001declaration and roll call vote of subjects discussed in closed meeting. May I have a motion? >> Yes, I'll make a motion that we adopt the certificate of closed meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Do we have a second? >> I second. Thank you, Miss Diggs. Is there any discussion? Miss Laauo, will you please call the role for the vote? >> Here or yes, >> sorry. >> Yes. Thank you. Item 2.3, approval of personnel action. May I have a motion? >> I make a motion to approve the personnel action as listed. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion passes. Closed meeting is now adjourned. >> Good evening. Thank
002you for being here tonight and for watching at home. Before we start our meeting, I would like to call for a moment of silence for our dear Miss Marie Walls, who was taken from us much too soon. Thank you. And welcome to the February 17th, 2026 Matthews County School Board regular monthly meeting. If you would join me in the pledge of allegiance by standing and facing the flag. 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. >> Item 1.3. Roll call, please. Miss loud. >> Here. >> Present. Thank you. Item 1.4, approval of the agenda, additions and deletions. May I have a motion? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda as
003listed. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Do we have a second? >> I second that. >> Is there any Thank you, Miss Diggs. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion passes. Item 1.5, the consent agenda. May I have a motion? I make the motion to approve the minutes um of the minutes of the January 20th, 2026 budget work session, close meeting and regular monthly meeting, Thomas Hunter Middle School multi-year school support plan and monthly claims as presented on the consent consent agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. Do we have a second? >> Second that. Thank you, Miss Bohan and Stewart. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion passes. I would like to um mention Miss Bohan
004Stewart regarding the claims. Oh, did you want to add some information there? >> Sure. Um, since I'm a a new member and learning how to do things, I was planning on um shadowing Mr. Morgan on March 16th and Mrs. Hodgeges on May 18th and Dr. Gibbs on at least June 15th and possibly even June 29th. Terrific. Thank you very much. Item 1.6, our Matthews County Schoolboard governance norms and protocols. And we typically read a couple of those. Mr. Morgan. >> Yes. How, when, and whom to notify about volunteering in schools or at school events. All volunteers are run through the schoolboard office as per current policy. How, when, and whom to notify about attending school events, concerts, sporting events, etc. Board members are encouraged to attend school events. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. And just
005as a reminder to everyone, we will be covering covering the board governance norms and protocols item at our work session next week. We'll be revisiting that and reviewing those. All right. Item two, questions or comments from our school board student representative. Miss Ward, good to have you tonight. >> Thank you. Okay, Matthews Elementary School kicked off the month celebrating National School Counselors Week. MEES is thankful for Mrs. Hockenberry and Mrs. Hargus and for the daily support that they offer for both students and staff. Last week we celebrated World Kindness Week. Each day we dressed in a different color and we were challenged with certain kindness tasks each day. Some of the tasks included smiling at everyone we see, giving compliments, being a bucket filler, and writing notes of appreciation. Wednesday, February 11th, was a big
006day at MEES. We celebrated the 100th day of school. Throughout the building, you could find people dressed up like they were 100 years old. Students did math problems, writing, and reading activities revolving around the number 100. The 100th day of school is a major milestone in an elementary school, and MEES celebrated well. On Friday, February 13th, we celebrated Valentine's Day. Students celebrated each other with special notes for their classmates in classroom parties with delicious treats. We took class pictures last week and we're putting the final touches on the Matthews Elementary School 2025 to 2026 yearbook. We would like to give a shout out to the Gwins Island Civic League Foundation for replacing the little library outside of our front door. We have a new library and new books so students have the opportunity to read
007a book even when the school is closed. In celebration of Black History Month, community members will be visiting MEES this Friday for the National African-American Readin. Also on Friday, Dr. Ben Lennon's office will be doing dental screenings for students who have signed permission forms. Third quarter is well underway, and the teachers and staff are working tirelessly to provide safe and happy work environments and to hold high expectations for students. MEES students continue to rise to challenges with determination. We are looking forward to dry playgrounds, warmer days, loads of learning, and some exciting spring events at Matthews Elementary School. Here are the updates from Thomas Hunter Middle School. The Seahawks have had a busy month working on learning skills in classes. Students have completed their benchmark assessments in CIP and teachers are looking at the information
008from the tests to see where we need to support students. There are spots open for the after school all-in tutoring. Please call the main office if you have any questions and if you are interested in having your child stay after until 4 o'clock. Monday Monday and Tuesday are for reading support and Wednesday and Thursday are for math. Students have the opportunity to work with a teacher in these areas to assist them. A big thank you to the thms SCA for hosting the winter ball. Students had a great time dancing and enjoying friends. The SCA also sold candygrams and delivered them to students on Valentine's Day. Congratulations to the following students who were selected as students of the month. Lyman Hayes, Aaliyah Paige, Austin Sadler, and Charlotte Fielding. On Thursday, February 26th, THMS will be hosting
009grandparents of our students to join us for breakfast. If you have a grandchild at THMS, please call the office to reserve your spot. Breakfast is $4.75 for adults. Reminder that we have a schoolwide goal for no zeros in quarter 3. Please be sure to check your child's grades in Power School. We look forward to a great third quarter. And then for the high school, we've had a lot of exciting things happening at Matthews High School in February. Several Matthews High School students completed their certified nursing assistant certification with the GHSA program. One of our students will also be completing a patient care technician course during the second semester to receive further certifications in the healthcare field. Three of our students in our FCCLA program have been working on a community service project that recycles old
010plastic grocery bags and turns them into a crocheted blanket for the homeless. The time the timing could not be better as we celebrated kindness week from February 9th to 13th with a kindness spirit week where students dressed up to show their kind spirit. We had a really good turnout for our spring sports meeting on Monday, February 9th and many of our students are excited about the upcoming season. Many of our band members tried out for area band last week and results should be revealed shortly. FCCLA also baked delicious cookies for a Valentine's Day fundraiser to benefit the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. FCCLA also dropped off 116 breakfast bags to helping the homeless ministries on February 3rd and are currently working on the next 100. Students in the Beta Club helped set up for
011recent for the recent Matthews Chili Cookoff for the Riverton Club. We appreciate the work of our clubs in helping our community. And that's all. >> Excellent report. Thank you, Miss Ward. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item three, student achievement. Item 3.1, the MCPS student discipline data from Dr. Daniel. All right. Am I on, Mr. Anthony? Yep. Okay. All right. So, I'll go through a little bit. We don't typically cover um student discipline data um as part of this meeting. I think we I think we looked at it for a little bit this time last year. Something to keep in mind with discipline and how it's reported with the state. Um it's reported based on incident and then it's often reported based on students. So if you think about a fight for example, that's
012one that fight is one incident but there are two students involved. So you may have um you could have maybe four students involved in in a larger kind of fight. So the data that's presented in front of you is looking at the students and not necessarily the number of incidents. The other thing that I'll kind of help with is SBAR is um the um student behavior and response is what that acronym stands for. So the descriptors look like um like for a long long time we had um discipline codes, DC codes that the state used. This changed probably five years ago and the state started tracking the data a little bit differently. Within each of those um rows, so behaviors that impede academic progress, endanger self or others, safety concerns, etc. There are multiple subcategories
013that are within each of those codes. I didn't go into each each of those subcategories because it just it gets a bit overwhelming. And you're you can also split hairs a little bit on some of those subcategories, but I think to give us an overall sort of picture about where things are. Um this this would do a fairly um fairly decent job. So what's covered um what you're looking at is all of the ESBAR categories and looking at the 23 24 school year by school, 2425 by school and then this semester thus far of this school year. So you can kind of see the number of students who were cited for those categories overall um overall total number of incidents um kind of for the year. So you see an uptick from the 232 24
014school year into the 2425. Um and it looks like for this school year we're about on pace with what we saw last school year. I would say that's the the quantitative aspect of looking at the data. The qualitative piece of that is um having conversations with principles. I think the the severity of infractions has gone down. So while the number of infractions may have gone up, I think we're the principles and the administrators are now able to deal with what I would c categorize as some of the nuisance behaviors. Um some of the class disruption kinds of things, the the threshold for what is tolerated um has gone has gone down. Um so not as much as um so I would say the schools while the the numbers are about the same last year that
015this year I think the impact of increased focus on sanctions and um tier one kind of building expectations has had an impact. So um teachers are better able to teach the class disruptions are down and so the principles are addressing um smaller things. So the number looks the same, but the impact the the severity of some of those infractions um has has gone gone down quite a bit. Um I would also argue that when you're looking at the 25 26 school year and the number of students, non-duplicated students, um because that's looking at you can a student can have multiple infractions over the years and or over the course of a school year. So you can get into, you know, who the repeat offenders are. So um looking at this first semester, the 25 26
016and comparing it to all of last year, I don't anticipate having 25 um new students getting an infraction at the high school. So I think the number of students um receiving infractions is also going down. Um, a nuance in looking at the the data too is the impact of moving two grade levels worth of students from Thomas Hunter to the high school starting into the 2425 school year. So in the 23 24 school year, the largest number of students um infractions or perpetrators if you will, that's probably not the right word, but students receiving consequences was 59. So half of Thomas Hunter then moves over to the high school and so then in 2425 you see a big jump um in terms of infractions at the high school. So the high school adjusts, students adjust
017and so you're seeing then a decline um in students who who are receiving discipline infractions. >> So there's a I mean there's there's a lot to go into it behind the numbers. Um, but it's interesting to for us to begin tracking this on a more regular basis, looking at the subcategories and you can get into location within the building, time of day where where these infractions are occur occurring because part of that is what's recorded within the um the ESBAR um reporting to the state. So, it's just one of the many reports that we have to file with the state and um we do it midyear and then again end of year esbar. And I do think this information is good to hear every once in a while because it discipline feeds into our ability
018to instruct in the classroom for the students to learn. So this is this is interesting. I had one question on do you have a description or a definition of relationship behaviors. Um >> love life like um so um some of the relationship behaviors um bullying would pro bullying would probably fall under one of the relationship behaviors um you can get into inappropriate comments to a student to student stuff like that. So again, it kind of runs the gamut from um I don't think fighting like traditional fighting is under that. Um I think that's a safety concern. Okay. >> Um but I can I can provide a broader list of all the subcategories for board members if you guys are are interested in seeing. >> They're also all listed um I can tell you where they're
019readily available. If you go to the student code of conduct um that is listed on the website, all of those subcategories and a description of those subcategories is listed in the code of conduct >> along with um the range of consequences. So it'll say level two, level two or three, level three to five depending on what what the infraction is, but all that's listed in the code of conduct. >> Good. We can refer to that. Members, questions, comments? Overall, this is very pleased. >> Yeah, I have to give some thanks to um Miss Foster in the high school counseling office. She's also um part of our um powers school registar. She that's a big part of her job responsibilities now. So, she had to work to extract this data from powers school and from the
020state reporting for me. >> Um so, big thanks to her for um because I had some questions. it wasn't lining up with what I was getting out of power schools. So, we had to, you know, um, put our heads together and she was able to get some get it for me. >> We thank Miss Foster for making us, uh, aiding in our ability to understand this information. Thank you. >> There are no more questions. We'll move on to item four, citizens questions, comments, or requests. This forum is for comments not pertaining to personnel or student matters. Protocol for public comment. Period. Matthews County residents and school employees wishing to speak should sign up with their name and address on the sheet provided. Each individual will have three minutes to speak. Comment period will end after
02190 minutes. All comments should be directed to the school board. Speakers shall not address matters involving students or personnel as these topics may violate confidentiality and are not appropriate in a public forum. Public comment is the school board's opportunity to listen to the speaker. Since our purpose is to hear from you, the board will not engage in dialogue with the audience or whomever is at the podium. Matters requiring a response will be directed to the superintendent for research and response. The superintendent may report back on such matters at a subsequent business meeting session as appropriate. The school board carefully considers your comments when deciding on matters brought before us. We appreciate your attendance and your input. Our first speakers tonight are Mr. Ken Childris and Mr. Brian Donnelly. Kim told us just want to update
022you on the uh moving into the automotive shop in the high school. We've cleared out some uh material in there to make some room and uh we anticipate hopefully getting in there by March and getting set up. Brian Donley Matthews. Um, in terms of the club status that we've been we've been uh running this year, um, it looks like it's going to work out better for us if we transfer to a team status. Uh we've been working with the administration and the high school in particular the um uh athletic uh director um and she's done the research and is preparing the paperwork for us to engage as a team. Um there's lots of benefits to the school for that. Uh it makes everything easier. So we hope that uh that come the fall we'll be
023an active team um instead of just the club that we are now. So, our next steps are to submit the paperwork to the uh to the sports league. Um there's some training, some coaches training that we want to do. Um and uh and and preparation for being coaches and then as Ken said, setting up the robotics lab. So, that's where we are. >> Excellent. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Our next speaker will be Mr. John Mison. Good evening. Uh I just wanted to give everyone a quick update of what's going on with the uh JCL Foundation. Uh first thing is we have a new website which I would love for all you to uh go visit. Uh it gives updates on what we're doing. The address for that is www.gicfoundation.com. gfoundation.com. Uh that way you
024can also uh check on what's coming up. But just to let you know what is our first dine to donate is coming up on March 12th, which is a Thursday, and that will be at Howard Douly Cafe. And so we would love to see you there for breakfast or lunch or dinner. Uh we'll be there all day raising money for the for the students here in Matthews. Uh the second thing that we have going as far as a fundraiser for the winter and spring is something new for us and that is we have printed up a community savings book. It's the old coupon book we all knew and loved. Uh but this is for uh merchants in town. Uh again all proceeds from this are going back to the students in Matthews. Uh so basically
025it is about $200 or so in savings and the book is ridiculously priced at $25. So uh and there there all the vendors are in Matthews except Compass Entertainment which was kind enough to uh be part of the book itself. Uh you can find the books at any of the merchants that in town that are in here, the visitors center or Steuart's tile and carpet center. Uh you can buy them there. And there's actually two different books. U and the only difference between the two is one of the merchants wanted to be in half of them and the other merchant wanted to be in the other half of them. All the other ones and there's 12 coupons in it. All the rest of them are in all of the uh booklet. So hopefully whoops hopefully
026you will uh want to purchase some uh in the near future and send your friends to the website and and everything else. And the reason why we're raising the money is we want to get rid of it. Uh we don't want to have it sitting in our coffers. We want it back in the schools. And I'm very happy to announce that um we have agreed to sponsor the sixth grade and seventh grade science department field trips to the uh Virginia living museum so that parents will have a zero balance due on that so every kid can go I don't know about you guys I forgot a lot about what I did in school but I always remember the field trips and what those do and what was really wonderful about this is they listed also
027out all the SOS that this is helping with. So, uh, we're very pleased to do that. So, please come out, uh, to our fundraisers so we can give the money right back to the schools here. >> Thank you, Mr. Mathe. >> Wait for Howard Douly. I didn't hear that. >> March 12th. >> Thank you. >> I don't have any other signed up. Is there anyone in the audience who'd like to approach the podium? If so, please state your name and address. >> Richard Hicks, North Virginia. Last week, the marquee in front of the school said 16 February is President's Day. This is not correct. It is Washington's birthday, a federal holiday as designated by Congress in 1879. Just a little education for the school board, the superintendent, staff, teachers, and students. And hopefully next year,
028the marquee will be correct. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hicks. >> Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? There being none, we will move on to item five, our superintendent'sformational reports with item 5.1, the attendance update. All right, a quick look at our um January attendance. Um again, attendance um numbers look pretty good compared to last year um this time last year. The exception being we had a huge spike in tardies at the high school um for the month. Um, I think one of the things I mentioned last month when we talked about attendance and tardies, um, one of the observations that Miss Thomas shared was especially in the days following a snow event, we saw a a stark increase in tardies at all three schools. So that is is borne
029out to be pretty accurate in for the month of January as we had several kind of snowy, icy, um, somewhat hazardous hazardous days. So, we just saw a huge um spike in tardies um for the month of January. But all in all, in terms of where we are with um warning letters, attendance plans being developed, um we're in pretty good shape. There are some pockets um at the elementary school that we're still working on and working with families, but in terms of where we are on pace for chronically absent students this time compared to last year um we we stand to be in pretty good um shape for our attendance. So that's due a lot to communications and administrators working to communicate with families, Miss Thomas's work, um phoning families, developing attendance plans, the school
030counselors working to make sure students are getting to school and we're trying to remove barriers and um to make sure our kids are are getting here. So >> members, any comments? I would just like to give a big thank you to Miss Thomas. She's doing a fantastic job and um she's obviously building a lot of bridges and relationships with students and families and it's showing. >> And a big piece too with what Miss Thomas does is she's our liaison with a lot of the court services. So as we have students who families or they them just individually are involved with court services, she is our liaison um with them and working um with again Commonwealth attorney historically that office but also juvenile justice and everyone in that office. So she's um provides a great deal
031of assistance to those families but also to court services and the division. >> Great. Moving on to item 5.2. to our financial report from Mrs. Emma Hundley. >> Good evening. >> All right. Through the month of January, we expended 48% of our operating budget. We're still keeping an eye out on the um the substitute line because it's still trending high due to to um unexpected long-term absences and also um we have notified the schools that we are going to freeze spending um at the end of February just until we can see what our ADM comes into in um March and also but they can still do emergency purchases and anything that they um need they can just just have to get approval before they purchase it. Um That's all I have for this month. Is
032there any questions? >> Questions, board, >> I do have a couple questions. >> Yes, ma'am. >> On um page seven, uh I was wondering if you could explain the reimbursement process on the governor's school. There's a little note there. >> That's the summer um governor's school. It's just an in-n-out thing. We were just their fiscal agent. So, um that's basically the money that we received that they um to run the program and then since we are no longer the physical agent, we had to return anything that was left over back to um the regional summer program. >> Okay. Okay. Great. Makes sense. And I was wondering um on that also on that page um the gifted education um has we seem to have a an overage an overspending there an over expenditure. Is that accounted
033for in >> Yes, it was just it was the way it was budgeted it um it was the full salary was not budgeted there but the full salary is coming out of that line for that um gifted education teacher. >> Okay. So that has been accounted for. >> Yes ma'am. Okay. And then finally, um I was wondering I I have no idea, so I'm just asking, we have some lines that say other use of funds or miscellaneous, and I was wondering if the board could at your leisure um have some detail on those, and also if you had a total dollar amount that is in those categories. U perhaps it's very small, but I'm I'm just I'm curious about that. >> Okay, I'll give that for you. >> Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Thank
034you, Mrs. Hundley. >> Thank you. >> So, item 5.3, the VDOE mathematics grants um information would be from Dr. Daniel be great. >> Sure. So, um Miss Hunley to my left, um has put in a great deal of work, um applying for grants through the Department of Education. So, um, we're part of two grants. The mathematics acceleration grant, um, it's an ex it's a competitive grant process. Matthews received a mathematics acceleration grant from the DOE. The purpose of the funding ex is to expand access to advanced courses for students. Our proposal includes supporting four teachers to expand their endorsements in math, which will allow them to teach additional math courses. So what this allows um based on lensure for individual teachers it will allow them to extend upward and teach more advanced content in their
035grade level or in their area. So it'll allow say for example an elementary school teacher whose license may be K6 to expand their lensure into middle school mathematics to expose elementary students to middle school mathematics concepts. additionally for middle school teachers to then add high school lensure, high school mathematics lensure on to their existing lensure. So that requires some coursework um additional testing for them to be able to do that. This grant allows us to pay for that coursework, that testing for those teachers. So, we have four four of our math teachers who signed on um willing to go put in the additional time to go back and take classes to add to their skill base to provide additional benefits to our students um to to do all those things. So, committed teachers um going
036and doing that and we're appreciative for Miss Hunley to go apply for those grants and do the leg work to get that. The second is the mathematics innovation grant. Again, competitive grant process. We received math innovation grant from the DOE as part of a regional consortium including four other school divisions in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University. The purpose of this funding is to improve math instruction and outcomes through highquality materials. So MCPS our proposal included adoption of HQIM which is high quality instructional materials for K12 as well as professional development, professional learning opportunities and support for implementation. So this proposal was fully funded. So what it allows us to do is partner with some neighboring school divisions. Um it'll provides a little bit of support for us to then purchase textbooks, supplemental materials and the
037training for textbooks and supplemental materials um moving forward for next year. So it gets all of us on the same page. It provides a little bit of um collaboration both with some regional partners but then also with VCU in terms of professional learning access for our teachers to then implement these HH HQIM Wonderful. >> Yes, Mr. Hodes. >> First of all, this is exciting. Uh, this is our, as we all know, math is one of our weaker areas. So, this is very exciting. I'm just not sure I understand exactly about the advanced mathematics. I understand the license. I understand that piece of it. So is it the thinking that that they will be providing instruction in an advanced level in the classroom and if so right now I'm understanding is that they students that are
038more advanced they pull out and they take them you know um I guess allowed to go to another class with other like-minded students. So I'm not quite sure how that will work with the present students that with the students that might not be in an advanced level how how they're going how that's going to work. >> So what it allows us is greater flexibility both within the school so that teacher may be able to provide a section um just for advanced students at a higher level. Um but it would also provide additional um skills for that teacher to provide deeper knowledge, greater insights. Hey, this is how it's going. You need to know this because when you get to this next phase, it's going to look like this or you're going to need to be
039able to do this. >> So, it's a higher level thinking should help in in the at their grade level. >> It does two things. So, it provides access to higher courses, but it also provides that teacher with greater skill set to provide a depth. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Any more comments, questions? Mr. Um, a lot of talk about advanced math, uh, which I will confess is a lot of it. Most of it's over my head. But in my in my time teaching, what I noticed more was the children, the students that struggled with the basics uh, more so than advanced. If I had a student in my carpentry class that was in an advanced math class, they they did extremely well at advanced math, but it was the students that
040were just doing the basic math or the oldfashioned arithmetic that seem to struggle. Is there any emphasis being put on trying to strengthen our our basic math instruction? >> Yes. So we have all-in tutoring to kind of backfill where there are deficits with students in some of those basic math fluency gaps and skills. Um so we're we've double blocked in middle school math to provide more time for math content, more time for math instruction to boost math performance. The other piece that we are looking at is in terms of scheduling and how we and when we accelerate students through math. So we're trying to provide within the schedule more time. But also what we found was kind of while you saw some of your advanced students were doing quite fine, we saw a lot of
041our advanced students kind of hit a brick wall, if you will, at geometry. Um and so we've looked at how we how and when we are identifying students for kind of that accelerated path to make sure that they have all the required skills and concepts and knowledge to really have that strong foundation to build those advanced concepts on top of. So, we've we've done a lot in terms of scheduling in the last two years um to really double block and provide emphasis for math instruction um making sure we're monitoring student progress um identifying skills where students are lacking and then we've been using the the all-in tutoring. The middle school, for example, also has a power up kind of built in during the day. Um many little support um tutoring block to support students with
042math and reading skills. >> Good. Thank you, sir. >> On to item 5.4 information for school board. >> Okay. So, several items um available um for you all. So, the financial reports are available for you to look at as well as second semester um field trips. Um also activities that each school is doing for Black History Month. Um I'm going to um bring your attention to a couple pieces. One is the special um I'll start with the academic calendar. So, draft one of the academic calendar is um for you all to review. Um in that is the calendar, but they're also highlights. I'll go over a little bit of the highlights. Um, part of what is different about this calendar and previous years is this is a while the start date is roughly the same
043as it is um this school year, it is two weeks before Labor Day because Labor Day in 2026 is relatively late. So, this has the division starting two weeks before Labor Day, but it's roughly this year I think we started on the 25th. Um this year, um students would start on the 24th. Um so that's kind of a philosophical change. Um draft one has us in alignment um in terms of start date with most of our neighbors, Gloucester, Middle Sex, New West Point. Um it has a professional development or workday at the end of each quarter. There are 177 instructional days. This is two instructional days fewer um than we have this current year. As a reminder, um the state uh requirement is 990 hours or 180 days. Um I think every school division I
044know of uses the hours and tracking the number of instructional hours during the day. So the everybody the the thought of oh we've got to have 180 days that's no longer um part of state code. Um there are 195 teacher days. The other kind of thing about this calendar is in 2027 Easter falls on March 28th. So this calendar aligns spring break um then follows Easter. So Easter Sunday and then you move into spring break. So, and also on this calendar, um, Good Friday would be a teacher work day. So, it's the way third quarter ends, um, aligns up fairly nicely with Easter holiday and then spring break. We don't always align spring break to Easter. Um, part of, um, it just kind of happens to fall nicely, um, this year or in this calendar
045with this proposal. Um the hurdle, one of the things we've talked about in years past with calendars is alignment with Gloucester and spring break. So this draft does not currently align with Gloucester's proposed spring break for next year. It does however align us to our ne other neighboring school divisions with whom we participate in athletics with. Um that was that has been a challenge this school year because our spring breaks don't align. Um so trying to schedule spring sporting events during our spring break doesn't work and therefore it doesn't work during our other school's spring break. So it's about two weeks where we we're kind of out being able to schedule events. Not that we should divine design calendars around sporting events, but it's um it's something to keep in mind. Um this calendar, draft
046one, also aligns us for the most part with Ches Bay Governor School. Um so there still may be an issue with June 4th, um that last weekend and state track meet. So we'll kind of have to work through that a little bit. Memorial Day is also very late in 2027. So that becomes kind of a a bump there. The last piece to think about with calendar is that there's some legislation within the general assembly right now that looks at when so tests have to be administered. So, there's a bill that was approved last year that is being um considered for revision this year, but it requires all or requires most so testing to occur the last two weeks of school. So, that really shrinks the window that we can provide testing. It impacts um some
047of your ceremonial things, especially in the lower grades with that occur in those last couple weeks of school. Um getting projects and things along those lines. the the bill that's in the general assembly includes a lot of things related to testing and kind of end of the year, but we'll have to monitor that bill with this calendar to see if we need to make adjustments for um like right now I think the last day has a half day, but if we're still we may still need a full day >> um for testing or retesting students for you know um expedited retakes things along those lines. So, we'll have to kind of keep in mind kind of that those last two weeks, that last little bit of school for how this bill ends up playing out.
048Um survey was sent out to teachers um to administrators um given two um drafts of a calendar, one with a little bit later starting date. It then has a later finish date. Um, overwhelmingly, um, faculty and staff preferred draft one. I don't think they love the idea of it being two weeks before Labor Day, but it's roughly the same start time. Um, so I mean, I can share the other kind of comments from the survey, but I got a pretty good response on on the survey, but about 80 I think it was about 83% of the respondents and I think there were about 65 respondents. Um, so about 80 83% preferred draft one. Um, so if we need to make any tweaks on the calendar um before next month, I'll let you know. But um,
049just putting it out for public consumption. I also ran it by planning council. Um, they kind of took a look at it. They really didn't have a whole lot of concern about about the calendar. Um, so I feel I feel pretty good about about draft one, but um, I'll ask the board to take a vote on it next month. Mrs. So if this bill goes through, clearly we're not going to understand all the repercussions from it, but the the expedited retakes is um I'm just wondering about that you only have a small window it seems to be able to do that. So you can't do an expedited retake once school is out. Correct. In other words, if you end school the fourth and you have a student, you know, you know what I'm asking. >>
050I'm going to refer to our division director of testing um on some of those nuances, >> right? Because because I I mean I may just preface for my colleagues here that I mean that's a big thing and now you can do it in the lower grades as well. So it's not just the high school and it helps our scores a lot if they're really close and they just need one more, you know, question answered correctly, that kind of thing. So, >> so luckily for everybody, I just came from the state DOT meeting. So, I have lots of very recent information. Uh, the twoe window would include all expedited retakes. That would not be an exception to the twoe window if that legislation remains in place. So, that house bill um actually passed last year, but
051then was delayed a year. There are twin bills right now in the Senate and the House making some modifications to that original legislation, but at this time the twoe piece is still there for 9 through 12. There may be a third week added in for seven and eight, but too soon to um know for sure what the implications of that will be. But right now, you are correct. Expedited retakes are available beginning in third grade all the way to end of course um generally speaking at a 375. But there are accomodations for students with disabilities on IEPs or 504s that could extend that window a little bit. Um so expedited retakes are an important part of our testing process. So we would have to be really deliberate in how we schedule um that window. Right
052now we have a four-week window. That's what the state requires of us and for example this year our testing window is May 4th to the 29th that we will use each and every one of those days. You know it's it's busy for us to get it done in four weeks. So there's a lot of concern today at the state DOT meeting just about the logistics of what the implementation would look like um with that legislation and I'm sure our contacts in the office of student assessment will keep us updated but right now I don't have anything solidified but your understanding is correct. >> So um and and you may or may not know the answer to this. So is the thinking that this would provide more instructional time before they test um before they test
053Is that it? Or is it that they're concerned or maybe both of these are concerned that once they test then they're still in school and they're not getting in the instruction that um the general assembly thinks many many of us think they should be getting. >> Right. I think patron of the bill um is a teacher. So it's based on you know his perspective as an educator I think. Um and that gained a lot of >> you know support based on his his stance being an educator and a legislator at the same time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The bill also includes requiring um so performance to have an impact on a student's grade. So their their score on the so should count up to 10% of their grade. Um there's not clear information on
054what that looks like at this point um that I'm aware of. So, you know, do you get, you know, what equates to an A, what equates to a B? How does that translate into the 10%? Um, so that still sort of needs to be fleshed out of it. Um and and then there are implications in terms of of testing in terms of um our bandwidth to be able to have twice as many students testing either at the same time or running a morning testing session and an afternoon session. Students having multiple so tests in a week. Um basically we would need all the testing to kind of take place in a week to then give us time for um expedited retakes for the second week because you have to have provide instruction prior to that
055expedited retake occurring. Um also too when you have new tests they have to be equated. So they have to have a certain number of students to have taken the test to do all the statistical analysis. So sometimes there's a lag from when um the test is first given and first students are taking it until we get scores back and then you have to so there's just there's more stuff on the back end um than sometimes everyone realizes. >> And my concern is I mean I'm sure they they wanted to be part of the grade as an incentive to do well on it. I suspect my concern is it's a double whammy for students who are struggling to begin with who don't get special education, don't get accommodations, they're not doing possibly not doing well in
056the class because they have difficulty learning and then they don't pass the test. And that's my concern that it's not a a fair or level playing field to those those students. That's just unless there's more information coming in. That's kind of my >> again like you know does if you if you pass does that mean it's an A? Does that mean it's a C? You know does a currently or pass scale is 400 is a pass. >> So if you get a 40 405 >> is that the same as a 72? Is that the same as 100? like how do you so there just lots of >> pieces >> like as the state would refer to frequently um as business rules. So we don't have the business rules for what what this is supposed to
057look like. And the other piece is um there's a there's a parent opt out. So if your parent opts you out, do you get a zero? >> It's a ref sorry refusal. Sorry, a parent refusal. So then if there's a refusal so then what do you like how again we need some guidance on on the business rules. Sorry. So >> okay thank you. >> Um on the flip side of that I've heard teachers in the past that said the so since they were given so early the students felt like I can go home now and that's it. So I would think on that end of things it might be >> a good thing for the students. I think there's some great intentions >> intentions behind it and I think >> um >> it's even worse
058when you think about AP tests and those are given earlier in the you know early in May or late April um for for that window and so if you're you know teacher of an AP class that kind of you've you've done all the things kids have so now what do you how do you you know what are you adding on to that towards the end because that's kind of nationally standardized. them. >> But the good news about the AP test, and I thought about this and then forgot, is starting school earlier does give them more time. I remember one year when we started a bit late, we had a teacher start that class early to make sure they could get all of that curriculum completed before the first two weeks in May. >> Um the
059second item I'll call to your attention, >> excuse me, sorry, I'm jumping the gun. Just a small point before we leave um this heavy topic. I believe there's a small point for next year. >> Very good. So um and I think we've I think we updated it on this this here calendar. Um so it says February 15th. It lists George Washington's birthday >> as a teacher work day and professional. So we made that correction on the calendar going forward and we'll make sure that's part of our verbiage um going forward. Thank you for reminding me to talk about that. >> Thank you. >> Um, so the other thing I want to highlight is the April 21st, 2026. >> Yes. >> Um, so because our schools are used as polling places, um, we don't have def
060we don't have definitive confirmation yet, but it's looking pretty likely that Virginia will have a special election on April 21st. Um so um pro next month we'll have to do in all likelihood a calendar adjustment for this school year um having the April 21st as we'll move it to a teacher workday. Um so students will stay home on April 21st. In all likelihood the board will take a vote um on that next month. But just giving parents a heads up, community a heads up that that change to the calendar is pretty likely. Um, but we'll keep it as a professional development teacher workday for teachers. We'll think through um parking and and the like on on school grounds. I don't think I don't think that'll be a a huge um challenge for us. Um, does
061the board are there any questions about anything from financial report or Black History Month activities or field trips? >> Okay, and I think we're ready for item six. >> Great. Item six, schoolboardformational reports. Item 6.1, schoolboard conferences and webinars. Everyone has their listing of expectations for courses uh information tomorrow. Let's see. is it Thursday is the Title N. I believe several of us are taking that course at least virtually. Um so be sure to check off on any uh needs that you have on that list. Item 6.2 board and committee reports by members. Uh we see we have January through June uh are covered for supervisors meetings. Is there anyone who would like to or has a report to give um regarding any board membership that they um have? >> I just have one quick
062thing then for the Bay Consortium Workforce Development Board BCWDB. Um I attend that meeting um as the liaison as the cleo also which is the chief local elected official. And I just wanted to alert the board and the community to two uh new members of that board that I think will be helpful to us going forward. One is Ann Rector. She's the healthcare talent development development coordinator and she promotes exposure to occupations in the healthc care field and she's these both of these people are new additions and they are really um just super positive energized people and she is taking to Tik Tok to get the word out on healthc care professions for kids. This is where kids are looking for information. Um, and so we're going to put it to good good use. She
063would be a great contact. Um, as Gloucester is being incorporated into our region for Bay Consortium. Um, she does a lot and she's already worked a lot with Gloucester. Um, we know they have the nursing program there, but I've spoken to her directly and she is open to any questions or needs that we may have um where she can help. The second person is Beth Sharp. She is um the career influencer and she is kind of taking over Giles Scott's position and she is going to be having a senior summit at Essex High School at the end of April. I asked her if she would have a virtual aspect to that because it'll be hard for some of our students to be able to get there. Um she is going to work on that. This
064is for uh how to interview, how to dress, all the kinds of things, basics on um job acquisition. She's also having something called a future fest which is for seventh graders. This is going to be for next September on the September 26th in Richmond and this is just to begin to get job occupation awareness in a hands-on fashion for our youngsters. So um these are two women who are really motivated like I said and I I know that Giles Scott was so wonderful worked so well with us and our counselors at the high school. I hope we continue to have that um relationship with these uh women as well and the Bay Consortium Workforce Development Board. >> Um Dr. Gib, are are they going to be sharing this information with our school counselors to make
065sure our students aware like the health occupations and also I know at the high school I assume they still do that the um mock interviews so that >> maybe do something with the school counselors or so so they know how to dress appropriately. I think they ought to do something. This might add some depth to it. >> Right. And actually, Mrs. Dodge reached out to me uh several weeks ago asking for the replacement contact for Mr. Giles. And so, I do think that is already in the works. But also, Mr. Applegate, he is no longer here, but I've invited these two ladies to come to the next CTE advisory meeting. And so, they will be part of that virtually, I'm sure, if as they are able um to join. And so, I just Yes, we
066Today we will have FaceTime with our division. Yes. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Can I say one thing? >> Yes, Mr. >> U. This just to bring the board members up to date. Um, as you already know, Mrs. Hajes and myself are the uh policy review committee and we met I guess it's been a little over a week ago now. went through several policies, um recommended a few tweaks on some of them, but uh just the main thing I want to share with you this evening is there's an awful lot of legislation in the general assembly right now. Um has not become law yet. If it does, then some of our policies, probably quite a few of our policies are going to have to be completely redone. So just a heads up that
067there may be a lot of changes on the way. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. >> And if I may, Dr. Yes. >> I would just like to thank um Mr. Morgan, Miss Hodgees for the work that they're doing because I got to see a little bit of that the other day. And I have the policy manual also and it's a huge task as I guess we all So, I just want to thank you, too. >> Right. And in collaboration with Miss Laauo and Dr. Daniel, Miss Hunley, and everyone. It's a It's a team effort for sure. >> I didn't mean to leave you. >> Great. Just totally agree. >> All right. If there are no more comments, we'll move on to item seven, our action items. Item 7.1, seeking a motion. I make a motion
068to take off the table the motion to approve schoolboard policy services through SBMA that was tabled at the January 20th 26 regular monthly meeting. >> So thank you Miss Bohan Stewart. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you Mrs. Hodes. Is there discussion? >> I do have a couple of things. Um I have been looking into this as I had mentioned to you all earlier on and for the public listening tonight. Um first off we have to be in compliance with the law of course when with our policies. Um SBMA was established in 2022 and the organization provides resources, trainings, policy writing and services to school boards here in the Commonwealth. >> Miss Diggs, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Oh, >> this motion is to take from the table a motion. >> So
069perhaps >> once again, >> sorry guys. >> So hold on those thoughts and we will get to them. Okay. Is there discussion pertaining to the taking from the table the motion to approve? There being none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion passes. Moving to item 7.2. seeking a motion for the approval of policy services through SPMA. May I have a motion? >> Yes. I'll make the motion for the approval of policy services through school board member alliance. >> Oh, thank you, Mr. Morgan. Do we have a second? >> I second that. >> Thank you, Miss Bohan Stewart. Is there discussion, Miss Digs? >> Yes. This is the time. Okay. Uh looking on, I won't repeat what I just said a moment ago. Um but looking on to the other one,
070uh the Virginia School Board Association that was established in 1906 and so the difference in those two organizations um is about two years. And so Virginia School Board Association uh is a voluntary nonpartisan organization of the Virginia school boards. It promotes excellence in public education through leadership, advocacy, and services. Um and as we just said, um Miss Hodgees and Mr. Morgan are reviewing our policies and making revisitions and suggestions. Um it. If the SBMA has a vetted policy that we are updating um that they are updating, all is good. But when we have an outdated policy, as a lot of ours are um and they do not have um a policy for that, it's my understanding that we have to go to our attorney at a fee and get advice there um from them. If
071the Virginia School Board Association has um a complete repository while SBMA is building on theirs, um then we may have that taken care of for the policy changes we meet we need to make. Um, so as I have learned in growing older, we get some experience down the way and hopefully it is wise decisions and I tend to go with tend to see that an advantage in an organization that has been around for 126 years. Um, and so I just wanted to share that with the general public and you folks, you fellow board members tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Digs. Mr. Morgan. >> Yeah. Uh, Mr. Digs, I appreciate your concern. Um, the first item under their scope of services. This is SBMA. Okay. >> The very first item says updated policy templates reflecting state
072and federal education law changes. So they are as much as humanly possible on top of changes, >> right? >> And like I said earlier, we're probably going to be looking at some changes. >> Sure. >> They provide um a template for your policy. You don't have to necessarily follow it word for word. They're giving us or whoever subscribes, they'll get a template. And we are, as long as we follow the code of Virginia, we can make certain little tweaks one way or the other, but we do have to follow the law. You're exactly right. >> Thank you. >> Comments, Mr. Ses. I I um as some of my colleagues know have concerns similar to what um Miss Diggs mentioned in not and in jumping into a new um a new advocacy group, a new new
073group that doesn't have the longevity, the experience and and adopting that organization for our policies which are something we need to take very seriously. Um so I I I do believe the um the SBA um is more established, more experienced in this area. Um, and if we were in July or June, I would say um I would not support this motion, but we are without policies and that's where we find ourselves. Uh, so we need to have policies. We put off a month because we needed some clarification on SBMA and their contract. we've received that um BSBA only only provides it for a year at a time. They will not do half of a year or less than a year. Um and please correct me if I'm wrong on that. So I think we're at
074a point where I don't see where we have options at this point for the rest for remaining of this year. Um and so for that reason I will support this motion. But I I I do have concerns and we'll see as the next month's uh the next few months and weeks roll out as to what what they look like, what the policies look like. I did read um thank you for Dr. Gibbs for a couple samples that you sent to us um an email. Um but I do have concerns about a new organization just starting out and getting their feet wet in such a serious um serious and significant iss Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Hodgeges. Miss Stewart, >> um I like trying new things and you know, I think it's it's good to try
075something new and different that um I did it all the time as a teacher and u you know that's all I have to say. >> Thank you, Miss Bohann Stewart. I will just add and I do appreciate all my colleagues comments u that the SBAMA has a shorter term they they have created create crafted a shorter term for us to basically what I would say have a taste test of their policy services. the services would go through May 31st and then we would necessarily have to renew those or go with another option. But this would give us an opportunity to try the policy services during a very busy active policy semester which we are all anticipating. So if if that gives anyone any more information um this you are correct Mrs. Hodes that BSBA will
076provide annual policy services one year at a time in total they will not break that up. So um and this just for everyone's clear understanding this is not a vote about BSBA membership. This is this is about procuring policy services from SPMA. Separate from that question al together. >> May I ask a question? Uh do you have for the I know this is from January 2026 to May 31st 2026. Do you have the number the amount that we would pay for that for that for the six months >> for the five month term is875 as stipulated >> 875 the overall cost for both service policy services is the same at 2100 per year >> and I'd like to also thank you for triggering my my memory here. I spoke to Shelley Nordon from SBAMA about
077um policies that were dropped in the fall of last year that we did not have access to. >> Uh we will have access to those and I think we did have this conversation today. >> Um by taking on this section of a year we would also have access to last fall which would be um helpful and that would be included in the price that we're seeing here. Any more discussion? >> Just one more quick one more quick point. Another one another item on their scope of services uh is summaries of enacted or proposed Virginia education laws and I must say uh I think they have done an excellent job up until now up till present uh of keeping us informed of these proposed legislative changes. those of us who are members. >> Yeah, those of
078who That's right. We you have to do have to be a member. Uh we've gotten I I can't count the emails with legislative alerts and advisories and so forth. Um so they are definitely on top of any new laws, any new changes. I I don't think that will be a concern, but as Dr. Gibbs said, this would be a good taste test if you want. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Do you have a question? >> Dr. Daniel has a question. Yes. >> Um just to clarify, do you had mentioned or somebody had mentioned having access to the um policies that came out in the fall? Will this give us access to all of the all the the full rep what they have in terms of their repository? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's okay. >>
079Any more discussion? Okay, we can wait. All right, let Yes. Um, so we need policy. I totally understand. And we they are offering the rest till May 31st. >> Their new term starts >> and via Virginia School Board is a year, >> right? whenever you start. >> Okay. So that that is the difference. Now >> that is one difference. >> Am I correct? One difference. >> Yes. >> Okay. So theoretically, if we were to adopt VSBA policy services as we are members as a full board of VSBA at this current time >> and then perhaps in the future when renewal came up for VSBA membership, the board opted not to continue its membership, we would not be able to continue policy services with VSBA. >> Right. I understand that. But we would switch to the
080other which would provide policy. >> We yes we could theoretically do that but we will pay a full year in advance for VSVA and then whenever the renewal >> whenever the vote came to renew membership >> if the board opted not to continue its membership policy services would stop and we will have paid that full year in advance. That's just another consideration. >> Thank you. >> Regardless, I think policy services are needed imminently. >> Yesterday, right? Is there any more discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. Item eight, citizens comments on items discussed during meeting. Is there anyone who'd like to approach the podium? Please state your name and address for the school board clerk. Good evening, Sharon Fry, Port Hwood. Thank
081you for your service. Um, when I was running for school board, I I was introduced to the school board member alliance in in its infancy. It's quite an incredible program that they have going. They have come from infancy, nothing like Virginia School Board Association, which is quite old. And some of us don't like change. But if you really uh get in touch with these people and listen to these people, they have a lot on board. They have a great concern for our children in our schoolboard uh system. Also, I would like to thank the robotics team. Oh, they're gone. Thank you. And also, I would like to thank John and Gwen Island. Thank you so much. And I'd like to purchase one of your coupon books. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fry. Is there anyone
082else who'd like to approach the podium? Randy upgate, teacher at Matthews High School. I just wanted to thank uh Ken Childris and Brian Donley for all the help that they have had. Um, we have a severe need for storage space right now over at the high school and then where they're helping to circumvent our needs and get some of that stuff moved up and cleaned up and they've been an immense help to to the program. So, they put in a lot of hours. I just want to make sure it's on record that they're getting the credit for that. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Applegate. >> Sorry. Anyone else? There being none, we'll move on to school board members reports members. Do you have any uh reports or comments? Mrs. Hodes? >> I did. I just
083want to um to ask if we could include in future meetings updates on where we are with um I'm not sure I should use the word contracting yet, but how to move forward on our building changes, you know, construction acquisition. I'm not sure. Um, so if we could just maybe get updates in the superintendent for future meetings, that would be helpful. >> I agree. >> I know some of you are are um intimately aware of what's going on. Um, but I just like to hear about the progress that I'm sure is being made in that area. To clarify, you're speaking of the restructuring updates and the architectural >> architecture. Yes. Yes. >> Okay. I agree. Yeah, that's great. And we will make that a standing item going forward. I I believe >> any other members
084have uh comments or reports. Moving on to item 9.1 with reports. No. Anything that anyone wants to say? Okay. Moving on then to item 10. Other business by school board members or superintendent. 10.1. There will be a public hearing for FY27 school budget Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 5:00 PM in this building in the auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School. Item 10.2. There will be a joint Matthews Board of Supervisors and Matthews School Board budget work session on that same evening, Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 6 PM in the auditorium here at Thomas Hunter Middle School. Item 10.3. Next week, the school board will have a work session on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026 from 8:00 am to 300 p.m. in the Chesapeake Bank community room. Um, if you could please arrive and be ready to
085go by 7:45. Members, that would be great. Item 10.4, We will have a joint Matthews Board of Supervisors and Matthews School Board budget work session Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, 6 PM in the same location, the auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School. And item 10.5, our next monthly closed meeting will be Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 5:00 PM in this building in this auditorium at the Thomas Hunter Middle School, followed by our next regular monthly meeting, Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 6 PM in the same auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School. If there are no other comments or information to be given, this business meeting is adjourned.