me talking and more time of them telling me things and I've asked to be invited back if there's time and I think I might get to go back um really bright students um I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to see Tim Kaine during his visit I found him to be a very humble well-informed
177man very approachable um so I'm really grateful for his time spent with the city schools and today as I mentioned earlier I mentioned the first of four training days in Charlottesville on fiscal governance tying the fiscal to the instructional primarily for Student Success and so I anticipate that to be very helpful I wish we could have taken advantage of it earlier in the year um but nevertheless it's it's a worthwhile program so I'm grateful to the schools for paying for my attendance there and for transportation thank you Amy you're welcome but thank you Dr Cena outstanding Dr Brennan so I'm going to follow Dr sinha's lead and talk about the outstanding drama programs that we have in Lynchburg City Schools so uh the theater students from Paul Lawrence Dunbar School of innovation brought home National
178Excellence for Ensemble award in Atlanta um a special shout out to Mr Mrs Carter who's in charge of that program Mr Carter has been with Lynchburg City schools for 32 years 29 of them at Dunbar and I hope he'd never leave as far as the job that he does there it's really unbelievable I had the opportunity to go to Linkhorn middle school for their performance of Lion King which was a great Middle School play there was a lot of enthusiasm less talent but it was really fun to really see it it was so great and they had like 40 kids participating in the author of the cap the cafeterium was full so it was really a treat and then lastly I want to thank Dr Coleman Dr Oz were nice to thank myself my wife
179for the Beacon of Hope uh time but I want to thank all those people who took time to come it really was a great group and it was it was it was a significant time commitment but I want to thank the school board members Dr Coleman and Dr Carter and Mrs Preston and LCS administrators including Dr Edwards and Dr Dr Sam Coleman Dr Derek Brown and also Mr Beatty from from Heritage High School came and then we had representatives and city council including mayor Stephanie Reed and councilmember Dolan Wilder and Taylor were part of the group so I think everyone's trying to demonstrate the support they have not only for the Beacon of Hope but for Lynchburg City school so thank you all for taking the time to do that all night thank you Dr
180Brennan that was outstanding all three of you thank you so much Dr Carter Dr Senna took most of mine but I also presented to the political science group at cvcc for the early college and the students were really engaging and I think um it helped me having just come from the capital conference to just make them aware of some of the different bills that were on the Senate and the house floor and they were interested in that and also I saw Cameron the um the EC glass student rep there and also went to the Cabaret and I went and I see it our Focus was different I thought the desserts were just amazing so the desserts were great and that that the set was just impressive and also as Katie's Caitlin's Snyder stated that the
181seniors were honored and every the underclassmen honored the seniors that are leaving and her brother honored her and that was just great to see and Caitlyn is Katie Snyder is a former board member's daughter so that was good in the Hope 23 that was great and that was an awesome just the stories that people talk about and that we should never ever um um look down on someone's meager Beginnings or just where you come from because a lot of times it really makes you who you are and appreciate where you are and also being there with Senator Kane that was really good and just being able to um address some of the concerns with him thank you Dr Carter very very nice throughout the day um I guess I just want to say that and
182I've said this before I think both here and to a number of individuals I've talked to that one of my particular goals is to try to understand what our classroom teachers face the challenges we may talk about the challenges here but I it's really the teachers who are the ones who will actually enact who have the actual contact with students and will really make the difference and so I said to a number of people along the way including a number of teachers to encourage them to call or write to me if they have something they want to express to the board something they're concerned about the suggestion they'd like to have very few have taken me up on that offer so any teachers out there that are listening if you have something you want the
183board or at least this particular board member to know please don't hesitate to call me or or email me the the LCS webpage has an email address and a phone number for me so I'm just encouraging people to contact me all right and um oh uh yeah um [Laughter] just trying to figure out how I wanted to comment on very good uh Dr day but I do want to encourage them board members to to remember that we really want to push people with concerns to the superintendent um and uh but anyway I I think that each of you will gum yourself accordingly in that regard uh Mr Andrews I want to give a shout out to the Legacy education center on Rivermont Avenue and what they're doing to add value to their Workforce Development program
184Randy has been he's got the guy's name is Randy he's been keeping Randy and I in the loop of what's going on and we've visited his uh his program a couple times he's just doing some really wonderful things and then just continue to be grateful for our school principals as they lead our schools daily you know we got a chance to spend close session with some and then I got a chance to hear some really good discussion feedback and I just value them so that's it great all right thank you Mr Andrews thank each of you for your sharings tonight I do want to one more time say to Dr Edwards and your team thank you for getting around to all of these schools all of these communities that the countless hours of this Deputy
185superintendent Pugh and Dr water because Mr capazzi all the directors everybody that's been on tonight I see Dave Brown's name that we didn't mention just thank you uh you know you go a lot of places you see a lot of things done wrong it's a lot right that's going on here in Lynchburg I do also want to remind you all that 58 years ago today was Bloody Sunday and isn't it wonderful that here in Virginia our first African-American uh woman has been duly uh installed uh as a United States congresswoman first that we've had here in the Commonwealth of Virginia and I think that this is a great day I also want to remind you that we would have been at our regional meeting in Mecklenburg County it's see the new high school there and
186it's going to take me the next eight months to make that up to that team that I promised that too we couldn't be there but I do want to thank Priscilla gone for taking our artwork uh to the regional meeting tonight and of course we'll see whatever the outcomes may be from that uh the last piece of our meeting for tonight is the informational items and so we're clear on the 14th of March everybody's welcome to come for finance and Facilities the breakfast that's been alluded to on March the 16th the public hearing on the 21st of March for the budget then our work session on the 21st and our joint meeting with council is going to be on the 28th of March and then we'll go into April with our April board meeting if
187there's nothing else to be said this meeting isn't sure thank you very much all right