001[Music] good evening the May 7th 2020 electronic Zoom meeting of the Lynchburg City School Board is called to order that in accordance with policy B DD the Lindburg City School Board may meet by electronic communication means without a quorum physically assembled at one location when the governor has declared a state of emergency that city council adopted on March 24th 2020 a continuity of government ordinance that allowed 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 that Virginia's executive legislative and judicial bodies at all levels have declared states of emergency based on the advice of Health directors and taking unprecedented restrictive actions to limit physical contact among citizens that the Corona virus makes it impractical and unsafe
002even life-threatening for a quorum of the public body to physically assemble in one location that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss or transact the business statutorily required or necessarily to continue operations Arrangements have been made you're muted Susan right I need to start over then get back to go back to Arrangements have been made I think that's the last thing I heard [Music] sorry all right there are some statements that I need to make for the LCS board before we hold this electronic meetings that in accordance with policy bdd that lynchb City School Board may meet by electronic communication means with form physically assembled at one location when the governor has declared a state of emergency that city council adopted on March 24th 2020 a continuity of government ordinance that allows city council
003and the city authorities boards commissions to hold electronic meetings in appropriate situations so long as alternative arrangements are made for public access to such meetings that Virginia's executive legislative and Jud IAL bodies at all levels have declared states of emergency based on the advice of Health directors in taking unprecedented restrictive actions to limit physical contact among citizens that the Corona virus makes it impractical and unsafe even life-threatening for a quorum of the public Bob body to physically assemble in one location that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss or tract the business sensorily required or necessary to continue operations those alternative Arrangements have been made for public access to the electronic meetings by streaming live on YouTube and broadcasting on Comcast channel 17 at 5:00 pm meetings are rebroadcast daily on Comcast at 10:00
004am and 7 pm and available online at the LCS YouTube channel I have a few housekeeping matters to share make sure unless you're speaking you're mic is muted and make sure if you're talking it's on if you want to ask a question or make a statement please send me a message through the chat option or raise your hand wait for me to call on you before you start speaking because there is a sound delay and you could be talking over the last person I will now call on each board member attending this meeting to reply with here or present Miss Evans here Dr Brennan Dr Brennan Miss Carter here Dr Coleman here miss Morrison's here Dr here Dr sonan here Mr Harvey here Dr Gupta Dr Gupta present and here thank you Dr bran yes
005I'm sorry I'm present thank you also joining us is superintendent Dr Crystal Edwards and our board clerk Miss Christine mvy Dr Edwards would you please identify other staff members joining this meeting uh yes and I will go as in order that I see them Dr Coleman is here miss wac is here miss gusowski is here miss Hester is here Mr journey is also here and also recording for us streaming live Miss Pew is here Dr Bryant is here Miss Brown is here miss joerger is here Mr Bey is here uh Dr copelan is here and I'm moving on to my second screen uh Mr a uh Garcia Blan is here miss Daniels is here and miss lipskin and Mr gaty I believe I got them all are here here present thank you and Miss towns
006is also yes thank you right that now moves us to the first item on um the approval of the agenda for our May 7th 2020 is there a motion I recommend that we approve the agenda for the May 7th meeting is there a motion move Madam chair I would second thank you Dr Coleman I would second to appr Dr Brenan that was a second okay thank you any questions or discussion I'm going to call roll vote roll call vote Dr GTA Madam chair I have a question can I ask it before I vote Yes so I received this Finance report at 4:00 today I know it's on the agenda I didn't have time to look at it I don't know if the other board members did or not so uh I don't I means I
007I feel like in I'm in a very peculiar situation where I won't be able to participate as much as I want to not without delving you know deep into those numbers so just wanted to say that okay um it is on the agenda for discussion and I would say that after it's presented we will have time for discussion but can we keep it on um have a motion for approval are you going to vote for the agenda yes as it is yes ma'am yes yes voted yes Mr Harvey thank you thank you Mr Harvey Mr Harvey yes Dr Shai Dr Shai Dr yes thank you Dr Nas yes Miss Morrison yes Dr Cole man yes Miss Carter yes Dr Brenan yes Miss Evans yes thank you I did not receive any amendments to the agenda
008so we will now move on to um public comments in accordance with policy BD DH public participation the school board welcomes requests and comments as established in the guidelines within that policy and is modified to comply with the governor's state of emergency person or groups wishing to address the school board may do so by choosing one of the following one send a written list statement to the Schoolboard clerk at mury C lcsedu.net statements will be read during the public comment section of the school board leave a voice message on the Schoolboard clar line at 43451 15577 messages will be played during the public comment section of the Schoolboard meetings written statements and or voice messages messages should include the name of the person submitting the comment the subject of his her remarks and be limited
009to three minutes per individual and five minutes per group all written statements and or voice messages must be received no later than two hour hours prior to the start of the meeting and Dr Coleman is going to read I think we have five letter that to read tonight and I think we have one voice message Dr Coleman thank you madam chair Dr Coleman yes can you hear me yesan yes we can hear you can you all hear me yes we can hear you Susan you're delayed but we can hear you all right thank thank you very much Madam chair yes we have uh six uh statements that have been submitted and I will read each of them within the required time uh our first uh public comment is coming from Ezra WEP to the LCS
010board you cannot have an honest anti-discrimination policy if you do not make it clear what groups are being protected from discrimination you cannot claim to be for anti-discrimination policies within LCS and then Pander to bigots you are afraid of confronting in the school system we live in a time where all over the nation there is a rise in the oppression and persecution of LGBT people especially black transgender women and girls they are vulnerable LGBT students in the school system now who need to know that this city and their schools will protect them from violence threats bullying and harassment whether that is online in person or in classes from any part of the school commun Community past generations of students remember what we went through and what our LGBT friends went through in the school system
011without clear section for them I grew up in Lynchburg in constant fear of people knowing I was and am bisexual because of student comments about wanting to murder queer people and teachers and administrators allowing our right to exist to be topics of debate in class one of my best friends was assaulted on school grounds by a group of students who on her way home from EC glass when she attended there and the perpetrators faced no repercussions and she had no protection from the school why because she dared to exist as a lesbian years later this kind of behavior is still happening to current students and by not making clear protections for your LGBT students it will continue to happen to Future students sincerely Ezra well second coming from Emily uh lamb I am Emily lamb
012lead registered Behavior technician at family insight and a counselor in training writing to the school board regarding the explicit inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies I am also addressing the need to create an lgbtq plus specific Equity task force I am a member of the lgbtq plus community and find the current language in the policy is to be inadequate based on what is reflected in the research the gay lesbian and straight education Network a National Education and advocacy group that promotes improved School environments for LGBT students strongly Advocate such enumeration to quote them enumeration is essential to protecting as many students as possible from bullying and harassment the strength of an enumerated law or policy is that it under scores those students whose research shows are most likely
013to be bullied and harassed and least likely to be protected under non-enumerated anti-bullying laws and policies while enumerated policies specifically highlight the most vulnerable students they do not limit the policy only to those students all students are protected even if they do not fall into one of the enumerated categories enumeration that includes sexual orientation and genit identity removes any doubt that LGBT youth are protected from bullying and harassment after all we often do not know which students are members of this group on top of the other vulnerable groups furthermore these students and falculty are in need of their own Equity task force considering the current Equity task force has its hands full with other issues thank you for reading this Emily lamb who is a lead registered Behavior technician thirdly this is coming to the
014board and to all of us I am Reverend Dr Alexa Frasier transitional minister at the First Unitarian Church of Lynchburg I understand that the Lynchburg City School Board is about to vote on two issues of importance to the Youth of the city and to my denomination Unitarian universalism our Church's Faith rest on seven principles of right relations which guide us in our Behavior with one another and our neighbors the first three of these are relevant in this discussion these are a recognition of the inherent worth and dignity of every person the importance of Justice equity and compassion in human relations and acceptance of one another with these principles in mind is important that the school system framework for anti-harassment and discri mination must explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity they are not currently explicitly
015enumerated but rather mentioned as an afterthought in a subsection as a definition in one of the policies harassment of people is not acceptable and certainly not for their sexual orientation or gender identity the language in the regulation should be changed immediately to clearly specify the unacceptability of such harassment additionally all of the policies guidance documents registration materials and other recordkeeping for students and staff should specify they quote unquote as an authorized gender identity they them should be included with she her he him identity is non-negotiable and someone whose preferred pronoun is they should not not be button hold into a dualistic he she label yours and Community Reverend Alexa Frasier fourth Briana manano I'm sending this email to express my support for including sexual orientation and gender identity in the anti-discrimination policy as a member
016of the queer lgbtq I A+ Community it is so important to me that we protect our queer students that we show them that they matter and their schools and community care about them enough to put it into policy when I was in Middle in high school I suffered severe anxiety and depression because of being bullied and a huge factor of that bullying was my sexual orientation and gender nonconforming presentation I was even targeted by my middle school principal who was homophobic an authority figure who was supposed to ensure my well-being at his school instead contributed to the shaming and oppressing of my identity my love and my voice and beliefs I did not feel that I had anyone to go to for justice anyone within the school system that would care or look out for
017kids like me I still struggle with anxiety depression and low self-esteem as an adult the way I was treated in school left scars on me that have lasted to present day and so many others have had so much worse happen to them because of homophobia and transphobia and the people that are supposed to protect them are often turn a blind eye please protect our students don't let this so much worse continue to happen to our vulnerable children and protect queer teachers Etc from De discrimination to thank you Banna manzona Lynchburg resident fifth this is coming from vente Gonzalez subject is anti-discrimination policy firstly I would like to commend superintendent Dr Crystal Edwards for her incredible response and Leadership during the covid-19 crisis I am so thankful and assured by the work we have seen during
018the last few months and hope that this school board appreciates just how lucky this community is to finally have the leadership we have been waiting so many years for my name is viente and I attended e glass from 2005 to 2009 under the principal ship of Susan Morrison although I have some amazing memories from glass they were truly some of the hardest years of my life everyone knew I was queer I'm a feminine boy and with that came constant harassment from the moment I talked or walked into the building till the moment I left school grounds to be abused in this way every day is to be beat down emotionally into a PP what does life or what does my life matter why am I this way this thing that people are so detested by
019that is how I saw myself as a thing I could feel that people were disgusted by me and I tried my best to change but I never could I am queer and I will always be this way one thing I remember most distinctly was the role of adults and teachers most of the harassment I faced was in the classroom witnessed by teachers who for some reason or another chose to do nothing in fact during these years and Social Studies classes teachers would facilitate conversations of whether or not queer people should be given full rights of marriage and anti-discrimination protections people would compare us to perverts and animals and all of this was facilitated by the teachers there was nowhere for me to go no teachers no administrators no counselors and at the time I was
020too ashamed and embarrassed to tell my parents what I was going through I carried all of this in silence for four years I struggled every day with depression and thoughts of suicide in reality I'm lucky to still be here I've tried my best to forget this part of my life but I can honestly say that my years at EC glass traumatized me and I've carried that trauma with me into adulthood at this point there's nothing left for me to say but that I hope you will make the right choice to include gender identity and sexual orientation in the anti-discrimination policy this school system has failed us for so many years it's time to hold yourselves accountable queer is beautiful queer is powerful and no matter what you decide today we will continue to exist and
021finally from Maryanne vernelson who is person from Randolph College good afternoon I wanted to send an email imploring you to include gender identity and sexual orientation in the Lynchburg City school anti-discrimination policy during my seven years living here in Lynchburg I have noticed that the city has become more and more openly accepting and it's a beautiful thing it has helped me grow to accept my own identity as a queer person and I'm so incredibly grateful for that discrimination is something that no one deserves but that is especially true for young people as our Lynchberg youth are growing and coming into themselves I believe it is essential that they are supported regardless of race sex gender identity sexual orientation Etc please help make it so that the young people of this city feel they can fully
022Embrace who they are growing to be thank you that concludes the written public comments Dr Edwards I need to share my [Music] screen hello uh this is Dan Harrison I'm the pastor of Church of the Covenant here in Lynchburg and the father of a former Lynchberg City School student um I want this this uh message to be played uh for the uh school board meeting uh this Thursday um May 7th and I would like to Simply uh share that uh I know first of all I want to thank everyone for all that you're doing um as and able to continue working and working with our students um uh despite the pandemic um uh the many people who are putting themselves at risk uh to keep operations going I just want to say thank you all
023so much for your hard work and uh diligence to care for our communities uh young people and then uh the second thing I'd like to um say is is simply to comment as you are considering a finally a vote uh to include all-inclusive language uh that refers to sexual orientation and gender identity as uh um non-discrimination uh as you look at the non-discrimination policy uh for the school and I just want to applaud you encourage you first of all to uh definitely vote to include such language um it is it is not unknown that Across the Nation um students that are in these categories are often targeted and bullied and uh feel very very um uh Mar marginalized and we as as as uh the parents as the community as the leaders of the community
024want to ensure that the schools that provide support for all of our students and our church members and parishioners that that that there will be it will be a safe place and so we can do that simply by adding in this language um our state has done it I believe as well already and I and I know that most of you are inclined to do so and I just want to continue to affirm and encourage you uh to continue to stand up for all students but uh especially these very critically marginalized students who are often most susceptible to self harm and uh suicidal attempts um and certainly thoughts uh so please uh do your best to protect our students by including this language it hurts no one by including it so please do so but
025but it can save lives by including including it so please include it thank you very very much for uh listening to me I have a great uh evening and uh a very fruitful meeting bye okay thank you Dr Coleman that now moves us to um section D the finance report March financial report Dr Edward yes and I don't believe I said in the opening that miss lanic is here but miss lanic is here and she will give the financial report good evening tonight I'm going to provide with to you the March 31st um financial report the operating budget Still Remains as it was in the February report of 100, 67,900 76 received through March 31st we have received 64.1 15% of our revenue and that is in line to what we have received in Prior
026years we were when I looked at back last year we were at 64.7% so that's in line with that the expenditures to date has been 66.1 12 66.2% of our budget um I have attached a detail revenue report and an expenditure report if you have any questions the one thing I did want to point out on the revenue report is that there is under the at risk in the state items under the at risk you'll see that we have exceeded our budget for that number um we received notification from the state at the end of March that due to a programming error they had given us um given all the school divisions um fully funding that at risk and actually exceeded some to some to some school divisions and that excess that you're seeing in
027that line will be deducted from the basic Aid line um that second line on that report so I just wanted to point out that because it was already showing at over 100% of that state revenue and the only other item for the state um is that is the early reading specialist initiative the $ 43,372 3,31 is not going to be coming in the criteria was that they looked at the third grade reading so assessments and you had to be ranked the lowest um and so we did not meet that criteria so I just wanted to point those out because you're going to see 0% in that line item the other items that you're seeing Zero are Foster um foster care funds and your CTE funds those we still don't start receiving until May and June
028so I just wanted to point those out on the revenue side I've also included a summary of our March health insurance um we started the month with having a little over $850,000 in the account to fund our claims and with the additions um through payroll employee employer contributions direct um payments minus the admin um fees and the claims paid um our ending balance is 62985 19 so as you can see that that balance has continued to go down um I I do like to point out whenever we have months that have five weeks because that's five weeks of claims when a lot of months you have four so when you're doing a comparisons that does um it does cause some of the fluctuations so I did want to point that out I still consider this
029report to be our preco um report um April will be the same we aren't going to start seeing the impacts of any revenue losses until May so we are closely monitoring that do you all have any questions I do Dr Nas has sent in a question Dr Nas yeah I was I was my question was are you seeing any impact um any Co impact and then you just you just answer that no at this point but you do expect to see that the beginning of next month right so we uh there's a delay of two months before we rece we'll see the impact of any reduction in our sales tax so we're expecting to see that in may we will get our first payment we get payments twice a month mid-mon and the end of
030the month so we're very anxious to see what our payment is on the 15th um we are closely monitoring everything but we have not seen any impact I've already done the a the April report because I keep it up to date anyway and but we weren't anticipating to see any reduction until possibly May June and because we push back our July sales tax receipts that too will impact us this year um we have doing some different projections just some scenarios of what what kind of if the sales tax loss is this versus you know another projection and we can present that when we have our next finance committee meeting Dr Bren I have uh questions from Dr Brennan Dr and I think Miss Carter Dr Brennan yes Mr K thanks very much for this report
031and I know we're all interested in the covid effects and and looking at the revenue as far as the listed for lottery per people allocation for this year we've received about 45% of what we should be receiving is that pretty typical for the lottery to be behind and also the sales tax looks like that's almost at 70% which looks pretty good but is the is a lottery usually less that's one question the other question is are we seeing any impact as far as either uh expense or or benefit in Transportation with what we're doing with feeding and supplying foods to the children okay so the first question about the lottery funds um that is the 45% that is um typical we do not start receiving our Lottery funds until January um so that is um
032completely in line with the pre previous years the sales tax is one of those things is isn't guaranteed um actually we if we compare previous years at this point in the year we usually have received about 75% we were actually trending higher this year and we're looking at 77% um which was good but it really help it really we know that the next few months are going to be down so we just I'm closely monitoring that as far as savings yes we had we had projected savings from covid and it you know some of it was the transportation cost there they are still running the bus routes it's not every day so you do see some fuel savings um that was part of the calculation whenever we were looking at the the cut we had
033this year with the city when the city reduced us to 1.5 million so that was one of the things whenever that was on the tape when that was being discussed that we we went in there and looked to see what those savings were so we have gotten that that information together as well and I know that we you were you had requested a finance committee meeting um so we can go over all those greater detail the um other the Food Service as far as the meals and all that's a separate um fund it's a different entity basically the school nutrition program they do get reimbursement for their meals we do not get reimbursed for the transportation costs thank you dupta all right so um I see we are under water by about 180,000 on health
034insurance and you talked about that so uh now going back to Dr brenan's question on expenditure on a year-to-year basis compared to last March and last April do you see savings and how much is that in in dollar terms when you say do we see savings as far as I mean we l we see that the fuel over just the fuel cost itself has been down that wasn't necessarily Co we've had a mild um season weatherwise so we've had some increase in your utilities again that's not covid related um so we have had had some um savings we still had some positions we we you know we talk about the bus driver positions that are still vacant there are positions that we have not filled because all these savings we need with this uncertainty and
035we've set that aside just to deal with these projections not knowing what our revenue is going to be so what I was asking is compared last April April of 2019 to April of 2020 what is the variance in expenditure negative or positive I would have to I would have to go back and look at that I did look at the revenues I have I'd have to give that to you but I can do that that will give us his answer for savings how much savings have we had from last year to this year okay thank you Miss Carter did you have a question question I didn't but I do now um regarding our ADM what was the when is that calculated or figured and how do we do this year and what are they basing
036it on is have they changed the formula I don't want to speak on the formula because I don't that doesn't come out of my office but um I know that initial the last um update that they had and projected was 7788 I know that it we received notice from the state it was 7808 um if I'm not mistaken so it was up it was higher than the state projection but that's sort of that we received that notification late last week um so I don't know if it hasn't been published and updated in the C tool thank you um M Madam chair Dr Coleman uh yes Kim as it relate reles to uh devices and access points I know going forward we're going to need to look at that but have you seen or do you
037anticipate seeing any challenges with um what we will have to deal with in terms of students returning uh devices or additional devices needed uh access points to cover the equity issues we may have um in remote learning I would like to defer to miss Pew if she's available she could probably speak to that more so than I would sure um we have ordered already and received external access points for all of our schools um they are up and in place at eight of the nine initial locations that we identified across the city uh we're also working with a community partner um gospel Community Church on the corner of Bedford Avenue Ripon Avenue to get an external Wi-Fi access point up there as well um we will continue to work and provide external access to the
038internet at all of our schools and hopefully that will be completed in the next two weeks as far as devices our students currently in sixth through 12th grade have devices that are issued as part of the LCS one and my team has been working with Ethel Reeves and her family connect team to to identify families in need of devices and access to the internet especially at the elementary level and we've begun to issue devices to families who have elementary students at this point um we have adequate devices to cover that need but should return to learning look different in the fall than we potentially will need to have additional devices and that was not accounted for um in our current operating budget thank you Dr D did you have another question uh yes ma'am uh
039about the CIP projects which were the money which was allocated or put aside are we going ahead with them or they have put on sort of an abayance train you know for later date my understanding they are continuing Dr copelan can you just confirm that yes so uh have got no indications from the city that there's any changes to CIP so I was going to give an update at the end of the meeting but everything is progressing as we had planned and we've actually moved some projects up and started them early since children are not in the buildings and Dr G I did go back and took I'm sorry Dr com were you finished okay um Dr go this I did go back and look um and we the expenditures to date um last year
040were 65. 94% I just wanted to point out that even though ours looked a little higher we did have the school buses that came over and have been that were from prior year that could distort that because that was significantly higher than the um prior Year's um encumbrance in 2019 what was in terms of dollars and cents um I have to pull that back up hold on one second because 65% of the Baseline may change so we don't know right it was 64,66 355 7 64 m 760,000 35512 and I'm I cannot see the screen what was the if you have access what's the expenditure now in this year 66 million 23894 it has gone up by almost $2 million again some of those were the buses and the prior years but we we can
041look at it at and give it to you in detail by the division thank you are there any other questions so Madam chair I I want to make sure that I'm clear so what we're seeing tonight does not bear adequate uh reflection of what the next report will look like when we will have a better feel for what we've been dealing with and some of the impacts this is pretty pretty straightforward as it was when we were actually functioning uh in the way that we were okay right thank you m conic we now move to the consent agenda which includes School Board meeting minutes from April the 7th 2020 a regular board meeting the special board meeting minutes from March 25th 2020 and the school board work session from March 31st 2020 the Personnel report
042and the special education annual plan Part B 20221 is there a motion to approve the consent agenda move the adoption of the consent agenda second thank you Mrs Evans where are the where the meeting minutes at if you go to the board docks and look under the board meetings at that meeting the minutes are there um I don't I don't see them but if everybody else does then they're there okay you you referring to the a the 7th yeah I see them that's that is where they're now posted if you go back to that April meeting and look at the minutes that the the that will be there we we have any other questions or comments we have a motion by Dr Coleman and a second by Mrs Al uh Evans Miss Evans how do
043you vote Yes Dr Brennan yes Miss Carter yes Dr Coleman yes Mrs Morrison yes Dr NIS yes Dr Senai yes Mr Harvey yes Dr GTA yes thank you that now takes us to section F unfinished business looking before we get to unfinished business can I sneak in a couple of announcements yes okay um since the Personnel Agenda Report has um been approved we have a couple of announcements to make a couple of congratulatory um announcements let's start with we know that Miss G who is not here tonight but she is retiring at the end of um this month and Miss G is our director of personnel who has been very busy um holding us down for the last couple years um but we wish her well in retirement and we are happy to announce her
044replacement as Miss Laura sers um and Miss sers has been um is an experienced HR person she's worked in corporate she's the corporate director ctor of HR for Delta star um and prior to that she was a consultant um she's worked for sellers HR she's done a lot of training and we are looking forward to having Miss sers join the Lynchburg City School family while also wishing Miss g a wonderful wonderful uh retirement that's one of four number two um we also had another retirement earlier this year in Jan anuary if you remember Mr Vander worker Willis Vander worker our um very esteemed special ed director retired uh we did have an interim in there but now we are pleased to announce his replacement which is an internal candidate um and our supervisor Miss Janine
045Daniels Basher who's been with the Lynchburg City Schools um so we are happy to have Janine take on um the lead as the Director of special educ we had Miss Trent in there for uh an interim and she is now um going to be leaving us uh Miss boser has been subbing for some of the things that Mr Vander worker had been covering she's been working with the community um she has played a role in the development of our budget as well as teacher training a lot of the OG training that teachers are fond of um she's worked with so we are so glad to see her take on that position and we also have two principal positions again another retirement and another wish wish her well um who has spent her entire career with
046us that's miss Karen Nelson from perrymont will be retiring at the end of this year and we are happy to welcome back home Mr Ty gford who used to work Gafford sorry about that who used to work for lcf um and he will be coming on as the new perrymont principal uh he was an EC glass uh I me sorry he was a Heritage High School teacher he taught for 11 years and is currently the principal in alab Vista combined school and he will be joining us replacing miss Karen Nelson and then finally we have one more announcement to make um in terms of our current EC glass principal um is resigning for personal reasons and I'm proud to announce that the new EC glass principal is going to be the former or current associate
047principal Miss Rose Flora um and we are happy to see her step up and take the Reigns and as you know Miss Flora it bleeds blue she's been at EC glass um she's a champion a cheerleader for children and the staff there so we are so excited to have her take the leadership there and those are four positions three of which were retirements and um one was a resignation for key positions that we are happy to um have those Replacements join us so thank you thank you Dr Edwards and we're very excited about these um great individuals joining taking over leadership positions welcome to LCS if you're coming back now that M Madam chair yes Dr Coleman if I could just add of that all of those persons are just wonderful and uh when uh
048the superintendent me mentioned tdd uh it is important also to note that he is the outgoing chair of the Virginia High School league um and I was on a meeting with him earlier today and I didn't know where he was going but now I do thank you Dr colan now we're going to unfinish business and that's the lburg City School Board instruction and program policies and regulations Dr Edwards yes so uh we had on the agenda at our last meeting several um non-discrimination equal employment equal education and um anti-harassment policies which are up for the second reading and discussion and for adoption tonight so and I know that uh Dr Coleman is on I believe if there are any questions I have one question and I guess it's probably more direct uh to miss towns
049um as well as as Dr Coleman are we clear or confident that there's no other link there aren't linkages of other policies that are going to need to be cleaned up uh after this meeting none that I know of at the time this time thank you thank you and DRS uh none that I also did not see any at this time so the policy that we are voting on tonight reads the Lynchberg City School Board is committed to nondiscrimination with regard to race color religion national origin ancestry political affiliation sex sexual orientation gender gender identity age marital status genetic information disability or any other characteristics protected by the law this commitment prevails in all of its policies and practices concerning staff students educational programs and services and individuals and entities with whom the board does
050business are there any other questions M Madam chair that you want to share this for Action tonight is there a motion I move that we approve the policies thank you Sharon is there a second second I would like it was uh the motion by Miss Carter and second by Miss Evans I would like to share that I did reach out to um VBA and um Elizabeth ying and um a teacher at e GL High School who has worked with the Virginia Center for inclusive communities to get feedback about what's happening on language with he she they them and um Elizabeth said that there are many school divisions looking at this language but to her knowledge there are none that have taken this step there are still looking for the what languages that they want to
051use what words they want to use um Mrs McCormick said the same thing it's it's it it it when used when they is used it is a as a message of inclusion um it's definitely we're seeing Johnson said we're seeing more of it not as mostly though in large corporations but the school divisions around the Commonwealth um are looking at this language but there theyve not made decisions from what Elizabeth knew on what languages to use any other questions or comments Susan K make a comment are you ready to move forward with this vote and then continue to look at the language of he she they sus can I make a comment yes Dr Brenan I I just want to Dr Brenan thank you thank you m Morris I just wanted to thank Dr Edwards
052and her staff and also Mrs Evans and Miss Carter who worked so hard on these policies for such a long time we know we've addressed them for several for many months and I think we really spent a lot of time to make to make sure we get this right and hopefully in the future sure using the term they and them will also come along as it as it will with other school districts and I want to thank all the individuals in the community have also made comments either publicly or privately about this so I just want to support the board for their move and those particularly people Dr Edwards her staff and Miss Evans and Miss Carter for their work on these policies thank you Dr Brenan we have a mo in a second we're
053ready to do roll call vote Miss Evans yes Dr Brenan yes Miss Carter yes Dr Coleman yes Miss Morrison yes Dr NIS yes Dr Shai yes Mr Harvey yes Dr Gupta yes thank you motion is been passed unanimous by the board now takes us to new business the first is a very exciting new business item High School graduation 2020 plans Dr Edwards certainly and let me just give a shout out to all of my graduating seniors out there from EC glass Heritage High School Fort Hill empowerment Academy and the Laurel School shout out to all of you we are so excited about what's gonna happen we know this isn't what you expected but that's all right we G to make the best of this and we're gonna do you ride so I have some special
054guests with me today um who are gonna talk about how we are gonna celebrate our graduating seniors and what those culminating plans are going to look like so I am going to turn it over to miss wac Mr Bey miss gusowski and miss Hester to tell us a little bit about more of our senior celebration good evening everyone i' first like to um thank you Madame chairperson um Susan Morrison Vice chair Dr Coleman and um Dr Edwards thank you so much for allowing us to come in this afternoon on behalf of the high school senior leadership team um we want to thank you all for allowing us to be here um the LCS staff um our principals our staff all of the staff the teachers the bus drivers the nutrition staff um our school counselors
055all of the the community who supports our students we could not be here without you all the commitment that has been made to help prepare our students to succeed is just phenomenal because of the high school leadership team that has um been working since the school closing this team's dedication the careful planning um the follow through the leadership um we have an amazing plan and I'm here tonight just basically to be the mouthpiece to to gear them on and to just to talk about um and support them um and the most amazing ways in terms of the things that we have excitingly planned for our students um so as Dr Edwards alluded to I have some amazing folks that are here with me tonight that help represent that High School leadership senior your team and
056I'm going to turn it over to miss Hester who's going to take you through a little um sneak peek of what we have in store for our amazing seniors of the 2020 uh cohort well good evening everyone and it's our pleasure to be here with you and we want to thank you guys for your service and your support um we understand it's a community effort in order to make sure that we see our seniors through to capture their postsecondary goals and so this month is dedic ated to our seniors and so we're recognizing them from May the 11th all the way to May 31st and we have themed weeks because we understand it takes Educators it takes our community it takes our families and it takes our school and it's all inclusive and so I
057think Austin's going to share the screen and be able to uh see with us just a little preview of what what each week will look like for us for our seniors uh I don't currently have that at the moment okay but you should have the ability to share the screen well I can do that Dr Edwards had the presentation do I have it um I can pull it up on YouTube off our website if it's not a problem I can share it okay sarata can share it as well okay yeah all right let's go back so we're counting down to Graduation May 31st 2020 and of course we know during covid it threw us uh for a little different change of plans but nevertheless our heart and our intent and what we do for LCS
058is to honor our students and so we're going to be doing that with saving the date first and foremost May 31st 2020 is where you're going to see a live stream of the actual graduation for our seniors and so that will include speeches that will include musical selections and also making sure that each senior is recognized and that's from all Sites um with and that is of course with EA Fort Hill even our GED students and of course our students currently at the base school we broke it up into weeks because again like I said we know it's a community impact and so therefore May the 11th through the 15th we have how you have inspired me as an educator week and so from our prek all the way through to our school board and
059to our different LCS Educators you're going to be able to send messages videos uh pictures to our seniors to let them know how they have inspired us um we always think of course these are the babies who were born in 911 and so they're quite the resilient group and we want to honor them and let them know not only are we impacting them but they're making a great impact for us uh May 18th through the 22nd is where we want our community to be involved we have so many community members and businesses who want to show our seniors love and want to let them know that they're celebrated and that they're recognized and the work that they have done um is definitely noted and has made a difference as a citizen in Lynchburg City and
060then May 25th through the 29th all about seniors and at that day that is where we'll be able to have our seniors take their cap and gown pictures at socially distanced of course um and we have more in our plan how we'll do that because we'll have to definitely break them up in groups and put them in different parts of the campus but we know that's very important for families to get their pictures and their cap and gown and holding their diploma um we're also going to be doing some virtual award ceremonies so our businesses can be able to share videos of scholarships and and the donors so therefore we can still keep that going for our seniors and then you'll also get to see just t-shirts and yard signs and so again it's all
061about seniors on that week for us at LCS and then of course May 31st is our graduation day it's the countdown for us um and this is a day where we will graduate our seniors virtually and let them know that our care and compassion is full in full vision for them and their parents will be able to view this but not only view this they can go back as many times and have their families connect with them as well in these Precious Moments so this just gives you a little bit more and this will be aired on our website and then on June 1st through the 5th we will be able to actually give our seniors their diplomas and during that time we want them to decorate fully their cars and come up and have
062their uh diploma received and take extra pictures of them during that time so there's a full list starting from May the 11th through uh May 31st and even on the week of June 1st through the 5th but more importantly we wanted to make sure that our creativity wasn't stamped in regards to what we could do as a community to let seniors know that we care so I love what Dr Edwards says all the time we lead with care and so here at LCS we want to make sure that all families know that as we were in making sure that we were conscious and doing efforts to make sure that every day and every week that you know that not only from your school staff not only from your school board but your community cares about
063you and that's our plan in a nutshell thank you thanks sarata and I also want to just thank um that Senior Team for both high schools and parman Academy Fort Hill and everybody working together to make sure that this is a special time for our seniors um and I just want to give a shout out to um The Beacon of Hope who's been for uh showing our seniors and where they've been getting accepted on social media that's been great and wonderful and the Ed Foundation nor around this time we have our dinner for the top 15 seniors in each high school so we have not forgot about you either so there's going to be something that's coming out um you will get your certificate and recognition so that is coming soon too so we just
064want to make sure that like we said in our video you are special and we absolutely love you thank you thank you Dr Edwards um as chair of the lychburg City School Board it is my privilege at this time to read a resolution of recognition to Lynchburg City School's graduating class of 2020 presented by the Lynchburg City School Board due to the closure of schools from the covid-19 pandemic by our governor members of the Lindburg City Schools 2020 graduating class will be celebrated in honored by the Lindburg City School Board all of the Lynchburg City Schools faculty staff and students in the community of Lynchburg Virginia the week of May 18th through 22nd 2020 as the LCS graduating Senior Week whereas for the year of 2020 only all Lynchburg City Schools board members students faculty
065and staff and the community of Lynchburg Virginia will come together during the week of May 18th to 27 2020 to show our support for our 2020 graduating class as traditional graduation is not occurring at the end of the school year due to the covid-19 pandemic safety guidelines and whereas for the year of 2020 only all Lynchburg City Schools school board members students faculty and staff in the community of Lynchburg Virginia will celebrate the achieve AI Ms of our 2020 graduating class by displaying colors of blue and orange throughout the community to support and celebrate our Lynchburg City Schools 2020 graduating class whereas the Lynchburg City Schools graduating class of 2020 students have distinguish distinguished themselves locally and Statewide and have earned these achievements as students of Lindburg City Schools now therefore be it resolved that
066the Lynchburg City Board of Lynchburg Virginia commends the graduating class of 2020 for the hours of work and dedication that have gone into making achieving the success and be it resolved that the Lynchburg City School Board expresses appreciation and encouragement to all Lynchburg City Schools 2020 seniors who are now a part of the Lynchburg City schools Legacy and history the lburg city school board at this time I would like a motion to adopt the resolution from the a school board member Madam chair I resoundingly uh move the adoption acceptance of this resolution for the class of 2020 thank you Dr Coleman is there a second a second well I've heard several I heard Dr I heard Dr did I hear anyone else all right let's do a vote Mrs Evans yes Dr K yes in
067capitals Dr Brenan yes with enthusiasm Mr Harvey absolutely M Carter yes with excitement and exclamation marks exclamation marks Dr siai an exuberant yes drillas yes with fireworks Dr Coleman yes with what everybody has already said yes and Mrs Morrison says yes three times what everyone else already ordered my blue and orange rib morron you're breaking up a little bit May 2020 congratulations CL 2020 and and Madam Madam [Music] chair I don't know if it's out he resolution I don't know yeah heard part but she said it's so in and out that I can't keep track what what's being said but but Madam chair I don't know if it's out of order but I'm gonna stand up where I am I may not be seen But I just want to clap for those graduates and I
068want to clap for our creative team to put this together that is sensational [Laughter] okay I'm not sure if we lost Miss Morrison too much excitement for the senior class I I took my headset off is this better it's not your headset it's the internet connection so I might turn off your video and see if that's better can you talk now she's gone my internet connection says strong you hear me now yes I'm seeing you all we can hear you you can hear me now all right oh yeah that sounds good Susan do I need to read that resolution over no heard it I am so sorry all right that Tes is now to the annual Personnel report okay okay here miss G is here all right Miss G take it away okay this is
069the report that you it's of all of the professional staff administrators teachers uh that you you have to approve every year prior to contracts uh they're divided out by years because depending on your year depends on contract sometimes so it's a little confusing there's a lot of pages and we've gone over it and over it and over it and we still find things that we probably missed um but everybody's on here that needs to be approved and all we need is your approval so that when contracts do come out at the end of the month which we hope um everybody will be ready to get one so if there are any questions the one section at the very end that's about the non-renewal all the people are ler they're just uh up for recertification or
070renewal and we're working with those b b in contact with everybody so everybody will be straight I have yes sir Dr G Miss G are you still there did we lose you thank you very much for all your service you'll be missed your knowledge will be missed your experience will be missed I wish you all the good luck and you know enjoyment through your retirement thank you thank you Ma Madam chair Dr Coleman I likewise uh to Marie g a great graduate of James Madison University thank you for all of your work and uh going forward with our annual report you you feel okay with our ability to to to pass the Baton on uh in in pretty good shape yes sir I'm gonna I'm gonna spend a couple weeks with her to um kind
071of help her with all that we're gonna and been the people in my office are phenomenal they're what they're what keep my head above the wire it's not me it's them okay any additional questions this item is for Action the superintendent recommends that the school board approve the annual Personnel report is there a motion I'd like to move that we approve the annual Personnel report second there's been a motion by Dr Brennan and second by Sharon Carter thank you Miss Carter any further discussion Miss Evans we'll call for a vote Yes Yes Dr Brenan yes Miss Carter yes Dr Coleman yes Miss Morrison yes Dr NIS yes Dr I yes Mr Harvey yes Dr gupto yes that motion has been um passed by the board that takes us to G3 the amendment to the 2021
072program of studies for Early College Dr Edwards y I'm gonna invite Dr Coleman to come and talk about the quick Amendment right we have an amendment to the program of studies that reflects changes in the early college program uh from um the community college so uh with those changes that that they have in their their catalog we need to reflect those in our program of studies so that our students will be aware of you know the changes that have taken place basically we have um courses that were uh in the documents that you received it it indicates there was a course that was moved from um to earlier on in the program the information technology course which needed to be moved um so that the students could take advantage of what they learned in that
073in subsequent courses um which necessitated moving another course psychology a little bit later um the health courses that they offered were replaced with a new number um and then the uh Spanish courses that were part of the program have been replaced with art and music courses and and those check changes would take place for um newly enrolled students and we're asked to have that approved so we can update our program of studies so that our students will be aware of those changes have any questions M Madam chair Dr Coleman I I certainly support and and know that this needs to be done in the back of my mind I'm still wondering as we deal with this policy to what degree we going to have to revisit all of this if uh the new Norm suggest
074the need to do so just so you're right on point Dr that question about what our like um and going forward so right now we're we're just keeping with as we look towards the future and see what the what that new Norm is um it might not look like that so um but we're open for it we do have a team that's working on the return to learn and and and looking at some of the different possibilities okay Dr nillas did you have a question yeah I'm having trouble with my screens here um on the Spanish why is Spanish no longer considered uh for early college is is that a college decision or I mean are there other foreign languages that count for college credit but Spanish is is out or none of the other
075foreign languages count so just some background for that right it it was a college decision I think they they're looking at it from in conversations I had with them with just um information they gain from students who were taking the courses and a large number of our students do start taking foreign language very early with us and and they really were looking for other um Humanities courses at that time to fulfill the requirement um that's just with the the information I gained from them and that that's why the college made the change to meet to best meet the needs of the the majority of the students wanting to participate in that program okay thank you are there any additional questions this is for Action tonight is there a motion to approve the amendment to the
0762020 21 program of studies for Early College a move that we make the adjustment or changes necessary second thank you Miss Carter for the motion thank you Miss Evans for the second are there any other questions or discussions we'll do a roll call vote Miss Evans yes Dr riman yes Miss Carter yes Dr Coleman yes Miss Morrison yes Dr Nas yes Dr Shai yes Mr Harvey yes Dr Gupta yes thank you that now takes us to G4 the Carl Perkins fund 20221 and this is um for Action tonight as well okay I am going to invite Dr Bryant to join us uh yes Miss Morrison Dr Edward school board members thank you for having me uh I'd like to talk about the federal CTE Perkins funds for next year uh just as a reminder uh
077funds can be used for career guidance uh student organizations professional development for teachers and to purchase equipment to uh improve and update programs to meet industry standards um federal funds can cannot be used for Material supplies consumable items like that U one of my examples is we can can buy a printer but we can't buy the paper for the printer U the CTE advisory Council was presented with an outline in January of how the uh spending would go uh an updated plan was sent to members via email and they voted via email to approve the plan we did not have a advisory council meeting in April as we had planned to do but they did vote on the plan if you don't mind I'll just run through it really quickly um we plan to spend
078funds on career guidance to uh fund career assessments and transportation to local businesses and colleges uh for students to uh for job shadowing and mentorships uh we we'll fund field trips for industry industry two industry and career Affairs uh we will fund uh CTE student organizations and their travel and expenses to local state and National competitions uh professional development for teachers in the area of equipment we plan to purchase u a welding booth and some other items for precision Machining cosmetology is going to need trimmers Hot Irons and mannequins the Computer Systems Technology class uh which teaches cyber security we'll be purchasing Network switches towers and some Advanced software uh for business and technology we plan to upgrade the labs at Dunbar Middle and Linkhorn middle uh for the D crafting and Engineering class we'll
079be purchasing computers for them so they can update their software criminal justice will be purchasing virtual tasers and some virtual simulation units um for the sports medicine Lab at Heritage will be purchasing a normate tech pulse recovery system technology education we'll be purchasing updating our Labs at Sand Dusky middle Linkhorn middle and dunar middle with computers and some modules uh culinary arts we're going to be purchasing some a grill some burners work tables and a Knife Set uh Automotive will be purchasing alignment system and battery charging system and for laboratory safety we plan to purchase some safety uh lockable storage cabinets for chemicals and flammables and also safety glasses uh that concludes my report of how we're going to be spending the money um thank thank you for your support and thank you for Mr
080Harvey for serving on advisory Council and I also saw him at EC glass judging a contest uh sadly those students Advanced to the state contest but they did not have their state contest this year but uh we really appreciate and they enjoy the experience of particip of being in the regional contest as well so if anybody would like a tour of CTE you haven't been through in a while please contact me and back when we're going full strength I'll be glad to give you a tour of what we have going on at both schools so thank you very much Miss Morrison thank you are there any comments or questions from the board the approval of this grant proposal is necessary prior to submitting the local application to the Virginia Department of Education that's why we're
081voting on it tonight I move to approve the application thank you Dr Nas I would second that thank you Dr Brennan any other questions or comments call for a vote Miss EV yes Dr Brennan yes Miss Carter yes Dr Coleman yes Mrs Morrison yes Dr NIS yes Dr siai yes Mr Harvey absolutely Dr Gupta yes motion is passed thank you now we get to G5 Lynchburg City School Board instruction and program policies and regulations okay good evening again uh we have uh with us the next round of policies that we um have gone before the the policy work group um we're recommending that the the board uh hear these and and they were being recommended for um the vsba policies that were um updated and some that would replace the older policies that were in
082place and some are just updated BBA policies that up for review um please note that the policies have been you know of course personalized to reflect Lynchberg City Schools um for these ones that we're doing tonight some of these um relate more to my area and some of them relate more to um Miss Brown's area so we'll kind of work together on this I'll run through a few of the points of reference or kind of highlights from this um with one of the new policies igga um one change that was in that one it is a vsba policy the committee recommended that the the language during the regular Academic Year be added to that for clarity um for other new policies jfca uh that one is the teacher removal from class or removal from class
083uh it was the title was amended to reflect removal from class which is um how it is written in the code the committee felt that was most approp appropriate and it was also a slight amendment to that one was uh regulation was changed to um policy since that's what we follow um JCB um the vsba language to allow home instruction um students to enroll as part-time students to participate in JC was a policy that was updated by vsba um that reflects the changes in the federal guidelines for that because that program is ferally funded and and that is they would like us to include so BBA modified the policy um which uh also we had an update the policy JFC and that one uh Andor threatens was a part of the language that was changed
084in that one uh that's also vsba policy uh to the bullet on the first page the language in that policy is differs from the previous one in my opinion it more reflects the school setting and less of what would be considered criminal code um with those those the the main ones that I wanted to discuss and I'll kind of open it up for questions and between me and Miss Brown we'll do our best to answer I have question uh Dr son has a question okay I just had a a question about recess uh not in particular I guess to this policy but just to follow on we had a conversation several years ago about um changing the length of recess or adding a recess what have we done with that have we pursued that I'm
085not aware of that m brown do you know anything with that no I'm not aware of that we can take it back for review um Dr sen and get back some information to you yeah it's been several years I think since we talked about it but um so we did a survey if you recall um might have been two years ago of recess and the grade levels and all of that is that what you're referring to Dr I think so yeah okay okay so we did do a survey and we did actually some of the principles had proposed schedules which would um um change the times we looked at Personnel um we also cross reference that with some of our discipline to see um where some of the hot spots were and recess seems to
086be one of those places where um we're a little rambunctious sometimes so I don't have that data in front of me I know that we did review it and I think that we actually made a recommendation about the times um particularly in the elementary school and I I I think there was a push to go upwards to an hour but we did not go upward to an hour and then we also talked about breaking up the day um so that it during the day that kids would have stand and stretch and exercise and they were using all kinds of things to make sure that they're moving around and not just um sitting and then waiting for the recess time but I can go back and find that data for you if no I don't think
087that's necessary I just I just want to I wanted to make sure I was calling correctly and you've totally answered my question because those were the conversations we were having about expand adding more time to recess uh breaking it up maybe having opportunities for kids to move around and stretch um so no that that that completely answers my question thank you you're welcome Dr Brennan has a question thank you M Morrison I have a couple of questions one is on uh policy jfca which is removal a student from the class which is on I think page 16 of our agenda or of the policy statement um this Evans was nice enough to talked to me yesterday about a lot of these policies to help clarify things and my understanding was that this is actually a
088new policy that we've not had before that sort of tries to add parameters to when students can be removed uh from class for disciplined reasons and um I guess my first question is is is this all brand new and should we spend some time on it and then specifically have a question of it doesn't really address the length of time of removal from class I can't quite figure out what the difference is if a if a student is removed from class from for 30 minutes or from a day or two days what is the length of time proposed that they would go through this process um and then does the does does the parent or Guardian have a recourse to the decision to remove the student from class I see that this the teacher has
089the ability to take it to the principal and to the superintendent if there's issues but does the parent or guardan of the child have the ability to uh go higher with that decision uh Dr Brennan when you're talking about this policy and you're talking about the removal for class and ongoing disruptive behaviors um what will follow is the procedures that we put in place within the classroom um to answer the first one and I want to make sure that I heard you correctly um could you restate the first question to make sure I get it right oh sure thanks very much so my first question actually is this a brand new policy have we seen this before is this a new policy and then I think my main question is do we need to define
090the length of time that the student is removed from the class that this policy would pertain to okay is it if it's a brand new in terms of is it a brand new policy in terms of outlining the criteria and requirements um and procedures um for their exact removal that part is new coming from vsba in terms of teachers being able to remove disruptive students from class um we've had that in code um in our writings um previously so this is just a more thorough outline for BBA giving Clarity um in terms of the criteria for removal and the process that they are um they have recommended and outlined for us to use within the School Division and also putting in an appeal process to it okay in the second part um time yeah the
091duration of time the student being removed for okay within this policy here the duration of time that student is removed for Anytime a student is removed from class um an Administration is involved they're seen within that day um preferably immediately um within a reasonable time um period for the intervention prevention or whatever restorative action to occur at that point um at that point we would have to talk about and it would be Case by case as to what has occurred within the class how disruptive it is at that point um a lot a lot of factors go into that before totally removing um a student from class and at that point it will follow our dis um our student code of conduct in terms of the amount of time that it's removed so in terms
092of it being put into the policy here that would go until our you know we would follow our discipline Matrix at that point and in the policy Brenan it you know on page I guess it's two um it talks about the principle shall determine um the amount of time and just in practice that could be anything from just sit here for 30 minutes to calm down you know go to the timeout room or something like that or it might be for the rest of the day um but I I will just overlay that with we always try for least restrictive environment even though that's not a special ed um issue but but in terms of just trying to keep kids in class for as long and as much as possible because that's where the instruction
093is going going on however recognizing that a disruptive pupil is disrupting the learning of other students as well so I think there are things to take into consideration um when you do that but the ultimate goal is trying to return the student back to the learning environment as quick as possible thank you Dr nillas has a question so is it fair to say this is really the Prelude to say a shortterm or long-term Su suspension but not it wouldn't necessarily lead to that it can it's really formalizing the first steps towards something formal it should be the Prelude to intervention prevention and basic classroom management first um making sure that we're using good classroom management first then intervention services at the school level um from there what Support Services are needing making sure that we're
094meeting the needs of the student and also of the teacher in terms of classroom instruction um if assistance is needed there before we pull this student out of the classroom and then the tiered steps from there could lead into depending on the incident um the short-term suspension or the long-term suspension or the removal into a different class or to an alternative setting um also so it's a lot of options um as to what what could occur thank you Dr go has a question I just wanted to thank you this is a very good proactive early lack of early intervention so good change thank you thank you m moris can ask another question yes Dr Brenan this is on vsba policy JCB which is admission of non-public students for part-time activity and again Miss Evans would
095discuss this with me and I think Dr copelan also sent a memo today regarding this but I just wanted to sort of have a little discussion on this this is I think is the only place that we allow home instruction students to participate in the public schools and wanted to make sure that this was what the background for this is just to clarify for myself and for the board well I'll step in and provide a quick background um of the information I shared earlier today uh National Defense authorization act for 2020 included the language uh that uh opened homeo opened up Junior RC programs to homeschooled students it many times just like in any state or any legislature uh things get added to appropriation bills uh and I was informed of that in late January
096boed it up to vsba um and Miss Hing took a look at it uh did some research on it and then told me that they'd be updating the policy so we're just playing catchup on these policies but it is all tied to updates in title 10 of the United States code uh and as Dr bman mentioned previously since these are federally funded programs uh we don't have any options Dr copelan are these for students just within our district or can they be outside the district uh I believe it's written in such a way that it's students that are in our two high school zones correct so uh only students in the EC glass Zone uh could do Air Force Junior Roc and students in Heritage High School Zone could do the Marine Corp Junior ROTC
097great thank you Miss Morrison I'm sorry I have one more question one of the policies is that okay certainly so I've received a comment from a a a Community member T about the policy student conduct which is policy JFC um there looks like there's a ton of changes in that again my understanding from Miss Evans in reviewing it is that this is mostly wording that we're continuing to have the same policy for student conduct but it's being redone can someone help me in also reassure the community that this policy is going to still be in place yes sir so when you look through it the lot the striketh through is a lot of verbiage change um that they are using as we are changing over to language that are more simplified and not um as
098criminalized and also um that's refle reflecting um our shift to alternative to suspension um language um you're reading through this um and so a lot of the language has been stried through um and it's not as redundant as it has been in the past um and it clarifies what conduct is prohibited and it clearly outlines it um like it did in the past um it gives a blurb as to the um say for example hazing um it says hazing is prohibited and it tells you exactly the definition of hazing um and it goes that way through all of the things in which we would be reviewing um as a school division with outlining those conducts um that are prohibited in the definitions of those um items that's listed to there's no excessive um new language
099that's in here Dr Brennan um to me it made it simpler um and easier to read um and it also when we're talking about referring it refers you back to prevention intervention um and treatment also within this great thank you very much than you for the reassurance Miss Carter has a question this Carter unmute yourself Sharon yes we also had some of the same concerns you had with policy jfca and some of the ramifications that could result from that um because it really takes the point of view that the teacher can go as far as to say that they are they really want the student out of the classroom and then there will be a it could result in a conflict between the principal and the teacher regarding how determined that teacher is that they
100can't serve that student or unable to manage that student in the classroom so there are some concerns regarding that policy and just some of the the wording too is of concern but we try to tease it out as much as possible and also um Lan told shared with us how they are really going to look at it with the student conduct but and also just I ask for more Guidance with the teachers really some some training and just how this policy will be implemented and used because there could be some um negative ramifications I see thank thank you very much I also had a question from a Community member regarding um placing the motto in the schools uh In God We Trust uh I think we also have to do the Pledge of Allegiance and
101when I looked into it I think it was made of a law in 1956 and updated in 2003 but that we're mandated to to post certain things is that not correct that's true yes that's true yeah I looked into it uh Governor Warner signed it into law Madam chair yes yes would it be a fair characterization that once we can get down the road with this covid-19 ordeal that in light of previous discussions around discipline I noce seems to be some concerns about some of the policies tonight that we will eventually hear the school uh climate uh result surveys and then maybe review all of our discipline conduct policies for best practices in light of what we probably will have when kids start coming back um after this is all over thank you Dr Coleman
102I think that's that's a good idea this is not up for approval tonight we will vote on it on our June 2nd meeting if you reread these and you have any additional questions please reach out to Dr Coleman and Miss Brown thank you all that now takes us to the very short topic of the [Laughter] modified okay we have a modified budget thank you for your attention all right well what we've done is um put together a a a short kind of um option package we took a lead from city council when we were there on Tuesday we noticed that um the fire department presented some options so what Kim and I did was put together some options for the board to consider you can consider one of the options you can modify the options
103you can toss those options out and create a new option but we at least wanted to have a platform for conversation so what I would like to do is kind of go over these tables with you and the public just so that everybody understands the information in them and then at after I go through the four of them four different options then we'll come back and we'll take some detailed questions because I'm sure you have have many and I'm G see if I can get it up on the screen and share my screen that would be great it would be great yes okay let's see Miss Morrison can I ask you a question while we're pulling that up yes Dr Brenan Dr Edwards can you just give us a a uh time frame of of
104what we're hoping to do tonight and um how we will deal with this overtime as Dr Gupta pointed out at the beginning this information was given to us just recently I don't think most of us had a chance to really look at it are we're g to have a discussion tonight and then have time to think about it and have another meeting or what is the what is your schedule and what is city council schedule for us to get back to them okay so I I'm not as clear on city council schedule except to say that they have um carved the next couple Tuesdays to discuss it and um we we had a discussion this past Tuesday uh we they asked from some additional information some I gave Wednesday morning we're still working on one
105item that we're going to send them so at this point I don't know if we're on the agenda for Tuesday's discussion I do have a conference call with the city manager on Monday so I I may have more information regarding that um the last that I heard was that city council wanted wanted to finalize their budget um I guess first reading the first week in or the first meeting in June and then final the second meeting in June so I assume they're going to use the next couple Tuesdays in May to um kind of finalize their budget we are one we were one of 32 discussion points uh in their final budget um so that's that as for tonight what I would like to do is really thoroughly go over this information um and we
106are hoping to take our lead and guidance from you recognizing that we will be present Tuesday at um city council and should I be called up to discuss or share I I will share as much as I can based on how far we get today and and the guidance that this board gives me if that's fair enough okay okay so what we want to do was kind of take you through I'm calling this the revised Co um you had the preco now you got the revised Co because we're still in it um I'm can't wait to get to postco but we'll we'll we'll tackle that one when I get to it so we have four options for you um and I want to go over all four they're set up pretty similar but you'll be
107able to pick out the differences option A is the one that you are most familiar with because it's the one that you adopted on May 31st so if you look at Option a um Dr Edwards yes I I have something uh that's I don't is this what I'm supposed to be looking at what are you seeing hold onen Crystal I'm sorry showing the wrong page right is we're looking at gotcha job categories oh hold up let me see that I don't know how we got to that hold on let me just get the right page here how's that oh yeah that's good that's great all right okay like I was saying job categories are no here we go option A um is level funding from the city of Lynchburg this is the option that you
108adopted on May 3 first so we added a couple extra columns on this spreadsheet just so that you could be thinking through what next year would look like but I do want to go over it I've called it option A preco because it is the one that we had preo um and you can see this First Column source of Revenue those categories are the same same we got revenue from the state revenue from the city federal or miscellaneous revenue and charge for services at the back of this document is all the specifics so if you were wondering what's miscellaneous Revenue you can go to those really really really really detailed pages that are in the back of this um document uh to go through that this Baseline data is the adopted budget that you adopted
109on March 31st so you can see it has the 56 million from the state it has the 42 which is flat funding from the city and it has our other values Federal miscellaneous um for aund million budget underneath that is of this 56 million the amount from the state that is from sales tax so 12 million of the 56 is from sales tax and then Lottery six million is from sales tax because we spent a lot of time at the city council meeting talking about sales tax and Lottery and the question came up about not discussing that and just discussing revenue and I just want to make sure that all of our residents understand that in the 56 million 12 of it is sales tax and six of it is from the lottery and that's
110about a third of that Revenue so the new stuff that we added um just so that we do some predictions going forward if you look at the next three columns we are playing a guessing game of whether or not we're going to get the full sales tax which I don't think anyone thinks that we're going to get full so I did three columns or we did three columns the first one says what if we get 90% of sales tax and Lottery which is a 10% cut the next one says what if we get 80 and what if we get 70 all right so best case scenario it's just a 10% hit worst case scenario it's a 30% hit is the way that we're looking at that if you go to the middle row you'll see
111of the 12 million what 10% looks like what 20% looks like and what 30% looks like so if we were to lose 10% of the uh sales tax and Lottery we're talking about 1.8 million if we were to lose 20% we're talking about 3.66 and so on and so forth so that's the second column so I've adjusted the total revenue based on just in case we don't get the full percentage of state tax or sales tax and um Lottery and then you've heard me say this that I have tightened the belt I'm trying to hold on to as much fund balance in the existing budget as possible for that Gap and that Gap might be 1.8 it might be 3.66 it might be 5.49 but I'm anticipating a gap so we already know in the
112current budget that we lost um that city council has taken 1.5 million from the current budget so that's off the table um we also know that we did not adopt textbooks but that money is still in a textbook Reserve so we can't use it to do anything so what Kim and I have done and I've called it estimated usable fund balance what are we anticipating that not in a reserve that's not tied to something that we might actually be able to use to fill the Gap and that's at this point in time um not knowing the sales tax so we're we're we're just looking at this current fund balance we think it's going to be about 1.5 million If We Hold Steady with the tight belt that we put in place um which we are
113we we're doing really well with the other part of that is you've heard a lot about stimulus money or PA's money um it has various names coming coming to us and at the council I talked about it being about 3.3 million on paper but 22% of that may go to nonpublic schools or private schools so I didn't count the full amount um because I'm not sure if we're going to get it we keep asking questions about that if it's set up the way the other funding is so I counted about 2.58 um of that money as okay if I have to fill a gap I'm not touching stimulus I'm not touching my fund balance I just want to you know be cautious about what we're doing I should say that while we're looking at stimulus
114money to fill a gap in conversation with you know people at the state level and other divisions and looking to where we're going they're encouraging us to use stim stimulus money for ready to learn provide devices Shore up your Wi-Fi your hotpots and all of that but as much as Amy probably would love for me to say here's an extra million or million two to get some more stuff and get devices for all of our kids because we really don't have a onetoone plan for Beyond sixth grade and up um I I I can't give her that money yet I want to just wait and see what the what the um what the weather looks like so if you still follow my logic if we get 90% of sales tax and Lottery funds and we
115have an eight a $1.8 million hit so to speak um I would have about $4 million to fill the Gap and we would be in the Plus on 2.25 million that's assuming city council gave us level funding remember we're on option A that's a great place to be sitting that pretty much says we would have 2.2 million to do some wonderful things in terms of devices and hotspots and all of that and again assuming that city council gave us full funding and that that that we only had a% hit this is the preco budget let me say that publicly so so people understand um that this was pre-co uh if we have a 20% hit of sales tax and Lottery you can see that that that has doubled to be$ 3.66 million dollar uh if
116we use the money that's available to us that we're project projecting we'll have about $417,000 left over to do some Innovative things in terms of ready to learn and then of course if it's more devastating and we're looking at 30% of sales tax and Lottery we're looking at a deficit um so when the question came up uh a Schoolboard member asked about the step increase when we first proposed this plan even with the other money that we had from the state um the first thing we did when the state reduced us from um 3.9 to 2.5 as our as our Revenue we cut out pretty much everything that was in our proposed plan I don't even have it attached here anymore um you've seen it enough with the behavioral coaches and so on and so
117forth I just took it out because all of that came out it was about the 1.5 million in decreased revenue from the state um but if we were to stay with uh flat funding from the city and even the 90% or the 80% we would still be in a position to do the step increases for our staff that's not the 2% salary increase it's just the Small Bump from going from one place to the next so option A which is your preco um that option even with the cuts that we've already made would allow us to still do a step increase for our staff um so I just want to make sure that you understand that before I move to I ask a question about this before you move sure Dr gupter has a question
118so I have a couple of questions this 56 million 52113 does it assume a 3.6 additional uh 3.6 million additional funding from state or 2.5 2.5 the second question I had was uh and I don't see the expenses here but I'm assuming you when you say net you have taken expenses out so do the expenses take into account the savings which came from the S soq uh salary which we had included in our pre-o budget yeah $700,000 so when we took when we did the first part with the $1.5 million that came that was uh the decreased revenue from the state we already cut off the savings from the 2% increase that was a compensation package so all of that is already taken off the table so we're not even talking anything with the compensation
119now there is ma there are um local matches for more than just salary and I think that was a question that came up on Tuesday that even if we do take some of this funding um that's on your back Pages the detail pages that Kim provided we still have to provide a local match which we're going to do out of our operating budget if that I hope that answers your question so what other um what I wanted to see was a column with all the savings and the column with all the additional expenses so if you take the net I'm assuming you're looking at $1.5 million that's where the fund balance transfer is coming from yes and that includes the on average Sal salary savings we have year to year because of unfilled positions which
120is about $1.5 million that's money where's that 1.5 million coming from the 1.5 million is where we're projecting right now if we were to do fund balance and take out the reserves for tax book because that money we can't we can't use so I'm not including that in the 1.5 million it also includes the remember I talked about the Medicaid savings that will come inun June might be for June might roll over into J July that's about over 500,000 that's what this 1.5 is so this is all of our leftover money from savings from salary lapses um everything excluding textbook Reserve um that we project if we were to have a fund balance this would be something that we could use to plug a gap in the next school year because this year we have
121used $750,000 from salary savings for health uh yes insurance so I'm assuming there's another 750 will be forthcoming um from on an average of 1.5 am I right missc or yes there is still some savings because we've had some vacancies that we have not been able to fill the whole year um some of the 750,000 that was moved over to health insurance was out already budgeted in health insurance it's just that whoever took that position um maybe the person did not use the health insurance so it was sitting in that line it wasn't from a salary La if that makes any sense if that helps so what's your projected dollar amount for the savings from unfilled positions in this current fiscal year we H we have run some numbers um we were getting those together
122after we saw Dr brenan's um request for the meeting um we that that is where we're coming up with that one 1.5 So when you say run some numbers would you be sharing with the board what those numbers are yeah we were preparing for the um I'm assuming the upcoming finance committee meeting we weren't sure what your next steps were as a school board so that's one of the things that we wanted to talk to you about but we wanted to give you the broad overview of options and really set the tone for where we think we are so the 1.5 that we have listed as our usable fund balance again I have to keep saying because we did not buy the textbooks so that money will um be sitting in the textbook Reserve but
123it will look like fund balance at first until it goes back to the textbook Reserve that is what we're projecting as um money that's going to be unused positions we have not filled um benefits that were not taken any kind of encumbrances and that's one of the things that we're trying to do and just make sure as we um as we close the end of the school year um any POS that are open that you know you thought you were going to be 200,000 and now you're only 150,000 all of that money the thing that we did when we originally closed and we thought it was for two weeks but now we know it's for the school year the maintenance budget they're still doing their projects so maintenance is still spending money right now so
124that's our wild card and trying to make sure to see how much of those projects and and thank you to Ben and Steve for getting those things done but they do have open POS and they do have open work that they're doing so we're trying to predict around them and we don't want to short them um by claiming uh money that they may need to finish out the school year it's a great time where the kids aren't here okay when we created the salary Reserve um fund um what was the projected amount which was supposed to go I don't have it in my mind off to hand but you remember Miss Kim how much was presented to the finance committee on the board so we didn't have any money if you recall what I asked
125you to do as a board was to give me the option if I needed to create a salary Reserve if needed and at that time in March we were looking more towards the nutrition um we did not know whether or not they would be able to cover their budget and would have only put in the amount that we would have needed to help the nutrition folks and any other if we had any expenditures at that point we didn't know what they were so there was never a dollar amount in the salary Reserve that's not what you approved for me you approve me the ability to say if I needed to create one I could say hey here's where we're short for nutrition it's about X thousands of dollars I would like to put X thousand
126of dollars in a salary account so that when we get to July and we have to pay them that money is there that's what we did but I was asking what was your projection do you had a number in mind at that point in time I did not have a number at that point in time um the biggest caution that we did have was that we had the cost of the meal reimbursement and the differential was um The Nutrition department typically fed over 5,000 kids a day that's what they were getting reim bur for and when we first started feeding kids we were up to probably an average of 24 to 2600 a day so we were we were cautious about well if they were being reimbursed for 5,000 but we're only feeding 2600 whether
127or not they would be able to make payroll and we certainly didn't want to um tell our nutrition workers that we would not be able to make payroll so at that point that's what I was looking at as a possible and we wouldn't feel that until later after they've exhausted their Reserve okay Dr can I ask a question this is Bob Brennan sure um looking at the the um the cuts in the sales tax and Lottery funds you know I know that you know the city council when they did a presentation a couple of weeks ago they looked at local sales tax and they based it on different quarters you know fortunately their fiscal year and ours coincide they see their biggest hit being the next quarter which is their quarter one where they see
128it they're predicting a drop about 15% in that quarter then hopefully if things do open up and and businesses come back the second quarter they'd see a decrease about 3% for an overall annualized loss of about 5% um do we have any do you have any do we have any information from uh the Department of Education or whoever you know looks at this in the big picture for the state what they would predict for sales taas this like pretty drastic Cuts in the sales tax like example 30% that's question number one question number two uh when you've talked about the the amount that we'll be getting from the state you appropriately pointed out that some of that's going to have to go into our health care cost a million dollars to go into that does
129that fit into this formula as far as that million dollars somehow you know is that accounted for that we're going to ship use that money towards the health our cost for health care and then last is somewhere along here do we look at I know that you gave us the list of cuts which are essentially are the wonderful things we wanted to add with our new budget back in the pre-co era but does do the information presented this evening include any additional cuts that can be made in our expenses to make up for the decrease Revenue yes so let me let me tackle you ask three let me try to get through those the first question you asked was about whether or not we at the department of Ed are getting here's what's your first
130quarter second quarter third quarter or fourth quarter I I can't tell you how many Zoom calls um that I've participated in around our area all of region five all of the Commonwealth with um State superintendence and the questions that we ask each other are exactly what you see on my sheet how much are you predicting because we have not received anything like it should be this for quarter 1 this for Quarter Two um it was anywhere from it could be 5% 10% some places are predicting 50% so that's why you see me do a 10 2030 um right now just to kind of look at what what could happen and and I will say most of our colleagues in and about the area are between the 25% is where they are I've highlighted the 20%
131as a place where if you ask where where cous crystals living right now I'm living in the 20% zone so I'm trying to hedge my bets on all right if we're in the 20% Zone what does that look like um for us so that's that's your first question um your second question and I've already lost it so give it give it to me a little bit differently sure that's the health insurance cost we're hope we're going to use some of the state funds to to put in for our health in Insurance costs yes so when I presented on Tuesday to city council you saw um that we got an increase in state revenue of about 2.5 million and about 1.8 of that is uh the health insurance and the vrs together because vrs went up
132as well so we've already taken that into consideration and looking at this budget um that that money is already we know that's going there so we're not even thinking about using that to to sh up any gaps or or any additional projects for um return to learn and then your third question about positions and other areas so the the quick answer is yes um we are going to have a um position control party so my my strategy is and it's very similar to what we did the last time that we did a reorg is to start with um retirements resignations and attrition um and trying to do no harm in in in having lift or layoffs or Rifts um so it depends on where the cuts are and earlier you saw the the the opening
133screen on my computer um because that came up at city council too that there's over 90 positions posted on your website some of those have been on our website since the beginning of the school year we just have not been able to fill those some of them are on there because they are open positions which means the person in that position has left but we're not interviewing for that position at this time but the person has left so it is an open position and then some of them as you saw tonight when we did the the perrymont principal um ship or the EC glass principal ship are open positions that we need to fill because we need the leadership in that area so we are looking at that in terms of what can we hold
134off on doing because we we we're not sure when the brick and mortar part of school will start school still going on and then the other thing is how can we repurpose retool so yes we do we are working on a list for that but that list changes depending upon the options and how much so where I might make a small concession cut here or there if I'm talking if we're talking about less than a million dollars if if you're talking a larger amount I might have to do something different with that so I will get to that but I I just I kind of just want to go over this chart and the the area so that you see the impact and then you guys can give us some direction on what you where
135you where you want to go Dr Dr Dr Edwards yes and I totally agree but but to to what uh uh Dr Brennan was Raising is it your understanding that it will be probably around July August that the reforecasting for the sales and Lottery attacks would take place so that's that's down the road right well July and August we'll have a better sense of what happened this current school year my understanding is that um at least even on the city level we're looking at October for everybody's going to kind of sit and wait and see where we are in in the month of October um in terms of can we move forward people who are having hiring freezes in including the city I think I heard them say that as well so that was more
136of the I mean we're definitely we're looking at it month to month so but definitely um October was was where we're going to get a better forecast is it fair to assume your break even point is about 75% under this scenario I'm sorry I said that one more time Dr goop I didn't hear your break even point is about 75% uh 25% reduction for this option for this option right yes so and and again let me remind everybody before before we we lose where we are this is the preco option that assumes that city council would give us full flat funding from last year the 42 million and what we did was just say even with that 42 million what might happen to state revenue and that trying to give you a picture here um
137with that and then of course predicting our fund balance and our stimulus money to the best of our ability so what I want to do is show you some more yes that was my question I noticed that all three of them have the same that the city will give us level funding was there an option that no no no no no let me let me go over them I'm explain them to you so let me get to the next one I'm sorry I can't see anybody so I'm not able to call on people so that's okay okay that's okay let me go to the next option um um and then I will show you what what what what happened here so option b says level funding minus a million do so that's us asking for
138$1 million less so we took our original proposal and we subtracted a million and this is what we're asking from the city so if you look at the City Line instead of 42 million it now says 41 million so this is an OP this is our option b um and and we wanted to see what would it look like if we reduced our request our original request the budget that was already approved by you by $1 million doll and we use the same approach 90 80 70 we use the same um projected fund balance projected um stimulus package and where would we fall and what would those gaps look like and again I'm living in the cautious 80% 80% zone so if we were to say to council um we we we are going to
139present a budget that is $1 million less we recognize that you know this is this has affected everybody um we're looking at if we use our stimulus and our um projected fund balance of a gap of about $582,000 a little little bit over that so yes are there already some savings that I'm projecting from some things that are occurring right now absolutely are we looking at positions absolutely were we still trying to see if we could cover the step increase uh the step increase looks a lot different when I'm almost $600,000 in the hole than it did on the previous page when we were asking for flat funding so one of the reasons why we were asking for flat funding is because we knew we could do the step increase and even with the compensation
140pack package we were hoping to make that so this this makes the step increase a little scary if we live in 80% Zone if sales tax isn't a big of a hit we may be able to look a little bit better but I would hold on that so I want to do exactly what council said let us wait until October and see what our revenues are and I think Bob you said if they're looking really good we can retro back um if they looking somewhat good we might be able to do what you've done in the past which is give a midyear um raise or a bonus or something if that's possible but again that would determine what our revenues look like so option b is asking the city for 41 million instead of 42
141and now I'm G scroll down and you got the lay of the land option C is asking the city for $1.5 million left this was the original city manager proposal um before she we it got adjusted at the last meeting so this is getting 40 million instead of the 42 and again if you look at where the 80% zone is we're now looking at the possibility of a million dollars um in the 80% in the 90 we're still looking good we're still on the positive if we use the stimulus money um to to cover that Gap uh and I'm not even going down to the 70% Zone to tell you that one and then finally we have option D which is the option that the city manager has proposed that is on the table um
142and that is the 2.2 million and again um just looking at the deficit with the $2.2 million and that would be us getting 39 milon 828 from the city we're looking at if we use the projected fund balance and the estimated uh stimulus package that is where we are so there were a couple things and and there there are lots of questions that board members had when you when we met with you two by two some of you um were like no we absolutely have to do the salary increases and and I really want to do the salary increases for my staff in terms of the step increases that we put in place if that's the priority we completely cut off all the things that were in the proposed budget um some of you asked
143about the gov School spots I mean we we had that on the table because of the cuts so I guess for for um where we are right now we kind of need some guidance because we know that city council is discussing uh the school budget and right now option D is where city council the city manager has proposed so option D is where we are which if option D does go through with this this cut yes I absolutely have to probably do more than just attrition and retirements I'm going to have to look at um actual people in positions and make some reductions there so part of showing you this and giving you this information was to to to lay the land um in terms of the the funding the revenue the anticipated um and
144to get some conversation going between you all about what direction do you want us to go if the priority is do everything you can to do the salary increases and you can do salary increases by doing salary reductions of positions um but we need some guidance from the board with regard to that so I'm going to stop sharing my screen for a hot second so Mrs Morrison you can see everybody and um I know we have a lot of questions Dr Coleman I'm just going to get it started I I certainly do not want us to have any riff but we're getting rid of essential staff or at such a time as this I'm I'm not in favor of that Mr Harvey Mr Harvey you're mooded thank you I'm sorry um within my industry we're
145we're predicting a state loss of within the sales tax of 15 to 18% so I think I think um Dr Edwards is being conservative with the 20% and and I can definitely appreciate that I think my recommendation to this board is going to be simply um for us to be doing air due diligence obviously option D I mean we we are in the red so you know I I personally think we need to be just taking that off the table before we even even really start because that obviously um you know it puts us in the red and and we wouldn't be doing our due diligence as board members um secondly you know um when I start looking at option and B and C um C puts us dangerously close as well um if we're
146in that you know 15 to to 18% um again option and this is without any type of Step increase so I would almost like for us to to to stay in the realm of discussing options A and B and I will will will go ahead and and state that my position is that um I will only be voting for option A and the main reason that I state that is um I am I am adamant that we need to maintain the step program I agree with Dr Coleman I also do not want to see uh any of our staff um be cut at this time but I also want to um be very adamant that um we have we have talked about funding this step program for our staff for years I came on the
147board and this was one of the biggest question questions that I asked since I have been on the board to make sure that the step increase was sustainable and I understand we are in trying times here but obviously we believe we have a budget that we as a board can vote on and send to city council that that honors what we have told our staff so with that being said I would um I would welcome to hear uh what other board members have to say um but again I would I would like to ask that we could Poss POS consider taking options c and d off the board because you know we we can't even meet a due diligence as a board to to be passing a budget that is realistic um that that keeps
148us out of the red thank you Mr Harvey Dr Brenan so I I totally agree with Mr Harvey in his comments but a couple of additional comments one is that um related to my comments before um I was when I was talking about have we looked at other cuts and expenses I am not suggesting any Cuts in salaries or changing the step process my my question is have we looked at other Cuts in other areas you we've talked about looking at stuff instead of people when we look at the salaries I really want us to look at stuff such as a capital Improvement plans such as the textbook Reserve which I understand we voted on that you know but do we still have to proceed with that do we have to proceed with all of
149it are there other areas that there are funds that we can use in place of making cuts to the to the pay scale because I agree with Mr Harvey and I'm sure with every other board member we don't want to do that finally I have to say having sat in city council and listen to talk to them and I'm sure many people have watched that this is not an option for us of a b or c city council is saying we have to decide between C and D they' already cut us $1.5 million and that's not been back in discussion again the real discussion with them is are they going to cut the 700,000 that they've added on to it but I would love to say we could say we want to stay with option
150A but I don't think city council is that's that's the discussion right now I think they're saying that we are going to get a cut of at least 1.5 million and we need to come back to them with are there ways that we can uh save in other areas of expenses hopefully not people but stuff to look at or if it's people what are those costs going to be and Dr Edwards has given some of those numbers to them but I don't think we're this dialogue is related to our choice of a b or c unfortunately I wish it was but I think they have said we've lost 1.2 1.5 million already and probably the other 700 but those are that probably is up for a bit of discussion I agree with Dr Brennan um
151can I add one thing before you go Dr gupa just just for clarity because this did come up so and I'm going to I'm going to bring it up the question about the empower Academy because that was something that was discussed on um Tuesday about being a thing that we could cut and it's a little bit over $500,000 but I just want people to understand that when you say cut the empowerment Academy there are four teachers a nurse a guidance counselor and a program manager that are there so if you cut that program to get that money you're cutting people so as we think about program just be cautious about programs that people are attached to because you can't keep paying the people to if you want the the benefit from what the program costs
152um and we gave you that cost but it was inclusive of salaries and benefits for the people as well and I'm sorry for interrupting Dr gupa but I just wanted to make that clear I agree with my assessment is that 1.5 million is gone the discussion is about additional cuts on top of that but having said that I have seen Dr Edwards your list of things you have Frozen but what I like to see is where are the other potentials of savings in our system going forward uh because um and that's one I see this lot sort of a like you know in academic papers you have a bridge version so I have seen this bridge version of financial documents and I serve on the finance committee but I've not seen a detail version of
153where the or discussion of where the potential savings could be as we go forward may I say something I think at this point for us to sit down and go line by line and look for savings is is feudal because it's going to change every single day and I think what we have to decide is what do we see that we need for our school system what do we need to ask for and that's yes we know that we're in a tough situation the city's in a tough situation the state's in a t tough situation but that doesn't mean that all of the savings have to come from the school system I have a question Miss Evans I I didn't take it as it's a given it's a $1.5 million out maybe I and listening
154to it wrong and um Gary and I were on the same call when we did this and discussed it and I think it's a really really tough decision because none of us want to mess with a step increase that's a given of course we all wanted it we worked hard to get it but I also understand that we have to work with city council we have to do both I like be I like trying to go in with a compromise that we're willing to work with the city but it also gives us the option just like the city has in October to say we can look at our workers and see where we are and see if we're able to do something instead of it just being cut off for now and still show city
155council that we're willing to work with the city it's got to be a two-way street to meet here with them and us so I lean toward option b so Belle just to clarify because I I have the city's most recent I don't know if you can see that most recent sheet with me from Tuesday and we are item number 32 School operating and in it it says proposed budget 39828 498 school funding reduced 2.2 million for schools then right underneath that it says 42028 498 school's request 452 managers proposed and then 39828 managers propos revised so I think that discussion is still at the city council level about the entire 2.2 but just for clarity so people understand there were two versions of a 1.5 there was 1.5 taken from the current year that's a
156done deal that money is gone and then there was 1.5 originally proposed for next year and then an additional 700,000 on top of that so the the 1.5 in the current year that's gone but it is my understanding based on Tuesday and based on how this is written in their I think they call this the list of which we're number 32 on that they were discussing anywhere from our original request so option A all the way down to option D what they don't have on their list is option b which is the $1 million right but I think I think Bo right did a nice job of saying we needed to come back together as a group and talk about it that we hadn't get hadn't had the chance to look at all the scenarios
157yet and his suggestion was for us to be able to go back and look at what does this look like and that's what we're doing with your ab CD and I think at least that was my understanding of how it was left good point Belle Miss Carter you had a question on the step increase and we really wanted to make sure that we could maintain this and continue that and I'm still for that also but I'm not for doing that if it's going to make us have to make significant cuts to additional staff to give an increase but at the same time I'm not for targeting a program to say that that's where we have to Target to get the um the monies that we need I think we need to not just to look
158at one program but we need to look at everything I know we have done that and I'm also with uh Bob with Dr Brennan and U Mr Gary Mr Harvey regarding I think um city council head made or is really looking at not giving us the exact amount we want but at the same time like Mr Harvey said we should not settle for a budget that already puts us in the red that is not um our responsibility to take on to assume that we're going to adopt a budget or start working with a budget that we already know it's going to put us give us a negative so I'm for working with B that's all thank you Sharon Dr nillas um so the city's Revenue reduction estimate is about 3% from last year right and
159if we take a 3% from our level funding request from last year which happens to be the same as this year then that works out to be a reduction of about 1.26 million um so my perspective is that seems like a reasonable number to go back to the city with you know everybody's working together this is on certainly unprecedented um can't coming out of the blue and and the issue too is the council's looking as well you're getting an extra you know $2 and a half million dollars it's like oh yeah but that's committed um some that with um required local match that we were uh matching with within the existing level funded level funding request um and and then we also um you know had had some pretty good good health insurance experience but
160that that's not the case anymore so we need to make sure we cover that for next year so I'm kind of like splitting the difference here between uh B and C in terms of where think we should go in terms of our request um it does put us um potentially in a in a deeper hole than I like um but I I do have a couple of questions um in in in our assumptions were have uh charges for services are affected from covid um is that realistic I mean that's a million dollarars so can Kim and I talked about that today and Kim you want to kind of go over that a little bit well that was um again yes that's what we we're talking about today is that in those charges of services was
161just under a million dollars and a lot of those are tied to schools being open so that is a concern of of ours that we discussed because um the bus rentals is from field trips um if the kids aren't going on the field trips you aren't going to have that bus Revenue um a lot of the grants pay reimburse of the school division for those costs um the other thing was you know the special pupil fees the students aren't going to pay their parking fees if they're not coming to school and parking so that was one of the things that was on my mind on fac facility rentals if the buildings are open and we're not renting them out so that is definitely a concern we were discussing as well so you're on the same
162page with us okay and then on the um stimulus funds are there constraints on what can what we can spend that on I know it's anticip anticipate or uh they're being suggested they be used for onetime um items yeah so they they urge you not to use that for salaries and ongoing um thing uh fee such as such a salar and benefits and um there's some flexibility with that I would say it's not as rigid as I've seen with some of the grants um but there is also a heavy push for um the infrastructure the devices the the Blended learning and that as well in most of the conversations um but most of the superintendant are all in we're cautious crystals living and kind of holding and trying to see if we could plug Gap
163from lack of funding um if if sales tax and Lottery does um look bad okay thank you Mr har Mr Harvey yeah thank you um couple couple of points that I I would like to to to remind the board first off Dr Brenan I appreciate I appreciate your comments um but but again I I remind you that the 1.5 that is already gone uh that was from this year so what we're really talking about is for a proposed budget that we submit to council for next year so again this is our budget um we can we can propose what we believe we need to operate to council Council ultimately has the decision that is their responsibility of whether or not they fully fund our budget or not um I understand the need to work with
164Council on this and so ultimately I would not be in total opposition to option b but I caution us again with the predicted sales tax decrease for the state of Virginia we probably will be landing at a net zero which means that we do not have the ability to honor the commitment for the for the step program I would also remind us that when we requested the level funding with option A we were requesting level funding what that means is when we talked about salary increases the state of Virginia says we will provide you with additional money for salary increases if you provide a local match we're not going to council and asking them for a local match we're providing that ourselves from our budget for our teachers so that's why I feel like we
165are being more than more than fair looking at option A and and thinking about our teachers and honoring our commitment to them so that's why I really want us to consider option A I think I think option b is is to me that's the that's the that's the least we can accept that is the absolute least we can accept because to me it puts us in likely a 5050 Jeopardy of even be able to provide a partial bonus to our teachers I feel like that as a school board we need to we need to support our teachers and we need to be voting on option A as our budget that we present to council Dr Mo Madam chair Dr Coleman yes uh Dr fat Dr Edwards and could I in fact add that um option
166b is that not what you were um hoping would be the resolve before you discovered a PowerPoint presentation that had an additional 700,000 uh dollars in it well I if truth be told I I was with Mr Harvey on option A I would love to fund my staff but when the realities of Co hit and we're seeing um record unemployment and people without jobs and you know the need to contribute something and the need for all of us to go back and work together as a collaborative team that's where we were like all right option b we would try our best to make that work and again for my staff out there option b for me is retirements attrition resignations that's where I go to get my savings and I try to do no harm
167and that Do no harm means you may no one's losing a job I try not to lose a job but but there's other harm so if you if a teacher um retires and there were four teachers in that grade level and now there are three I've just increased class size so in some respects you know some people will say well that's a little bit more difficult and challenging we've saved money we've done it through attrition um but we recognize where the state where we are in the city where we are in the state where we are in the country so option b was our attempt to work with Council and say if you're predicting um $6 million and you know you've taken the 1.5 million you you've taken the task force money which is you
168know to to help with schools in the future here's an additional $1 million that we're we're we're going to work without even though it is not it is not what I would like to have happen but understanding it's all right so with option b is there a fre freeze and review in October yeah yeah option b there is a freeze because I don't want to get overzealous and then we just like Council said we'll come back in October and look at and good and with your counterparts this would be something that is probably going to happen within the region as well yes yes this is so with so with option b you would not have to um disturb during this covid pandemic and all of this anxiety there would be no reduction in force other
169than not rehiring or not filling positions is that correct that's what I'm going for yes and with option b the empowerment Academy would still be a part of our efforts to do credit recovery for Meaningful students who need that our teacher of the year has come from that um uh location uh somewhat partial to it it helped to name the name empowerment Academy that would that would still be in would still be in play in option b yes sir now I would support uh Gary Harvey 100 I mean he's given a bang-up explanation of why we should do option A I understand that but I hear School Board member Carter a little bit ago being realistic um I'm just I don't want to see a reduction so that's why I would would favor option b
170all right so what I've heard what I have now I'm taking tally um doc Mr Harvey you say option A yes absolutely Miss Evans you support option b Miss Evans you're muted I'm like why is anybody going um yeah s um I go with these thank you and Gary just know I understand where you're coming from but I too with James don't want there to be any reduction and we still have the possibility if they don't end up as bad as they're predicted maybe in October we can do something I just don't want anybody to lose their job through this and I I support that I don't mean to to to speak out of turn but I support that as well and that's why I support option A I I seek to cut no no
171jobs but I also feel like that we need to honor Our obligation to our teachers thank you Dr Brennan Dr can you just clarify for us how much uh has is city council suggesting beuer budget for next year so the city manager has proposed option D so she wants to cut or she has recommended $2.2 million right 1.5 initially and then another 700,000 is what they're proposing to be cut yes right um so you know I certainly want to be sure that I understand that that uh I totally disagree with City council's suggestion that our budget be cut to such an extent um I when you look at their numbers as as Dr NIS has pointed out but some other things you know they have a a 6.4 million deficit they have to make up
172for and they're asking us to make up for 34% of it by doing a 2.2% cut to our budget which seems out of proportion we're about 23% of their total budget so it's clearly asking us a lot to make these cuts and also as as as Bo Wright pointed out the other day they've taken away the future of our task force which is was going to look at our education system our facilities so many things that was another $1.5 million so I certainly am not happy with what city council is doing but I understand what they're doing and I understand that the difficulty we're having and again I think that in order for this to work I think we're going to have to look at additional cuts of stuff as as far rather than people
173I think we only have you know we none of us want to cut the pay raises or the step process so I will certainly go along at the board and say if we had an option of a b or c I would like to see B but unfortunately I think that our our options going be more limited that related to the council's suggestion but you said you support option B sure Dr Senai sorry may I ask a question absolutely um can you clarify for me so last year when we went before the council we asked for level funding but then we um there was money that was added for the the to match the state salaries is that correct yes so last year in December when the board voted within level funding you had enough
174from the state which provided the 3% increase for S soq but in level funding we had the 3% for or the average of 3% for everybody else and that was in December and then right after we did that the governor said hey let's go 5% so so we were looking at where's the additional two because we got some soq we were looking at where's the additional 2% and at that point when we were looking at what we had in December we didn't think we had the additional two and I have requested of the previous CFO look look again look one more time check under the Rocks blah blah blah um so we waited as late as we could um and I think it was really late February when we finally said we're not going to
175be able to do the additional 2% can you help us and that was I think it was over a million dollars but we ended up getting or they ended up saying 862,5kg you're $862,000 so we took that off the table and even though we never received it we never took it so thank you that that's what I thought that was my Rec uh recollection so essentially we've done level funding two years in a row four four years in a row yeah I think that counts for something too uh especially if we're being asked to do a disproportionate as Bob has as Dr Brennan has pointed out a disproportionate share of making up the de deficit so do you support A or B well I'd love to go with a I just don't know how realistic
176that is so I'll I'll go with b and just push back I know that puts Dr Edwards in a tough situation but I really think we have to stand our ground um Mrs thank you Kim Mrs Carter you said B yes and I would love to go with a but just just looking at it I just don't think that's going to be acceptable and I just look at the number of students and staff and teachers and administrator who have and everyone who's gone through this traumatic experience and I just know that we're going to need all of the funding we we can when that we can get to get these students through next year however way that is and also I'm just really disappointed and blindsided by the the amount of money that is being
177taken from the budget I know that they are city council is also looking for funds but so are we and and I just fear that any monies that we are that we do receive is going to be okay now we can reduce how much we're going to give you and I hope that's not a message that we're going to continually hear because we really are going to face some really significant um mental health ramifications from this and we already have students that have traumatic experiences and just being taken out of this the your pace and your everyday normal really is going to take a toll but I'm going with B Dr G I have same questions for Dr Edwards it's like Dr Coleman had for option C what is bagged in there is the pay
178increase step increase delay till October or delayed forever for the whole year um so looking at option C uh that's a little harder my first goal is always try to get that pay increase in there that is for me and I'm hearing that from you all so we're in line that being the number one priority um and again waiting until October to see if that could be done uh my backup plan and we did this before if I couldn't do a pay increase and I remember when I first got here I couldn't is a bonus a something that says you know what um we value the work you do and it's odd that this is Teacher Appreciation Week um that we need to say that we value you we value you even more during covid
179that you are going above and beyond to to make sure that our kids aren't falling behind so Dr gup I am committed to doing what I need to do to try to make sure that my staff um first of all I want to keep my talented staff I I don't want anyone to get nervous in jump ship um but I also want to reward my talented staff and I say reward but what I'm really saying is I want to start to get them up to where other talented people are actually paid so what I'm hearing from you is it's just like option b step increase will be frozen till October and then you will reinstate it based on where you stay if I can if I can't instate reinstate the step then I'll look to
180a bonus or something to try to and for empowerer Academy we will not be looking at closing it down it'll stay open we'll not lose any jobs in the empowerment Academy the bulk of the empowerment Academy like I said there are six individuals there that are are making things happen for kids it's not a it's not a stuff as you know some people think it's a it's people that make the empowerment Academy special see the where I stand is um I don't want anybody to lose their job under these difficult times period there's no two ways about it now if I have a choice to take $1,000 extra home which after tax comes out to about $60 versus my colleague leaving losing their job and livelihood I'll rather give up that $60 and let them
181keep their job but that's where I come from but the reality is uh as Dr ban pointed out we're disproportionately disproportionately affected but 23% of 6.5 million which city is facing comes out to about 1.49 1 495 million so if you give a reasonable explanation $1.5 million cut is what will end up compromising but uh as you said realistically C is the option which we don't want to be uh going there too much optimistically and then retrieving back so I'll go for option C you um Dr NIS you were you were between B and C Dr NIS uh I'm looking at it as a 3% reduction to or to to our you know level funding request so I'm kind of splitting the difference between I guess B and C so if you want to do
182a waited put me one half on B and one half on c um and you know we're GNA have to there's just no way to predict how this is going to work out and we all know that and we're just going to have to be prepared to uh do what's necessary uh it's a tough situation for everybody thank you um James oh I I'm I'm I'm resolutely with b and and I believe that uh that the the board um collectively uh if we feel like we need another meeting before uh we go back to council to Hash some more details through but my bottom line will be the kids and as some of you have stated they deserve the best and we do not know what postco education is going to fully look like and
183what we're going to need and to strip us and cause us to have to trust um that's that's asking a lot and so I I want to go with B because I think that it is showing due diligence on our part to say we're willing to make some sacrifices and uh and and and and and and and and in so doing we can ensure that we keep calmness amongst our our staff and uh can go forward and do what we what we need to do and and and and it and I I would be interested in the research I know that Lynchburg city does an excellent job so I want every member of council to know I preface my statement by saying that but I'm interested in knowing what is happening with the local effort
184of appropriating body is around the state during this covid-19 pandemic are other school divisions experiencing are um are are are seeking to reduce their local effort to their school division at such a time as this and I'm not sure I'm hearing from any school divisions uh that are experiencing that as I'm talking to my colleagues around the state and so again I'm not trying to suggest that our city council is not doing what's best for everybody but I'm just saying our our future the city's ongoing future hinges on what we do with these kids now they cannot fall through the crack we got to keep our good staff I'm going with b um Dr Brennan you had another question actually I think that was left over Susan but I do have a comment I'm going
185to I think change my vote which is that you know it's it's just a shame that when financial crisis like this occur in the state and Nation it's the schools that always take the biggest hit and apparently happened in 2008 and we've never recovered from that as far as funding from the state and the federal government um I think this is clearly a a uh very terrible and unusual situation with the covid-19 infection as we all know and the impact it's having on individuals personally as well as financially and and as far as the city goes too I think the reality of it is that they're struggling and we're struggling and as I suggested before I really think we only have two options which are are C and D so I'm going to change my
186vote and join Dr goua because I think the reality is that city council is not gonna um change what they're asking we're going to need to figure out how we can deal with that which I know it's going to be all up to us to come back to it and try to see how we can match that but my vote is going to be for SE just based on reality and the city council's comments Dr sa you had another question no that was for my previous question I'm sorry Harvey Mr Harvey Gary you're muted I'd like to remind my colleagues I understand understand about the reality of what city council may or may not do um and I understand the need to to work with them and that's why I say ultimately I think we
187will need to come back somewhere to be but this is our budget this is what we vote on this is what we submit to council and say this is what we need to operate the highquality school system that we we want to be able to operate and so that's why I I'm in favor of a I think realistically when city council looks at this I think we do we will end up coming back and having to um uh make some type of uh of of of sacrifice uh with their budget but I don't think we should be going in saying okay we're going to allow for C at this point because C clearly shows us based on reality of where we anticipate sales tax being we're going to be operating in the red and our
188due diligence as board members cannot be that we would approve a budget that operates in the red any other questions or comments I have not cast my vote but I've just not stated my vote I agree with Mr Harvey I think we put together a budget I think we stand behind that budget and if they tell us no then we know what we have to do I think we cannot operate in the red and we do not want to risk losing teachers in positions so that leads us with Susan yes well I was like Dr Coleman I've been looking at the surrounding counties and I haven't seen where they have been um so heavy-handed with their school system just wanted to add that comment regarding budget reductions Dr Edwards have you had any uh conversations
189with surrounding schools divisions and what's happening with their funding I have not had any in the last two three days or two days I would say but originally um like when we first were were reduced in the current year by 1.5 million um none of my colleagues were reporting that they had lost anything in the current year um and they weren't weren't reporting that they were losing anything in the um future year um and many have said that their local has given them permission to like us we tighten our belt we're anticipating fund balance that they could use fund balance to sh up any gaps um that they have so um and again I haven't really had that conversation in the last two days so so it's a it's a little old but but not
190you know I have not had many colleagues say that they were in similar situations that we were in okay thank you the tally on this um there two for option a four and a half for option option b two and a half for option C and none for D that would be it's not a majority but there are more votes for option b uh Madam chair does the does the board sense we need to have another meeting um to discuss this I think that we um we have a work session scheduled for May 19th and I think this is what will be on the work session because after we get a reading from Tuesday from city council that will be what we then have to go back and look at what we're doing it's my
191take I could be wrong I I was under the impression that city council wanted us to come back and too give them a something in addition to answering their questions and I think we just have one outstanding that we still are working on um but I I got the feeling that if I I go to city council meeting on the 12th they're going to ask me what's where do we stand and remember one council member was concerned that we would come back and say we just want the same amount of money that we asked for last time I took the same takeaway that you're going to have to go in Tuesday and tell them what we're proposing and and and I was I'm somewhat of the opinion that we need to be very honest about
192where we are this is where I'm not I'm not necessarily knowing how how rushed we need to be in relationship to that other than to honestly share with we share where we are uh with this with this process um but it just seems like to me I think Susan is saying we have four and a half uh in the B category and two in the A and two and a half in the C I don't I I don't see the consensus that we have yet technically I think had they wanted to they could have voted on it last night I think we were fortunate enough that some people said hey the school board hasn't had time with this yet but they had every right I think to vote on it last night without us being
193able to do anything about it so I would hate I don't know if that means another meeting I think that's fine but I think we better come to some kind of understanding for Dr Edwards to go in with Tuesday because the last thing we want to do is come up with nothing and just let it go without us proposing something my technically vote when they wanted to my understanding is the same as Belle's that my understanding is that this coming Tuesday their main agenda item is going to hear from City from the city schools what they want to do with the budget and they're and they would like to vote on the budget with the last item there and just for Logistics they'll meet this coming Tuesday and then they won't meet the following Tuesday
194because of voting and then they meet the last Tuesday in May so really next Tuesday the last Tuesday in May are the only days that that we would have to make a presentation to them so is it your understanding that we need to take a vote tonight on and and make a formal motion of what we're going to adopt set up a another meeting for us to have I don't think I don't I'm not sure anything's GNA change my my my my my point is that we have an appropriating body they are to provide local effort to to the schools we don't have the ability to to to we don't have the ability to raise taxes so um you know I'm I'm not necessarily clear that we are clear tonight if um based on what
195Bob is expressing uh we we have Tuesday but I don't see how you get a consensus out of out of two four and a half and two and a half and so if if we're not ready we need to do something else tonight uh in relationship to it I I may see this political process a little differently maybe maybe you know I I you know I think there's some other variables afloat that I won't discuss in this in this setting but I I think that um we need to come to some level of consensus I just don't think we seem to have it tonight that the chair is saying it won't change and it and maybe it won't well but let me put it a different way I think we do need to come to
196a consensus tonight we have to have a presentation to the school to City Council on Tuesday and that may last time that we get to do it um I am going to ask I think um someone could make a motion for the school board to adopt um plan b or plan C and then we could take a vot have a second and we could take a vote I will support Plan B because I think that's the best we have in terms of Leverage it means that we can come back and maybe I'm changing because then we can give our teachers and our staff a hope of giving them their step Madam chair before you do that um is it any way I don't want to put anybody on the spot that either doctor uh Brennan
197uh gupter or Millis could maybe just share with us one more time why you feeling so strongly about c as opposed to be so if I I'll make a comment just about the logistics which is that um as we said at the beginning of this meeting and this conversation we've just we just received this information you know an hour before this meeting occurred and I really think that it' be more appropriate for us to have some more time to look at this information any other questions that we have because it's still a little unclear to me some of the details and and I know Dr Edwards has has pointed it out but I love to see it in itemized thing about where that million dollars for the health insurance from the state um where which
198which plan has the the steps process being frozen you know things that actually detail with us where are the the things that are that are are you know we can talk on in an intelligent way to say okay we understand these are exact items that where this money is going it's a lot of there's been a lot of numbers thrown around I think it's very hard for me anyway to keep up with I think one suggestion I would have is I think that for for Dr Edwards to call TR uh mayor Tweety to ask what is their plan for this you know it would be nice if we could present to them at the end of May that meeting rather than next Tuesday to give everyone a chance to make sure they're comfortable that we
199have the approach information we're comfortable with the with the process I mean I haven't looked at the schedule but we have a work session on the 19th and could discuss it again there that would give us plenty of time but I'm I'm very hesitant to vote on a program this this has been discussed for a long time it's very complicated and to take a proposal that we've just gotten you know this this afternoon I like to see some more details before I vote so I like to see if we have more time to do it Dr Nas I guess um we're going to have to work the details out I mean that's just that's just the reality of it but um you can sit there and plan everything out and it's going to be based
200on a whole bunch of bunch of assumptions and a month from now that can get all blown out of the water um you know I'm being realistic I think a 3% which is a $1.26 million reduction in the request is aligned with what the city's budget um cuts are are so I think that shows good faith um certainly um I'm sympathetic in fact I really feel uh it's important for us to maintain the steps to the best extent we can we're going to have to we're going to have to work through that regardless of the situation um hopefully the economy recovers and uh State opens up and uh we don't we don't get any second um second wave hiccups um so that's that's where I'm at I think it's you know it's our it's this
201is our responsibility what we what we need to do is to set the budget request um I don't think we're ever going to have enough uh information to feel comfortable this is not a good situation for anybody uh unfortunately um City's got um some AB Bullseye drawn on us and um you know we're we're the biggest line item in their budget it's uh it's understandable and I think you know we need to my position is we we need to do a $1.26 million uh request cut so I'm willing to vote for the uh support the million for option b um I think option C is a little a little too much thank you what was that last thing that you said I think option C is uh a bit much um the $1 A5 million
202doar so what do you mean by a bit much I think it's it's too much of a it's a excess uh burden on the on the schools and it's not proportionate to what the city City's budget reduction is so would are you saying you support option b I'm saying I would support a split of 1.26 but if we're voting between uh B or C then I'll vote for B okay thank you Dr k i I agree with Dr brenon what he said and uh as I said in the very beginning as Dr brenon pointed out I know people don't like reality but the reality here is that certain decisions are made they put it back on the table but going forward there will be limitations to we can put we can ask for option A
203that's the ideal option will we get it I don't think so but situation may change so we are not putting hold for the whole year we're putting it in on hold only till October so if the economy improves we may be able to give as Dr Edward says step increase plus a bonus but till then we got to work with the city work with the budget they have and the constraints they have and uh not put them in a corner and saying okay um my way or highway so as I said 23% Dr Bron that's the number you had we what we are 23% of their budget we are if they have a $200,000 budget and we are I'm sorry $200 million budget and we're 42 million of it that's about 23% so 6 5
204million they are trying to cut 23% of that is 1.4 95 is my math correct or am I faing in this math class so they they are cutting um6 million $66,000 not 6.5 no not not look not the this is from the work session they had yeah how much is that 23% of 6 million 6 well you know 200 million was the starting budget um so six million is 3% of that that's where I 1.38 is 23% yeah so you have to have when you go there and argue your case you cannot just put a pick a number from this from the air and say I'll do 1 million or 1.2 million or 1.3 million you got to have a logic behind it right either you have that 1.25 logic or 1.38 logic there has
205to be a reasoning behind it why did you pick that number and for 1 million I don't see a reasoning it's just a number from the Dark Cloud we picked it up that 1 million 1 million reduction so what's the logic uh for putting in our part in meeting City's budget constraints right now well yeah I think it's important that she that that Dr Edwards put this out as a as a what if scenario just to show us the types of impacts and and hits to budet um after hearing your scenarios when you go to the city council and make your argument make your case why 1 million and one why 1.5 million your argument of 1.25 makes more sense because it has some reasoning behind it 1 million is what I think think I
206can do when I live in 80% Zone and hold and hope for and still do a step increase so there is some logic behind my numbers in terms of what I'm thinking and trying to move forward with my staff 1.5 million was the city manager's original proposal 2.2 million was the city manager's second proposal my first proposal which has a lot of detail and a lot of thought behind it is is option a option A would have done what we needed to do and had we even not had the state cuts um there was a lot of work behind what we did there was a lot of work behind when we looked at when the state first cut us and then we went to okay again trying to preserve our staff our programs the things
207that we're doing absolutely I can sit down and kind of do a dollar number of hey this is what cost to cut let's just take a program The Go Center this is what we would save in transportation this is what we would save if we didn't do schools of innovation this is what we would save if we didn't do internships and just look at that from a transportation perspective it's not what I want to do because I value those programs for our kids but if all I'm doing is I if if you if if the request is we need to see every single dollar and exhaust every single dollar and look at it that way I will caution us with that because when you start doing that and I'm even hesitant about saying that right
208now um we make people uncomfortable with that we I'm sure the people at the empowerment Academy are feeling uncomfortable I'm sure our teacher of the year right now is feeling uncomfortable at the thought of am is my job on a chopping block because there's a number associ with that program and kudos to miss crab for giving us all the data that we needed to to and and and Miss Lage to do that but we're making people uncomfortable and I I can do this um you have to have a little bit of trust in me I put together the first budget um and I can do it with a Do no harm and I can do it with a lead with care and have my staff in mind which is what I want to do as
209well Dr Edwards I didn't hear throughout this discussion any any anybody pointing out cutting out empowerment Academy so where is discussion pointing of making them UNC uncomfortable comes from from Tuesday I had a discussion on Tuesday there was a question by council member on Tuesday there was mention on Tuesday and I do get emails from my staff when they hear these things from the council member they want to know what where I what I st where I stand with that and I do have to make them feel comfortable that while these questions are being asked and while I yes I did give the data and yes I did have to give the data about what the assistant principles and Associate principles come for so I am being asked very publicly and people do respond to
210me see personally to me the problem is going forward there a lot of unknowns these are all hypothetical scenario analysis as Dr Nas pointed out because we don't know when the government will open up the economy so how much long-term impacts will it have when we come back in Fall will we still have online classes do we need a director of online education you see I'm saying online technology so all these are unknown right now we don't have that crystal ball we have to be look at what we need now and I as I look at this all of us want a we want to be able to do what we can do for our kids two people people want C Gary is sticking with a thank you Gary two say C six say B
211Dr award I just want to comment that you know regarding how much work you and your staff have put into this whole process is unbelievable and and no one I know on this board has any criticism of that and I'm glad that you know you pointed out that the question of empowerment Acy did not come from this board it came from a city council person that you had to respond to and I don't think this board I think it stated pretty clearly that they don't want to make Cuts in people so we want to stay away from that but let me ask you what do you think you you are you were the one who stood up there last Tuesday and took the fire from city council what do you think that you need to
212be able to go back to them that's good Bob that's a great question um I think that if I go back to them and I say we are exactly where we were and we're holding fast on asking for level funding I think they will make a decision um to the best that Council will make a decision I and I and I don't think that as much as I would love to have option A I don't think that in this economy with what we're experiencing for us to to do that even though yes we have had level funding for four years I'm with you Kim on that one um and we did do due diligence to try to come in at flat funding with all of the local match requirements that were in that budget um
213and and I'm very proud of my staff for being able to do that um but I I do think that I I am being called to go back to the table and negotiate something and we are stuck between what we asked for which is 42 and the city manager's proposal of the 2.2 which I have a better shot at saying come October I can revisit it and I may be able to look at this very differently if it's a million dollars on the table versus if it's $2.2 million on the table $2.2 million when you're looking at a budget of which over 80% of our budget is people and benefits yeah so you can cut all the pencils you want you can take out paper charts you can say no more crayons no more color
214copies you're not going to make a dent until you start cutting people when you get in the millions of what what you need to cut um to make that budget so I absolutely think council is expecting me to come back and say here's what we can do here's here's how we can help out with also knowing that the very people who have been holding kids and families together since this covid has hit has been our staff and I'm not saying anything that City staff is not doing their part but I know Lynchburg city is absolutely doing their part right now in terms of making sure that kids and families are are as whole as we possibly can make [Music] them Ma Madam chair yes Dr keman um and and I know everyone can receive what
215I saying it obvious that Dr Edwards and Kim have been working Mr conage have been working overboard with this but with all due fairness and trying to meet almost impossible task it does leave some board members with only looking at information just a few hours ago whenever we got it and I know I just got it and so I I do understand uh how legitimate legitimately individuals may want to look at it longer that they're questioning the Integrity of it that might have come out wrong but I don't think that that's hope it's not is it any way that we can reconvene before Tuesday to settle this up I I I'm I'm be I'm gonna be today I'm gonna be B whatever day and if not I'm prepared to make my be tonight I'm just
216want to put that out there I I just have one quick question if I can yes Miss Evans I understand we just got the information but are we expecting a detailed sheet about where they can save money before we make a decision on this because I think that's asking entirely too much I really do to have a detailed sheet of where what amount and where they can save and I'm happy to meet another time but I'm going to fully support how you feel about a Dr Edwards and going in and asking for the million and I'm just not sure trying to find an itemized thing is where we need to be right now until we get our budget and then we can start looking at itemized things on where we can save money and what
217we can do anyone else have thoughts I do Dr Shai yeah if if I miss he my thinking is is we're just we're just really trying to zero in on a figure that city council can live with and we can live with in an environment where we know none of us are going to get what we need to live with and so the discussion here is about what how much of a hill are we willing to die on and so the level funding I I do think is unrealistic and think if we would go in there and say we want option A no matter what we run the risk of them really getting annoyed and going all out on us and going for the 2.2 million I don't think they'd be that vindictive but I
218think you run the risk of that in a negotiation so I think we should you know I like the the notion of and I realize these are just scenarios about you know what are the possibilities of where things might land and uh nobody really knows it's all abstract it really is and that's what's so frustrating about the whole thing so I would I would suggest I still go with B but I really like the argument that Dr NIS has put forward and I think Dr Gupta in terms of just matching the um you know doing the the 23% whatever our share of the budget is that should be our share of the helping um get rid of the def the anticipated deficit and nothing more um and that just shows good faith it's like level
219funding uh you know so that that's just you know am I understanding it correctly about what exactly this exercise is that we're doing because you know we haven't looked at until we know what figure is there's no point in going over the details of what that actually will mean when we get the budget it'll be what it is and that's when we'll really have to Grapple with how we deal with it but until then we don't know but Crystal needs direction from the board to correct and that's what we're trying to do tonight we have got to give her the direction of the board and we have six people on the board who support option b and they support option b tonight they'll support it Monday they will support it Tuesday and we have two
220people who are looking at option C and one at option A and I don't think that's going to change if we meet Sunday Monday or Tuesday may I ask a question Miss Morrison please okay so this the city manager and City team has projected that their deficit is six I forget what it is I thought it was 6.4 6.4 I'm looking for the exact number okay so what if their deficit is 4.4 because they're projecting just like I'm projecting they're guessing just like I'm guessing so what if they overg guess is are we saying that and I like your I go with what you say uh Dr NIS 23% so are we negotiating not a flat figure but what if if the city's deficit is less then will they give us money back are we
221saying that is that part of what we are negotiating because we really are making decisions about what I'm predicting to give to them based on what they're predicting is going to happen to them so I just don't want us to be okay here we go and then we're in a position where wow it's turned around really well and the city has um recouped we got a little bit and but we gave a lot if if if we're going with the percentage of the of the debt and the debt is not absolute I would get it if that number were an absolute figure and I would say absolutely that number is not going to change but I don't want to lose sight that the details that you're asking of me I get it but remember I'm
222predicting their predicting too right so that's why I think that 23% is a more rational figure because it can be fixed and so if their deficit is just four then we should our our share should be proportional to what we are of the budget not more which is what it appears they're asking of us in what they're proposing right now with the 2.2 right so we shouldn't have a disproportionate burden in making up the deficit of course if the deficit is more 23% of higher is going to hurt as well but at least we're all sharing the pain proportionately that I think is rational and reasonable doesn't give you a hard figure to go it just says we we'll let's suggest this where 23% of your budget will be 23% of your deficit and that's
223that's what we'll we can work with we'll make it work um I have had a request from many board members if we could please take a five minute break yes thank you yeah that' be good great so we will reconvene in five minutes thank you madam chair [Music] for [Music] e e all right I think we're ready to to hit the ground running again okay can I can I give it a shot I guess so what what would the board think about the idea of of uh taking the the information that that doc Dr Edwards and her team has given us and compared where it sounds like Mr Harvey feels that that 20% decrease in sales tax is probably in the right ballpark that we take just look at the 20% column and then we
224compare that to whichever two options we think are most appropriate one of the things that one of the city council people told me is you should really take your your your best scenario and your worst scenario and just show us what the impact of that is how you deal with that so if if we were to ask just for that information and then you know maybe a little breakdown on these line items not getting into specific programs not getting to other things but just taking this format and deciding which options we want to compare that we think are reasonable best scenario this is the the worst we do perhaps B worst scenario D which is the 2.2 and and take that those look at that figures ask ask that information to come back to us
225and we look at that maybe Finance looks at it first and decides whether it's it's helpful information or needs to be tweaked and then it goes to the work session on whatever day that work session is and we ask city counselor we can present to them at the end of May but what we do if they say no we want something to say I think we we say we haven't had enough time to do it you know they had it we were waiting for their meeting on Tuesday which they had and here we are on Thursday trying to make so I just I you know I don't think I don't think that would be objectionable if you know if we were in good faith which I think we are trying to come up with a
226good a good response and a good proposal but I think it's a question that would have to go to the mayor from either Miss Morrison Andor Dr Edwards to say this is what we' like to do can we do that because I think it's going to affect their agenda for next Tuesday right Dr Edwards what are your thoughts I have no problem asking I guess I need Clarity on when you say your best and your worst so for me the best and the worst is the 9070 um that number-wise but when you say line item because I one I don't want to waste my time or Kim's time I don't want to bring you something where you're saying but what about but what about because time is of the essence sure specific speically what you
227are looking for in a line so give me an example of what would I present to you that you would say yes this is exactly what we want to see so we can make a decision sure and you know I'll take a shot at it and I hope that other people will do similarly but for example the the funding from the state you know we have at the Baseline at 56 it's still not clear to me where that 3.5 million that drops down to 2. 2 million after we take the health insurance you whether that's in there or not um uh the the um the the issue about the the fund balance Gap filler this is the first time we've seen that what does that represent you what are where are those funds coming from
228um the stimulus Gap filler wait wait let me let me ask a question right there so where are the funds coming from so we have positions that have been open like you know we have some bus driver positions that have been open that haven't been filled do you want the exact bus driver the the number or do you want a summary that says we have positions that driver do you want something that says Willis retired in no January and we didn't fill that position until now so there's a salary La no i' like it I'd like it to be a line that's Personnel that just summarizes all that and is there anything else you know are there other savings like the covid savings is that in there what are the lying on us but not
229the detail of how many people retired or what their salaries were but just to breakdown of where did that fund balance come from and can the stimulus Gap filler you know in previous conversations we've said we haven't been able to use that for other than it I assume some of that has to go for it that you know if we're taking the whole thing is that is that true do we have that whole option for that and then finally how does where does at what point does the salary uh frees come in with the with the um you know in the different scenarios so just trying to clarify for me what those big numbers have been that we've talked about in the past and where these new numbers have come from like the fun balance
230Gap and the stimulus Gap filler we haven't seen before okay so the stimulus is the 3.3 million that I had shared with you previously um and you have um you have a you also have a document that explains the additional 2.5 million so remember the state cut us 1.5 so when we were go when we were going from the 3.9 down to the 2.5 and you're like you're not sure where that money came from that state cut the first cut when they cut the the salaries and a and a bunch of other things that we went over with you that part hasn't changed so that I could do the stimulus money was 3.3 that's our anticipated there is an application that we have to fill out that we haven't done yet it's in process it's
231not I don't think it's open and available yet Kim is it or is it coming okay I didn't think so um so that's anticipated right now and again anticipated 22% of that has to go to non-public school so that's what I talked about on Tuesday when I was talking to um city council so I can do that I can give you a a list of here's Personnel if you if you go to your questions and on the council one when you said what is our project projected covid savings there is a page because councilman helson asked us that we broke that down in terms of fuel person like places right on that sheet as well so I can I can give you that again if well you don't have to give it to me again
232Crystal if it's still the 1.4 million that you said before then that's fine it if you just add it to that line is that what's going into that fund balance Gap that's kind of what I'm asking no the that well part of that covid savings don't forget we we're being reduced by 1.5 in the current budget so we had to subtract that out as well there's just a lot of moving parts right that's my that's that's my point there are just a lot of moving Parts you're exactly right is it's it's it's not easy trying to put a pin on this one where it's moving um and again our our maintenance costs now we originally when we were projecting some savings we're were like okay so maintenance is not going to be doing these things
233but now maintenance is in so we're adjusting for that because now that's not a saving since they're working and they're doing those kinds of things so we can we can go through as best as possible and give you a list but I'm just being upfront and honest with you I don't want to give you a list and then have you say no that's not it that's not what we wanted to do and part of what we did here with the what I heard was can you give us some projections on where you think we're going to be and what the S and you know the the sales tax and all of that which is why I was like all right well let me break it down for them by at least three options 90 80
234and then what the impact is and what we're what we're looking at doing um with some stuff I certainly am looking at like I said I'm looking at attrition um of positions and I I have some people who aren't coming back who I'm already like I'm not refilling their position do do I want to put that a as a as a public comment right now no I I don't but as a superintendent do I have that list in my head am I ready to go that deep yes [Music] mmhm uh Mr Harvey Bar M sorry um I just want to remind everyone although I appreciate this information that that we received and I I hear the concerns that we haven't had a lot of time to look at this this is all kind of hypothetical
235this is hyp hypothetical based off of um our budget that we have already approved okay and and what I understand that that that U Dr Edwards and her team have done is is give us you know some some targets okay if we if we receive um if the you know the overall uh state sales tax is reduced by this percent by this percent by this percent I think really istically what economists are saying you know we're predict predicting a 15 to 18% sales tax reduction in in um Virginia at least that's what I'm kind of hearing from from my industry now with that being said again we can we can then kind of hone in on this chart which is where I believe Dr Edwards has been trying to guide us to there's a document
236that she provided me on Tuesday that I think is helpful and Dr Edwards that all School Board members received this talking points yes okay I think that that document kind of gives gives everyone a little bit of an overhaul of how we were looking at the budget kind of going into this um you know when we said coming in 2021 we were looking at a flat budget okay so when we were coming in with a flat budget we were not asking city council for the 1.5 additional to match the state all right we were going to come up with that from our own so not only are we not getting or requesting an additional 1.5 we're also taking 1.5 out of our budget so if you if even though we say flat funding from last
237year we're already reducing our budget by $1.5 million all right so first we have to understand that next we have to understand that the overall State um tax revenue which is about if I remember correctly about 32% of their budget State um tax and lottery or about 32% of our budget revenues that we receive from the state those are going to decrease by about 18% so I think if we understand those numbers and put those numbers into play that tells us where we're likely going to be on Revenue with that being said I I hear what Dr n is suggesting and that is the Fairway that's one thing I always appreciate about kimal Payne when when when the city has been faced with difficult times in the past he said level funding everybody everybody cuts
238the same percentage so I think the rationale of we have this percentage of the overall City budget this is the percentage that we would offer as our worst case scenario this would be our share but again we are presenting a budget our budget what we feel like we can operate off of we might not get our budget we might need to come back which I think we will we'll need to come back in October um you know Dr Edwards and her staff will need to sharpen their pencils and and figure out all the details I don't think we need to have another meeting Sunday Monday two weeks from now to discuss all this because all of this is hypothetical stuff that we won't know until October I think what we need to be saying is
239to city council this is our budget this is what we feel like we can operate off of and I think we need to go in there and share with them even on our option A our level funding budget we are asking for $1.5 million less in the first place and we're having to get that 1.5 million out of our budget elsewhere to to to cover um you know what we're predicting so if we then look at a 18% reduction in state revenues that shows us ultimately where our budget would be what we're going to likely end up with and that's what we I think we need to go to City Council and say okay here's where we we need to be but here's our worst case scenario that we can be in and that worst
240case case scenario is taking that 23% cut from the city match funding that they're proposing to us and those are the two things that we go in there with but but what we're actually being asked to do is go to city council with our budget with what the school board says we need to operate that doesn't mean that that's what we're going in there and saying this is our way or the highway we're saying this is what our budget is that we need to operate and then we need to know where that number is where that pain point is that we cannot go below because again I remind everyone if we look at at the hypotheticals in option b and we assume a 18% cut we're in the red we're operating in the red so
241operating in the red means we have got to find Cut somewhere and Dr Edwards has told us we're not going to find it in crayons and pencils we're talking about cutting people so when we go to city council we need to understand that anyone else have any comments so Susan the Dr Edwards just so that we know because we've had so many um different versions and I don't have them all on this hard hard uh desktop here but you do have from our preco budget March 31st if you go back to the documents I gave you in addition to revenue you have a detailed explanation of expenditures so if you wanted to know how much we were spending in salaries in um purchase services and if you really were like this is an area where
242let's look at purchase services in this department I mean we do you do have that so you know how much we've allocated the pre-co budget um how much we've allocated in each area so you have a starting point uh with that so I just want to remind like I don't I didn't give you the documents that I've given you before and that wasn't because I was trying to not give you information I just trying to save a little bit of time and paper but if you go back to the the handout that we sent you um or that's in the March 31st board agenda you can look at that those numbers and see where the expenditures are for the flat funding if you were curious how we had allocated the flat funding where's the money
243and salaries where all of those things are It Is there further comments Madam chair I think Sharon wants to speak thank you m Miss Carter oh thank you I was just want to say that this we've had the pleasure of having deep dives into our budget for the last couple of years prior to this generally we were given a budget and we voted on it not knowing all the parameters not knowing all of the details now whether that's good or bad I don't want to say but um but we hired Dr Edwards and Mrs Lovich to do this job to do the detail work and yes we're supposed to ask ask questions I'm ready for a vote because my my option is not going to change and we've had the luxury of having a call
244in on last on Sunday to go into deeper Dives to ask more questions and understand where the 1.5 the um stop Gap came from and all of the others I just wanted to make sure that you are comfortable with the options especially B um Dr Coleman no if if she needs to superintendent to respond I can wait um I just I got a text message from the city manager that says council is continuing its discussion on Tuesday on the budget and I do think it's appropriate for you me to attend and answer questions and I'm happy to pass along along to council the options or whatever you think is appropriate so that was earlier at 7th that the city manager has let us know I think Council posted their um agenda as well so it
245sounds like we need to go back prepared to to discuss our Madam Madam chair I know that I think the uh Finance chair may want to speak but here's here's one thing I I I I I I hear the school board member cter very loud and clear as well as uh Gary Harvey um but Co has kind of created this disruption we put the Committees in a suspended uh place because of covid-19 only but it would appear to me that we have a finance committee if there's any other discussion that need to happen between now and Tuesday would that group need to have an opportunity to weigh in in any way and if not I would um I don't know what else to say if we're not wanting to delay any further then I've expressed
246where I where I am with B Dr GTA I think for last since we came back from break we just spinning wheels we rep same thing over and over again and we are not going forward so uh that's my take away from last 15 minutes well well Dr gupter I would respectfully disagree I would want to know from you are you comfortable with us moving forward uh with us with this the uh and I think the school board chair has made a really good point of of letting our superintendent do what needs to do but at respect to the finance committee do you see any need for further interaction with with the board's finance committee no but you got to understand we have supporters in the city council and uh you don't want to put
247them in a position where put them in a difficult position so as Dr bran said it's it's a very delicate balance and uh we have to be realistic in terms of our supporters I agree with you but that's that's not my that's not my question I was wanting to ask you whether or not you all need to have another look at it um in terms of a committee I think we have Dr Edwards has provided all the information all the scenarios then then Madam chair I would didn't agree with Dr G we are rambling about and to vote whenever you say something Dr M Evans I say I think we just need to clearly Crystal needs to go in Tuesday with what we want and I think we just need to make it all right
248is somebody uh is there a motion to be put forward for a vote so that we can give her clue so moved Madam chair that we would Embrace uh option b as presented to us tonight realizing that there will be some flexibility around that going forward is there a second second thank you all right um roll call vote Mr Harvey um I will be voting against this motion simply as um being in support of uh our initial budget that we presented in which we felt like we needed to operate and to take care of our teachers and our and our teacher salary so I will be voting no but I do understand that we need to be working with uh Council on this and I think we can be doing that in October but for
249this motion of of the of our school board putting forth a budget that we believe in I would vote no on this one thank you Miss Evans yes Dr Brennan no Dr seni yes Dr go no Miss Carter yes Dr nillas yes Dr Coleman yes Miss Morrison yes it's been passed option b six to three Dr Edwards is that the direction that you need and Madam chair you've led us do this beautifully as I'm still of the opinion that um that U that you can at least say that Gary Harvey wanted to go all the way with a I think all of us wanted to go all the way with a yes yeah everybody everybody everyone and and folks if I could say this you know again I keep saying that this is our budget
250and so I'm going to actually challenge each one of us we need to be in council chambers on Tuesday night we keep we're going to send Crystal and Susan in there um this is our budget we need to own this um I'm GNA tow the line with the board the board has voted this is our this is our budget that we're proposing that we're moving forward but we need to be there um and and and support uh our chair sub submitting our budget and supporting our superintendent and her staff in defending our budget and explaining our budget you do understand that your chair fits one of those categories that should not be out in public we'll go for you we got you Susan all right I'll carry you in on a on an iPad how
251about that right okay um that takes us thank you all very much for your discussion and um that takes the superintendent's comments very very late but I just wanted to reiterate that it is teacher appreciation week so um happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of my staff uh miss you being here but I know you're doing a great job behind the scenes um we also had some recognition uh last Friday superhero day for our nutrition staff so congratulations to them on Wednesday or Tuesday my days are blending now um we had the nurses recognition and we got to meet with all the nurses virtually and thank them for their service um and our nurse coordinator Andrea Bryant is actually going to be featured in um the Lynchburg Living magazine um so we're excited about that
252uh we also have some recognition in that our LCS toolkit our top 20 tools was featured in a magazine wake as one of those best practices so um kudos to our Tech staff for putting all of that together and um you heard about our graduation plans but we also have summer enrichment plans coming soon so we want our students and our families to know that the summer learning does not stop um and we're looking at doing both a school and Community sort of station here in um a virtual station here in Lynchburg and and Virginia and that's going to start up June 15th through July 24th so just wanted to say all of that and say Kudos and thank you to my amazing amazing staff all right before I call on the board I'd like
253to read I had several board members contact me to talk about teacher appreciation and comments and staff appreciation and I would just like to say on behalf of the Lynchburg City School Board I'd like to express our sincere appreci app ation and gratitude to the teachers of lynchb city schools for all of your efforts for the students of our community we know that you face challenges frustrations and worries some significant we know how hard you work to meet the needs of our students and families in the classrooms on the court in the classrooms on the courts on the stages on the fields on the buses in the offices and Clinics cafeterias and everywhere else in between in including our community your accomplishments in educating our students are so much greater than improved so scores and
254we know that although we are extremely proud of your success in that area it is the relationships that you have created with your students families and colleagues during normal in this not so normal times so the real measure of your commitment to our LCS Community thank you for what you have done what you are doing and will do remember everyone who interacts with our students our teachers our best wishes to you all to stay safe and healthy your Linburg City School Board yay board comments thank I Mrs Evans I just wanted to say after I wasn't at the meeting Tuesday night but I watched it and um I understand that our city council is in a very difficult position with everything going on but I just would like to say how proud I was of
255Dr Edwards because she was in the hot seat and you answered each question to me perfectly you you were honest you were sincere you were true to who you were and I was so proud so thank you well said Miss anyone else any other board member yes I just wait a minute Miss Carter just want again just to continue to thank the school nutrition program if you just see I if some of you all had the opportunity to see the lunches and how they're wrapped and just the um the care that they take that's just wonderful and I know the students appreciate that and just to further appreciate the teachers parents while you have them at home home if you see behaviors see different things that may upset you then think about how it is
256at school and work with the students on that so when they come back that we can just bounce to a just a really good start so practice starts at home some of those same behaviors the teachers are seeing in school so that's a good thing to we can work with the children at home Dr Brenan I just want to quickly reiterate what what uh Miss Evans said about Dr Edward's presentation it really was wonderful and the best part of it was the fact when she came out and said that she's so she loves being in Lynchburg and she wants to stay here for a long time I was really pleased to hear that so that's great all that you've done Dr NIS Dr nillas yeah I want to just Echo the your comments about Teacher
257Appreciation Week um it's really remarkable the engagement that the what the teachers have done where they basically all got thrown out into uncharted waters and every day are having to figure something out how to engage the students Reach Out Create new lessons plan ways to present it it's uh really remarkable and a testament to the and as we've seen uh so often it's it's teaching is not just a job um it's a calling and um I personally want to say thank you um we're going to do what we can budget wise and um I'm looking forward to the grad seniors graduating and how that's all going to turn out so and again thank you to Dr Edwards for doing a really good job uh in front of council it's obviously your integrity and honesty um
258showed forth I think for everybody so thank you M Madam Madam chair Coleman to you want to go first no you go first manal no no sir no sir all right real quick um I I um I I want to Echo the uh commendations of our superintendent I've enjoyed going with Dr Brennan the last uh two uh Council meetings and uh she's done an ex exeptional job as well as uh Kim lonic and all of the others who are who are there the school lunch hero piece that uh Dr uh well she'll be Dr Carter soon uh was talking about we would enjoyed being out with all of that and I'm very appreciative of it I also am just overwhelmed by the graduation creativity we talk about critical thinking and communication collaboration um creativity and
259citizenship that was just an extraordinary part of our meeting that is almost three uh 4 hours and 20 minutes and then I do want to say we've suspended the Committees but I do want the board to remember that June the 8th is when the legislative uh positions are due for vsba I happen to chair that committee and with all of this post uh uh uh covid-19 activity and all of the changes I don't know if we need to get School Board attorney uh towns involved in this but I but I believe that there are some things that we need to be putting out there on on the discussion about what education is going to look like going forward that we need advocacy at the state level uh to address through BBA so anyway June 8th
260that's that's when it is and then also there's an advocacy continues in a time of emergency webinar on May the 27th that I would encourage us uh to partip ipate in and lastly uh I participated in the executive committee meeting of Virginia High School league today and the Virginia High School league executive committee voted 31 to zero to council spring Sports and activities for the remainder of 201920 school year due to the covid-19 and that was a real hard decision it impacts lives and they were hoping they could get some things in but they can't and on June the 25th that group will be meeting to determine out of season uh practice for July it's fall Sports whether or not that's going to you know what's going to happen and I know we've got a
261lot of people locally who've been emailing me I tried to bring it up today but that's when it's going to happen where we decide about the fall events and then their budget won't be discussed until that time as well so just some things to think about going forward thank you Dr Senai you said that you had a statement yes I everybody said everything really that's on my mind but I I don't want to uh think that I'm not appreciative I I really understand um how hard it is to be before city council and and make the kind of presentations and uh keep ones cool and and uh Dr Edwards you do represent us so well and I I too am very proud of you I am extremely appreciative of your and lucanic and all your
262staff's work uh trying to figure out these budget scenarios it's a moving Target and it's an impossible task yet you do it and so I'm very grateful I too appreciate the nutrition team the daughter loves going to that bus it's just fantastic what you do for the whole neighborhood uh it's a really a big morale booster aside from the food the morale key is just so needed um um and uh yeah the teachers I I know that they're really busy I see families posting things that their kids are doing through uh uh distance learning that they're getting with their classes and so it's been really fantastic how everybody has responded so just just so much appreciation for so many different things thank you very much Dr go I made my chance okay so Dr Bron
263uh Dr Coleman and I visited Dunbar and E glass was it last week and it was great to see the whole nutrition team so that's why I have this logo out there thank you to all the nutrition teams because they're bus drivers they're Cooks their regular staff members and they're giving their heart out uh to uh for these kids so thank you thank you thank you very much and our Dr Coleman has become a grandpa uh this morning I if he has told you yet or not so congratulations he's that's his first grandchild at 2:43 this morning your mic is off off but I'll turn myself off and you can turn on Mr Harvey thank you Dr G Mr Harvey I just want to say our LCS family are rock stars across the board all
264the way from our top Administration all the way through um I want to send a special shout out to Dr Coleman and Mr gaty and their whole staff and building and grounds and maintenance because they are working um diligently during this time taking advantage of the fact that we uh have the schools available to do lots of repairs so they're getting a jump on that so we know that they're they're working super super hard and I wanted to to put a shout out to them and I also wanted to say I appreciate each one of my fellow board members tonight we have covered some very difficult um GR we have I think we're all of the exact same mindset we support our staff uh we love our our teachers our staff our Administration we want
265them to know that we appreciate them not only this week but we appreciate them every single day of every single year and uh so hopefully they've they've heard that loud and clear uh from us tonight and you know two city council to our to our um uh City administrator you know we're going to work with you but we want to be treated fairly we just want to be treated fairly and um we want to make sure you understand that that we're having to look out for the people that you have put us uh in charge of we we uh we serve at the pleasure of council and we always need to to be reminded of that and I think each one of us does that to the best of our ability and with all of
266our strength um and we're being responsible to the people that they have put us uh to be respons responsible for so with that um again LCS rocks thank you um the next Schoolboard work session is scheduled on Tuesday May 19th 2:20 at 5:00 pm the next Schoolboard meeting will be on Tuesday June 2nd 2020 at 5:00 pm um Dr Brennan I hope you didn't have 7 o'clock dinner reservations it was curb Cy so it was all right I'm sorry happy anniversary hey s hey s Susan yes listen I know I'm out of order but we've been thanking a whole bunch of people tonight but we all want to thank you no no no one has ever had to lead a school board through a uh Corona virus pandemic uh before and I thank you you
267are always on spot uh communica superintendent communicating with each of us and we want to thank you for all of that extra work that nobody knows about that you doing on a daily basis that's true thank you s thank you very much thank you um it's my pleasure uh with that we are adjourned okay bye see you all bye e