001Mr. Laurier, can I get a roll call, please? >> Yes, chairman. Mr. Paul Alexander, >> here. >> Dr. Shante Jones, >> here. >> Miss Ellen Slabnik, she's absent today. Mr. Zack Graham >> here. >> Miss Jen Moyers >> here. All right. Thank you, Mr. Lauri. Okay, Miss Morris, would you mind leading us in a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance, please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for All right. Do we have any additions or corrections to the agenda? >> No, chairman. All right. Seeing that, can I get a motion and a second for approval of the agenda, please? >> Uh motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion and second.
002All in favor? >> I. All right. Moving consent agenda. Assuming everyone has had a chance to review. Can I get a motion and a second for approval of consent? >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Motion a second. All in favor? >> I. All right, superintendent spotlight. Dr. Saunders. Dr. Rates. >> Dr. Rates is going to come forward and share some spotlights this evening. >> Okay. Hey, good evening Chair Alexander and members of the board. Tonight we get to once again recognize the talent amongst our students. I love when we get to recognize the arts. Uh so we are going to start with the annual VSBA uh art contest representatives. So the VSBA regional art contest was started in 1989 to promote the artistic talents of Virginia's public school students. >> Is
003your mic on? >> Sounds like it's on. >> Sounds like >> Matt couldn't hear Sounds kind of loud. >> Hi. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I know. >> Okay, there we go. Try it again. Um, okay. The VSBA regional art contest was started in 1989 to promote the artistic talents of Virginia's public school students. For each of the nine VSBA regions, a winner is chosen for the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The winning art is framed and displayed in the offices of the VSBA in Charlottesville. So this year we had a regional third place winner. I'm going to show you. This is from Manasses Park High School 12th grader Violet English. And Violet I think is here. This is Violet. Can you come and um tell us maybe what you were thinking when you designed
004this? Normally there's like a title or something on the back. There's no title. I'm not pressing you to make a title. Um, yeah, come on up and you can just tell me. You don't have to go into the very loud microphone. >> Um, so basically our project was to make a yarn painting based off of a historical art piece and that's um based off of the Night Wonder by Edward. >> So, we were at the art show and we all agree that that was first place. Even the lady who gave it back to us was like, "This is really the best one." And did you guys look at it up close and see it? >> It's made of yarn, which is insane. >> In fact, I brought it back from the yard show and I
005had took it in to show my son cuz I was like, "You got to see this. This is incredible." >> Yeah, this is How long did it take you? >> A long time. >> Little tiny pieces of yarn. So, yeah. >> Oh my goodness. This is amazing. All right. So, I think I'm You're taking this with you, I believe. >> There you are. And congratulations. I also did want to recognize we had an entry from the middle school from Celia Nuin. This was Celia's entry for the middle school level. And then for the elementary school, Grace Leno, this was our Manasses Park Elementary School entry. Okay. And we're not done with art. Let me see here. Oh, there we go. There's Violet's work again. Okay, next up, we want to spotlight the circuit uh court
006clerk, Jacqueline Smith Law Day Art Contest. On May 1st, 2026 at 6 p.m., Jacqueline Smith, Esquire, clerk of the 31st Judicial Circuit Court, hosted the 6th annual Law Day Awards ceremony at the historic Prince William County Old Manasses Courthouse. The event celebrated student artwork illustrating this year's theme, the rule of law and the American dream. Several young artists were recognized for their creativity and received awards for their submissions. We want to highlight that this was sent in from Hannah in eighth grade from Manasses Park Middle School. I don't have the originals on this one, so you'll have to take a look here. And then we also had this submitted from Juliet, a fourth grader at Manasses Park Elementary School. So, a lot of talent amongst our students with art. Okay. And finally tonight, we want
007to spotlight that we uh finally were able to hold our seal night. Uh it was rained out the first time and then rained in the second time. Um it was down to the wire and we thought about cancelling, but we know this is one of um our best attended events um that we have out here on the plaza during the year. So we decided, you know what, rain or shine, we're going to go ahead and move forward. We moved it into this room and we had 156 attendees, which is an incredible turnout. Um we were worried we were going to have way too much cake and ice cream. we were going to have to eat it ourselves and that did not happen. Um, so we had students come and attend. We also had 21 Manasses
008Park Middle and High School student volunteers come and make those cool down kits with our students. We had our SRO's here. We had the fire department here handing out the cake and the ice cream. Um, so it ended up being a really great night and we're glad that we were able to move forward and welcome our families. We also want to thank the staff members who put it together, our seal um, coordinators, Mackenzie Bistler and Amanda Harding, all of our counselors. We had teachers here, principles, schoolboard members. Um, and it was a it was a great night for everyone. That concludes our spotlight this evening. All righty, moving on to superintendent announcements. Good evening, chairman and members of the board. I'm excited to be here tonight um to present some very important members of our
009community with our appreciation. Um this year we started the Manasses Park City Schools Parent Leadership Academy. Um and the effort uh was really to try to educate um families and parents as leaders in our community and find ways in which they can um continue to advocate and give back to our school system. So, the academy brought together our parent leaders, school staff, and community partners for a year-long series of engaging learning experiences. We focused on leadership and governance. Uh we focused on student achievement, special programs, career and technical education, student wellness, family engagement, a whole host of topics throughout the full school year. participants demonstrated their commitment to strengthening the family school partnership and supporting student success through very meaningful dialogue, collaboration, and advocacy. We proudly recognize and congratulate all members of the parent leadership
010academy and their graduates. They're graduates tonight, so we're going to help have our own little graduation uh for their dedication, service to students and families in the division. A special appreciation is also extended to the many presenters and facilitators including our chairman who was there uh one evening as well as many of those in the room uh to share the information and really to provide that educational component. A special appreciation is also uh out there for Miss Rachel Kirkland, who is also here today, um for really kind of leading and spearheading this work, trying to get our families engaged and um getting something that we've all wanted to do off the ground and running for the first year in the cohort. So, uh appreciation to Rachel for uh for doing that. And another shout out
011for our school principles uh who hosted um each one of our sessions were um were located in our school buildings and um they shared tours with the uh members and really kind of um gave a good solid picture of what it looked like um to not only have a student that goes to Manasses Park School System, but to understand how things work as we um as we work through the process both on the operational side as well as the instructional side. So, they got to see buildings that maybe they hadn't seen before. Um, so at this time, I would like to call those members of the leadership academy, uh, cohort one forward, uh, as graduates to come forward and receive your official Manasses Park City Schools leadership pin, and I'll I'll share those with you.
012U, we hope that you wear it proud and continue to advocate for our schools and our students in very positive ways in the community and beyond. So, I want to thank them again. Um, tonight we do have Dr. Don Hayford here. So, I'm gonna ask Don to come forward. Now, I'm gonna >> I got it. >> Congratulations. I'm going to have you guys stand up here and then I'm going to have you come. Yeah, I know you're going to I'm going to do it to you. Um, and we also have Miss Tiffany Williams. And you know, a shout out to Tiffany who um not only did this, she was at every event. Um but she also we had wonderful Cougars with us um during that time and so a special shout out to them for
013they learned an awful lot about how the school system works. So Tiffany, congratulations. Let's see. I'm going to find yours, too. Here you are. >> Thank you again. Come on over here. And there we go. >> Flags sound good. Cara's going to take your photo. over by the flag. Okay. >> And I can think >> Thank you. >> Ready? One, two, three. >> Okay. Will you stay there? I'm have Violet come up. We're going to get another one. >> Honestly, that was awesome. Oh my god, that's a string. >> Thank you. >> So, just a a final congratulations to those community members who um they can wear their pin proudly. It it looks like our um school staff pins, the ones that we all have that have our uh role on it, but it's a
014little bit different. It's the opposite color, so it's black with gold writing. um and it shows uh their name and that they were a graduate of the parent leadership academy cohort one. Uh so congratulations to them. I also want to shout out um three other members who were not able to be here this evening. Uh Michael Becketts, Robert Maldonado Jr. and Anne Sanders for their um commitment as well uh while they were not able to be here this evening. So just a a thank you for them. the application for uh cohort two um is out there and or will be out there soon. I think it's out there. Um so if there are any community members u parents that are interested in participating, it really was a great opportunity for that collaboration uh to happen
015and to continue that parent engagement in a really um effective way. So thank you board members and thank you th to those parents and family members uh for for being here tonight. That concludes the announcement. >> Thank you. >> Has there has there been any um like a district announcement for looking for candidates? I I just maybe haven't seen it, but I was just curious. >> It is gone out on our um Facebook page. Uh so it is it is out there. We'll continue to put it out there for for a little bit longer and and see who we who we have available. U looking at the dates. And the great part is, you know, we we went through this process this time. So we learned a lot as staff members as well as parents.
016Um, so we know how to tailor things and um, you know, we did have a few cancelled moments because of weather like everything else. Um, so but it does give us the opportunity to kind of revise. So look for it out there on the Facebook page. >> All right. >> Thank you, Dr. Saunders. Uh, one last piece of business before we move on is um, you get the So, each year our senior representative from the board gets the uh, the golden ticket out. It's called the Willy Wonka one and only the the only tassel you get. So, I was at the Berlin as graduation coming up. We want to thank you for everything you've done for the board. Thank you so much. >> And you are one of three now. So, you get to distinction
017of being the only one that gets that tassel. So, okay, here we go. Back again. We're doing down here. >> Okay. Down again. >> Thank you again. Amazing. >> All right. Ready? >> All right. Moving on to public comments. Mr. Lori, do we have anyone signed up for public comment? >> No, chairman. >> All right. Uh, moving on to new business. We have no new business. Uh, so moving on to student representative reports. >> Oh, okay. We did not have a report tonight, but I would like to congratulate Violet for her award. I've had the pleasure of being her classmate and her friend for multiple years now. and I've seen her grow in art and I'm so proud of you and congratulations for getting into that graduate program for art. And I would also like
018to thank the board for the opportunity to be able to serve as student representative. I've had the pleasure of learning a lot about what happens in the background of decisions that are made for students. And I think through uh acquiring that knowledge, I've matured a lot as a person and as a student as well. and I want to um thank you guys for just uh giving me the opportunity to be here. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to board member comments. Does anyone have any comments they like to start us off with? >> Uh just a congratulations, Violet. Um, I was the person when they called your name at the um, art show to go up and get it. And the lady that was given the art back definitely
019stopped everything and was like, "This was really good. She really should have won." So, that was true. I'm I'm co-signing his story. So, congratulations. It was like I couldn't stop looking at it all night. So, it was great. Continue um with that cuz you're an amazing artist. Um, and then also to Juliet and Hannah, congratulations on your win. And then congratulations and a big thank you to the parents that were part of the parent leadership academy. Um and Miss Kirkland, thank you so much for everything you've done to help that out as well. Uh in Berlin, it's been great. We know you're going to go off and do wonderful things. Don't forget about us down here. Thank you for everything you've done. >> Um without piggybacking on everything on Dr. Joan said um everything she
020said. Also um congrats to I did get a chance to attend the AP Capstone night at the high school. Congrats to those kids. Also congrats to the gov school graduates. We had two this past week. Um so and I think next year we're hosting graduation. So that'll be fun. All members are encouraged to attend. Um and that is it for me there being that's the case. Uh we're going to go ahead and take a nope. Upcoming meetings school I'm going to get it one day. Uh regular schoolboard meeting Monday, June 22nd, 6 p.m. in school board chamber, second floor. Uh then we have the org meeting on July 13th at 6 pm. Uh now we will go into a 10-minute recess. And then are we moving upstairs for a work session on the digital budget
021books and the academic calendar? Exciting. Thank you all.