001Sometimes they don't allow it. >> The drumming will not happen. I You're going to need personal >> feel like we're in like an old Baptist church. >> My All right, it is now 6 PM. Uh, so I'm going to call this meeting to order uh with a reminder that um this meeting is both audio and video recorded uh and a reminder to send silence all electronic devices. Mr. Laurier, can we get a roll call, please? >> Yes, chairman. Mr. Paul Alexander, >> here. >> Dr. Shante Jones, >> here. >> Miss Ellen Sabadnik, >> here. Miss Jen Moyers >> here. >> Chairman, Mr. Zach Graham is absent. >> All right. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Um, I will go ahead and do a a moment of silence in a pledge of allegiance. I don't think I've
002ever done it. >> It's a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance 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. >> All right. Uh, do we have any additions or corrections to the agenda? >> No, chairman. >> All right. Seeing no additions or corrections, can I get a motion and a second for approval of agenda? >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> I Okay. Uh consent agenda. Assuming everyone's had a chance to review it, can I get a motion and a second for consent agenda, please? >> Motion to approve consent agenda. >> Second. >> Motion a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Moving on to superintendent
003spotlights and announcements. >> I'm going to ask Dr. Rates to come forward and share one announcement today. >> Spell that please. >> Same person. All right, got it. >> All right, good evening Alexander members of the board. In our first spotlight of the 2025 2026 school year, we would like to highlight a special recognition Manassis Park High School recently received from Level Up Virginia. So, if you've never heard of Level Up Virginia, it is a statewide initiative. Oh, sorry. Okay. Uh, if you've never heard of Level Up Virginia, it is a statewide initiative led by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Virginia Department of Education. Their mission is to increase post-secary readiness, enrollment, and completion for all students in the Commonwealth. They're committed to making college access information easily understandable and
004accessible for students of all backgrounds. So really helping students to understand what are my options as I move on from high school. Um and they come in and partner with high schools to really do a lot of work with students around that. So, they recognized the high school because the high school successfully coordinated and submitted data for all four Level Up Virginia events. And that was a ECMC college night, a Virginia college application week, uh, FAFSA Next, helping students understand how to fill out their FAFSA, and decision day Virginia. Manasses Park High School is one of only 28 schools across the state to receive this recognition for completing all four of those events. So that's why they were recognized by Level Up Virginia. Uh Mr. Forest was not here tonight. The counselors, everybody's getting ready
005for the school year to start, but he did want to say congratulations to Manasses Park High School counseling team. He's very appreciative for all of their hard work and the ways that they seek to support our students and community. They're also deeply appreciative as well to Level Up Virginia for the resources and assistance they have provided, and they look forward to working with them again this coming school year. So we want to say congratulations to our counseling team at the high school. And that concludes our spotlight this evening. Okie dokie. Moving on to new business. We're going to There's no superintendent announcements, right? >> No announcements. Okay. Just making sure. Just that school starts um in one week. Right. >> Uh so we look forward to welcoming our students and our families back to a
006wonderful school year um this time next week. >> Right. So moving on to new business then the proposed change in the 2025 2026 calendar. >> Yes. Good evening board. Um so I'm here tonight to uh present for the first reading two changes to the uh 2526 calendar. you know, we work two calendar years ahead of time and so sometimes we come forward with some adjustments um to the calendar. Today I have two for you for consideration. We'll bring it back to the board for vote um at the next meeting. The uh first is a change uh the observance of Dewali from October 20th, 2025 to October 21st, 2025. Um when we built the calendar um Dewali begins at at the afternoon of the 21st but the actual day of observance um or begins on the
00720th. The actual day of observance is uh the 21st. So we've had some uh communications around adjusting that so that the day of observance is the one that we are uh that the division is uh celebrating. So uh that's the first change for consideration. Um and the second change is um a little bit different. Uh you know this past year the city has been celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the city. Um and there have been many activities that are going on. Um it the class of 2025 uh that we recently graduated in May. If you looked at their ceremony um papers you would see that it was the 49th annual commencement ceremony um for Manasses Park High School. Now, I'm not sure that was the 49th class of graduates. I think we may have
008had some ceremonies prior to that. Um, but this year we will be celebrating the 50th annual commencement ceremony for Manasses Park High School. And so, I'm requesting for the board that um that we do an adjustment to graduation ceremony. We currently have it on the calendar for Saturday morning, June 6th, and we would like to move that to Friday evening, June 5th, uh so that we can incorporate some celebration activities of the 50 years of of our ceremony here uh at the school level, kind of tie that into the city. Um we're doing a lot of work this year with our alumni. Um, Miss uh, Miss Kirkland with the Bell with Bell, the executive director of Bell, is working on um, developing our um, alumni connections and networks. Um, we're doing that through both um,
009that organization as well as through athletics and activities uh, throughout the school. So, we're trying to gather some of our former graduates and and really celebrate the 50th year as a as a community. Um, so, uh, we look forward to trying something different, um, and doing a Friday evening, uh, graduation ceremony with a time to be determined, um, but it will be in the evening, not in the morning. So, those are the two requested, um, changes to the calendar for 2526. >> Thank you, Dr. Saunders. >> Seeing no questions, let's go to >> I I did I did a question. Sorry. Would that um would the school still be open that day or would that be a closed day? >> Yeah, it would still be um we would still have students. Um it would be
010a school day. We may consider an early release for the high school so that everyone can um get prepared, the staff, the students. Um but consider it an early release just for those high school students. You know, at that time um our seniors are not um attending regularly at that point. Um they they're kind of in their senior week and doing a lot of their senior activities. I'm working with Mr. forest on um what does that look like for some of our other signature events that are prior to graduation? Just making sure that we are able to um continue with those signature events. But we will um come back and kind of look at that uh early release day um if it's if it's approved by the board. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Anyone
011else? >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Saunders. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh moving on to upcoming meetings. We have a regular board meeting and schoolboard retreat Monday the 25th at 6 p.m. in city hall boardroom chambers second floor. We also have a regular schoolboard meeting Monday September 8th on board chambers on the second floor at 6 pm as well. Um moving on board member comments. Anyone want to start us off? All right. Well, I will congrats to the counseling team and welcome to our newest member, Miss Moyers. Thank you. >> Other than that, if there's uh no other comments, can I get a motion and a second for adjournment? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion to second. All in favor? I. All right. Thank you all. Motion meeting is over. Ajourned.