001[Music] e [Music] for we're live thank you at this time I would like to call to order our Tuesday February the 2nd 2021 uh school board meeting which we are sharing in a virtual ual way allow me to please read the following during a disaster the code of Virginia and the governor's uh April to 2020 budget amendments there is an allowance and policy making boards able to meet virtually during emergency declaration allowing governing bodies of localities and other public entities to conduct their meetings in manners which are consistent with providing continuity of government and in a safe and healthy Manner and for the public safety Health and Welfare for the governing body and all attendees interested parties consistent with open government any public body may meet by electronic communication means without a quorum of the
002public body physically assembled at one location when the governor has declared a state of emergency in accordance with Virginia code section 44-14 6.17 provided that one the catastrophic nature of a declared emergency makes it impracticable or unsafe to assemble a forum in a single location and two the purpose of the meeting is to address the emergency city council reopt it on January the 12th 2021 a continuity of government ordinance that allows city council and the city's authorities boards commissions to hold electronic meetings in appropriate situations so long as alternative arrangements are made for public access to such meetings this specific electronic participation meeting is an electronic meeting with a specific purpose to address the items uh that are so stated uh as it is related to in light of covid-19 and the only business that
003will be conducted today is conducted in light of that reality we are using zoom and an audio and video recording is being made of the meeting and will be available on the LCS website notice of the meeting was given yesterday in accordance with policy bdb of of of meetings that need to take place uh as we are going through the meeting board members can identify yourselves where necessary prior to speaking and our votes will take place uh tonight by roll call and recorded uh in the minutes if for some reason you have to leave uh please state so and and return Please state so that it might be noted in the attendance is there any question by any board member of the process and the legitimacy of having this electronic meeting tonight hearing none we
004will now uh ask the board uh if you will for Item B one the approval of the agenda the agenda is before you had been featured on our board docs and you should have it before you and I would like a motion at this time to approve the agenda that is before you uh is there such a motion by any board member I make that motion uh Dr Gupta makes the motion that we approve the agenda is there a second I will second that seconded by Dr Brennan any further questions or discussion we'll now vote all those in favor indicate by saying i i i those oppos then the motion carries even though you may or may not have a flag where you are I'm going to ask you to safely either stand or remain
005seated if that's going to keep you safe so that we can now share in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right thank you all for that thank you so much at this time we will now move to item C1 which is a special uh presentation and I do want to say to the board yesterday uh I had the opportunity to uh share in a federal relations discussion um and both of our United States senators said to the Virginia group gathered that school board members serving during this covid-19 pandemic should be given a special place in heaven and so each of you thank you for what you do
006and I believe our superintendent now will entertain us in a very special uh presentation absolutely thank you Dr Coleman so the month of February marks the annual observance of school board appreciation month uh the Virginia school boards Association established this in 1989 to encourage public recognition of the roles and responsibilities of Schoolboard members and to highlight the importance of public education throughout the common wealth this year's theme is 115 years of providing leadership advocacy and support and this reflects the top priority of local board members as they advocate for public education with local state and federal leaders on behalf of all of our students uh normally we have this wonderful celebration so since we are in the zum R verse we are going to postpone our physical celebration until we get to our work session
007in two weeks so that we can thoroughly honor this board for their tremendous amount of advocacy support and Leadership and never mind the hundreds of hours that they spend uh dedicated in service to the students the staff the families of Lynchburg City Schools so on behalf of Lynchburg City school and Men team uh and the entire School Division we'd like to just thank thank thank thank thank you all for your tireless support um and efforts to support our students and our families uh and we look forward to lavishing you in two weeks with um wonderful tokens of appreciation not only from the administration but we have some special things from our schools and our students um that you are so deserving of so once again um just on behalf of Lynchburg City Schools just like
008to say thank you and how much we appreciate you thank you Dr thank you Dr Edwards we appreciate that very much uh very very kind of of you and uh to each board member uh as chair I certainly it's just marvelous to see each of you in action the countless number of hours so it is so very appreciated and we met on January the 12th January the 19th January the 26 and again February the 2nd that's four Tuesdays in a row uh hats off to each of you we will now go to item D1 in our agenda uh for tonight's meeting which is uh public comments and we do want the public to know again from our last meeting that we uh back into allowing uh in-person public comments and in light of tonight's need
009for a virtual uh meeting uh we have uh upgraded our ability to be able to assist that uh process being facilitated appropriately and so tonight we will have our public comment section we have so many persons that that uh would like to share with us tonight uh and we do want you to know that uh we have 30 minutes allocated for this time period and it is not because we wouldn't want to hear you or we're trying to be rude we would just need to shut this down at the end of 30 minutes and all comments that may not have been read will certainly be forward to to every board member that your input can be uh appreciated and so with that in mind within accordance with policy BD DH public participation the school board
010welcomes requests and comments has established in the guidelines within this policy and is modified to comply with the governor's state of emergency persons of groups wishing to address the school board may do so by choosing one of the following number one send a written comment to the school board clerk uh at dtp lcsedu.net statements will be read during the public comment section of the school board meeting number two leave a voice message on the school board's uh clerk phone line at 55077 message will be played during the public comment section of the school board meeting or number three address the board in person during the public meeting written statements and of voice messages should include the name of the person submitting the comment the subject of his or her remarks and be limited to three
011minutes per individual and five minutes per group all written statements and voice messages must be received no later than two hours prior to the start of the meeting persons Desiring to address the school board shall submit an advanced request in writing to the superintendent no later than 12 noon on the Wednesday preceding the regular board meeting or by signing the public comment form which shall be available to the public 15 minutes before the meeting starts when when we're in person each person requesting to speak shall identify the subject uh as we have already identified due to limited seating in our uh more inperson board meetings uh we are encouraging persons to abide by those appropriate protocols and so at this time individuals that would like to speak will have three minutes and a group will
012have five I'm going to go through those who would like to join us in person virtually if you will and then after those uh persons with time left I'm going to ask Dr Brennan to please share uh any of the written comments that we can get to our first speaker for tonight virtually uh for our school board meeting is Jasmine Ford hello hello welcome Jasmine hi go right ahead and give your comment when you well I'm a student at EC glass High School I special needs and the only reason I wanted to comment is because I've seen things on the internet from the news about screen time for students but my mom has told me that the screen time issue was mostly for gaming and things like that but I also know that screen time
013for students because of like of them doing work virtually like I'm doing every day they also say on the news that people with that do screen time have a lot of issues with like it can affect your eyes and your brain some and I was just wondering if that was an issue for me or for anybody else that's doing school virtually and that's all I have to say thank you Jasmine we appreciate uh all of our students for sharing and please know that each board member uh will take under advisement uh what what you Shar and look into the matter thank you so much Coleman yes this is Amy puke I'm just gonna say um Jasmine was the only person that was present for um those that signed up to speak at this point um
014and so if you all want to move on to read the those that were sent in via email and if there were any that were sent um by phone message thank you Amy for alerting me of that and so for the record uh Kelly Porton and the others who are listed here uh we will move on beyond that since uh Jasmine is the only one present and ready to go at this time and so with that in mind Dr Dr Brennan if you could please begin to read uh what you have and after Dr Brennan has read uh the written comments he has uh our school boy clerk Tina day will will read the remainder of those uh written public comments thank you Dr Coleman can Dr com the school board members hear me adequately
015yes thank you so my first um email is from Jeffrey woters and Jeffrey writes my name is Jeffrey Hooters I am a I'm a junior at EC glass High School while scrolling through Instagram the other night I was concerned to see a picture of the EC glass JV basketball team competing against LCA my understanding of the current Sports situation is that exclusively remote Learners are still allowed to participate on sports teams conversely students in EC glass band and Orchestra classes are not allowed to gather in person to practice or perform regardless of their learning status additionally forensics events have gone completely virtual instead of the in-person events held in previous years I will note that forensics is governed by the same VH vhsl regulations as our sports teams I feel that this creates a double
016standard between the two groups as our schools arts program seem to be more negatively affected by covid-19 than our Sports programs I feel that if we are able to social distance and wear masks which we would we should be allowed to meet and perform like sports teams currently do additionally I am also concerned to see that none of the basketball players were wearing masks as you all know the CDC recommends the use of facial coverings while in contact with others to reduce viral spread in fact even among those wearing masks in the audience several had their noses visible or wore their mask on their chins or necks furthermore by virtue of the sport the players were not socially distanced while it's my understanding that all the players are screened and trained in covid-19 safety protocol
017players could carry the virus without even knowing it or could have been exposed without just yet testing positive cases in the community continue to increase drastically so I am concerned about viral spread resulting from sports events Sports and arts ought to be treated equally and fairly to ensure maximum safety while maintaining the excellent quality and accessibility of each of our schools programs and that is from Jeffrey all right this is Tina the school board clerk can everyone hear me I have three to read the first one will be from Matthew Lee granell his question is what is the status of planning to return to four in classroom learning following Governor northam's mid January directive to develop plans to reopen schools the second one I have to read is from innovate Lynchberg and they have five
018questions when will Lynchburg City Schools Implement canvas a learning management system that is provided by the state are you aware that this is available number two there was a report that came out in the news that students were Fallen failing due to Virtual learning yet it is stated my assistant is stated by the assistant superintendent that it was because students were turning in assignments what is the actual number of students why have teachers administrators counselors not contacted parents or have they number three it has also been stated that lynchb City School's teachers were to provide no individual instructions to kidss when using zoom in short they cannot answer questions or help in any way other than stare at the child back to their Chromebook why bother coming to school number four why did the board
019not apply for the free T-mobile 10 million project program that would will provide free internet to any student in need number five attendance record show that they are we down and these and F were up to 66% all kids had to do was log in and answer a social filling question and they will counted present is this correct and the last one I have is from Zachary green the topic is concerns on the vdoe model policies for the treatment of transgender students in Virginia ladies and gentlemen of the Lynchberg City School Board thank you for the opportunity to share with you some concerns I have for the students and employees of Lynchberg City Schools my intention is this written public comment is to oppose the imple implementation of significant portions of the model policies and
020to request that the board at a minimum schedule a public hearing dedicated to the hearing of public comments on the model policies the model policy cons contains concerning elements that would negatively affect both students and employees in lyberg city schools these concerning elements include both the allowance of students to use bathrooms coinciding without consistently asserted gender identity and the requirement that School Employees refer to transgender students by their asserted pronouns I believe these policies violate God's created order endanger students and endanger the religion religious liberty of Lynchburg City School Employees first I believe that these policies violate God's created order as revealed in his word the Bible because God is the creator that knows that knows his created being before they even are conceived he alone determines if someone is male or female he has
021given us physical characteristics such as sex organs that identify the reality of a person's being either male or female School should educate students about scientific relatives rather than assist them in the denial of the scient scientific relative while I understand that you may disagree with the religious concern presented here I believe my next two concerns are worthy of consideration on their own merits schools I believe these policies endanger students because of the they allow opportunity for abuse by students who do not actually view themselves as transgender a biological male who holds the male male identity will be able to lie and consistently assert that he is a female in order to enter the woman woman's bath restroom the consequence of this abuse could range from embarrassment on the part of a young woman in the
022restroom to sexual assault third I believe that the model policies endanger the religious liberty of lyberg City Schools Employees those Christians who believe that they are using transgender students asserted pronouns with participation and a lie would have no acceptable recourse but to refuse to use those pronouns less protected under the Virginia Bill of Rights and the non-discriminative statement in section g of the LC lcsb policy manual for this reason I believe certain components of the model policies are discrimin and uncon unconstitutional with those concerns in mind I ask that you consider the many implications of these policies before adopting them I also request that you schedule a public hearing dedicated to the hearing the viewpoints of those in Lynchburg Community on this topic the hearing could be similar to the Second Amendment Sanctuary hearing held
023by the city council at e glass in January of 2020 the numerous public comments on the model policies found on the Virginia recor Town Hall website indicate that this issue is very controversial and the communed stakeholders would value the and benefit for such a hearing thank you for your consideration to this matter and for allowing me to express my concerns thank you uh to our clerk uh and to our vice chair for reading those written public comments and unless Dr Brennan or uh clerk they have further comments we will conclude I don't believe we had any voice message for uh tonight's meeting so we do want to thank each person for sharing with us uh as you can see our board values public comments and we're grateful for every uh written and or uh inperson
024virtual presentation tonight thank you so much this will now move us to our next item on our agenda which would be item E1 which is uh December the 31st 2020 Finance report and Dr Edwards if you could call on our able person for that I appreciate it thank you absolutely thank you Dr Coleman and we have with us our CFO Miss Kim lanic who is going to go over our monthly financial report good evening um as Dr Coleman said I'm presenting the December 31st 2020 um financial report the operating budget is as it was in November um it is the adopted plus the prior year purchase orders and then the fund balance return and so the adjusted budget has remained at the 101, 886769872 seven the revenue received to date we have received 39.61 the
025expenditures to date are 40.97 per. the expenditures including the incumbrances we are at 85.0 6% um I have provided um the um detailed revenue and expenditure reports if you have any questions I have also updated the car's funding summary sheet um that is the list of six different items um not one of them we do not have funding on it was but the number two and number five item on that sheet I just wanted to point out that both of those are now 100% spent and that was the city's cares funds that they had allocated to the school division as well as our CRF funds so our next um group of funding that we are looking at you they are still spending the gears and the gears is going for the mobile Hut spots um
026disinfectants face Shields there's different categories but that was a that was a competitive Grant um so they are still implementing that and we have till September 30th of 2022 to spend those funds the two large set of funds are are your item number one and item number six and item number one is the one that we have received um some time ago and that was the 2.5 that was our portion of the of the cares funds and that was referred to as the Esser and that was part of the $ 13.2 billion um that was package that was given to the schools and the new ass set which is under your number six is the S is referred to as Esser 2 and that is the 12.6 million that's been allocated to us and that's
027part of a 5 54.3 billion doll award to the school divisions so at this time we have not spent in those areas but we are having those meetings and working with our grant person to set those applications do you have any questions any board member a question for uh Mr theage I'm I'm looking very carefully uh right now I don't see any board member with a question or regarding uh I have a question right ahead Dr NIS trying to figure out how to raise my hand and not doing well so I'll just talk um at what point do you start trying to guesstimate it's pretty early in the year what the balance might be for the current fiscal year we actually start we've already started that process um it it's um an ongoing process because
028we look at the savings that we received from people being hired that came in um making less than the people that had left or in case of this year the delay in the p u in hiring some of the positions um while we are monitoring it and we've been having discussions with the schools to make sure um honestly I think every everyone was a little bit um gunshot to sort of do the spending not knowing about the hold harmless and now that we've received that information and our sales tax is still holding strong we have been having meetings with the schools saying it's okay to go ahead and spend those funds get what you need um we also have the midyear compensation adjustment that will be going into into February and so we want to
029capture those actuals and then we'll re we'll um reassess again but those are an ongoing um conversation that we have been having thank you Dr NIS for your statement any any other board member with any other questions for uh Mr conage for this informational item all right it appears that uh there are no further questions uh thank you Mr conage very much for your fine ongoing work thank you so much uh we will now move uh board to our next item of the agenda which will be I um f uh one through six our consent agenda of course as usual anything can be pulled but this is for action and we have tonight uh the school board meeting minutes from December the 14th uh school board work session minutes from December the 15th Schoolboard meeting
030minutes from January the 12th uh Human Resources report uh uh human resource report addenda and then we have uh instruction and program policy updates which is uh F6 all right that is our consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda this is Sharon Carter and I move that we approve the consent agenda and moved by Dr CI is their second all right I see Dr gupto raising his hand uh and so Dr gupto will second that motion to approve the consent agenda any further questions or discussion and I do want to give you time if you're trying to navigate so that's why I'm pausing I don't want to I don't want to uh go ahead of anybody who needs to say something so if that is so we'll just go back but
031uh hearing none all those in favor indicate by saying I I I those oo those opposed that motion carries and our consent agenda has been approved now we will move to item G and the item G is what uh makes our strategic plan our comprehensive plan everything that we are doing matters and those uh two student Representatives have been doing a fine job and so we're going to hear tonight first from Grayson Arnold a student representative from Heritage High School followed by Jaden Scott student representative from EC glass High School in that order hi guys um I just need to do screen share real quick so pleas give me one moment please okay so I just want to say hello and welcome can everyone hear me yes okay sweet so um here's the Heritage presentation
032for the school boy meeting so I wanted to started with the previous events that have already happened and so our first event was building your network um and this was catered to alumni who are graduated Heritage um from 2012 to 2020 yeah to 2020 and this event was a virtual event that allowed um prior students to be able to get connected with some businesses in Lynchberg so that was really cool and a good way to help them get out in the world and get some good networking going so next is the inauguration party the virtual inauguration party our chorus and um Color Guard team made a video to um put in the inauguration so I'll just let this play for a little bit and then I'll continue talking but so I just wanted to shout
033them out real quick because um they did an amazing job they did it in two days they where they learned the choreography the song and got it all together and um recorded So shout out to them because it was beautiful and they really just wanted to do it to show the diversity of Heritage as now we have a nice diverse um government so yeah um and then we had a career in education panel another one of the panels of of college knowledge panels presented by Beacon of Hope and this one was for education and it allowed students to be able to talk to Educators from different all different sides like College High School Middle School all sorts of different um positions and they were able to ask questions and get some good information from that
034um so now these are some upcoming events events um at Heritage um so PSAT SAT and ACT preparation it is very good that um we're able to do these virtually and they are very helpful I've done uh a couple of the classes myself and they're tremendous so at the there's two more sessions for the act Wednesday and Friday um those will be the last preparations like preparation uh Zoom calls and then from February 5th to March 10th SAT prep will begin and that's that'll be good um they happen Wednesday Friday and Saturday and it takes an hour and a half but I promise it doesn't feel like it takes that long and it's just really good for students to get that prep in because this ATS our killer but on to the next so FASA
035and um weekend of Hope Scholarship workshops so the next two events are Wednesday this Wednesday the 10th and the 24th I believe and this this event is for um this event is to help students specifically seniors uh complete their FASA and complete the Commonwealth app and the stay close go for um scholarship applications and they are both wonderful opportunities to get some free money to get a better higher education and another panel continuing the college knowledge um panel series that Beacon of Hope is putting on um this is the high demands for trade and this one is for people who are um interested in plumbing and welding and electrical type stuff and that event is um February 8 so this upcoming Monday at 12m and now is Pioneer achievements so Dr taston Bel is an
036alumni um he graduated in 2001 and he is honestly amazing he had um a news article written about him I think it was on wct but that his mom sent in to um Mr Bey and Miss lipam but he is truly amazing he's out there like fighting Co front like on the front front lines and he was just awarded the um outstanding faculty Award presented by the state Council of Higher Education which is like one of the highest um like one of the highest Awards you can get in Virginia but he is truly amazing like he's the director of the ICU unit or the like the Intensive Care Unit at UVA and um he's just doing great things and hopefully I'll be able to schedule time so I can um interview him which is uh
037I'm very very very excited about but next um I'd like to highlight judie St Flair and uh Trent carasia so Cadet first lieutenant juilee and Cadet major Trent carolan they um are just they're doing great with the J TC program as you can see they have pretty high rankings and um they were nominated um they were nominated for the Lynchberg optimism optimism Club I believe yeah the optimism club and this um this this club is really just focuses on focuses on bringing the good out of the kids and Trent and um J are amazing they really um I think I was able to read the recommendation sent and Jud Lee she she was said to be like she is a like she is a working woman like she is going to get what she needs
038to get done and she's going to do what she needs to do and same for Trent so it's just good to have these awesome pioneers to present and then jacobe Lambert um jaob is one of my good friends and he just scored his 10,000th point um this past this past week so I just wanted to shout him out real quick say congratulations and then tyia Blake and alayia Oaks they are some track stars right here so Ty and alayia were acknowledged on the M on M stat which is like the national um like it's a website but it's the national ranking rankings and they always put out different different um different articles and stuff but alayia and Tyre were recognized for being um for their combined scores so Alaysia is ranked six with her combined
039score from triple jump and long jump and tiia is ranked 35 which is no that like that is it is hard I love watching them at practice they work so hard and they definitely deserve those places and then now Pioneer Athletics so here we have just some pictures from wrestling um I think those pictures like the ones around here those are from those are from like last night I believe um and we have you know rayan and a couple other couple other of our Pioneers wrestling and now girls basketball and here we have the girls basketball shooting it up living it up we have April Hillary Aaliyah all sorts of people just doing great things with girls basketball and now we have boys basketball again we have jacobe and we have Sean and CH we
040just have all of these great pioneers putting in that work and now we have basketball Chia they were so excited to take these pictures and Miss Renee was too shout out to Miss Renee because she takes the best pictures from Heritage uh for for Heritage but here's just some of the pictures that she was able to capture and then track oh I love track um but yes we have all sorts of different pictures and um I meant to I meant to put this in the slide but I forgot ju Um Zack steel Deuce CW or Kenneth Crawford sorry we call him deuce and um Jalil caror and maybe one and then Jake they have the four the top four in the 55 like the top four times in the 55 which is amazing in the
041state right now in 3A so that's pretty cool and then you know we have some of our throwers right there we have um JJ Morris we have our jumpers Runners all sorts of stuff that's really good um and then this was senior night so far we've only had two senior nights track senior night and girls basketball boys basketball is coming up soon and along with the other ones but yeah so these are just some pictures that we were able to capture and so I wanted to I put this this um this page in specifically because of the Instagram that's listed it's the heritage HS yearbook and um Heritage Our Heritage yearbook staff decided they wanted to make an Instagram so that this way they can interact with the students and really get their input on
042different things since we're um kind of virtual and remote type thing going on so they wanted to do this so that way they could capture so every day they post a question and they ask like different things just to get some feedback and some good information and then um right here we have the different classroom that the Beacon of Hope teams up with Heritage to make um and they go by gr and I really just wanted to include this to um because the Beacon of Hope puts so many great opportunities out there for students and I feel like it'd be really good for them to you know make sure they're in those classrooms to receive those opportunities and then of course we have the Heritage High School Facebook page um where we put out a
043lot of information as the month goes on and then our Twitter too and I just wanted to to say thank you as we're approaching um national school counselors week I just wanted to say thank you to miss Hester Miss Baker Miss Baker Miss beckles Miss Davis miss Andrew Mr Shire um Miss hunts Mr Cohen and Miss Smith they are truly a great team of counselors and um scholarship coordinators and they're just amazing and they really put their love out there to the students and their energy and they are Beyond helpful when it comes to any any questions that you may have so shout out to them and thank you so much for all of the wonderful work you do and then it is Schoolboard appreciation month and I wanted to thank each and every one
044of you from the bottom of my heart because I know these decisions are not easy it's very tough and y'all are doing amazing to be thrown to be thrown a year like this and to create all of these amazing um triumphs to have athletes excelling and um have color Garden course to be able to make videos to put into the inauguration parade like we're really doing the thing here at lynchb city schools and it's it's not you are putting the work in to allow us to be able to do it so we just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you thank you so much and um I believe that's it so yeah well Grayson thank you so much you are a true Ambassador for Lynchburg City school so well well put together and
045heartfelt uh your thoughts about the board thank you Grayson we really appreciate it and now we'll hear from Jaden Scott hi y'all um can y'all hear me okay yes okay um I'm gonna share my screen let's see okay y'all can see the board and everything okay so first I wanted to recognize e glass because they were the first site in the area to host the round of vaccines for covid so we had a bunch of people coming in getting their vaccines and we also just wanted to let y'all know that we're going to continue the vaccinations as long as we have the supplies we're going to keep on doing that and so then we have the Martin Luther King essay competition so this is an annual essay contest that's been going on for quite a
046few years now it took place last month and students were asked to give their perspective on Dr King's quote Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice anywhere um and glass is Overjoyed to announce that not only one of our students but two of our students have placed for the contest and that was Dylan mayang and Nadia n Dylan is a senior and Nadia is a junior and so we wanted to extend a congratulations to them um and Dylan I think first place won like $750 and then second place won 500 so that was a big accomplishment for them and then next we also want to recognize our counseling staff for the national counseling week um this year has been crazy I probably say it every time I come up here but this year has been
047one of it's been very unique probably one of a kind probably never have a year like this again but well I hope but um we want to say thank you to all of our counseling staff because it has been a crazy time trying to get schedules done trying to figure out how to put everybody into one class or figuring out Zoom uh conferences with everybody so we want to say thank you to our counselors because without them we wouldn't have students at our school we wouldn't have students enrolled so we really can't be here without them so thank you to each and every one of you guys and then we have our winter sports they are also in full swing we have track going on wrestling uh basketball and so our JV boys and our
048Varsity Boys they've been playing as well as our girls basketball and then our swim um team as of right now 17 of our swimmers have already qualified for regionals so we wanted to say congratulations to all of them that's an amazing amazing accomplishment and we hope that they'll be there and do well um and just a reminder for fans they can use the simal district website to see the most accurate schedules for the season for any season whether it's SE um whether it's swim or basketball just so y'all can keep up with who's playing who or what's going on next and then our scholastic bowl I'm actually super excited to say this part because I'm in like I have classes with half of these guys so to see that they're doing this good they're currently
049undefeated right now our Scholastic bull Team and so despite having online of practice and having competitions virtually they have still managed to remain undefeated and I feel like that's a a huge accomplishment because this is new for everybody so to be able to do this I think that that's amazing and then yes it is School Board recognition month so we do want to say thank you to you all for all that you guys do because honestly I I probably say it again every meeting this is a lot of work you guys like y'all make decisions some people hate them some people love them it's always something it's always something but you guys keep going and the fact that you're able to do what you think is best for all of us and be able to
050make these hard decisions because I know I'm indecisive as is so making decisions for such a large amount of students and staff and faculty I couldn't do it so I'm glad that there are people like you guys that are willing to take the challenge and be able to do this stuff for us it does not go unnoticed you guys are definitely appreciated and just some last minute important things to take away we do have our Google Classroom codes I do want to say thank you to Grayson because while she was finding stuff for her presentation she was finding stuff for my presentation she actually sent me these Google Classroom codes from glass so for our seniors we have the classroom code from Beacon of Hope as well as Juniors sophomores and freshmen and I think
051it's really important that everybody joins one of these because they post so many things in the Google Classroom just this week I'm pretty sure it was like three scholarship offers already just in the junior um classroom code so I know that seniors could use that for sure and then they also host like um webinar events talking about um different career paths so there's always something there and I think that that's super important to get on as well as free peer tutoring like I said it's a different year new things are going on we don't really know how to operate yes it's second semester so we're getting better but there's always a need for tutoring there's always maybe want to double check I don't know and it's free so I would do it and then um
052we have curbside pickup for our library you can go Monday or Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and then also I tried to incorporate a lot of important things in these presentations but I can't get them all so for the rest of the announcements they're on the E glass web page There's the link but if you go to the Easter glass web page and you scroll all the way down that there's a section for daily announcements and then this is new um Tech after dark so we know that everybody's on their Chromebooks a whole lot more than usual so we have two Tuesdays and Thursdays we have a lot of time 5:00 to 7:00 but you can come to the E glass parking lot and it is there to help you with your Chromebook
053issues or anything like that and you can also call this number when you get there so they can come out and help you and then lastly I had to include Early College because that's just what I love I'm in it as well and so for sophmores the application is now open um you can start applying for Early College it's an amazing amazing program it's an amazing way to gain college credit and college like experience um hopefully next year we'll be on the cbcc campus but I know that we're still doing great in there so you can apply the applications are out and they're due I want to say Fe well let me see if I can move this they do February 15th at 2:30 PM so just make sure that y'all get those in there
054in time and that's it but also on this picture I wanted to say thank you to Mrs Ford she took this picture but I also wanted to say thank you to the blue crew who's at glass because yes we did enjoy these last two snow days off but they're there making sure that the ground is okay and that nobody's falling and tripping and preparing for students to come back so I wanted to say thank you for to them for doing that as well and that is it thank you guys so much right wow that was an amazing you see the board members clapping that was an amazing picture of that of glass and likewise Jaden you've done a fantastic job of sharing with us all that is going on at EC glass and there are
055young people serving boards across the Commonwealth as student reps and uh Grayson and Jaden you right in there amongst the best of them thank you so much and we will certainly be calling on you all uh you gave us some great compliments for the hard decisions that we make but we want your input as we continue to go forward uh and we'll ask for it as we make these decisions that we have to make thank both of you thank you very much thank you you're welcome thank you thank you at this time we'll now move to item uh H uh on our agenda which uh section is dealing with Schoolboard committee reports and H1 will be our finance committee chair Mr Harvey do you have a report at this time excuse me uh Dr Coleman
056uh no report at this time we will be meeting later this month thank you Mr Harvey we appreciate that uh H2 uh the governor school committee uh chair uh Mr hary uh no report at this time we will be meeting tomorrow at one o'clock wow I know that's going to be a great meeting thank you uh H3 law Regional school committee chair uh Dr Sharon Carter I don't have a reporter this time our meeting is tomorrow all right I know that's going to be a great meeting all of these uh groups are so important H4 uh our STEM Academy Dr Michael NIS yes we met last week uh via Zoom it was a quarterly meeting pretty much routine business uh STEM Academy is also STEM Academy students are also impacted by covid and remote learning
057uh very uh unusual for them this year they had uh five students actually withdraw um pretty much all covid related in terms of support and um the different expectations and having to do that on their own and um anyway it was it was unfortunate but they did work with the students to try to you know help them come through but in the end it was a decision with the with all concern uh I thought it best to would draw and go back to their B base schools uh as a as a consequence Lynchberg is going to have two extra slots STEM Academy slots this coming fall okay um they are following the uh inperson learning policies of cbcc so there's Limited in person I think once a week U for the most part for the
058students and then um of interest to all students in Lynchburg is applications for the stem acad Academy are are open now and they will be there due uh the final the window for that closes April 1 so that's um thank you Dr NIS any questions and light of what Dr n shared with his report uh and uh that's a very important group all right all right thank you Dr NIS and continue to keep us informed all right and our last committee uh uh H5 legislative advocacy committee chair Miss B Evans I do not have a report we meet um a week from today thank you Miss Evans for what you shared with us already uh from the capital conference and of course after you have your meeting we'll look forward to hearing the composite of
059what you're sharing very active group thank you very much all right uh with that having been said we will now move to item h i item I unfinished business and the first item of I will be i1 return to learn and return to play updates and uh Dr Edwards if you could bring on the presenter for there absolutely thank you so uh we will give our brief update on return to learn um thank you to Jaden and Grayson they really gave us a great update on what return to play in terms of the athletic uh world looks like but we'll do a little different returnt playay uh discussion tonight um by Miss Pew and then after Miss Pew is done we'll talk a little bit about covid numbers and what that looks like in our
060community and our schools looking forward to Dr sinha's covid um presentation as well as some updates on um just general Trends vaccinations and meetings all right Miss Pew take it away thank you good evening board and and Lynchburg Community members I just wanted to give an update um I when I spoke a couple of weeks ago when second semester began I gave some preliminary numbers on the percentage of students that were participating in hybrid and remote um I wanted to give an update on that tonight so as of today 61.1% of students are participating in hybrid and 38.9% are participating in remote learning as Dr Ed mentioned I'm going to focus a little bit differently tonight um we've done a lot on return to learn and return to play but tonight my information is going
061to be focusing on um return to performing we know that a lot of our students and um staff are spending a significant amount of time in the Performing Arts and so I want to cover some different areas and highlight some things that are happening there um in the area of theater uh Linkhorn Middle School drama seventh and eth grade they are working on a virtual performance of two separate plays that will be um done in April they are also working on Annie Jr and virtual auditions for that were held last week um with some live performances scheduled for early May um EC glass theater is doing uh a streaming of Shakespeare's Bachelorette which received a superior rating at the virtual Virginia Theater Conference um and that uh streaming will be on February the 12th and
06213th and there is information on the E glass website for that for uh the times and also for tickets um e glass theater students are also um doing some playwriting they are one of 12 schools around the world that are writing and producing one act plays uh for a virtual theater Festival that's sponsored by uh Broadways Manhattan theater Club um and in the Pioneer theater there will be live performances of Little Women which will take place the last two weeks of March um they are also working on a um competition piece for the vhsl theater competition in April and that they are preparing for the performance of a crowded room um they are also at in the pioner theater working on some short film festival um compositions in May moving on to Performing Arts uh
063the strings is um they have had some um at the elementary level have had some Premiere concerts um via YouTube um they are also working on their 50th annual Suzuki Festival uh which will be virtual in May um and that brings back memories for me because as an LCS student when I was in elementary school I played violin and participated probably in the first Suzuki Festival so that makes me feel really really old that they're celebrating their 50th annual Suzuki Festival um choir some things to highlight for choir in the Performing Arts U linkor Middle School students are preparing for a virtual Spring Concert um EC glass students are preparing for a virtual Valentine performance which features chorus and theater and Orchestra and then there are lots of students um that are preparing for um
064the VM vmea all district and honors choir performances as part of Music in our school's month which is next month March um and then moving on to some Visual Arts um March is also youth art month and LCS is partnering with the academy center of the Arts and some of our LCS student artwork will be on display there for the month of March um and then also the dunar middle school art teacher has created a remote Art Gallery um via a website which he's um featuring some submitted student artwork so I will make sure that board members receive that link so you you can check out some of the things that students have been working on um I wanted to highlight uh Grayson mentioned this in her presentation but I'm gonna ask Austin in just
065a second if he can start this video um the coral director Miss Wilkinson at Heritage High School submitted uh worked on and prepared this and submitted a video um to the Inaugural Committee on behalf of the city of Lynchberg LCS and Heritage High School um I don't believe this was selected but I would like for us to it's a short video um that highlights some of the work that's happening in the Performing Arts area and other things that are happening at Heritage so Austin if you could bring that up that will end my [Music] portion Oh beautiful [Music] forious for waves of GRA for purle m mest above the fruit [Music] am God shed his grace on the and C my good with Brotherhood from sea to shining sea oh of of our hero [Music]
066in love and mercy [Music] more America am [Music] god Till all success be no [Music] and [Music] divine Oh beautiful for p dream that se beond theast th of Master CED by [Music] [Applause] [Music] human am God shed his grace on and th good with brother from sea to shining [Music] sea [Music] God shed his grace on the thank you I wanted to just say thank you again to miss Wilkerson and for her students and the students that worked at her to High School to put that together um I have highlighted some of the things that are happening in the Performing Arts area in Lynchberg City Schools um but not all of them so we will try to keep you informed of things that are coming up um there are lots of virtual performances but
067there are also lots of live performances that are coming up with um safety and health mitigation in place so we want to be mindful of that um and if there are any questions I can try to answer them thank you Amy that video puts chills to me every time I see it just amazing any questions for Amy on this portion of our uh discussion uh any questions for Amy all right thank you so much Amy for touching on the Arts as as a vital part of what we do and return to play as well Dr DS yes I just wanted to thank Miss Pew for highlighting that but more importantly thanking all of the students and many board members you also get emails and and phone calls and things from our students who let us
068know the importance of not only the academic portions of our day um in terms of what we're doing uh in school but the value of Athletics and arts especially during this time um in the pandemic um when we are dealing with uh so many other side effects of this so thank you to our students for holding that account accountability level high for us and always challenging us to find a way to provide not only academics but also access to Athletics and access to the Arts um so that we can cultivate that total child so I just I just wanted to really thank the kids for pushing us because without them constantly reminding us of how vital this is and the support that they have from their from their teachers and staff members who were dedicated
069to this it could have easily gotten missed in the midst of this Co season but um we have some great amazing kids and wonderful staff so thank you all right thank you and I know uh School Board member morison as well as all of us like that presentation that was that was really good all right Dr Edwards what's the next portion thank you Miss Pew what's the next portion that we're going to deal with you well we're going to shift more to the covid uh Dynamics in our community and in our schools and um again our students mentioned this and gave thanks to everyone who helped set up our vaccination clinics over the last uh couple of Mondays that we we had it yesterday um also even though school was closed vacination was open and
070kudos to the staff at glass latata Brown Andrea Brian all of our nurses our You Know Chief wormser our city officials everyone who pitched in to make sure that no vaccine goes wasted so um we are making sure that we put vaccine in every arm possible and I have a fantastic team um that does that that being said um from the LCS side of things um you know when we came back in January we hit a high of posit posit positive covid cases being at 19 um we sort of died down a little bit uh having cases of just one or one or two a day the last couple days that we've measured we have had five or six so we've seen a little uptick but nothing as significant as when we first came back
071um from from the uh holiday break um I am happy to see that the uh numbers of cases the positive cases in the Community is going down and we were in the thousands and I just looked today we're about 860 so it's nice to come from four digits down to three digits positivity rate um at one point was upwards in the 20s and it's now 13.3 um and I just want to say to the community don't stop continue with you wearing your mask and social distancing and washing your hands and following those protocols and limiting group sizes because all all of that matters and all of that is playing into keeping our schools open um and moving in a direction of getting back to having more opportunities for um in-person learning and more opportunities for
072support for arts and Athletics I do want to uh turn it over quick to uh Dr senha just to go over I know she always provides us with a very detailed covid spreadsheet and then we'll get to some um decision makings and some convers ations that we've had uh with our local officials well as Dr Edwards said um the things are looking a lot better than they were two weeks ago uh we're still um have high case counts although they're about half what they were per week now some of the measures are on a on a two- week interval some of mine are on a onewe interval so that's why you'll um see some different numbers but the trend are looking better the positivity rate is down the um incident rate is down after climbing
073steadily over several weeks so let's hope that the downward Trend continues um uh yeah incident rate is about half of what it was uh two weeks ago so um like I said we're we're still in the danger zone in a lot of ways um but it's looking better and Hope hopefully with vaccines and people being careful um we'll continue to see uh movement in the right direction thank you Dr senha and I just wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about um our protocols and it might actually uh explain to the community a little bit about why um we're going to um why we're virtual today uh one of the things that that we try to be since this Co has started is extremely transparent in terms of just talking about covid
074and I can remember when the first couple cases came out uh the media picked them up rather quickly and then it just became the thing that we do uh we started posting on our website if you did not know that um our number of um positive cases and then as time goes on we get feedback from community members MERS who said that we understand that it's not just positive cases that lead to uh a shutdown of a school or grade level or a wing or a department or uh anything like that that it's also quarantine um level so we've also updated that information on our website so if you haven't been lately you can see uh both the positive cases and then you can get an idea of how many um staff members have been
075affected by quarantine um for either being around someone who was positive or um they themselves are being tested and and the results aren't known and when that happens we we try to put out information to that school or Department to let them know um what we're doing we do take these matters seriously and I I will say kudos to my school staff and every department for following the mitigation strategies we have been very fortunate in these last eight months that I think I can count on one hand the number of times we've had to um shift to remote learning because of a covid shutdown and that really speaks volumes to the staff and the students who are practicing um good mitigation strategies uh but things happen so we can't always control what happens um on
076the outside and comes on the inside um some of the things that we consider and and uh some folks have asked us you know we did a a lengthy talk about CDC guidelines how many days do you have to be out but I want to just highlight one part that our team does and that really is looking at not only whether or not you're six feet um within six feet for 15 minutes or more but when we're looking at the safety of our staff and students we're also looking at where you are and are you in a room with uh adequate ventilation is it a small room and how long you're in that setting and those things although they're not spelled out by square footage on a CDC guidelines um they are things that we
077consider here at Lynchberg City Schools when we're looking at keeping our staff and students uh pretty safe we do work very closely with uh Dr gate lean team to make sure that we're using um the appropriate protocols and um you know that's going to lead nicely into some of our discussion just about um our board meetings our adult to adult meetings some of our meeting spaces um and some things that have occurred over the last couple weeks so I think at this point Dr Coleman I can turn it over to you to kind of have a brief discussion about um just the board activities in general and how Co Knows No Boundaries it it it's it you know whether it's children or schools or inside or outside it affects all of us when it comes
078to quarantines and positive cases thank you Dr Edwards for laying that out for us uh thank you Dr sof for your uh additional information as well and of course uh Miss Pew on what you shared earlier uh before us tonight um is not necessarily a matter that we need to vote on and uh if we do deem so then of course we will do a a roll call but it may not need that um we just want to be in harmony with what is safe for our students our staff and our board members as it relates to proximity uh the size of rooms and how long we are in those rooms and for the school board uh that becomes an issue and so that's what we're discussing tonight very briefly and I would like Dr
079Brennan uh uh to just weigh in first in relationship to his thoughts about this matter and at the end of the day we're simply wanting to know will the board prefer to stay as we stated in our January the 12th school board meeting in our school board Chambers or would we want to go to Virtual meetings or another location Dr brener thank you Dr Coleman can can Dr Coleman and my fellow board members hear me yes thank thank you so I would just reiterate what Dr Edwards has said um you know we're all aware of the fact of the basic mitigation uh interventions such as staying six feet apart and wearing masks and good hygiene and those things I think the other issue that comes up though is the amount of time that we spend
080uh in a room and and the structure of that room and as every board member and and those community members who watch our board meetings know our board meetings tend to be fairly long you know I would guess that they probably average two and a half to three hours and uh I think the question is being raised is that if we are in the Lynchburg City School Board Room which is fairly narrow fairly uh long and narrow and probably not ventilated that well um are we increasing our risk for covid infection despite the fact that we are six feet apart despite the fact that we are wearing masks that we're trying to do the right things so um I actually had a conversation with Dr gatley at the health department today about several other issues
081and and brought this up and he has said this has been an issue that many groups have addressed since the beginning of the covid pandemic um you know how do they how can or do they meet as a group and he clearly thinks that uh any group that meets such as we do should Factor in how long we are together and what the setting is in that room that probably the longer we're there um the more chance that our exposure is increased and again that would depend upon the ventilation of the room and the size of the room so as Dr Coleman says I think it just raises the issue of Are We comfortable staying in the conference room where we are um do we need to move to a larger space um or do
082we need to adjust our our meeting so that they're not in person but virtual thank you Dr Brennan you've heard from Dr Edwards who uh arguably over the last several months has helped us to appreciate why adult to adult uh contact needs to to be well thought through so that we can keep our adults functioning and of course we're equally concerned about students in the classroom the duration of their stay in the classroom may or may not be as long as we are encountering each other in the Board Room and so uh the floor is open for um you know a brief discussion on this matter uh Dr Gupta you know I can say I'm one of those guys who tested positive for covid and it is not a uh play experience it has been
083scary uh last five days have been like somebody wrote a death warrant for me uh you know so I don't want anybody else to have it so we need to be safe as much as possible I don't have any symptoms but it is scary for your family members for your community for your friends and for yourself so I would say we should do anything which is safe for us for our students and people who come to our meetings and um it may not make everybody happy but having gone through now you know when you are experienc yourself and all this medical advice and everything else is out the door because you are really experiencing you're going through that pain pain and suffering and uh mental distress so I don't want anybody else to go through
084it so we should be in a very safe environment um 6 feet or no 6 feet mean those things are there but you still get infections thank you thank you Dr gupter for your statement um Miss Morrison thank you Dr Coleman and thank you Dr Gupta um I too had to be tested for uh possible exposure and my results were negative but it was a very scary time and it imposed more isolation on our families um and I I am not for it all going back to meeting in the Schoolboard room um if we can go to a bigger place I prefer virtual I want us all to be safe I want our Administration to be safe and I want our public to be safe and that's this point I am comfortable with virtual thank
085you Miss Morrison uh uh Miss Evans B Evans um I I think we do what people need to be to be comfortable and if we have members that need to be virtual to be comfortable then that's what we do um that's my opinion I just think if there's anybody who feels strongly about not coming in and doing it virtually then I feel like as a team that's what we do for those members and thank you Miss Evans I do just want to put on the floor for all of us who are knowledgeable of this that because of council's uh continue continuity of govern governance and other pieces and the policies that we have it would permit without quum without a quum for us to have persons in one location and the others participating virtually and
086so we do have that option and I'm thankful already for the comments of Dr Guta Miss Evans and Miss Morrison Miss Evans that you wanted repeat I was just gonna add if if that is an option to have some in person and some virtual I probably would prefer to come in and be one of the ones that came in in person I just do better in iners meeting um and I understand the possibility of moving it somewhere bigger when we did move last week I struggled through that entire meeting to hear anybody um so I think that's something that we've got to consider I really missed a lot of what was said in last week's meeting just it just was a weird way to hear it so there are a lot of lot of pieces
087of it but if some want to stay virtual and some come in I'd support that as well let me pause for just a moment our attorney is uh uh listening with us tonight uh if if attorney towns am I accurate if you can hear me and if not uh Dr Edwards in my statement about the uh permissibility of the board legally meeting some without a quorum in the school board Chambers and the others virtually attorney towns yes uh Dr Coleman uh there is a school board policy in relation to meeting uh with some members virtual and some in person uh it actually does require a quorum um of members physically being there and the members who who appear virtually would have to either have a medical excuse or um a personal reason and if you
088have a personal reason that is limited to two times in a calendar year so there's a little less flexibility with uh a mixture of virtual and in person uh I think that you would have to gauge the board membership prior to a meeting to determine how many are willing to come in person versus how many virtual and then if there is not a a medical um reason for the virtual meeting then the board members is limited to two instances of personal reasons for not being at the meeting thank you attorney I would like to just dig a little deeper in that is is there not under the uh emergency peace and under the continuity piece um when it's covid related let me look again at the continuity of government yes yes ma'am and I can
089get back to you and send the note on that thank thank you so much thank you attorney because if it's covid related I would not want to punish school board members for their decisions to be at home with the policy that speaks to it being used for personal use um so uh we'll a wait uh uh attorney Town's getting back with me on that all right other board members please that would like to share Mike has his hand up I'm so sorry G head Dr NIS I was going to say in terms of the the board policy I think we can probably fix that uh on a temporary basis uh assuming that in a way that's compatible with the the city city ordinance um okay I prefer in person um meetings uh and I I
090think we can probably work it so we can have other board members uh participate remotely um it's just the Dynamics in person are much uh more favorable and I was having trouble with the Acoustics at the uh uh at dunar also I mean some people I could hear well others boy I was really struggling um anyway so that's just just my personal um input on that thank you thank you Dr NIS that's very valuable while we await uh some further feedback from my uh board attorney uh thank you Dr NIS for putting on the table that we could make modification to the policy if in fact uh that U continuity or Governor's emergency wouldn't give us an allowance I'm thinking I read that it would somewhere and maybe uh but we'll see in a minute
091all right of um Dr Carter if you have you Dr SAR or Mr Harvey like to share uh just if we uh do find another location the Acoustics would be a big consideration I too struggled with especially hearing comments from um our experts uh who are providing uh information to us we'd ask questions and I could not hear the answer so and I understand it was even difficult on on the on the live feed to to hear what was going on um I would you know I went I got tested too out an abundance of caution and it does really kind of freak you out a little bit when you think maybe uh you could be sick luckily mine was negative but um um you know I I I prefer to meet in in person
092um but that room is small and narrow and uh sometimes it feels like I'm closer to the people beside me than the six foot so um well let's see what we can work out and hopefully we can accommodate those who uh have have um conditions that put them at risk or live with loved ones who have risk factors um and I don't think it should count against them um if they feel it's not safe to be um in our conference room in person for the duration thank you Dr sen I Dr Carter Mr Harvey well I am all for safety and I thought that the bigger Arena dumbar would be great um it it was difficult with the the audio what did create some problems but thinking through that was the first time being there
093and hopefully we've ironed out some kinks in that system that we could do better but I'm also for um I can do virtual but just I'm looking at the safety because this is like two times that I've tried to be as cautious as possible and then you get a call that there was a possibility of exposure and as Dr GTA said that is a scary thing um to experience so I am all about what is safe for for us and we do try to be as cautious as we can with wearing our mask and not um not even taking them off walking to the cars and different things but I am for safety thank you Dr cter Mr Harvey uh thank you Mr chairman um really have no opinion need way um more than happy
094to meet in person more than happy to do it virtually whatever is um seen as the wish of the board and and I do understand and appreciate the safety Factor um I did not have as as difficult of a problem with the Acoustics uh at our last meeting I think that was because a speaker was located uh right behind me I only had trouble when when you know when we had mics uh inadvertently turned off um but you know I'm I'm okay with the venue being in our Schoolboard meeting room or if it needs to be at council chambers or if we wish to uh remain um virtual I I have no preference thank thank you Mr Harvey um Dr Coleman if I can also add a little bit of um protocol that we use
095at the admin building just during the day and I recognize that this is difficult because because what we do during the day as employees is not necessarily followed similarly at a public board meeting um during the day so if you would like I could have director Brown kind of explain some of the ways um that we when we're entering um the admin building what happens as an employee that might add an extra layer for board members should you choose to consider doing some of those for part of the public meeting all right director Brown please good evening everyone um the protocol that we use at the school um board or um other schools is that once you enter the building um or prior to at the school level you have your temperature check um and
096if you pass the temperature check um then you answer some questions in terms of were you sick today do you have a temperature um do you have a cough and looking for the symptoms it's a quick assessment um to let you know whether or not that you should be in a building or not um and if you're having any signs or symptoms um we will recommend that you go home um and call your health care provider or either talk to the division nurse um we would like to ask that you know we could do a quick training um and we could temperature scan everyone that comes in the building and have everyone do uh a pre-screening as they come in in addition we can also give a pre-screening card um that everyone could pre-screen themselves
097before even entering the building um to ensure that you know when they come in that they're going to pass but with anyone else we ask that if you have a cough if you have a fever um if you are coughing and you know these things anything that we have listed on our chart for those pre um covid symptoms we ask um that you stay at home and self-monitor contact the health care advisor I mean your health care um provider at that time and we would ask that the board do the same thing just as a precaution so Dr Coleman that is exactly what happened to me at the December board meeting since we're we're having True Confessions about our experiences as um you know with this pandemic is I was in the building I passed
098a temperature check I had not been around anyone and by midday uh one day in December I was not feeling well and had some of those symptoms that were on the covid self-screening checklist spoke with director Brown who immediately advis me to leave the building exit and seek you know my my medical um health care provider which I did also got covid tested which I did tested negative um which was great and still stayed home for the full quarantine um period under the advisement of both you know our our LCS team and um you know my own healthc care provider and it is Dr goop there is a scary feeling when you just don't know and and it's the feeling that our staff has been experiencing since the beginning I mean they're here um and
099I think if they're listening they're all nodding with you like yeah it's not it's not great it's certainly not great for your home and if you have anybody who's compr compromised at home it just adds to the anxiety level but I will say that I'm I'm very pleased with the level of concern that um our LCS staff members have shown for one another because they do stay home they do if you're coughing and sneezing they they air on the side of protecting one another um and telecommute as much as we possibly can um which you know technology has helped us with that so we can certainly if the board uh is interested in adding those extra level of screening methods that we have for employees we can also have for wherever we have our public
100board meeting um whether it's in the boardroom or any other location so thank you director Brown for sharing that thank you Dr atws Dr gut you know this should not be an option this should be required as I emailed you uh I wish it was there before um I got infected because you know it's it's it's it's it's it's we went to Central Virginia governor school that day Dr Coleman in the afternoon they have this automated temperature machines when you enter they have this Google form which you fill out before you even enter the building so you got to submit all that information before you walk inside the building so I think that should be uh a protocol across our all our buildings because it puts people like me who have underlying health conditions at
101risk means you know think about that I live alone at home right now my family is worried that at night if I'm Switched Off what will happen nobody will be there so it's it's a very scary feeling and we need to have uh be very careful about our staff faculty who are working in the buildings not only in the admin building so what is taking us keeping us from buying those machines which Central Virginia government school has it just you walk into there it reads your temperature and it goes into a computer and you know we should Implement those protocols they should not be optional they should be required um and it's a wake up call it's a wake up call from me actually personally so sure Dr G to correct to my knowledge we
102have those uh uh machines in place already but they're being used during the daytime and the school board and public uh engagement would be somewhat similar to your travels to Kroger's or somewhere else in the public and before we impose protocols on the board the Board needs to agree whether or not we want to add those it's certainly logical but we just had not given any direction for those to be added to our our board meetings Dr EV was that you want to say uh yes I think direct director Brown was also going to say that we do have them um particularly at the admin building at all schools but at the admin there is a temperature scanner at the front entrance and there is one at the back entrance which um all of our
103employees uh do use so they they are available Dr Gupta um in both the admin building and in all of the schools and other departments and Dr Coleman U Miss towns has her hand raised too I didn't all right let's hear what our attorney has to say go right ahead attorney town okay can I say Dr Coleman if she's not coming go right ahead to you know school board members are part of this community when everybody's following those rules we are not anybody special we are not blue s where we you know everybody's getting their temperatures checked when they enter the admin building so I personally feel that we should abide by those same rules which everybody else is doing and I wish we had them and I may not have Co today so thank
104you thank you Dr Gupta uh attorney towns yes I actually uh was looking at the continuity government ordinance and it states that uh if necessary for the continuity of city government and meeting at the city council other City boards and commissions including the lynchb school board may be held through electronic communication means without a quum of members physically present in a single location provided notice of such meetings is still given in accordance with applicable laws so we have the meeting I just have to uh make sure there are any notice requirements additional notice requirements we may have to fulfill but you can have the meeting with a mixture of iners and electronic can can you hear me yes Dr Coman you're muted I was trying to go 100% without doing that but it caught me
105yeah I'm talking and muted yeah I I just want to make sure without a quum of board members present is that correct yes all right thank you attorney towns thank you for your leadership at this time uh board uh we can uh do a hybrid if you will of both uh with without a quum of board members president Dr Brennan um I would as I said before I think safety is is the utmost importance and I think doing a screening protocol is a great idea and I would be in favor of putting that into place for our board meetings but having said that um 40 to 50% of infections are transmitted in asymptomatic individuals so we're going to miss people who can still pass the infection on but are asymptomatic and I just want to
106come back to the fact that I really um I think that the the boardroom itself is probably not conducive to us being safe in that room because of the size so I would I would suggest that we do look at other options whether it be dunar whether it be city council uh Chambers or somewhere else that we can have have more space because I like other board members would like to participate in person but I think that in that boardroom now if we had a transmission like we had last week we' probably all have to be quarantined because of the size of that room thank you Dr Brennan would I do not want to do and I know that some of you as board members have articulated this we don't want to force the board
107to make discuss uh decisions on the spot without proper time to contemplate it but there is sometime sensitivity to this matter so uh what is the pleasure of the board tonight concerning uh the whole notion of uh a change of venue for our meeting uh in harmony with what Dr Brenan and maybe one or two of us have said or do we want to keep the board meeting in the chamber uh with the with the hybrid model which would allow persons to not attend the meeting and not be penalized for not attending and and allowed to to virtually participate Dr Gupta I just wanted to piggyback on Dr Brandon I understand the probabilities but safety should not rely on probabilities just one incident which we could have prevented through these uh precautionary safety measures is
108more than enough so having those uh I understand symptomatic and asymptomatic and things could not have been prevented but God knows how many other incidents we have not had you know or had could have had for different people just for having these safety measures in place so I think uh in my opinion they should be there uh for any future board meetings thank you Dr gupto and that's that's another my item to bring to protocol inclusion and we'll get to that uh Miss Evans I mean I'm in favor of finding out how many people want to be virtual and then we say okay if we only have four that want to come in we could be in the boardroom if we have seven that want to come in in person then we may have to
109look at somewhere else but I think we need to know who's doing what to be able to know what to plan for and again I'm I'm just going to put out there we need to be somewhere where we can hear each other it just really important all right so uh with that being said and I do want to make sure that the public understands that this board is incredibly concerned about our student safety and staff safety and not prioritizing levels of safety it is because of the duration of our meetings that this matter is coming before our attention for discussion tonight uh I don't want to force the board but I've heard two comments no motion is anyone prepared to make a motion andless someone would object to us U moving into boat tonight and
110I do think this is a very sensitive matter that we do need to to dispatch so I guess I have my my question I'm not sure where we go from here I mean I think some people want to attend in person but it would be better if we had a found a better a bigger space um will see it and I mean I'm all in favor of the screening protocol um I go through that multiple times a day uh you know it's a good thing to do um you're not going to catch everybody but you know you do what you can and um I think it's important that we meet in person for people that are willing willing to do that um so I don't know how to put that in into a motion without
111having a particular location in mind yeah obviously we went to city council we'd have to change the meeting date um and I don't know if there's other school facilities that are uh might be a little more wider open than where we were at with dunar so all right thank you Dr NIS will said so obviously no one is objecting to uh the additional pieces that uh director Brown mentioned to be added to our protocols but we'll solidify that I think we're okay on that well said Dr M the issue is where would an alternative location be and that would help um at the January the 12th meeting we did not vote but it was clear we didn't want to move to the council chambers at that time if we do we will have to change
112our date I did ask Dr Edwards to check into the availability of dunar and she may want to comment on that and or in other facility now keep in mind we were only there well stated couple of times I was talking like I know I could be hurting you all said you couldn't hear me so I understand but the point is we were only there one time and so efficiencies could come maybe the next time a little better with with some understanding of some of the pro problems that we had in the first meeting Dr Edwards yes so we did look into um dunar um and and originally even when we wanted to meet last week it was looking into EC glass I think no matter what we do we're going to have to have
113a level of flexibility especially as um spring comes around and our children start to use the um Auditorium facilities which seem to be the largest um area where where kids can also spread out social distance and and do some of the things they need to do in the Arts um as well but I think any of my principles with enough notice um as was the case with dunar can can make it work as for the AC Acoustics and the sound check and things like that um we have a fantastic team and and they are you know they can problem solve almost anything so as you said Dr com that was our first time at dunar and I'm sure they were on it um to work through any of the the acoustic issues that or challenges
114we may have there or at any other school might I suggest um because our Co response team which um latan Brown works with is probably the best one to work with if I could get one or two board members who'd be willing to kind of probe with us um and so we could do a little bit deeper dive and we can measure room space and um look at options I know director Brown would not have a problem working with that team so we could explore all options looking at our calendar and not having to change our dates um and seeing what's available that we have something to to present um to the board in a timely manner so all right let let's let's press that a little bit so we would not meet again until
115the 16th and obviously the location and all of that would matter would we be able to uh have something that we can look at prior to the 16 um I believe so I think what we're going to do is go back and just explore all of our options but we wanted to be you know at least talk to one board member or two board members and then share all of that with the group so that the full group would be similar to the way we do most of our business so that the full group would be aware of here are some things that we can do because of what I'm hearing is that some people do want to be in person so I'm you want to be comfortable and in person um and then some
116may want the option for um a virtual and remote so we need to make sure that the location has good um internet access and we can broadcast uh the zoom the same way we did at Dunbar um and I did we failed to mention this but at the beginning of this meeting we are using an upgraded version of Zoom um which allows us to be panelists so all of the board members and the uh administrators are panelists but it also allows the public to be attendees in the zoom meeting live at the time that it's happening this is the first time we're doing this with a board meeting so it does give access um to our board members um for that and thank you Jasmine Ford for being the first public person to test out
117virtual public comment which we could hear you very well so as far as what attorney towns uh would talk about in public access to the meeting and have an opportunity for public comment we've got that worked out um but as far as the actual location I think we'll need some time to just figure out some some options for us Miss Evans I'm happy to help with what whatever you need M EV is volunteering her service are you as well Dr Gupta I I'm in a cage for some time so I cannot help uh I need to be in isolation so but my uh suggestion and request to Dr Edwards will be please don't leave out Heritage High School uh you know as a possible spot because many times we use EC glass and we hear
118dunar somehow Heritage just um is left out so my request will be humbly if you could whosoever is serving please do consider Heritage it's a decent brand new building we love Heritage we had our we had our uh strategic planning meeting there so we won't forget about them thank you Dr gup I'm gonna recognize Dr Carter then Dr Brenan and I be willing to help if you if you need that and are we ready to make a motion all just one second Dr Brenan go right ahead I don't want to overwhelm the list but I'm happy to throw my name in the had also to be part of that group well I don't know if it's because you just want the two because of the realities of three board members but uh Miss Evans and
119Dr Carter and Dr BR are offering their service and uh to whichever degree that they can help you Dr Edwards with that uh I think that that would work Dr Carter is wanting to know about emotion and at this point uh we could probably entertain a motion that would say that we do want to change the venue of our meetings to an alternate location which we will discuss later in which it will be hybrid because we can't decide the location tonight because they're going to look into that and either um through the appropriate means we will be able to get the will of the board understood uh in relationship to where that venue would be uh if someone wants to stay a motion or restate it better than what I just said that would be
120appropriate and we could we can move on because I don't I don't want them to go into all of this study and then you all say by the way we don't want to do that so I'm giving we're giving permission to go and do that meaning that we would change the location with a hybrid uh understanding that wherever that location is individuals will be able to participate virtually and Dr Coman also add the screening protocols as part of wherever we go add the screening protocols will be added to the safety protocols we already have would someone make a motion to that please Dr Coleman can I I'd like to take a shot at the motion please say number one that we do want to uh initiate the safety protocols okay number two that we would
121like to be able to allow uh board members to attend virtually if they would like to and then number three rather than say we're going to move I like to say we're going to look into what options there are uh for sites because I the group would probably consider the boardroom and other sites so leave that option open for the group to discuss and report back is that a motion sir yes it is is there a second uh to that motion uh for the safety protocols to be added uh that we would allow uh board members to participate virtually and that we will look at uh all venue options including the school board Chambers with a report to deal with that later so I have a question on allowing board members to participate virtually I
122don't know that the uh continuation of governance ordinance forces uh us to allow I think board members might just be able to just by Dent to that ordinance on their own and not require permission from the board well Dr NIS uh that our attorney could weigh in on that so I'm not sure Point number two is necessary um and I was going to suggest we just divide divide the motion into parts and just vote on the first one which is yeah uh move that we implement the screening protocol for all all board meetings and then move on from there Dr n's Point uh is recognized by the chair uh the continuity does give boards and commissions Etc the opportunity to opt out so technically you have that right to do that and so we're grateful
123that that has been cleared hope attorney town that you want to add anything uh Dr col is correct uh and Dr Nisa there is no need for the board to um to agree or or vote on a members participation by electronic means um however I think it's just good to uh probably good practice just to be clear that uh that all board members are aware that that's an option thank thank you attorney and thank you Dr Millis for your point of clarification let's go back to the original maker of the motion would that say Dr Brennan could we vote on the safety protocols being included first yes sir that's fine all right is there a second to that I'll second I seconded by Dr NIS that we will include uh the uh protocols that director
124Brown mentioned to our safety protocols any questions or discussion all right uh uh Tina can you call the RO please because I don't want this to just be voed please School Board member Evans yes School Board member Morrison yes Schoolboard member Dr Carter yes Schoolboard member Dr Brennan yes Schoolboard member Dr Coleman yes Schoolboard member Dr NIS yes School Board member Dr senhai yes Schoolboard member Dr gupter yes School Board member Mr Harvey yes the motion has carried with nine yeses thank you thank you um Madam clerk uh with item three do we need to vote on that or can we just all be in agreement that we're going to get a report back from those who have identified themselves and bring something to us uh later I consent to that okay do Dr Brenan
125would that would that be sensible and we're going to get it in a timely manner so if the Board needs to act we'll be able to do so if we don't need to vote that's fine with me all right okay thank you so much well listen we tackled something that was very very difficult for many many places it would take four hours to get straight on that so I'm thankful to our ongoing maturity as a board to dispatch those critical matters thank you Dr Edwards is anything else that we need to discuss concerning uh uh i1 I do not think so I think we covered everything um all right thank you board uh it's 655 and we're getting ready to tackle um I2 and then of course we have new business before us tonight and
126um uh superintendent comments Etc do we need to take a two or three minute break or can we press on let's take a break all right um five minute break and we will come right back [Music] all right we're going to reconvene give all of our board members a chance to get back in place right right Dr sen are you okay Dr Coleman can I say something when everybody's coming sure I just I don't want um all right uh two won't you go ahead and make your comment then we'll she's back I just want people to know we are lucky to have Dr Brenan in this community and as part of the school board he is an asset and I've seen that in last one week he is a very very good man and we're
127lucky to have him Dr thank you very much could you send that note to my wife so that she would be that that will cost you money thank thank you thank you uh Dr Gupta we all concur uh with your sentiments as well as each and every one of you on the board thank you for all that you're doing uh at this time we're going to now zoom in our agenda uh to the uh item uh I2 which is our fy2 02122 operating budget discussion and as you are aware of the fact that uh we have a work session on the 16th in which we will have an opportunity to discuss this in detail and uh ongoingly we will have um opportunities to look in this uh so tonight uh we did want to have
128this on the agenda and uh I'm going to ask uh Dr Edwards to kind of make an opening statement and I am going to ask that uh from last uh week's uh additional special meeting that we had that I would like the board to set some direction around uh number seven and number 11 and number 12 uh before we go into the further details of what Dr Edwards would want to deal with tonight uh but first uh Dr Edwards y thank you Dr Coleman as Dr Coleman said tonight we're gonna get try to get through a few more items on our list for discussion and then we have March 2nd and March 16th is our a public hearing on the budget so hopefully the public has been following along and can provide us um input
129um as to the budget development uh if we are far enough along which I hope we are and in a good position after the public hearing we the board can vote on the budget remember we have that April 1 deadline that we have to adopt a preliminary budget which may get changed or altered as we go through the city Council process um if not there is one floater date not that I'm a fan of adding more meetings but March 30th is open and available if the Board needs to continue in deliberations um regarding um the budget so that's a timeline and as Dr Coleman said we're going to cycle back to a couple of things uh three of which he mentioned and then I am going to go over some of the uh position request
130and cycle back to a few that that we discussed and just making sure that I have the right uh board support adding a couple others I've pulled some specifically for the work session where we have much more time to talk and discuss um in detail so I'm going to turn it over to Dr Coleman for numbers 7 11 and 12 and then I'll pick up on page two thank you Dr Edwards briefly in our last meeting there was uh some robust conversation around uh the state code and we have our attorney with us tonight uh but the state code uh does allow for elected and appointed school boards uh to be compensated uh in some localities depending on the Dynamics uh that amount can be equal to the amount allocated for the local appropriating body
131uh in our instance as an appointed board the general assembly according to the state code has identified that our Max is $2,400 per board member that means the board could decide to uh have a stien of $2,400 per per board member or it could go down to $1 or do you see and then as it relates to the chair the uh amounts that were put into this uh budget worksheet were the max numbers the 2400 for the stien the $2,000 is what the code allows as the max to pay a chair uh in the Commonwealth and once again that's the max you have some school board that decide to not give any additional allocation for the chair some $100 $200 all the way up to the $2,000 and so that is something that we need
132to uh make some thoughts about tonight to the degree we can and then as far as it relates to 11 and 12 uh the code also affords uh school board members to uh have access to health insurance depending on how that works in that particular locality and I am going to ask that our attorney towns would maybe just give us uh some of the uh parameters of that uh we tried to send something out to each of you uh later in the afternoon regarding this and of course Miss lonic is available uh to assist with this question as as well as relates to 11 and 12 and then let's have a brief discussion on that and then we'll turn the floor back to Dr Edwards attorney towns I'm sorry I misunderstood are you going back
133to number seven deal that person if you if you feel a need to State anything further about what I said on seven but but particularly 11 and 12 one of those two options as it relates to the health as far as 11 and 12 I don't have anything else to add uh I believe what was sent out to you all the this afternoon included the information from the health insurance plan on how school board members can be a part of that plan uh as far as the actual specifics of it uh probably that' be given over better to another um staff member uh but as School Board member would be considered an exception to uh the policy uh the policy is for employees and school board members are not technically employees so there is an
134exception however there are um a number of qualifications that have to happen before that exception uh could be put in place thank you attorney uh Mr conage uh with Dr Edward's uh agreement could you comment maybe uh for further clarification on 11 or 12 for board members to understand 11 and 12 12 are the employer portion um of per member if a board member opted to take health insurance so number 11 it was just giving you an idea because every there's different plans but if a board member took a single member plan the cost to the school division um as far as the premium it doesn't necessarily reflect the cost because we are self-insured but that would be number 11 at 6,137 um number 12 is the highend if they took the family plan and
135the price per member for the premium again not actually um reflecting any actual claims cost it it be $ 6,975 thank you so much Mr conage so um at this point it's almost as if it was Dr Edward used the word package last time we didn't discuss it as such it wasn't presented as such but uh the two go hand in hand again the stakehold allows it and so we're not creating something out of the sky not seeking to be self-serving we're just seeking to contemplate alignment uh with the vs across the Commonwealth I would like to open the floor for discussion on these items Dr gupton so uh with this typen is School Board member will have an option to opt out if they don't want that's correct and um Miss towns uh but
136I'm hearing from you 7 11 and 12 are all perfectly legal things to do they're within the Virginia Court yes they are allowed by the state code and $77,000 is a yearly cost to the district if somebody opts for that health insurance and they can go for a lesser one but if they go for the full one which is employee sorry mean board member and their whole family then it will be $7,000 am I right Miss lanic that's correct and I'm going to put Miss Lan on spot she and I had talked about it this afternoon and she expressed me her personal opinion I told her I'll be putting on our spot so if you don't mind sharing your opinion please feel free to do do sir oh yes Dr Goa Dr KOA did reach
137out to me today and we discussed item 11 and 12 um tried looking at it because I've gone both ways but I did try to look at it through the lens of what we do with our staff and our benefits um we do try to to maintain an attractive competitive benefit package both to attract and to retain our staff um if it is the intent of the board to provide such compensation package for its members um I would assume the same could hold true whether it's the stien the insurance plans or both it could possibly attract individuals who who may otherwise not even consider serving in the past thank you all right have you finished your your line of questioning or thought Dr gar all right thank you so much other board members please on
138this matter again uh we uh so so in essence there's some things that we have to consider I tried to explain the best I know how that the 2 $400 that is there is there because that's the highest that you could get for a stien per per board member not saying it has to be400 it can be the 2400 or it could be something less and then we need to decide on the whether we want to have an allocation for the chair now if we do have an allocation for the chair attorney town could you please briefly explain this is not the stien for the school board that that decision is made by the board and and would need no further input from any entity outside of the board but the chair appropriation could you
139explain that attorney towns yes if uh the board decides to allocate a salary for the chairman uh it can the maximum is $2,000 and since this is an appointed board the additional stien must be approved by resolution by Lynchburg City Council so that would be the process if you all decide to uh Reserve an amount for uh the Chairman's uh Salary thank you attorney towns so we we could deal with this one by one or we could I think we almost need to what is the what are the thought of the board on the stien for the board item seven the amount $2,400 or some lower amount or there could could be the will of the board no amount at all please just have a statement on that so that we can get clarity I'll
140I'll if you don't mind I'll go ahead I mean I indicated my preference before I I don't support this uh at all I don't support uh health insurance for the board members I mean that cost is just the premium cost does include claims cost um you know if that's something that people feels appropriate maybe be better if actually city council decided to allocate a stien for service uh to the board as opposed to us deciding on our own so um I won't support any of these thank you Dr NIS U again a motion could be made to that or something else at this time as I'm seeking to move discussion along uh thank you Dr n anyone else like to comment or kind of wanting to give the superintendent direction as to that item you
141know if there's no support um I'm not sure we need to vote on these or I I don't know that's there's no input from other board members so I'll shut up no you're fine Dr nce you have the right to share uh is there someone who would like to comment about seven uh Dr Carter first and Dr Guta as I stated last week I think um I'm in support of the school board member stien and as I say now and I don't not saying this because of me being on the board because this is my last last year my second term so it may not even benefit me but I think for others that may want to come aboard and that want to be able to participate in this this will be the best way
142that will ensure Equity across everyone for everyone to participate in because it does take a tremendous amount of time and we you see us here certain times um for meetings but there is you have to do your homework and then there are other meetings that you have to attend and when you come on they said 75% of meetings but you know there are a lot of we have policy meetings and then we have other school board that we're also a part of so I am in suppor of both of this package both the stifen and also the um Insurance compensation some people may not take advantage of it in some way but it should be an option thank you Dr card out here from Dr gup of course anyone else and then we certainly would
143love to entertain a motion uh on number seven and then we'll do 11 and 12 uh Dr as I said if this option is offered I I will not take this typen but I think it's important to have it on the table so I I know the concern maybe the school board members are filling their own Pockets so so I'm making that disclaimer up front but if the chair wants I'll like to make a motion but after everybody's spoken that else yes sir Dr senha I support the motion not so much for myself um but for future appointees there are considerable opportunity costs I could have a very lucrative part-time job uh instead of doing this but I choose to do this and I knew it was a volunteer uh position when I took it
144um there's also the issue of it's not just the meetings we attend there's a considerable amount of outside work and there are expectations to attend trainings some of which are all day several day things we have a full day work um Retreat that we do annually uh we typically go to Charlottesville for a retreat at the vsba um and these these things um for um people who might need to arrange Child Care um or whatever I think the stipend would be very helpful and perhaps make serving on the board more accessible to more people so that's why I am for it and I do believe for the kind of work we do there there should be compens ation for that thank you Dr senhai anyone else then Dr G yes go right ahead Mr Harvey
145I I I probably will be against this motion um after considerable thought um I I am kind of intrigued by the comment that Dr NIS made um since this is a appointment is through city council and I've actually had several current and past members of council uh reach out to me and say that they they would actually favor um such a stiping I I recommend that that be put back to council let them decide um this because ultimately they are the body that will be tasked with finding members to serve on this board um they also I think can appreciate what this board does and what our service is to the city um and I think they quite frankly I think they any any stien for us serving should come from a budget other than
146our operating budget that's that's just my personal opinion and that's why I'll be probably voting against this motion thank you Mr Harvey for your comments so at this time the floor would be open I think so that we can move on Dr gup I think you wanted to put a motion on the floor if you'd like to or I'd like to make a comment before I make the motion um end of the day this motion is about making sort of guidance for the superintendent to put it in the budget and the budget ultimately goes to the city council for approval so if if you say we get a typen that doesn't mean you get a type until the budget is finally approved by the city council so yeah or n by majority vote they have
147the veto power to take items out or tell the superintendent your budget is not going to go through unless you you take these items out correct me Dr Edwards if I'm wrong finally your budget needs to be approved by the city council well they don't have line item veto but they can adjust the amount of funds that they provide us and you are correct in that right now even the board you're just giving direction so your support would be for direction because you will approve this in in March all right so do you have a motion uh Dr I make a motion that um that we support items 7 11 and 12 all right so Dr Gupta is saying uh s 11 and uh 12 is it seven yes oh can I ask a question
148yes do do they have to go together can the health insurance be a separate thing besides the siphon or we're putting them together I'm having a hard time wrapp my brain around the health insurance one um so I'm just wondering if do they have to be together they know they do not the maker of the motion the maker of the motion has put them together and if there's a second we would vote on it if not uh if it fails then it can be done separately but Dr Guta is listening uh Dr gup would you like to continue to have both of them and SE for a second or would you like to do one at a time I like to put them together if motion is true because to me uh it's the the
149target market is which you need to have both components because typend is not $20,000 or $25,000 it's just $2,500 so it it makes it much more attractive for somebody uh time so I like to keep them together there's a second for this motion is there a second to Dr gupta's motion a second I've been seconded by Dr Carter we will now move into discussion on the motion uh for clarity uh item seven again the max is $2,400 since I haven't heard anything to the contrary I assume that we are going with the $2,400 max for the school board members inclusive of that Mr L conic are you saying was is this inclusive of a $2,000 appropriation for the chair's position or no that figure does include that but like um Miss Town said that would
150have to be approved by the city council that portion yeah so that that portion would have to go through Council but the Board needs to agree whether or not we want to forward $2,000 for the chair or $100 or $200 $300 or nothing and so I just want to make sure that we're are we wanting to advance the $2,000 figure and uh those of you who haven't spoken please do so because I'm not trying to force anything I'm trying to make sure we understand what we're saying of course we'll vote the motion up or down since I don't hear anything I think we're clear on that one now there there seems to be Miss Evans is saying there's some con still a need to understand uh items 11 or 12 which any board member could
151opt out of that as well but uh Miss Evans could you help us to know what kind of clarification you need in relationship to uh items 11 and 12 you know I I guess I don't need any clarification I it just is seems to me that health insurance is typically given to employees who are fulltime employees of a company um I'm not sure if I'm missing something if I am over simplifying it but to me a sipon for being on the board is very different than a company offering you health insurance that you don't work for full-time um I I can understand appr proven a stip in because you know we can take it or not take it I just I don't think anything you need to clarify I think it's just my own thoughts
152of what I believe health insurance and companies offering so I don't think it's anything you need to clarify but thank you thank you so much Miss Evans anyone else uh Dr Brennan you have to unmute yourself Bob sorry I just want to say I was going to I I will vote against this motion for the same reason Miss Evans is I'm very comfortable with the stien I'm very comfortable with the uh amount for the chair I think that's all welld deserved for reasons we all spoke about last week but the health insurance piece I do have trouble with that so I'm going to vote against this and hope that we come back with a motion that will separate the two okay any further discussion I I I um I want to weigh in in that
153I will be supporting uh Dr gupta's motion not as one who would be opting to receive that portion um I'm comfortable with the insurance that I already received once again I am warning us to have an appreciation for the fact that the code allows this that um when we have these kind of discussions um there are considerable number of boards that often ask the question you mean you all don't receive any compensation and there are no benefits provided and just about every hardworking board in this Commonwealth uh has uh uh opted to receive what the code or what those who were in Richmond have agreed uh should be allocated to Schoolboard members if they so choose so um again these are hard matters uh this is the first time maybe that this has come up
154I'm not sure and if it certain have been a while since these things so I I appreciate everybody's comments and I have no problem with your comments but I will be supporting this not as someone who will need the insurance but I think that it is a when you add the number up uh Mr conage it's it's a very manageable number in which many board members probably would not opt to do but those who may need it uh and it's enticement to those who would serve I certainly will support it any further discussion or questions before we move to the vote yes please Dr I'd like to make a comment now that now that the motion's been made um you know I think it's uh the Optics uh are certainly bad on this particularly with
155regard to the health insurance I mean that's normally a full-time uh job benefit um so um it just reinforces my decision not to not to support this at all thank you Dr NIS Dr Carter well and can you explain the exceptions clause for this while how the school board is can benefit from the health insurance through the exception what it exactly does that state well what are those exceptions can anyone speak to that um I can try to assist we did reach out to Anthem to inquire as to if that was something that was even a possibility because you're correct um we do have um hour limits that for our employees and when they become eligible and they did go into the plan document and we work with the consultant and there was several um
156exceptions for for that was there for board members and and U I think that has been shared with everyone and there really wasn't anything that was preventing it it would just need to have the board approval thank you miss lanic any further discussion of board members regarding uh this matter so we're not doing anything illegal this is permittable under the for a health plan so I am in favor of Dr GTA's motion and again there an option if people want to do this or board members W do they can and I and many probably won't but it is there just in case someone needs this I'm just so proud of this board for your candid thoughts everybody's thoughts are valuable thank you Miss Morrison I've thought about this a lot and I'm very comfortable with
157us voting this for ourselves um I know how hard board members work um they put in many many hours but I do worry about the uh health insurance that we give to full-time employees and we're we're not full-time employees I I just I'm feeling very uncomfortable with this but I respect my colleagues and and want to do what's best for everyone but I'm I'm struggling with this right now thank you m Morrison thank you um any further discussion on the matter all right then uh Miss day could you call the RO just to remind everyone if you're voting yes you are voting uh for item seven to be continuously in the discussion for consideration for a larger vote on the budget itself later of $2,400 for compensation for each board member with additional $2,000 allocated
158above that for the position of the chair which would have to go before councel for that portion the 2000 portion and that board members would either be able to choose 11 or 12 if they so desire uh for their health insurance uh uh premium coverage all right um Miss D could could you call the rooll yes you're in favor no you're not good board member Evans no school book member Morrison School Board member Morrison yes School Board member Dr Carter yes schoolb member Dr Dr Brennan no school but member Dr Coleman yes school but member Dr NIS no Schoolboard member Dr senhai yes Schoolboard member Dr gupter yes go but M Mr Harvey no the motion carries 5 to four yes so B is as it may then that motion carries ever so narrowly and
159so that would dispatch of that at least for this time and I'll turn the floor back to Dr Edwards okay so for purposes of just budgeting and and presenting it back to you in March we are approving the seven inclusive of the $2,000 even though we know that has to go to council and um given that the 12 12 is greater than seven if you approved the family plan by default someone could choose the single plan at a at a lower rate so we will budget for the higher rate of the family plan um so just miss Lage and I are on the same page with that okay on to page two what I want to do is kind of cycle back to some of the ones that were mentioned last week and possibly get
160through a couple others recognizing that um February 16th we're definitely going to dig into HR um positions and the um the co everything below the black black line for covid uh but for today I will tell you what I have that I would like to cycle back to I also have all of the directors online so should there be a question about something in one of their areas they are here to address any questions that school board may have regarding um any of these positions so I'm going to start with uh number 24 which was the alternative Ed position and um last week um Dr Carter expressed support uh for this it is the reading specialist at uh Fort Hill and the empowerment Academy for them n share currently um we don't have that level
161of support and we want to add that for students um there so I just want to get a sense from the full board uh is that a yes include that in in in the budget proposal that we're going to bring back to you for voting Miss Evans for me it's a firm yes I think it's much needed any other to the contrary uh Miss Morrison I think it's it's critical for for to help our students be successful in the alter alad sets I think it's very very important any board members object or have a thought otherwise no I I I support this too I mean these are two um High needs populations and we should support them to the best extent we can so yeah I support it thank you Dr NIS unless the board
162feels otherwise I think that's an okay do W okay thank you sir moving on still from last week um numbers 27 and 28 are both behavioral support uh 27 being the two behavioral coaches to provide student support at the elementary schools which don't have additional Administration and that would be um sanduski Elementary bass and then TC Miller and Desi and they would share those two coaches and then 28 would be two additional coaches to be assigned um throughout the remaining schools as needed and I will say that our behavioral coaches um one thing that I do I am proud of with um our folks is their roles and responsibilities morph to meet the needs of the students so um I would suspect that what we saw pre pandemic and behavior is probably a little different
163post pandemic and then once we get back to having um more kids in school more often um we'll be able to address that so this will was a supported both of those were supported by Mr Harvey and I just want to cycle back they are two separate items if you want to um separate them and vote separately Evans I I just have a question more for clarity can you explain to me what breaks down the exact thing of what a behavior coach is and not only that what is our requirements for somebody to be a behavioral coach because I just look at the price and so first just a reminder that the co the price that you see or the estimated cost includes their benefits and everything in there so I just want to remind
164the board and the public of that and then um Miss Brown or director Brown can you jump in because you you supervise and provide lots of oversight for the uh behavioral coaches and um support them from your department of far so do you mind joining me on this one I'm actually I'm G to turn it over to miss Pew and then I I'll fill in the gaps okay sure um I I appreciate that um Miss Evans and the behavior coach role it is a coaching role so they do work with students but they also are supporting the teachers the administrators all of the staff in the building so they're they're working with um the building staff to increase um Behavior Al capacity and consistency um through training models and in in supports within the school
165and collaboration U with the administrators as well as instructional Personnel so these Behavior coaches are really providing supports that wrap around the students so it might be Behavior related but it's also related perhaps to social emotional um any of the other needs that students might have um counseling those types of things um so they they have um they're really working with with the um School Personnel um instructional Personnel to provide them coaching and training and supports so that their the classroom teachers and other school um instructional Personnel are really able to provide the support that the students need um before it gets to a behavior an office referral a behavior referral um they are supporting students but they're really working in training and coaching the staff on how to intervene with students before behaviors begin
166Miss Evans um I like to add when we're looking at Behavior within our School Division we have a hierarchy in terms of staff so we would start with a registered Behavior technician and that is a person that would complete 40 hours of training um online under the supervision of our board certified Behavior analyst our next tier up and excuse me our registered Behavior technicians are primarily used um within that special education realm um and they provide more of that direct almost one-onone support for the students um they review the behavior intervention plans um they interact immediately to that student within that setting and also provide the teacher in the classroom some additional tools for intervention prevention data analysis so that we can hopefully at some point either deescalate the behavior or extinct the behavior um
167the next tier up will be your behavior coach um and we prefer a teacher with some behavior training um in the area and the reason why we say a behavior coach and we're asking for a teacher with specialized training and behavior is because we take that word coach to heart we want to train up and offer PD to our teachers to um build up their skill sets um as they're moving through the process they also collect data um and they make data driven decisions in terms of recommendations to the principales and as well as us in central office as what they're seeing as needs for our kids whether that's social emotion um whether that's you know things that they're seeing specific in relations to office referrals and also anything that they're noticing within classroom management
168or online management they can go in and working with our board certified Behavior analysts they can go in and do some specific PD and that's what their role has been mainly this year is offering PD but also assessing how the students are interacting and helping coaching those teachers up online um the next level up would be a board certified assistant or behavior analyst and we do not have that position right now um and it's criteria for this one um and they could supervise an RBT um and I'll provide the board with a specific breakdown um tomorrow morning um we also have a position that we could offer would be a board a board certified behavior analyst um but that would be a person working on their um excuse me a doctoral training um and behavior
169analyst what we do have in the school division right now is two SP certified Behavior analysts and that's who supervis our Behavior team uh one for special education and one for General Ed um under me but they work with all students um inclusive so when we're talking about behavior supports we have a system in place to help not only bring um about some Behavior change but looking at the overall School climate the social emotional and also training up our teachers in terms of everything that they're being fac with the pandemic and everything more thank you that that was certainly thorough I I appreciate it though because I I did when I was reading this I couldn't figure out exactly what what that meant so I appreciate it I'm totally on board with it and yes
170I support thank you M Evans Dr gup go right ahead m brown said this is our infrastructure is already there so what's driving these four need for these four additional positions when we reviewed our data um last year um the need when we're looking at discipline and intervention and student behaviors um not only office referrals but also the interventions within the classroom for your basic classroom management um and what we also saw that at Bass when we had a person um that was designated primarily to that site in that we're training the teachers and the Virginia tier systems of supports that we reviewing data with the um School Improvement teams and coming back and doing intentional trainings we saw discipline um start to drop and so when we're looking at our students now and looking
171at the social emotional needs we take into many um things that factor in so we're looking at the office disciplinary reports for that school we're looking at social emotional learning um we're also looking at the socio economic level and things that are going on in those areas and how can we be proactive with our prevention and intervention to move these kids on but also like I said expand that skill set and tool belt for our teachers so yes we do have some targeted schools in place Dr gup So based on what I'm hearing this could be a good Target for using the car's money right because it's it's I hear the word pandemic from Miss Brown so this look like is an outcome of the pandemic the need for this am I correct in my
172assumption I would say there's I would say both I mean I think yes there is some need because of the pandemic but Dr gupa there was also data prior to the pandemic that um these some of these positions I believe correct me if I'm wrong were in last year's budget um and they were pulled because of the the decrease in funding and so some of the this is this is pre pandemic and both pandemic needs um so we see the data pre pandemic but we're also seeing some needs from that students are exhibiting either social emotional or online behavior when they're participating in remote learning or in the classroom um and while our classroom discipline referrals have decreased this year we're we are still seeing a need during the pandemic so I would say both
173it's pre pandemic and pandemic correct Dr gupton you know we have three experts in this area on our board Miss Heavens Miss Morrison and Dr Carter so I'll look for whichever direction they want us to go and I'll follow them thank you so much uh I Mr Harvey I don't know where you stand on this matter but I know you other board members have emphasized the need for discipline and and getting things in order so I don't know what these positions speak to it do you on the way in on this discussion Mr Harvey yeah yes I was I was the one in support of these uh last last time um I was supp in support of them last year when they were on our budget um you know when you talk with the individuals
174in the school or their staff within the elementary schools you know these These are positions that they can use to help support them uh when we use the term classroom management let's let's put that in perspective that's when a teacher is having to address a disciplinary issue within the classroom which distracts away from educational time um having these coaches can help the teachers themselves with their skill set to help with classroom management and making better use of the time uh by hand hopefully handling an issue before it becomes uh a habitual issue with a particular student but also trying to address that student's needs at an earlier stage um that's really what we're talking about I mean I would love to say that um the addition of these behavioral coaches could help eliminate um disciplinary
175committees that we have uh later in high school um I think these coaches could be a benefit at an early age to help our our staff um as well as help our students to to deal with behavioral issues at an earlier age and and help prevent um you know a a lifelong um behavioral issue that detracts from a a student's ability to learn and be engaged in the classroom and and not distract their fellow students as well so I've I've always been in support of this this is something that I've heard from the school systems themselves the the people you boots on the ground saying this is one of the things that they they need so I'm in strong support of this see Miss Morris and nodding their head thank you Mr Harvey so unless
176there's someone who wants to say something else or an objection uh Dr sart yeah I support it too and I would hope that if these positions do go through that we um have some measurements in place to um look at their impact and value added I know I was very concerned um what seemed like an escalation of just um explosive emotional behavior on the part of students um and and I don't know what was causing that whether it's just our social angst or what and this is all pre pandemic uh but we had incidents that are drawing four five and six seven eight nine teachers and Personnel to help manage it and break it up and and so anything that we can do in a preventative to get early intervention um teach students coping and
177anger management skills and and support our teachers because they're there to teach um and and you know hopefully um help with some Equity issues and cultural misunderstanding implicit bias those kind of things that can can play into um the way way discipline and referrals um are made so um yeah I wholeheartedly support these moves and I would really support uh tracking their impact because I I would hope to see uh a pretty noticeable impact um on things thank you thank you so much Dr Sena uh Dr NIS yeah I uh I certainly support the addition of the coaches at at uh bass and and Desi um my questions on the the two additional Behavior coaches are they floating among the entire Division if they are what's what's our existing coverage in terms of behavior coaches
178uh and just well not really isn't as side but I do if these do get funded I think it's really important that we uh track the data and show that there's uh a real impact uh for for for everybody so Dr well said Dr uh director Brown okay so Dr nillas currently we have three Behavior coaches that are at the middle school level and then we have one Behavior coach um at one of the elementary schools so the future plan is to for the division um level um Elementary staff we would utilize them just like with the um social workers when we need additional coverage we would assess the needs because we work closely with the principes um and the schools and the counselors and we would deploy those staff um to those schools um
179to meet the needs of the principles um at that time and Mr Rich Ferguson is actually my bcba that's over top of all of this and he coordinates um with the special education um bcba um Brian Meyers um in meeting the needs both for general led and special um needs students so we would use that same approach we would work with the principls we will review data to make sure that we are meeting the need at each of the levels um if additional assistance is need we all is needed we always pull together as a team um to meet the need but also having those crucial conversations with my supervisor Miss Pew based upon data that we are s um seeing at the time um and when we asked for the three Behavior coaches for
180the middle school we provided data at that time and we will have data to report out also as well in terms of the effectiveness or the things that we need to grow um for the coaches that are in place now but also once we do if approved hire these coaches on as well thank you thank you uh um thankful that everyone has raised their questions and hopefully you've gotten the answers you need L hear any objection I think that that's a go Dr Edwards okay thank you all right continuing just through the ones that were um mentioned last week uh number 29 uh the Athletics and um that is the part-time athletic director at EC glass and I believe in the uh last or maybe the one before uh the weekly update I provided some
181stats about the number of teams number of students just so you could get a perspective a question came up as to if there was a need for uh an a part-time athletic director at Heritage High School at this time so I did provide a little bit of data for that and this was supported by Mrs Evans right Miss Morrison Miss Mor [Music] director I M Evans was was the athle trainer that we were looking at getting parttime Miss Evans she's asking I appreciate additional information Susan I'm struggling to hear you when we were at jumar we were I thought you were talking about this being an athletic trainer not an assistant athletic director I think we need both I I think glass desperately needs an athletic trainer and they need an athletic director part-time when
182you're at that school and there are sports going [Music] on in all the different places that are EC glass and how many sports teams they have I worry for both of those positions and they not sure we Ade adequately fill either completely well I am very much aware of the activity that goes on with the Athletics at glass and I would like additional information before I support this thank you Miss Morrison U stating a need for additional information anyone else I agree with Miss Morrison I think more information is needed in terms of the trends in the number of athletic teams you know how many students are participating as of this point I'm hearing some reluctance of the board and so Dr Edwards could you I thought there was some information that was passed out
183that related the number of additional teams and athletes at EC glass with respect to Heritage I can't find it at the moment it was in the weekly update and I'm trying to pull it up as well do you want me to yes if you can share um e glass has six additional Sports they have 120 to 150 athletes that are participating in these additional supports they have 12 to 15 additional coaches to oversee the additional Sports um the EC glass athletic director is required to be to cover between 30 and 48 home games for these additional Sports and the athletic director must plan the additional team Seasons which are 70 to 84 home and away games so this doesn't include um Playoff Games district regional state so there are a lot of extra hours put
184in by the athletic director because of those additional um Sports at EC glass that are not at Heritage so this number of teams have gone up in just last one year or that has been a trend that's what my question was what is the trend in last four five years in terms of the number of teams at glass I'd have to get that data um Dr goop I did ask for the trend of both and I'm I'm assuming you want both schools all right so uh let's let's uh look deeper into that Dr Edwards and come back with with with that information okay absolutely I will bring that to the work session thank you Mr Evans can I say one thing you know I think that's great that we can look at the more information
185but I I would like to just publicly acknowledge that there are six more Sports at EC glass with this many more games to schedule and just want to say that I recognize that and that's a hard job that's being done and I just want to make sure just because we're saying we want more information we're not saying we we don't see you and don't recognize the work that's being done because I think it kind of comes off that way and I don't want that to come off that way to anybody that's it so so noted Miss Evans thank you so much for that thank you excellent point all right Dr Edwards I meute myself okay um still going from last week's list is number 31 the safety risk manager um which I think was supported
186by uh Dr Carter further discussion on that in terms of support I see heads noding I just yeah so I feel this is a vital position because this position could have been in play to make sure that everyone was following all the protocols and that no person is or groups are being left out or being exempt from anything and it also will help with uh consistency with our protocols and safeties and drills and whatever else we need for security thank you Dr thank you Dr Carter anyone an objection all right then I would I have a question I just am curious as who has done this in the past if this is a new position who's been doing this okay thank you Dr Dr Edwards uh a multitude of folks have uh been doing some
187of this and some of this would be a little new for us in terms of just beefing up some of our Safety and Security protocols you you recall when we started um some of our lockdown drills we actually had an incident at EC glass where we locked down at night and we needed to really talk about protocols with that so some of it used to be under our old structure with the deputy superintendent um but um I I think Mr ASI is on as well he is and he can speak a little bit more to some of the other aspects of this that we might not have had the depth in yes uh good evening um so a lot of it has been done uh basically through the facilities Department as far as uh OSHA
188uh regulations and compliance some of it's been done through Personnel or human resources as far as training um some of it has been done through student services as far as SRO um some of it's been done through Finance U as far as uh uh workman's comp and uh our liability insurance and things of that so it's been a up to this point um it's been a lot of people involved but nobody um has had any kind of Central uh responsibility and that is one thing that um has concerned us for a while that that there's no one that that is taking a look at at the total picture for the division when we brought this up to the U our agent or uh representative uh for our um workman's comp coverage uh she was very
189excited exced that we were considering this uh position uh she felt that this was something that we have needed for a while uh also feels that uh somebody that is looking out for the whole Safety and Security program for the whole division would probably bring down uh the number of our uh workman's comp claims so um like I said it's been a a number of people have been involved in this over the years uh but no one has been uh like I said kind of handling the whole thing for the division thank you you thank you Mr gasy all right any else on this I I I I sense that the void is beginning to Tire Dr Edwards uh go right ahead I do too so I I'm I am being very mindful of that
190and I had ambitious goals just to get through page two of tonight with some holds on page two so there aren't too many more in here that I think tonight might be exhaustive I do want to go back to two on this on page two that we did not discuss but are still and I'm I'm in the school realm I'm looking at things that are um possibly as close to kids as possible on this page uh number 25 the English language uh Learners teacher and I do believe that Dr Jordan earlier in the school year provided you with some data about the number of elll students that we had and then of course number 26 the school counselor at um RS Payne if we could get those two um done then we can call it
191a night and put the rest of it on um the work session agenda okay all right feedback please Dr Carter I know that um just in the readings that you're seeing that that I'm seeing that a lot of the English um El students are really uh impacted by this remote learning and that they're seeing more significant um gaps in learning since the pandemic for that group and also for the school counselor at RS pain I think that's needed now where I think students will need more support than ever before and so I'm for both of these thank you Dr Carter additional comments do see here n yeah I have is if if uh Dr Jordan's on if she if she has the data available could she kind of give us a sort of quick synopsis
192of the increase in number of ell students and just to give us a little context I mean we've heard it before but it's always good we get a lot of stuff thrown at us so a little reminder is always helpful I appreciate it anyway very good can you hear me yes excellent it's my first time talking so I just wanted to make sure that you needed something but I've been here um it's not necessarily the increase in number Dr NIS we're still holding steady around 200 current L it's the fact that we're 200 over 16 plus buildings um and we have nine teachers right now and the hybrid and remote combo has really done a number on trying to support um these very vulnerable students and I will will say the whole time I've been
193in LCS so that was since 2018 our number is holding steady but the increase of newcomers has been really significant so a newcomer is a student that's new to the country and or um scores low on the screener or the we to access test at the end of the year so a newcomer um is just beginning to acquire the English language um so we definitely have needs um we have nine teachers in base schools right now with some of the highest um percentage of L's but then you've got some buildings with five or less and we have teachers traveling itinerate travel there so the need is great for this very vulnerable population like Dr Carter just said does that help thank thank you Dr Jordan thank you Dr NIS for the question Dr Guta you
194know as I said last time um and I'm seeing that now in business we call it a position creep you agree to one and then the next position and the next position and the next position and as I said right now you got cares funding you can use it to fund these positions but what happens two three years out we'll be basically uh going back to where we were I don't want to see it option on the table that stopped the step increase uh to fund those positions and once you hire somebody you cannot let them go after two three years because the funding was only for two three years so I like to see a a financial model a long-term sustainable and I'm using the word long-term sustainable financial model to sustain these positions
195Beyond cares funding when the care funding is done what is the division's plan to keep this money coming in thank you Dr gtop for your comments anyone else all right then I would suspect uh I'm not clear on what we are saying Dr gup I heard what you said Dr ms's uh question was raised and answered um Dr do you need to respond to anything that has been said relative to this matter um absolutely and I totally agree with Dr Gupta as a public institution that does not generate Revenue I can never give you a sustainable anything um even for positions that we currently hold if we were to add not a single new position if you're asking me what will Revenue look like in five years to support even cost of living increases that
196may occur for existing staff I would I would be in in in a pickle trying to plan for that and give you any kind of guarantee that says I am very sure that five years from now we would have the exact funding needed to support the current staff much less um the you know adding any additional staff it is just the way that our public schools here are funded uh Dr G and I know sustain ability it worries me too without being able to generate any Revenue Dr Gupta and I understand but the problem is right now we know that we can feed certain number of family members in our house uh that picture is clear but it is fair to add additional family members to this family knowing that you may not be able
197to carry them through Beyond two three years and that is my concern that you're bringing them on board not knowing whether we can carry them or not and again Dr you will not get an argument from me at all I 100% agree with you that our Cur if we just stay with our current budget our current needs our current students and do nothing else that is all we can feed and even in five years we won't be able to feed them because cost of living will go up raises will go up there will be a need to increase we face that year after year after year and each time that we build a budget particularly when we build it on level funding your thought process is exactly where we are and at some point we
198need to really look at what do our kids need and decide what kind of budget are we building are we building it based on the needs of our children and are we willing to to to ask for what our kids actually need Dr GTA you know when I came on board Miss Morrison was the chair and she has sort of graved in my brain the word wage increase wage increase way increase she was very passionate and I'm assuming she's still passionate and my fear is that are we going to take away uh food from our current family members to feed the additional family members you know I'm using all the semantics but uh that is my fear because we like to sustain the increases we have started this year here in future for our current
199employees and not regress back on that and until I see that it makes it very difficult to add any additional positions thank thank you Dr gupa there there are some great thinkers the the neighbors that's the last name of that great family talked about felt needs I think we're trying to address felt needs right now real needs that are in front of us and see what the impact is but all of the comments are well taken what is the pleasure of the board on this I'm not sure uh as to what we wanted to do on this matter is there any objection to those positions continuing at least for now for uh for for consideration hearing none then Dr Edwards U that's a you can put a not very strong yes to that okay I
200got a strong maybe strong maybe yeah okay all right so that's enough of budget uh for to tonight we will pick up with budget um next uh at our work session and I'll try to get answers to you prior to the work session so you'll have you will be able to have review them and then come prepared to um discuss things thank you Dr Edwards Mr lonic and your entire team for the countless hours that's put into trying to get this to us and each board member for your ongoing input and of course this will come back before us uh for full discussion at our uh work session later in the month this will now move us to item J new business in which uh we would like tonight to take care of item uh
201one operation policies for discussion and uh so the floor is open for that Dr Edwards absolutely so we had the foyer policy on um I think a couple months ago uh and one of the things that we were charged with doing was writing the regulations for the foyer policy and um we work with Miss spenner who is the Foye officer along with Miss towns the attorney and a whole bunch of folks to put forth what tonight you have for um your first read is the policy the regulations the form and the roles and responsibilities with regard to Foya okay all right so this is for discussion is there any discussion tonight Dr NIS just uh I I just want to be clear because we've always we've had to comply with Foy all the time this
202is just now really putting it formalizing it into a policy Schoolboard policy format it's been on our website um that people wanted to make a foyer request this is just and and that's a good thing I think to make this formal so I just I just want to make sure that's that in fact is the case I'm not under over speaking it so that's my understanding Dr atwi you are absolutely correct we had policies in place and uh when vsba doesn't update so do we um so this was a review and then adding of the regulations which sort of gave the step wide stepwise procedure that we use we just captured it in writing to put on our website for more additional information all right any other discussion otherwise this matter will come back before
203us is there anyone who would want that to be on the consent agenda or we can just leave it as it is right now all right I'm seeing some agreement with that uh could be pulled if necessary uh next time around for that Dr Ed uh consern the agenda all right uh we will now move to uh item uh J two which is our elementary English textbook adoption uh and this is coming for uh action tonight um unless there's a uh any board members that would not be in agreement with that and so Dr Ed if you would absolutely and thank you for saying that even though it is up for Action um for discussion and we'd be happy to move it back if necessary and I have um Dr Dr Jordan and Miss Courtney
204Bennett um here tonight to kind of talk through our literacy uh process in this Elementary textbook adoption so I'm going to turn it over to Dr Jordan a Miss thank you Bard um I'm going to read a little bit more than normal full transparency I'm recovering from covid and I definitely still have covid brain and so is my entire family um so we're about a month out um but it has been a um not so enjoyable experience we got puppy and Co at the same time and I would recommend the puppy um so this topic relates to 1.2.1 of the Strategic plan I like to go back and tie things into where we wanted to be a few years ago where are we right now um and this was to increase the percentage of all
205students passing reading assessments um we were talking about sols then but now that we've had Co I think we should think about any sort of data that we have on reading including Pals formative assessments um just anything we can do to grab assessment results on our students um so in that same um strategic plan item we mentioned develop and Implement a K5 balanc literacy plan working with a consultant to train administrators and teachers and to implement some sight coaching and training um so we are well on our way to doing many of those items and have been for over a year um so going back to the textbook process from last year LCS conducted a formal K5 textbook review as outlined in the policy I AA um in March of 2020 we brought to you
206a textbook item for information um and we were recommending the purchase of Benchmark advance and Benchmark Advance was from the state approved textbook list this was up for Action in April of 2020 you all remember what happened in midm March was like the world shut down and I think of Our Lives as Educators as preco during covid and after covid so you were going to hear an action item in April schools closed across the Commonwealth we focused on continuity of learning in the choice boards um we then pivoted to think about return to learn in the summer we had a robust task force known as the Dream Team we had a subcommittee um on prek through two and somebody named Courtney Bennett volunteered to chair a subcommittee and little did she know what was going
207toen happened when she volunteered to chair a subcommittee um we had another subcommittee focused on grades three through five eventually they merged to really think about elementary school as a whole um during this dream team process and I'm giving you the history here I don't think that there was any rock that we didn't turn over in LCS we looked at everything we thought about every process because we were really Reinventing School you you done it too over the last 11 months we've had to think differently about everything that we do so various teams reviewed historic data about achievement Gap we looked at everything about literacy and LCS literacy was a need before the pandemic it is a need during the pandemic and it is something we are going to address immediately um Courtney's going to
208tell you a little bit about the trends that we started to see this fall when students came back to us so I'm going to mute myself which I should do a lot more often and let Courtney talk about data and then we'll follow up with some needs that we see good evening so as you know literacy instruction is so important to students at all levels um but especially at the beginning of their reading career and we know that early literacy instruction is vital to the success of all reading it's an area that most of the time during the day both virtually and in person most of the time is spent on according to the fall 2020 Pal's data and Pal's is an assessment that we use in the state of Virginia um it's done three
209times a year and it shows the knowledge that the students have in the area of phonics and spelling and reading comprehension um this data this time showed us that student scores and our division on average are showing that our students have a percentage or several percentages higher of deficits our students are identified more than the average students in the state of Virginia in the areas of phonics and spelling and in reading so the trend has been the same the past several years the percentage of the higher percentage that we believe um is probably this time du due to the summer learning loss having the extended summer um and also for our K through2 students missing the end of the year and that time that they missed in the classroom is so critical because of the
210skills that are taught for literacy at those grade levels this is our base literacy program so the K through2 the liter literacy skills that we're teaching um in K through 2 are teaching their children how to read at this at the younger grades um we're teaching them through pheic awareness through phonics through decoding skills the vocabulary development and then we switch over to ER three through five students in elementary schools and this is where they're starting to be expected to read to learn and here they're working on the skills that continue the vocabulary work on their fluency and comprehension and we all know that this is what's important in order for our students to be lifelong readers and lifelong Learners so miss and important parts of literacy instruction will only increase the gaps that we're
211having in the reading deficits that we're seeing um in order for our students to have a strong background in literacy and a strong Foundation we need a strong Intervention Program that's going to help fill in these gaps something that is simultaneously being used as a prevention program um and using the strategies that are going to ensure the beginning readers that we have that they have a firm and solid foundation um that their model will build on as they progress through their educational career the science of reading is everchanging as we all know we've seen the pendulum swing from one side to the other back and forth over are years of education but the research right now that's being done is looking more at how the brain works and how it's working when students are learning
212to read and what the researchers are finding is that the brain is they're looking at um where the reading is being used in the brain or where the brain is um working when the reading is happening they're also looking at the areas of the brain that they're seeing the reading difficulties um de velop in and they're also looking at the brains of good readers and how that the variance there is is being shown and what's being found is the students that are presented with programs that have multisensory approaches um in learning to read using their different modalities for learning are really starting to activate the brain more and those areas of reading are developing a lot faster so using the multisensory approach showing the students um reading at or on grade level um those percentages
213are going up another thing that we also know about good reading instruction is that when it's systematic and direct instruction the scores and the successes increase this must be done daily and consistent with the five components of reading instruction being done for all read ERS um a structured approach has also been shown to be effective for all types of Learners with the varying styles of learning and the doing that they're doing in class our teachers in Lynchburg City are doing that they're being trained in these multi-sensory approaches and models and they're finding great success in their students progress as a result of these strategies that they're using in the classrooms in their small groups and in their whole groups so and the teachers that are using them are both classroom teachers and our reading Specialists
214sorry across the division are using these strategies on a daily basis um thank you Courtney I know that um Dr Jordan is jumping back on her computer died um all of a sudden she disappeared and I was like where' you go um so Dr Jordan is U working furiously to get back on either via her phone or another device at her house because I know she has some additional um information to share about the proposal and moving forward right thank you Miss Pew for that uh and thank you uh Miss Bennett that was that was uh uh informative Dr Edward if you could maybe Advance us along while we're waiting uh certainly do you want when you say Advance alone you want to go to the next topic and then come back when Dr Jordan
215comes back I don't want to come go to the next topic I was just knowing maybe you had some further insights absolutely so um as as Miss Bennett said um the process has been we we used in terms of just selecting the the books there is an option to not use something on the State website that seem to be a question as to whether or not um we have to select um one of the items on on the website and you don't the board just has to be in agreement that um that that is what they want to do in terms of other things I will say a lot of the training that we've done excuse me has been in Orton Gillingham um which is a quite expensive training uh and and we started with
216just a few folks and then more folks and more folks and our teachers really enjoyed that training and thank you to both the cni department and the special ed Department because I I last year fed Department also contributed a lot of funds to make sure that our teachers were trained in those strategies and those strategies line up nicely with the selection of the foundations program um that the um cni department is bringing forward we've also had our Consultants that have been working with um our schools uh they did some more intense work in five schools as you may recall um last year uh preco they were down here teaching in the classrooms with the very kids that um the teachers had modeling lessons for the teachers and we continue to do a lot of that
217work virtually when uh the pandemic hit and they are also in support of the coordination of both this uh literacy uh training and choice that supports both o Orton Gillingham and Wilson as well as um um the fundations program going forward and Dr Jordan has jumped back on so hope I feel her Thunder oh my goodness what a time for my computer to crash so I'm joining you by phone and I am so sorry um tell me where we are and I will pick up from there go ahead I just shared about the Orton Gillingham training that all of our staff have had um how that fits nicely with the foundations program and Wilson um also the work that we did with the consultant pre pandemic and then the work that they continue to do
218virtually with our staff um and just that it's a holistic investment we can choose items that are not on the state list it just requires that the board is um on board with doing that and that's pretty much where I got Alison thank you so I think the the the point is we are asking for a non-traditional approach in a very very you know in a very different time nothing that we are seeing right now is anything that we've ever gone through before so the tiers of instruction we should be reaching about 75% of our students in LCS with tier one instruction we're not seeing that at all and we would like to use more of a tier 2 approach which is a much more intensive approach with our classroom instruction just like Courtney said
219to prevent in the primary grades to prevent any gaps but also to intervene in the middle of Elementary and Upper Elementary um but we feel that this is so urgent right now and we've taken a people over programs approach in the first few years of rolling out the literacy plan we want to make sure that we are valuing our students and their needs we want them to be lifelong readers of authentic text and we want our teachers to know much more about the science of reading instead of following a a prescribed program um we are working with the city procurement office um on the possibility of a local adoption um and we would like your support and doing what we feel is of the utmost urgency for our readers in Lynchburg okay thank you Dr
220Jordan between you and Dr Edwards before we open for discussion that you all are asking uh us uh for what specific action so that the board can know what their discussion needs to be geared in what specific are you are you recommending us for action so the board generally approves all of the textbooks um and and almost everything that we've brought to you in past if not everything since I've been here has always been on the state approval list this is a different type of approval you're still approving the use of a program for literacy um in the foundations um program but it's not your traditional hardcore basil textbook that you are you would be approving um in this case and part of the reason for approving uh it is because we do want to
221use our textbook funds to purchase the materials that we need which you know we've had those textbook funds in our Reserve account they roll over in the fund balance they sit there until we're ready to purchase um a book or um a or a program so that is what the board is is that is what is up for discussion and possible approval tonight if the board feel so thank you Dr thank you Dr Jordan the floor is open for discussion Dr cter so is this um like supplemental text I see a lot of that especially like um the Wilson one is more they're really looking at gaps or how they can be more preventative to help students not get so far behind or if they are behind how to get them moved up and then
222one's talking about singing while you're reading which is pretty interesting because U sometimes you can learn a lot through singing especially kids that like to S but so is this like supplemental textbooks that can really help and where some of the others may not and it seems very inclusive they're talking about trying to get uh different jras genres and also different cultures and everything like that in there so it seems pretty inclusive which is always good just for and also are all of these we're looking at every one of these for some of them Courtney do you want to take some of that it's more of a multi-sensory approach uh to um instruction so it would be the program for tier one I'm sorry now I have a child coming in the room um it
223would be the program for um tier one um but it would be used in more of a prevention for the younger grades intervention for the upper grades and Courtney did you talk about the multisensory approach based on OG I did so yes it is I mean traditionally it is for a tier 2 approach but we would like to use it for a tier one for everybody um to do the prevention and the intervention right now that is needed in the city thank you Dr car are you satisfied with the responses so this will be used to in support of the other reading textbooks it will be used in substitution we do not want to purchase a traditional reading textbook program discussion Dr NIS uh yeah I guess my initial concern about this particular item and
224with it being for Action tonight was back in March there was a textbook that was that had been reviewed and evaluated and selected and now almost a year later you know Co it's maybe it's seven years I'm not quite sure but uh now we're being asked to approve a different program but I'm not seeing any basis for how this was selected other than kind of the ad hoc discussions that that we' that we've just had I was hoping for a little more uh formal Al like a little I don't know from from my field you get some kind of summary right up that that would justify the the shift in plans if and if nothing else just so from a history point of view somebody six months from now can say well why did we
225do this you know um and so that's what I what I was kind of hoping to see or at least get some explanation um along that way and uh I mean it anyway I'll I'll I'll stop thank you Dr NIS if if there could be a response from Dr Jordan or Mr and as Dr Edwards opened um if this needs to be for discussion or more for information tonight and come to the board later um we we want to move forward thoughtfully Based on data that we have right now but we know it's a major departure from what we were thinking almost a year ago is there any board member that would have any so what I I guess what I'm I need some justification or something behind it I mean I mean that's a
226pretty big switch to go from sort of standard textbooks to now we're just going to go through inter interventions essentially not can I jump in for just a second absolutely um I also think we have to keep in mind that there different leadership in place than there was um this point a a year ago um and so those that were leading in terms of looking at at um a textbook adoption to support reading um from from my perspective um if we are going to to go with the recommendation that that was brought forth to the board a year ago in March um I think it's sort of we would be sticking with the status quo um and we'd be getting what we always got and we've we've as long as I've been here I've been
227hearing the board um concerned about achievement Gap and our students struggling in terms of learning to read and so I think with different leadership in place uh looking at um our needs preo and also our needs in in during the pandemic that Courtney um just addressed and Dr Jordan has addressed I feel like there this is the shift and change that this is based on the science of reading the amount of um time and effort and and um investment that we've placed into the science of reading through Orton Gillingham and the training that our teachers have that these to that that foundations and uh for prek through um grade three and then just words for grades four and five will really support our students in terms of that prevention and intervention that we haven't focused
228on before and for me Dr NIS the change is the change in leadership and the realization that we can't stick and do with what we've always done because if we do we're going to continue to get the results that we always got and and I appreciate that but that even uh more strongly reinforces my opinion there needs to be a little more formal uh justification presented to the board uh for this I I I'm not I'm not disagreeing or saying it's wrong but it's no and certainly I certainly understand that um and and as Dr Jordan said we we would love for this to take action tonight but if you feel like we need to write something up with some justification and some data and some porting um we can certainly do that and bring
229it back to to another meeting and Miss Pew I would like to add we were on monitoring visits with the vdioe just last week with two of our elementary of our elementary schools are in monit moning status for achievement Gap issues and when the principls presented their literacy plans including Orton Gillingham the VOE representative's eyes lit up and that doesn't happen very often and she said wow you are using a tier 2 intervention in a whole class environment um so this is something that is endorsed by the VOE but it's endorsed more for tier 2 small group pull outs so it would be very non-traditional but it would be more intense than what most people do with the program um we would use the data that we're seeing currently to even purchase the materials Courtney
230I don't know if you want to speak to what we're seeing in some of the grades like second and third third grade we know that we'll need to go back and reinforce um some of the primary skills the foundational skills even as students are getting into Upper Elementary so we would use it to really really focus on student needs and not offer like the whole group P prescriptive approach like a like a basil would have done thank you Dr Jordan and U what I would I'd like us to do I think Dr n's points are well taken I think I saw Miss Evans hand up at one point and then I know I see Dr Harvey if Miss Evans has not have anything then we will go with do Mr Harvey and then Dr Carter
231go ahead Gary oh I I'll yield to to Belle I'm sorry I didn't know if I saw your hand up on this matter b I didn't know if if you wanted to speak to this matter at this time sorry my computer was about to die I had to run and go get my charger um I understand where uh Dr NIS is coming from with justification I can understand that the teacher side of me is thrilled to hear this and is very excited about this that you would get that level of support in a whole group classroom for reading um I I think it's wonderful I understand wanting more information but the teacher in me thinks it's a fantastic idea thank you Miss hear me yeah we heard you very good Miss Evans Mr Harvey okay
232yeah I'm I'm glad I I did get to to to uh follow follow Miss Evans because she summed up very well what I wanted to to say but I also wanted to add that in in Miss Bennett's presentation she she clearly stated the data that I needed I mean she she talked about we we are having declining results over years so sort of that status quo that we've been doing has not been working and now what they're proposing is something that's different that might be a little bit out of the ordinary we are truly here taking a risk because it's not something that that the the state has put on a list but sometimes you you need to take a risk like this and it sounds to me that this is a um a risk
233that they have done plenty of research in in looking at and see the benefits of how it can impact our Learners right now during covid um you know we we are in a different education environment than we were a year ago and uh I I support their um their their their ability to go out and look for alternatives to work for air Learners and so um based on the information that I heard them and I and I I appreciate Dr nils's concern but but I feel pretty comfortable with the presentation that I've heard tonight that I would be willing to move forward with approval of of this initiative to are you prepar to make a motion to that end otherwise I'd hear Dr Carter I have a comment to make all right then we're going
234to hear from Dr Carter then Mr group Dr from just what what I've read about um those books they again they seem very um and it even says interactive and we also use multi sensory but I would like some more information also but they do sound really great but my question is um and you may have answered this may have dozed off or wasn't paying much attention but what makes them so much better than what we already had is it the multi multi multisensory or and I don't understand what basil is and not neither do I understand the tier the tier one tier two so that I would like more information on that what the you know using for tier two instead of one so I can really grass but the books look um the
235systems or the program whatever the books are they look like they would be very informative and students may enjoy them I'll do my best to explain this and then I'll follow on my backup Courtney and she's had to be more of a backup tonight so I owe her a huge apology um these are different in that they are typically used in small group pullout settings like for a title one setting or when you know a student is multiple grade levels behind so it's I wouldn't say they're better Dr carard they're different they're based on current research evidence-based strategies it is a very different from the from a basil approach but it's also different from a prescriptive approach where there may be lesson cards and teachers are to follow exactly what lesson cards say to do
236with the students this is going to be training up our teachers in the science of reading using OG and we have hundreds of teachers already trained this way but having materials that are differentiated and if you feel like a student learns in various modes then you're going to be able to find those modes that work the best for the um students Courtney do you want to talk about some of the ways like the sand or I don't know I don't know what would help at this point but just the ways that foundations and Orton Gillingham would use um the the different centuries and I wanted to clear up your clear up your um your question Dr Carter about what is a basil a basil is the traditional book that everybody gets that is typically if
237it's a third grade book you know everybody's reading the same story and for 75% that might be a book that's on the right level but for the other 25% it's way too hard um and so it's it's more of a everybody gets the same prescription just kind of like if you went to the doctor and you had a cold but they were going to give you the same um medicine that they gave somebody who had an ear infection you know it wouldn't do any good so that's kind of what a basil is and this one is more tiered um that if you need medicine for a cold you're going to get that if somebody else needs it for a sore throat they're going to get that um it's really a prescription that is going to
238um be individualized for the students it's more differentiated um and as far as like the practices they use I mean it is they're writing in sand when they're writing they're writing with a crayon um and a piece of sandpaper underneath it so then they can go back with their finger and trace it and feel it and touch it um I was in a training where we're spelling words but we're having to stand up and you're you know you're tapping your arm you're moving things um she had us doing silly you know like you're trying to spin your fingers in Reverse ways and things that you know just aren't traditional in a classroom but it's things that the research has shown that that's what children need that's what their brains need in order to ignite the
239learning process in order to be able to read Dr Jordan or or Miss Bennett can you just very quickly briefly explain the the three tiers yes I'll do that think that's is that what I cut out Courtney was I'm so sorry yes so res response to intervention is a popular thing that we talk about in education so it's if you can picture a pyramid so wider at the base um and narrow at the top so response to intervention has three tiers of instruction the bottom so the base of the pyramid is the tier one instruction everyone gets that and you should reach about 75 to 80% of students with tier solid tier one instruction so that's what every LC student is getting and tier one instruction can be um teacher selected it can be programmatic
240so tier one is just talking about the instruction that everybody gets tier two is that next layer that's narrower and even the experts about RTI will argue about how many kids are supposed to be in that tier so picture 15 to 20% of students in that next tier that's typically been small group pull out um tutoring it could be remediation um it could be Courtney help me out here even Title One Services you know just traditional ways that students um who are not quite getting it in the classroom get something extra on top of it so tier one and tier two go together if you're a tier 2 student you still get what you're getting in the classroom but you're just going to get that extra intervention tier three can be something totally separate and
241that should be around 5 to 10% of students it is a really prescriptive Intervention Program lots of folks would use things like Loi or if you've heard us talk about uh Intervention Program we have at two of our middle schools read 180 that's a tier three approach and when you talk about the tiers your trying to intervene in every way possible before identifying students for special education services and special education is way out of my Lane but I will say that we can do a much better job with tier one tier 2 and tier three interventions that are aligned and hopefully we will not see an overidentification of students in our special education services Courtney would you add anything to that or did I do do okay job think you did a fine job thank
242you Dr Jordan uh Dr gut if you would like to make a a point then we're going to move this matter on in in sensitivity of time even though this is incredibly significant matter Dr gut I just wanted to make two comments if uh I I um respect Dr Jordan's professional talent because she's been trained by the best a lot of people don't understand my comment but I truly mean it because she's trained by the best so I truly uh believe in her professional judgment so if she supports it I'll support if a motion is made number two uh um I want to request the chair you know some of U actually I'm under the covid so we are already four hours into this meeting and the body is not what it used to be
243or was there in the last meeting so if you can keep that in mind thank you thank you so much for that Dr KOA very well stated at this point I think that Dr NIS has reason L uh indicated a need for further information at the same time I hear many board members suggesting that they are uh have receive information so if there a motion on the floor at this time uh for us to act on this tonight if not we will bring it back for a discussion at the next meeting Mr Harvey I would be willing to move for us to act on this tonight I think that we we all agree that um we have the experts here at the table um I as I've watched the screen um I've seen a lot
244of heads nod um in support of one another on this on this um program and um I'm prepared to make a motion that we um approve the uh Elementary English textbook adoption tonight and I second that motion and seconded by uh Dr guton motion made by Mr Harvey that we would adopt the elementary English textbook uh piece as presented which will give them a non-traditional means somewhat deviating from previous decisions but uh so be it any further questions or discussion on this motion Dr NIS uh I I I support the uh intent in general I don't uh believe board has enough uh justification to support it at this point uh I will not support this motion uh it's not that I don't believe it's uh not worthy or won't work but it's certainly a big
245enough change and I think Administration needs to do the due diligence and do a do a legitimate write up and put it out there for I mean I don't want to I all of us have been through school and with a lot of oh yeah this is the right way to teach this few years later it changes you know you can go through writing to read and all the new math and all that all that old stuff phonic was out phonic was in no now it's anyway so that's where I'm coming from I want to see Administration do the hard work write it down put it out there for everybody to see and this is a big you know now anyway I I support it uh I support the intent but I want to see
246I want to see the homework done so if there's a vote tonight I'm going to vote now thank you Dr Millis U further discussion Mr Harvey I guess I'm a little bit lost um in that we have just sat here I feel like and we've heard uh what will basically be written down um do we need to see this in writing in front of us is is that what what is that issue here um I feel like that um we the Administration has put put together a proposal they they walked us through it and explained this information to us and why they feel this way I don't see where having them go back and put it in writing is going to provide us with additional information to to to Warrant delaying this decision when we
247can be implementing this program getting it started and start impacting our Learners sooner rather than later so I will be supporting this motion thank you Mr har Dr NIS did you want to speak to that yeah my comment is the material that we got with the board packet consisted of three web links to what I consider sales pitch pitchy kind of stuff that was not helpful at all didn't justify why you were switching from uh adopting a textbook to the the the intervention approach and I think that's a big enough change it's not traditional and you need to be formal about it and um enthusiasm counts for a lot but uh you know I expect to see some uh I expect to see a a a serious write up about this thank you Dr NIS
248and I'd like to carry the motion one way or the other but there's further discussion Dr Guta please just want to make sure that people know we need to be a little bit empathetic Dr Jordan just mentioned she's been suffering from covid for a month so please keep that in mind when all these formality discussions are done but I like ask the chair if there's no further discussion let's put it to vote call a question and objection to that all right all those in FA well uh Madam cler please call the RO please on this B Evans yes School Board member Morrison no Schoolboard member Carter yes School Board member Dr Brennan yes School Board member Dr Coleman yes schoolb member Dr Nellis no schoolb member Dr SAR yes schoolb member Dr gupter yes Schoolboard
249member Mr Harvey yes the motion has carried seven yes two no thank you madam clerk uh if it would please the board tonight uh we CED that matter that j3 we would move to our work session I think that you will find uh that very brief discussion uh valuable to us going forward uh but uh I would uh would like to move that to to the uh beginning of the work session if there's no objection Mr Harvey no I was just going to offer a motion that we table um item three um until our work session very good all right thank you so much Mr Harvey uh second been seconded by uh uh Dr Carter to the motion of Mr Harvey uh that we will table this until the next meeting if there's no further
250discussion on the matter all those in favor say indicate by saying I I I those oppos motion carries thank you Mr Harvey uh that'll move us to superintendent comments super quick happy School counselor's week to all of my school counselors who are awesome and fantastic we love you and appreciate everything you do not only for students and families but even during this time of Co you have been a valuable resource for your colleagues so congratulations to all our school counselors uh hopefully you've seen our school nutrition van out on the road uh leading serving sorry leading caring and serving LCS um the van is out delivering uh meals to remote select remote only families which was part of an initiative from Beth Morris and team so we're really proud of that it's nice cute colorful
251van if you get to see it and real quick this being the first week of Black History Month um I'd like to give us a quote from cesal Tyson which is so uh aopo for tonight challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew they're what make the instrument stretch what make you go beyond the norm and I think that sums up our discussion for tonight of what we were doing so we're looking forward to an exciting Black History Month uh programs that we have I do have a list of lots of things going on which I will share with you electronically and not tell you all tonight because of the hour so thank you thank you thank you thank you uh Dr Edwards uh we now item L board comments U
252Miss Evans no I just very quickly thank you to everybody in the administration who does this everyday with us and I just we appreciate you thank you Miss Evans Miss Morrison right Dr Carter just want to do a quick shout out to Heritage High Schools the inaugural presentation and I hope they're able to use it or to uh submit it for a showcase item if that's appropriate for the vssb um conference in November I know they're asking for different types of artwork and showcase pieces also for Mr ru's participation on the panel for Martin Luther King and um the YMCA and Mr Parker for the donation know the coaches for students and just also I don't know who's in charge of this but the southern regional meeting they also have an art contest so I
253hope our students last year I don't think our students submitted anything and we really need our students to submit artwork because we have some very talented students and I know Marie uh Waller used to do this and I don't know what we need to do but we'll get that information so we can make sure students can submit their artwork and that's coming up shortly thank you Dr C will say it Dr Brennan just a a quick recognition for Grayson Arnold and Jaden Scott they continue to do such a great job as our student representatives and whichever one starts out the session I always think the bar is so high and then the other one follows through they've done such a great job and also a shout out to the Beacon of Hope who got a
254lot of recognition through their presentations about the great job and the great partnership they're doing in Lynchburg City Schools thank you Dr Brenan Dr NIS yeah I was going to say the the Heritage uh video was pretty uh pretty moving and uh really puts into the cont or contrast our uh our isolation uh really did a really got really got me it's hard to do and our student reps do a really good job too it's great uh great to hear from them thank you Dr M Dr sinh I have to agree the musical presentation was just wonderful uh put a lump in my throat and it reminded me that all these weeks I've been wanting to say thank you to the music departments for the holiday music that streamed um we've got some great chals
255and violinists and it was just wonderful and um every time I'd see it I'd say oh I need to mention that at Schoolboard then I would forget so I really thank them for that and I just it just makes me feel that um there's so much that goes in on in our schools that develops the whole person that isn't captured by the S so test and it's really unfortunate it does a disservice to our students it does a disservice to our teachers and uh I'm really proud of what our students um are able to do um in our schools uh academically socially athletically and uh performatively artistically I should say so thank you for that thank you Dr sinh Dr gut you know i' like to thank Dr Edwards because nothing good happens without a
256excellent leader so all you always give praise to others it's time to take some credit to yourself so and number two I want to thank Dr Coleman to be a pillar of support in last one week you've been a true brother and I really appreciate it thank you thank you sir Mr Harvey yeah I also was really impressed with the with the Heritage presentation and it makes me proud to to be a a Pioneer um but I also want to give a shout out to all the teachers and band directors and coral leaders and everyone who worked hard to help develop those talents of of our students and of our Learners um our coaches all of them whether it's Athletics whether it's Afterschool activities whether it's Coral or or presentations are awesome because of the
257dedicated folks that work with their students and so you know thank them also wanted to say I appreciate all of our um members of the administration who have uh hung in there with us for over 4 hours now and and they are patient with us and uh work us through all of these issues and explain things to us and I and I appreciate every single one of you well said Mr Harvey U I would go last and um I would just want to say to each of you thank you this is four weeks in a row uh you can obviously see there's a little fluff in our meetings and there's a little busted discussion about very important matters some of which we're tackling for the very first time so we're Mavericks and uh I'm just
258want to let each of you know how appreciative I am of each of you and for our Collective work together uh recently I did a eulogy uh in a family where the young uh young child is left uh in need of support and so there's so much uh that's going on out there uh in interest of time I had asked Dr Edwards and I thought that Ethel's um uh piece that she put out encouraging the faith community to get involved uh in and helping to open their uh spaces to help uh uh tutor and work with students is so vital and so since the hour it's only a minute but I I'm not going to indulge you that we show it now but please check that out and thank you e re for the outstanding
259way you put that together all right um welcome yes all right at this time we will now move to item uh M informational items uh the equity task force will be meeting on February the 3D at 5:30 pm Zoom uh the the governor school meeting as was mentioned uh earlier will be Wednesday February 3rd at 1 Zoom the law Regional committee meeting will be Wednesday uh at 10:00 a.m. Zoom the legislative advocacy and Community Relations Committee will be scheduled for Tuesday February the 9th at 3:45 pm and B we're looking forward to that robust discussion around the matters that we will talk about then the next school board work session is Tuesday February the 16th at 5:00 pm finance committee will be February the 23rd at 3:30 pm and then our next regular school board
260meeting will be Tuesday March the 2nd at 5:00 pm never D moment on the lynberg City School Board lots of work is there a motion for adjournment yes I'll make a motion to adjourn thank you Vice Brenan Dr Brenan motion to adjourn seconded by Sharon Carter uh no further unreadiness all those in favor indicate by saying I I I those oppos motion carries meting the Jour see you next time