001Declaration and roll call vote of subjects discussed in close meeting. May I have a motion? >> I have a motion. >> Yes. I move that we vote on the uh subjects discussed in the closed session. >> Mr. Morgan, would that be to adopt the certificate of closed meeting? >> Yes, it would. I'm sorry. Yes, it would. >> Thank you. May we have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? There being none, Miss Laauo, may we have a roll call vote, please? >> Mr. >> Yes. >> No. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hodgees, >> Yes. Item 2.3, approval of personnel action. Looking for a motion. >> Dr. Gibbs, I'm sorry to interrupt. Can we go back to the last um the the most recent vote that this is just a certificate that we discussed in
002closed meeting what we said we were going to discuss. It's not a vote on approving the personnel action. >> Yes, that is correct. >> My mistake. Change it to yes. >> I got Thank you, Dr. Gibbs. Thank you, Dr. Gibbs. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Thank you, Mr. Dobson. Thank you, Miss Laauo. May I have a motion? Item 2.3, approval of personnel action. >> I recommend that we approve the personnel action as listed. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Four eyes, one opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Close meeting is adjourned. I'd like to call to order the Matthews County School Board regular monthly meeting postponed to
003today, Thursday, September 25th, 2025 from September 16, 2025. Would you all please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? [Music] 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. I one item 1.3 I'm seeking approval from schoolboard members present for absent members electronic participation in regular school board meeting. May I have a motion? >> Yes. I move to approve the request of school board member vice chair Linda Hodes for electronic participation in September 25 2025 rescheduled meeting from 17 Preston Point Road in Matthews Virginia due to an acute medical condition that prevents her physical attendance. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr.
004digs for the second. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes 4. Welcome, Mrs. Hodes. >> Thank you very much. >> Miss Laauo, may we have a roll call? >> Mr. >> President, >> here >> present. Item 1.5, I'm seeking approval of the agenda additions and deletions. Yes. I will make a motion that we amend the agenda to delete item number 6.1, which is the HES school facility management update, and to add item 9.6 six, which is a discussion of the VDOE cut scores. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Can we have a second? >> Second. >> Thanks, Miss Digs. Do we have any discussion? I would just like to mention that the deletion of item 6.1 with the HES item is going to
005be postponed and will be appearing on the October business meeting due to the company being out of state at this time. and unable to attend. Any more discussion? There being none, all those in favor to amend the agenda by deleting item 6.1 and adding item 9.6 say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion passes unanimously. Item 1.6 seeking a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed. >> Miss Diggs, um would you be able to read out the recommended action in full? >> That's great. Uh to approve the minutes of Is the one August 19th? >> Yes. August 19th, 2025. meeting. August 19th, 2025 regular meeting, adoption of FY2527, school budget development calendar, approval of overnight Matthews High School band and monthly claims as presented on
006the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. May I 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 unanimously. Item 1.7, the Matthews County School Board governance norms and protocols. And you will recall that every meeting we read two of the existing norms and protocols. Um, I will go ahead and read these two tonight. Responding to staff or community complaints at board meetings. Board members will not engage in dialogue during the public comment section of the board meeting. And in relation to responding to staff or community complaints outside of board meetings, board members will listen and refer the community member through the appropriate channel of communication within the school division. teacher, principal, central office administrator,
007or superintendent. The board member will let the superintendent know of the conversation. Moving on to item two, we welcome Miss Ella Ward to give her student report. Thanks for being here tonight. Thank you. Welcome. Sorry. Here's the happenings at Matthews Elementary School. Matthews Elementary School had a great start to the school year. Our prek and kindergarten friends are learning how to find the cafeteria and resource classes. All the students are setting into routine and doing well. We're excited to have fifth grade at MEES and the students have trained the teachers to the Matthews Elementary School ways. We love our newly remodeled building. It is so white and bright. Students and staff are very flexible as these projects continue and we look forward to the completed results. Matthews Elementary School has been blessed by many different
008community organizations who have donated school supplies. Some organizations include the Gwins Island Civic League, the ETA Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority, and the Matthews County Women's Club. The students completed their STAR testing and are in the final stages of the VALSS testing. All-in- tutoring begins on September 29th for our third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Running club starts this week, and our students are very excited about lacing up their sneakers. September is attendance awareness month, so MEES has been holding a random drawing each Friday to recognize students who have not missed a day of school. There is one winner from each grade level. The students receive a special certificate and a fun little prize. They are also featured on the Matthews Elementary School Facebook page. Here are some updates on Thomas Hunter Middle School. The Seahawks
009have been working hard the first month of our school year. We've had a great start and our students are learning new skills each day. THMS staff would like to recognize the Matthews maintenance department for their support of Thomas Hunter Middle School and assisting us to get the gym cleared out for students to enjoy PE. We appreciate your help. We are also very excited to have our new staff members. Miss Sour in science six and seven, Miss Hendrickx in math 7, Miss Shootman in social studies six and seven, Miss Bailey as our secondary reading specialist, and Miss Robbins in our health and PE class. Welcome to the Seahawk family. Students have completed their STAR assessment and some students have begun working on the VA LLSS test. Here are some exciting opportunities for students coming up. September
01026th is attendance day spirit day where sports gear. September 29th all-in tutoring begins after school. September 30th is a fundraiser assembly. October 1st is the attend dance for students with perfect attendance. Se October 2nd is picture day. October 3rd is SCA election day and October 13th is a teacher work day. Here are the updates for Matthews High School. We've had a great start to the school year at Matthews High School. We had a great turnout for our volleyball jamboree on August 23rd and the marching band performed for the public on September 6th on the court green of Matthews historic course house area for market days. After making a huge effort to try and keep our football season going, we were down to just 15 healthy players and had to forfeit the remainder of the season.
011But we appreciate the tremendous effort of Mrs. O'Neal for resurrecting the program and for every player who worked so hard to try to build the program. With only 15 healthy players remaining, the health and safety of our student athletes was the most important aspect in making the decision. The election of class officers took place during the second week of school, and we're excited about the upcoming activity day scheduled for Friday, September 26th, when everyone has an opportunity to participate in their clubs during the school day. September is attendance awareness month, so students are participating in attendance spirit days every Friday in September. Fall sport pictures are scheduled for September 17th and picture day for all underassmen will be held on October 3rd. September 17th is also Constitution Day with a lot of activities taking place
012in our history classes. In addition to the military recruiters who are regularly scheduled throughout the year, there are a lot of colleges and universities that will also be visiting Matthews High School during the months of September and October, including Randolph Min, UVA, JMU, Mary Baldwin, ODU, Hampton Sydney, Longwood, and Christopher Newport University. We really appreciate the effort of our school counseling office to coordinate all of these recruitment opportunities for students. Thank you. >> Lot going on. Thank you for presenting to us for the first time and we look forward to several more wonderful meetings with you. Glad you're here. Good. >> Right. Moving on to item three, recognition by the school board chair. We have uh the 2025 BSBA media honor role, Mr. Charles Koig from the Glouester Matthews Gazette Journal. And we have a
013>> certificate of appreciation. >> Yes. Please, please come over. >> Can you take a selfie? Everybody [Applause] [Music] 4.1, we have a retirement recognition. have retirement recognition a plaque for come on let's talk about while you're up here everybody needs to look at so has been working for Matthew County public schools for 25 years I think all and so especially as we're kind of thinking about last couple weeks weather and we've got hurricanes kind of on the forecast and thinking about those things. It's critically important that our bus drivers know the safety of operating that bus safety of our roads. We're able to transport our students here and back home. You know, the first smiling face that our students see the impression that they have when they get off the bus. So, our bus drivers
014are incredibly important. It's a thankless position. So, I just want to say thank you. years authentic. [Music] [Applause] Another [Music] another wonderful recognition item five student recognition with Mrs. Michelle H. Williams the FCCLA advisor. Would you please come up and speak to us once again on this amazing feat? this is getting, you know, we're going to have to see each other outside of schoolboard meetings at some point. Thank you for having us back again. Um, this past year was a whirlwind at Thomas Hunter and then in the last six days packing everything and relocating to the high school and we're still still digging out from that. But in the midst of all of that, I took three children and one adult and we flew all but the dad. The girls and I flew to Orlando,
015Florida to the national conference for FCCLA. While we were there, and I have to apologize, two of my girls had other commitments. One had a family emergency and the other one's at a volleyball game. Go Blue. Um, and then we have Abby who left her cheer practice in order to come so that she could be with us tonight. But we had when we went with states, we had two gold, two silver, and two bronze awards. Of those, only three of the children decided that they wanted to go to Orlando. It was a huge expense, but we worked with the community and it was funded again with with the help of our community. I couldn't do anything that I do without them. And so we took three of the girls. Abby was one. Abby was a
016silver medalist in the state competition in Virginia Beach. Natalie Davis was a gold medalist for uh community service and Autumn Segalini was a gold medalist for fashion construction. So that's two years in a row we've had a gold medalist in fashion construction. >> Amazing. Amazing. >> Which is really amazing because I don't make clothing. >> So I know how. I just don't like to. But the girls went they you talk about watching growth. I've never seen anything like it. These girls had to stretch themselves. They met with the Rurton Club three times. We met with several members of the community as we fundraised and made it happen. They two of the girls had never flown before, so it was their first airline flight. They all survived and we made it there perfectly. Dad picked us
017up at the airport. We got to the hotel which was absolutely phenomenal. It was the largest hotel I have personally ever stayed in other than the Gaylord. Um and we walked it was about seven or eight miles a day just to get from our hotel room through the skywalk down to where the convention center area was where we were competing. So Abby was the last one to compete. So poor Natalie, she had to sit and watch the nerves and watch the tears. And Natalie competed first. Second. Natalie competed second. Autumn was first. Um, and in the shuffle of moving and packing from Thomas Hunter to the high school. Poor Autumn's folder got misplaced in a box. So, we got there, we had her mannequin, we had her dress, and thank goodness FCCLA is a user-friendly
018group of adviserss. The my roommate actually printed out the papers that we need. And I was running shortly out of a walking boot with the folder and with her forms, filling them out as I was running through the concourse and got there as they called her. >> Oh my gosh. >> In handed it to her and I was having a panic, but I don't know how she did it, but she pulled off not only the gold at states, but Autumn pulled off a top 10 in the nation finish. with a silver award at the national level. >> So we placed with a top 10. She was u noticed and recognized on stage with the top 10 finalist. And if you could see the outfits that these people made, these children made. I've seen things that
019you buy off the rack that didn't look better. They were amazing. Um quite quite the competition. Aby's project is the sensory support backpack project. And we started this project a couple of years ago. We worked with Miss Hodes and the community services board and our first responders to make these backpacks that are filled with um fidgets and comfort items because when a child is in crisis, whether it's an elementary school child, a middle school child, or teenager, or this year we added uh items for Alzheimer's dementia patients. when they're taken to the hospital in an e situation, they are snatched up and they don't get to take anything with them. So, our thought was to give them some items that could help them self-regulate and could help soothe them in their time of crisis and
020sometimes due to the mental health crisis in our country, those children might sit in an emergency room for several days while they look for a bed in a mental health facility. So it would give them something to call their own. Last year we had 15 and or year before we had 15. Last year Abby put together with her partner 35 and this year their goal is for at least 50, but they're adding to it this year. The one item for the Alzheimer's dementia patients was pretty pricey and to depend on donations to purchase those would be a bit extreme. So, the girls are actually going to get together in small groups and we're going to try to make some of them. So, once we get my sewing machines up and running, that's going to be
021on the agenda and Abby is going to compete with me again this year. She has opted to do the same project and expand it. You can't do the exact same thing every year. It you have to tweak it and change it. So, she's going to do the same thing again this year. >> Amazing. Congratulations Natalie Autumn and Abby and Mrs. Williams for bringing this to our attention. It it really is unbelievable for our small community. And just while you're up there, I just I want the Matthews County community to know that Mrs. Williams rightfully so and so deservedly has earned the region 2 ACT new teacher of the year for 2026 for um family and consumer science teacher for grades 7 through 12 was named ACT region 2 new teacher of the year on Thursday
022September 11th in Atlanta Georgia and you will be Mrs. Williams, one of the five finalists to compete for the national new teacher of the year in Nashville, Tennessee in December of 2025. This December. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> We are all rooting for you and you should win. Absolutely. Congratulations. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. There is actually a press release that ACT is working on. If they haven't already gotten it to the Gazette, they are going to be forwarding that. Fantastic. Um, it actually details some of the things that the community has helped me accomplish in the last couple of years. And I can add super exciting. Um, I got a phone call from a neighboring division asking me to come and help them recreate what I've done here in
023Matthews for their school division. So, I could not ask. The trophies are beautiful. The accolades are wonderful. And I am so appreciative. And I am so humbled because I I told the women at the conference, I told the president of region 2, all I did was run my mouth. All I did was talk a lot. And when I spoke to Central Village Homemakers in August, I told them, I'm just a teacher. I'm just a teacher that loves my kids, and I'm just a teacher that really wants them to have a foot up in life. when they leave us. College is going to be a wonderful place for many of them. CTE is the wave of the future. It has come full circle and we are looking forward to building a thriving CTE program here in
024Matthews. Family and consumer science is just one leg of that. I mean, what Miss Hayes does, what Mr. Applegate does, what Mr. Williams does here at the middle school, m Mr. Robbins at the high school for construction and myself. We're going to see things big happen with CTE for Matthews County. >> I believe so. I to I believe so. Thank you, Mrs. Williams. Thank you so much. And thank you, Abby, for being here with us tonight. Congratulations. >> Thank you. [Music] [Applause] >> It's very exciting. As indicated, we will be skipping item 6.1 and we're going on to item 7.1 under student achievement, the so pass rates. >> Thank you. Um I'll start by saying there are going to be a lot of slides with a lot of data on those slides. Um so the
025pass rates I'll I'll start with some some background. So um the state of Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia started issuing and kind of using pass rates as a currency in the last couple years. Typically it's been um overall student achievement which has included growth and some other indicators of student success. But pass rates have kind of become um the currency or the mark. It's also what the state has to pass on for federal accreditation and compliance. Okay. That doesn't come up as clear as I'd hoped. Okay. So what you have before you is the three years worth of our pass rates um collectively as a division. Um so it's it's aggregating all of the reading scores from three four five six seven 8 and 11. Um English writing to note is only an 11th grade test.
026So the number of students participating in that test while the the bar graph looks the same as the other there is a lot fewer students who participate in that English writing. So it is very cohort dependent um from year to year. >> Um history and social sciences again there's there more um more students who test in history and social sciences but that number goes down significantly in high school in terms of who is participating in those tests. So, keep in mind um once a student has that so test or that verified credit um for a high school credit social studies class, they no longer have to take the so test. Mathematics and then science. So, um what you see is a general um general upward trend over the three years. Um pretty significant gains in
027mathematics and science over the last three years. Um, and what as we see areas of concern and areas where we need to improve, we're having principles are having data meetings, coming up with their staff, utilizing these pass rates to have conversations as teachers are building their own data for this current school year with their current students. So, this is somewhat of a an autopsy exercise to sort of see how we can improve, where we've improved over the last couple years, and what things we can we can tweak to to get better on. Okay. So, the current slide is Matthew uses um performance pass rates against the state average. So, giving us so how we've done over the last three years just against ourselves. And then this is a comparison against the rest of the state.
028So for reference to in English and math in Virginia, there was new content and a new test in all reading and all mathematics um classes. So our um reading performance exceeded state average um but we're slightly below state average in those other um category areas. right now. Okay. So, we'll we'll dive in a little bit deeper and take a look at Matthews Elementary School reading. And so on the chart, you have three years worth of hours and Virginia's pass rates in specific content areas or specific grade level areas. So, Matthews is in the darker column. Uh state of Virginia is in the the yellow. So where you see and um you're going to see as we go through a lot of these graphs um three-year trend lines increasing in terms of improvement. So gains made
029over over a three-year time frame. Another thing to take a look at looking at um some of these tests is you can look at cohorts of students. So if for example um this so if you turn around and kind of board so if you look at this particular group of third graders here that's going to be your fourth grade group one column over. So Miss Digs if you if you all want to spin around and look at the the screen behind you. So for example so this group of third graders here is going to be this group of fourth graders. So you can look at okay this is where they were in third grade and that's the gain they made a year later. While we're still a little bit below um what that state average
030is there is a gain from this level moving up to that level >> from this cohort this group here moving into that group there. So while there may be a dip from last year or the year before, it's important to take a look at have there been gains from with that cohort of students. Again, we've got small co cohorts like we're averaging about 60 kids per grade level right now. So every student is about a point and a half if you will in terms of a percentage point roughly. So taking a look at you know gains every every student is going to be very important. Um so okay looking at our middle school reading again. So we see a dip with um fifth grade. So that's a that's a conversation that's going to that is
031occurring at at Thomas Hunter. Um and then but again with the other grade levels you see some increased growth. Um you see areas where we're exceeding the state average on reading performance. High school reading. Um in this situation 8th grade while it hasn't in the previous years uh been associated with the high school I went ahead and included it with with the high school. And so we're having conversations at the high school because you see that kind of a three-year trend of declining um declining pass rates at that 11th grade reading. >> And that's a cumulative test. So there's no ninth grade or 10th grade test for uh high school reading. So all of that is collected into that one 11th grade 11th grade test. Looking at math. So, third grade math, again, nice trend
032line going up, exceeding state averages. Fourth grade math, um, again, overall sort of an upward upward trend over that three years. Thomas Hunter Math. Again, significant gains um with the the fifth grade math group, especially um in terms of the content being significantly below state average to being right at state average. Um big jump in sixth grade. Um and again looking trying to so this sixth grade group in the middle that sixth grade group there is then for the most part that seventh grade group there. So you're seeing again um gaining with the rest of the state but also that cohort of students gaining gaining skills and improving their math skills. high school math. Um high school math is um we've got some work to do there as the graph and the this sort of
033chart tells you. Um the silver lining here is looking at again gains in that eighth grade eighth grade group over time. Um, another piece to look at is for the most part these eighth graders as they so that first eighth grade column is the second algebra one column is then the third geometry column. So you're seeing growth from their performance in eighth grade um going into that middle column with algebra 1 and then again with geometry. It's not super clean because algebra 1 isn't just going to be nth graders. You're going to have other students who factor into that group. Um, but it's it's a rough way of being able to see cohort growth over time if that makes sense. If at any point you guys have questions, please stop me. All right. So again,
034there is silver linings to be seen in the um in kind of the specific content areas that we've looked at. Um there's also an awful lot of work to be done. Um administrators, teachers, central office staff are rolling up their sleeves and digging into the data to try to find patterns and trends and where where do we need to improve? How do we improve? Some of that is scheduling. Some of that is putting the right people in the right in front of the right students in the right content content areas. Um I think a lot of it is going to be attendance as well. Um but one thing to look at while in many cases we're below the state average in terms of pass rates. Um there's a website called schooldigger.com. Basically what it does
035is it takes once the the state releases um its pass rate data and it does it for every state every state in the nation. Um it kind of aggregates all that data and then ranks school divisions based on pass rates. So it's it's not the end all beall but it's it's one way to kind of measure our growth over the last couple years. So I went back and looked. So in 2023, Matthew Matthews was ranked 76th in the state. Um this year we had climbed all the way up to 51st. Do we want to stay at 51st? Absolutely not. But it's 51 out of about 130 school divisions in Virginia. So um we're we're climbing. We're improving. We're making gains. Um we're still battling kind of gaps that occurred during COVID. Um but whereas as
036as the older students, our younger students who have been in the system are making gains, the system is working um to help those students, our teachers are doing their professional development, are learning the science of reading, applying all of those things. Um so the gains the gains are happening. Um the improvement is is happening. If it were if it were easy and simple and it could happen overnight, everybody would be doing it. Um, but it's it's it's a challenge. Okay. And it's not working now. Oh, I think it started working. Well, >> it's the last slide. >> Okay then. Okay. Then I'm there's a different there was a um Mr. Anthony did I I think I shared a different one an updated one with you. I think that's the one that the older one that's
037in board docs but I shared a newer one. I thought I did. Maybe I did not. >> May I ask a quick question while Yes, ma'am. Mr. Anony's looking for that. All of this is making me uh reflect back on our strategic plan >> and our goals there. And I'm I'm wondering if that document can gets merged into these data meetings that we're having that the leaders are having um to to make any tweaks we need to make and to make sure that we're living uh up to those goals in the strategic plan. >> Yes. So, I was working so the um the state data the pass rates were released about three weeks ago. So, I've been going through the state data to then fill in the strategic plan update. So, there's um a there
038are portions of our strategic plan that are broken down by subgroup area. So, I've been mining through some of the spreadsheets that the state has provided to update um all that. So hopefully um I hope by the October meeting I'll have the strategic plan updates and sort of benchmarks as to where we're meeting, where we've met, where we haven't met, and then also kind of what's what's in progress. >> Wonderful. >> Did I not share it with you guys? >> You don't see it? Okay. All right. Um well, I'll I'll kind of talk through it a little bit. So, um there are um I added three additional slides um and it breaks out subgroup performance um for reading and then subgroup performance for math over the last five years. Um where we're we're seeing again
039upward trends in performance over those five years. Um, one of the concerning areas is um, achievement of our students with disabilities. And so there's a significant gap um, with students with disabilities. There's also a significant achievement gap that we're seeing over the last five years with students of color um, and having that that gap um, occurring. Um, so we're working with uh we're going to dig dive in deeper to look at put names with numbers and figure out kind of what are what are the patterns that we are seeing there and try to get down to some some root causes as to why that's happening, what we can do differently to make sure that all means all all of our students are achieving and have the same same access. The final slide was looking at
040our attendance data. And so the attendance data um looking at our chronic absenteeism and that has um significantly declined over the last three years. So um I'm trying to go off memory, but our I think our division chronically absent rate three years ago was around 26%. That is down to just over 15%. I think we're at like 15.6. The high school three years ago was around 33%. It's down to just over 15, I believe. Um, so they've almost cut theirs in half. Um, the elementary school and the middle school were both sort of in the mid20s in terms of their percentages, and I think they're both around 13% um for their chronic absenteeism rate. And for the audience and folks watching at home, chronically absent is when um a student misses 10% or more of
041the school year. So if you roughly have a 180day school year, if a student for any reason whatsoever is absent for more than 18 days, they are listed as chronically absent. It doesn't matter if it's a doctor's note, a funeral, you get the flu, you were suspended, um it's anything any any absence. Um every absence counts and so anything over 18 lists them as chronically absent and that's a federal indicator as well. So, okay. Um some we'll talk cut scores in a little bit but um pass rates we anticipating the new um school performance and support framework that metric for school accountability um being released in the next couple weeks. We are still awaiting the tentative data from the state on that because the school accountability framework which historically we used to talk about school
042accreditation and being fully accredited that language has shifted a little bit. So when we're talking student performance that's now school accountability and it's more than just pass rates. It's pass rates, it's growth rates, it's attendance, it's the number of students who are enrolled in advanced courses, it's at the high school level, it's 3E, which is enrollment, enlistment, and employment. And there are various metrics under those categories. So there are numerous numerous items um that go into that new accountability system. So, we'll spend some time in October walking through walking through that accountability system because there there's a ton of information in that. And then I'll um I'll update kind of the slides and we'll get that posted in in board docs for those additional slides that I that I referenced. I apologize for not updating
043that. I added those slides after in the delay from last week's meeting to this week's meeting. I kept digging in and digging in and saying, "Okay, well, this is important. This is relevant. We need to talk about this. So, I apologize for not updating those. I'll send them to you in a minute. Questions on >> Yes, Miss Diggs. >> Not a not a question, but a comment on the um wonderful absenteeism drop. That is hats off to all of the teachers, administrators, >> and Taran Thomas. >> Yeah. everybody, >> our school social worker does tremendous job. >> All of them because that was a huge thing and and this is very good news. Not where we want to be, but good news. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I I do want to commend Taran Thomas, too.
044I know that she's um one of many people who are engaging in this effort, but she's leading the way, and I really appreciate her efforts. And I agree, Miss Digs, this is this is moving in the right direction. A big difference from just a few short years ago. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. We're moving on to item eight with citizens questions, comments, or requests. 8.1 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 names and address on the sheet provided. Each individual will have three minutes to speak. Comment period will end after 90 minutes. All comments should be directed to the school board. Speakers shall not address matters involving students or personnel as these topics may
045violate confidentiality and are not appropriate in a public forum. Public comment is the school board's opportunity to listen to the speaker. Since the 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 speaker tonight is Dr. Rosemary Smith. Welcome. I'm a retired educator and I love being a full-time resident of Matthews County. I want Matthews County to thrive, to thrive. And for that, as we all know, we need young families. Families
046seek good schools. In Virginia, recent history indicates that as parents evaluate a school system, they seek the ability to play a role in their child's education. Hence, Governor Yncan's victory over his opponent who stated parents should have no role. Indeed, all across America, more and more states, there are currently 33, are providing some form of school choice for all income groups to escape failing public schools. The main rallying cry for choice is education, not indoctrination. Parents naturally seek to form their children's their child's cultural and philosophical principles based on their own beliefs and lived experiences. I would say that the abundance of American flags displayed in both public and private areas of Matthews indicates the lived experience of our citizens is a strong sense of patriotism and a love of America. I've begun to worry
047a bit that some parents may have perceived this as lacking in our schools and I worry about this because of the increasing number of parents who have removed their children to pursue private or homeschooling. We discuss this often because of the res concurrent loss of funding. If some form of affordable choice comes to Matthews, I really worry about how our public schools will do. Therefore, I was really dismayed when a member of our school board declared in print, published for all parents to see an overt disdain for the America of today, indicating it is unrecognizable, implying it is in decay, calling a cabinet member warped, and stating ICE is destroying pursuit of the American dream. Of course, school board members have freedom of speech. However, I doubt that a weak introductory caveat of personal opinion
048will mitigate this clear demonstration of bias, this sense of superiority, of knowing better than the 69% of Matthew citizens who voted for the current administration for the America of today. How much damage has this done? How many parents will see this as support for the indoctrination of beliefs contrary to their own? How many more students are going to leave? >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith, could you for the record please state your address for the clerk? >> My address is Blue Crab Drive, Virginia. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Mr. John Mathen. >> Good evening everyone. I have a couple things to go over real quickly. Uh, number one, our last dying to donate for the Gwyn's Island Foundation will be held on Wednesday, October 8th at Olivia's over in Gloucester. Uh, once again,
049Gary Ward, who is very uh involved and his family has for a very long time with the Matthews schools and Matthews is generous enough to let us be over there. Uh it we will be having that again Wednesday, October 8th for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we hope to see a lot of you over there and all the proceeds that we receive from that will again go back to Matthew schools and it students. Uh the second thing is the next night on October 9th, Thursday night, the Gwins Island Civic League will be having a candidate forum for school board who are running for the in this year's election and also board of supervisors. We will have much more information coming out on how those things are going to be organized and that will be uh
050in the paper next week and we'll be getting together with with Mr. mechanic. Um, but we are coming up to the end of our year and I just want to also take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors and thank the citizens of Matthews who have given so generously to us so we could give generously back to this community. As far as fundraising goes, this year we increased 50%. and we are in uh totals now that we never dreamed uh we were we're going to be able to to achieve. And so again, thank you to everyone for that and we really appreciate your support. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Mason. >> Do we have anybody else who'd like to approach the podium tonight? There being none, we did have a uh an email come in
051from a from a citizen. I am going to read it. It came in via email. Um this is from Miss Sharon Fry, Port Haywood. First, I want to extend my condolences to Mrs. Hodes. Second, I pray for Sharon Morgan a speedy and complete recovery. Now, I would like to remind everyone that this is Constitution Month. As I recite the preamble to the Constitution, we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Lastly, I would encourage everyone to stay in prayer for the safety of our schools, administration, teachers, and most importantly, our students.
052Thank you for your service in serving in our community. >> Moving on to number nine, Dr. Daniel Do I have >> that will be upcoming? >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Dobson. Item 9, 9.1, school opening and enrollment. All right. So, I think I've got all these slides because I just sent those today. So um so a little bit on our enrollment. I'll start with a little bit of definition between enrollment and ADM. ADM is average daily membership. So as we have conversations about enrollment, it includes our preK students. It includes students who receive just some um special education services. So we may have students who come um just for speech language services who may not be with us um during the entire school day. We have students who are enrolled with us who
053were served um either in regional programs, regional special education programs, um private um private day programs, etc. So all of those students are included in our enrollment. Our average daily membership which is important because that is how state funding is based. Um average daily membership is a narrower definition of the students in our schools. So it tends to exclude um some of those partday students, those um students who were attending regional special ed programs or um other kind of regional programs. So some of our students who attend say even in this situation Chesapeake Bay Governor School or some of our welding programs or they're cons because they're being served at a different educational institution um we don't get full sort of credit for those students in terms of um funding. So just keeping that in
054mind because sometimes reports will come out and talk about our enrollment and they don't necessarily line up with ADM and that creates confusion as to well why why aren't your numbers matching up and it's sometimes because you're talking about different things. So I just wanted to have that have that out there. Okay. So, going over our enrollment trends over the last 22 or so years. Um, and this is based on a September 30 count. So, I'm jumping the gun a little bit by posting 759. Um, because it's not quite September 30 and enrollment can change on any given day. Um but the September 30 count for Matthews in 2003 um was just under 1300 students. I'm anticipating um for our September 30 count to be 759 students for this year. Um on average um I
055went back and did some calculations. On average, uh, we've lost about 25 students each year, um, since that 0304, um, school year. And I only went back to that year because that's what was easily accessible on the state website. I could pull that September 30 counts all the way back um, to that year. That was easiest, easiest. But you can also see that there are there are trends and there's significant um drops in enrollment specifically the the 2020 and 2021 school year. Um and then again you see a pretty significant drop in the 23 24 um school years. So um the good news here is that um from last year to this year um we didn't experience that 25. we've experienced a 10 student decline. Um my first couple years here, I think the first
056year was I think we dropped 80 students and then another 45 students the year after that. So those are significant impacts um on the budget. That seems to um have have leveled out a little bit. Um the next graph, again, it's the the font is is relatively small, so I apologize. Um but what you're seeing is homeschool and also religious exemption. Sometimes those things are kind of lumped together. Um but sometimes um but they are two separate entities when we report them to the state. So um last year again you see a big um increase in homeschool participation in Matthews and actually Matthews isn't alone. um the our for the most part our region has a relatively high percentage of students and families who participate in homeschooling. Um so last year um again this is
057a September 30 uh count that we submit to the state. Last year um I believe that number was 130 134 was last year. This year we're at 130 um for homeschool. We're up slightly with religious exemptions. Um that's there's a the number of students is concentrated in a small number of families is is I guess the easiest way for me to explain the religious exemption piece. So they have some younger students who are um now of of schooling age and who they are electing the religious exemption is is what that what that is. we don't see a a larger an increase in the number of families electing the religious exemption component. So, um a little bit on class size. Again, a lot of um information there because I think as we talk about enrollment, there's
058typically a question that comes up about class size. Um, so kind of the the top section is last year broken down um by um grade level teacher or content area teacher. So I'm not those um for grades um kindergarten through seven that is not including the the elective teacher. So that doesn't include PE, art, etc., etc. because they're not necessarily um going to be factored into that class average. Um it is at the high school because of the mix of how the master schedule um works at the high school. Um so you'll see an increase at in our primary grades in terms of class size. Um part of that is we have a bumper crop of kindergarteners this year. Um and then the second impact of that is we went from three teachers in first
059grade down to two teachers in first grade. Um tracking that relatively small kindergarten class from last year then moving into first grade. Um, another thing to note, so when we look at the high school and you slide sort of all the way to the right, um, the average class size last year was about 15 and a half and again including elective classes and then this year is 13. Um, there's a slight decline in the number of students at the high school. But the another piece to keep in mind with that relatively small class size number is that each morning we're sending out about 30 students to various programs. So that's Ches Bay Governor School, that's ROC, that's welding, that's nursing program at Gloucester High School. So we're sending students out to provide opportunities in other
060areas to pursue their passions and pursue their interests. So the absence of those students in our first two blocks of each day is going to end up decreasing class sizes um over over the kind of because I didn't break it down by period. So it's over the course of a day averages. Um, the other thing is that as as Miss Williams alluded to working to grow our CTE programs, as we try to offer more programs and more opportunities for students to fulfill those passions in a small high school, it is difficult to fill each one of those CTE classes with 2022 students. So right now because we have for the size of our high school um lots of opportunities for students to pursue an array of CTE options. We have we have we have a
061good number of CTE teachers. We'd love to grow it and love to provide more options, but they're not going to have 90 a 90 student case load right now. But it's important that we have the teachers to provide those skills, that workplace experience for our students. So there's not going to be high class size numbers. So that's that's part of the the tug >> looking at class sizes, but also looking at course options and opportunities, credential earning potential for for our students at the high school. >> Okay. Any questions with enrollment? um kind of where we stand on that. >> Um I just want to say that I'm thrilled with the numbers this year. I think we are sort of beginning to slow the leavings and and I'm looking forward to next year and see
062if we can maintain that or start to get a boost. >> And for the boards um to to remind the boards um we budgeted for ADM of 725 Last year we budgeted for an ADM of 750. So we're in line. We're a little probably better than what we budgeted for for less coming into this school year. So we're we're holding. So that's again going into year three here in Matthews. Um not starting at a significant deficit in the budget is is good. >> Some is is a good thing. It's somewhat um I won't say it's been relaxing opening to the year, but that's one less thing to um to worry about right now. So, I think I should have um taken my laptop up to the lect turn instead of going back and forth. But,
063um, a bit of an update on on our RFP status and term contracts. Um, so in June, we posted for a request for proposals gets me. Sorry. Um, I was like, wow, my voice is really fading, but it's just the mic wasn't on. Um, so in June, we posted for a request for proposals for engineering architecture and engineering firms. um to enter into term contracts uh with the division. A term contract is basically a one-year contract somewhat open-ended for um engineering and architectural services. Um that one-year term can be renewed up to um four more years. Um we received five submissions. um a evaluation committee um evaluated those five submissions based on advice um from folks outside of Matthews and kind of across the state. They recommended um having term contracts with multiple architectural and
064engineering firms due to timeline constraints of the architectural and engineering firms. So if you're in a rush to try to get meet timelines, they may be backlogged from across the state. So having term contracts with multiple firms is advantageous for a school division. So I have sent out award notices to those three firms. Uh we're going to go through the contract negotiation phase then with those firms and then those contract proposals will be presented to the board. I'm hoping October. Um the goal then of having this term contract with an architectural and engineering firm is for us to have that professional expertise as we are having or engaging in conversations about the reorganization of this campus the time otherwise known as consolidation with the elementary school and the middle school and we've had conversations about
065okay what do we do with the space school board office are there ways that we can uh rethink this campus to make it work and function as a K7 campus. Um but we need that that professional expertise to help guide us in those things. Um so I anticipate um having contracts at least tenative contracts to the board in October and hopefully finalizing those term contracts at no later than the November board meeting for the board's approval. Um I I'm going to skip over 9.3. Okay, I'm going to come back to it. So, I mentioned consolidation. On the website, there are um two Google forms. If there are citizens who are interested in serving on the superintendent's planning council or citizens who are interested in serving on the consolidation committee, um that's been up for a
066little while. I was hoping to talk about it at our regularly scheduled meeting because I would I need to get those committees kind of rolling um and get those conversations started, but I will leave those up for the next couple days. So, if you have an interest in serving on either of those committees, um please fill out the Google form and we will be in touch. Um I'm ideally for the consolidation committee. Um I'm looking for um school personnel and non-school personnel probably about 20 folks to be involved in that in that committee conversa conversation to have some discussion. So okay back to um the board's information. So back to 9.3 and constitution day activities. Um so what you have is a list of activities that have taken place that took place at the high
067school. Uh Mr. Doppson and I were able to visit the high school and watch some of the activities with the US government class. That actually didn't occur on Constitution Day, but it was a pretty pretty lively conversation uh in a government class related to um federalists and anti-federalists working through the justification for the ratification of the Constitution. Um, so it and they they had a warm-up activity talking about free speech and what's protected speech and what's not protected speech and and dipped into a little bit of of why. Um, but I don't want to speak for Mr. Dobson, but I mean it was it was good. As a former high school government teacher, um I thought it was was well done and um the students did a good job researching their perspectives and working through
068to um like politely challenge stances and and that's that's that's tough for a 17-year-old. And it was the class I think was 16 boys and one girl. And I I felt like poor poor lady. um you know being in a room with 15 15 guys isn't always the most fun. So and that from a from a guy um for Thomas Hunter um Thomas Hunter had various um various activities from a Bill of Rights gallery walk um students were encouraged to dress up and wear red, white and blue. Um a living constitution project. Um morning messages. All the schools had morning messages on the day to recognize the day. Um, and then at the elementary school, it's broken down by grade level. And so what was sort of grade level appropriate to begin helping our students
069understand the significance and importance um of our national constitution. Um, we did have, well, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, but terms of we had donations of pocket constitutions that were delivered to um, classrooms. So, I want to um, thank thank the citizens who who donated those constitutions. Okay. Um, any questions on constitution activities? Okay. Uh moving on to >> make we attended a classroom and uh I remember when we used to have things like that. If you remember the old show uh uh it was a debate type format. Everybody was dressed well and everything like that. This wasn't quite the same atmosphere or the same type of way it was presented. But I will say one thing, the kids were good at what they did that day. >> You had the
070Jeffersonians and the uh Hamilton's bunch and they they did a good job. Um, I was impressed because I didn't think they were going to do that well, but they did do well. And, uh, so at least uh, history is still thriving. >> All right. So, moving on to, um, 9.5. Um, the monthly school financial reports are there for your review. Um, first semester field trips uh, from Thomas Hunter. There will be additional field trips that will come to you all. Um I know Dr. Gibbs and I had an earlier conversation about field trips um with an eye towards the Virginia 250. So, our we've had conversations with teachers um at at all three schools to look at um field trips and opportunities for our students to live, experience, and be a part of the Virginia
071250, the National 250 really um celebration. So, those will be coming um in the next in the next month or so. Um I do want to bring your attention in 9.5 to a couple um policy or rather regulation changes. So JJ A-R um is a statemandated um heat um heat advisor heat um guidelines I guess for lack of a better word. So, the board approved a relatively um open policy with instructions to the superintendent to come back with regulations. So, this is the regulation that goes along with that policy. Um, spoiler alert, it is pretty much the Virginia High School League's heat guidelines that are issued to athletic directors, principles, and coaches. But it is quite a detailed document. It gives it's a good document. Um and so it made sense to make sure that
072our heat guidelines are in line with what the Virginia High School League is um requesting all of their athletes, coaches, and athletic directors follow. Um the other regulation to call your uh attention to is GCBD regulation. Um and it is related to the um sick leave regulation and defining um what is eligible for sick leave. Um you have the redline version and then the final version. Um what was eliminated um from the bulk of what was eliminated from the original regulation um is now covered under a bereavement leave. So there is within um our our benefits package for teachers a bereavement leave. So it was no longer necessary to have that under um under sick leave. Um and then it was also um sick leave um being for no less than an hour. So, but
073those are regulations. The board votes on policy and then articulates to the superintendent to develop um regulations. So, um that's there for um really for your information. Okay. So, now I'm back up at the lect turn for cut scores discussion. So across the nation, well not across the nation, sorry, across the state, there has been a great deal of conversation over the last probably week or so um about increasing the cut scores on so tests. So, cut scores. And so, what I am presenting to you all is these are pulled from a Virginia Department of Education presentation on on the cut scores. And part of their um logic as to why and the potential impact that it would have on pass rates that we just that we just talked about. Um so at the Virginia
074Board of Education met today um I received an update from our superintendent association. The board of education did pass um higher cut scores. What will be voted on in October is the implementation plan for those cut scores. So there will be higher cut scores in Virginia. the the when has yet to be determined. So, this will change some of the presentation slightly. Okay. So, a little bit of background. Um, in 23 and 24, um, and I addressed I talked about this earlier with pass rates, but in 23 and 24, the Virginia board approved rig more rigorous standards and more rigorous tests in mathematics and English. So what the students were expected to know and then how they were able to demonstrate that knowledge and and skills were increased on the tests and content in reading
075and math this year. Historically there's a phasein process that happens. Usually there's a crosswalk year or two when the standards have changed when the assessment changes. um Virginia um did it all at the same time this um this year or excuse me last year. Um so also in the 2425 then you have the um increased tests. So the standards were released in the previous year they go into effect in last school year. Then you have the assessment um a more rigorous assessment that is then put in place. Over this summer they've been working on um the the mathematics and the process for looking at how to increase increase the cut scores. All right. So again the current cut scores reflect the standards from 2016 and 2017. Typically the cut scores are adjusted um slightly um
076to adjust for changes in the standards um but usually it's it's somewhat um somewhat nuanced. Most of the folks most people in Virginia at this point are used to so test and know that a 400 is passing 500 has been pass advanced 600 has been a perfect score. every test follows that um that numerical guideline but behind that is the number of questions that you have to pass to get that 400 is may be different from test to test and so we give 35 different so tests so the number of questions you have to get right on those various 35 tests may be different the level of difficulty on some of those questions is going to be different and they may be weighted differently. So in the middle schools especially you have computer adaptive tests.
077So it will give you um if you have a couple easy questions it will increase the difficulty of those questions until you get them wrong and then it will bring you back down. So those number of questions are weighted differently. And so that's part of the reason why you have that 400 500 sort of um currency or kind of um scoring process so that there is somewhat of a common language if that makes sense. Okay. So the goal moving forward is and it's somewhat unclear but I my understanding of it at this time is that they are working to increase the number of questions students must get right in order to then earn a 400, a 500 or a 600. Um there is also a bill in the general assembly that was passed to change
078the scoring metric from the 400, 500, 600 to a 0 to 100 sort of scale that is traditional for most every classroom classroom assignment. Um that is supposed to go into effect next school year. And so we'll see if if that holds or if that bill um gets gets revisited during this general assembly session. Um some of the rationale um authored um offered by the Virginia Department of Education and the Board of Education for why they're engaging in this process. I'm not going to read the whole slide, but basically it's setting a high bar for success, making students more competitive both within Virginia and across the nation, and really working to drive excellence in in our public schools by raising just raising expectations. Um I will say a big part of the push is as
079as this conversation occurs it it always occurs with um with referencing the NAPE so the national assessment of educational progress. Um, so that has been a topic um over the last actually probably two years in Virginia with um Virginia's performance on the NAPE and how Virginia compares with other states in the nation. Okay. So, here's um what the recommended cut scores um if they were put into place, what it would equate to on that current 400, 500, 600 kind of scale. So for example, proficient um in third grade reading would move from 400 to 444 in the end of course that's English 11 that's high school. So 400 with an increased cut score would be a today's version of a 479. So our students would need to score a 479 on the English 11 so
080test in order to pass. if that makes sense. And there's the um comparable levels um for mathematics. So, um it's a significant increase. It is a very significant increase. I will also kind of draw your attention to one other sort of interesting um piece of this. And so within Virginia, I think there are multiple entities working to um improve schools in Virginia and improve the the rigor and increase the um student performance. So the general assembly is attacking it in one direction and and the tools at their means. The board of education is is also doing that. Um but when you have different entities sort of um attacking it, you sometimes get mixed messages or some some things don't make sense. So for example, and again if I can point your attention to the chart
081so it's easy for me to point it out. So if you look at the proficient column for grade seven mathematics, it would now be a 430. Okay. So part of the recent general assembly legislation was requires students in the upper quartortile of math to be enrolled in advanced math. So for example, a student who scores in the upper quartortile on their grade seven so test would be required um to be offered algebra 1 in eighth grade. Okay. So, if you scored in the highest based on the legislation, if you score in the highest quartortile on your grade seven so test, you would then be required to are required to be offered enrollment in algebra 1 as an eighth grade student. The upper quartortile um for grade seven math last year started at 425. So one
082one push is to accelerate but that would capture a student who under this framework would not have even passed and that's a small window. It's a student who's you know between a 425 and a 430. Um so that I I think it's important then the board I think the board of education is taking smart steps in yes we're increasing the rigor now we're going to take a little bit of time to talk about the implementation timeline in order for students to get there and teachers and schools and communities to get there. Um, but in the short term, what you're going to see is an initial dip in pass rates. And so the the next slide, again, the these are from the Department of Education. Were um looking at three other states as they increased rigor,
083what the initial um drop in um pass rates looked like. So you see some significant drops in ELA, English language arts. Um, so anywhere from 20 to 30 points in Illinois, in Massachusetts, you're looking um single to double digits and probably 10 to 20 points in Tennessee. Okay, so this slide looks at um their projected then pass rates with new cut scores. So if you look at and the colors are a little difficult to see again I apologize. So across the chart you have grade three, four, five, six, seven, eight and then end of course at the very top in that kind of yellowish color is pass advanced. So that would be the percentage across the state who would pass advanced. this gray band is regular is just pass and to be proficient. So what
084they are saying is with new cut scores if they applied those cut scores to last year's so tests the Virginia would have had across the state a 37% pass rate. And we could pull up kind of the the the comparison slide, but I think Virginia's pass rate in um English language arts was about I want I want to say it's it was about 68%. Um I'd have to pull up the slide to to confirm that. Um but um looking at at English they're for Virginia these cut scores my interpretation um looking at this graph is that you're going to see about a 30 percentage point um decline if this were implemented like that. again board voted to increase the cut scores but to look at an implementation timeline that is not this year. Okay. Um
085but there's there's a we have a we had a hill to climb before in terms of student achievement. The hill got a bit is going to get steeper in the next couple years. Um this is the same um graphic just looking at it for mathematics. Again the impact is is relatively the same. Um statewide pass rates were ballpark in the 70 70% um mark. So with mathematics um you're looking at um pass rates anywhere in in the 40 um 40 to 50% um pass rates with these cut scores. So, um, again, some of this is now dated because I think there were two options that the board of education were going to review. There was option one that looks like um that um phases it in over four years. I think option two was phasing
086it in over eight years. There were some calls for excuse me, four years and five years. There were some calls for an 8-year phase in plan as well, but I my hunch based on different entities is it's probably going to be a foury year, fiveyear um kind of phase in phase in approach. Um a lot of concern exists. Um again before the board was having conversations about phasing in is you have seniors who have been working who may still need a an so test for a verified credit this year in order to graduate. They may still be working on getting that end of course English 11 so that writing so maybe they got here late. maybe something happened and they need a science so they're still working to get, you know, down to the wire
087to get an so test to graduate. And so sudden, if were these to be implemented um this year without much um head head start or notice, then you're jeopardizing a lot of students um ability to earn that diploma. Um so again, I think 12 hours later, like 12 hours ago, this was um lots of concern, lots of consternation, and there probably still will be um within within across the state. Um but if I mean, I think it's hard to argue against um increasing student achievement and wanting wanting more for your kids and wanting better for your kids. Um, but it's also I don't think any of us could um be told right now, all right, well, you know, you're I'm going to need you to run a marathon in the spring and so let's let's
088get to it and and best of best of luck without kind of a long-term kind of program or training program to get you there. You don't kind of meet those milestones overnight or by the snap of a finger or like I said earlier, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. So um again multi-year phase in um one of the other things that the the state is looking at is so right now there are categories for below basic basic then historically we've had proficient and then advanced. So the board during this phasein period is looking at another category called approaching um that when I first saw the presentation honestly my comment was I don't know that we need another category for failing um but um apparently during the conversation approaching is a temporary pass
089um it would count as a pass as we're moving up um to meet the the new cut scores. So um that's so the approaching category for performance level uh would only be available during this this phase in period. Um the other piece again that's like that they have to work out is that school performance and um that accountability framework that we had talked about a little bit earlier that we're going to talk more about in October. like you get different points for students on how they score. So that school performance and support framework, that accountability framework, part of the metric is you get 1.25 points for a student who passes advance, one point for proficient, 75 for this, 0.5 for that. Well, that whole framework had nothing for a category called approaching. So, as they
090work through this, they're also going to have to go back and tweak that school performance um and support framework. So, there's just a lot of it's not as simple as, hey, we're changing the grading scale. It's there's numerous ripple effects that go into this. Again, that's sort of they then with the um what it would look like with approaching and how that would um impact. So again, they're they're looking at on that particular grade five about 39% of students would demonstrate proficiency and then you would have another 21 I guess percent approaching proficiency. So, um the the information that I've received is that um the Department of Education will be meeting with superintendent um next week. They're setting up office hours to um with each region to go through the uh phasein proposals to get
091superintendent feedback on those phasein proposals uh in advance of offering the recommended phase in proposal to the board of education at the October meeting. So, we'll learn a little bit more next week. Um and we'll um we'll see um by the next our next board meeting kind of where we stand and what that what that phase in looks like. Again, that's looking at option two, running through some option two. Um just a little bit about NAPE. Um and again, because it it comes up um in in the in the conversation quite a bit. So the NAPE is generally administered in only in grades four and eight and it's done every other year typically in even numbered years. Um and we are actually Matthew and school divisions are randomly and actually schools are randomly selected to
092participate in the NAPE. So you don't get to volunteer for it. You get volunte um that you're going to participate in the NAPE. larger schools, it's a random sampling of students within your school. Small schools, um, it tends to end up being like everybody in that grade level because they want a certain, you know, a sample size. Um, and we are selected, Miss Hunley, for fourth grade reading and math. So, our fourth grade students will be taking the NAPE this spring in reading and math. Um, because we were we were randomly selected. Um the the frustrating part about the NAPE is is twofold. One, we received no data back from our student performance on the NAPE. So I will I will never get any sort of spreadsheet information how our fourth grade students did on
093the reading and math test. Their parents are not going to receive any information on how their kids did on the reading and math NAPE. Um, Virginia's standards are not written to align with the NAPE either. So, there's been some studies, some assessment to assess how closely aligned they are. Um, the one study that I read is about they're about an 80% alignment Virginia's and they looked at I think the fourth grade and the math grade ma fourth grade and eighth grade math. Um, and there's about a 80% alignment, but our students, you know, if you, you know, you're missing 20%, you're missing 20% and that's, um, that's difficult to to capture. So, um, another study that I saw to again looking at the NAPE and and it's easy it's easy to find things to criticize
094about the NAPE. Um, but it's it's been an institution and there are enough students who take it um every two years to provide reliable trend data for where we are in stateto state. I mean, it's I think if you get into the weeds on it, it's easy for me to, you know, complain about, well, you know, like this is, you know, you know, why my fourth grade? Why not so and so's fourth grade or um but one of the other criticisms is um of the schools, 78% of the schools selected to take the NAPE in Virginia come from four school divisions. So, okay, I'll say that again. So, 78% of the schools in Virginia who are to administer the NAPE come from four school divisions in Virginia. Now, what I don't know for sure is
095like we have some very large school divisions in Virginia. So, it's quite possible that a large percentage of just the schools in Virginia come from a small number of school divisions. Um, but on the face of it, it's an easy way to have some concerns about the um reliability of the data that is being pulled um from this. Another piece of it is, you know, the students don't get a grade for taking it. They're told, "Hey, we're going in to take take this test today. You're not going to get data back on it. Your parents aren't going to get a report on it. It's not going to impact your grade. But I want you to do your best. So, fourth graders are typically going to going to do that. Eighth graders get a little middle
096school gets a little squirly. So, I don't I don't know that um an eighth grader doing it for the good of um for the good of Virginia is is gonna kind of, you know, do it. But again, you've got enough students who are doing that and you've had that that type of student over the lifespan of this. So, okay. Um, and then also to just kind of recent changes that that have occurred over the last several years um with Virginia um and moving the bar. So again, I've talked about new standards in reading and math, um new assessments, a new accountability, um framework that's coming through that has required school divisions to adjust um kind of what we're what we're doing. Um so an example of that is like ASVAB. So because ASVAB is part
097of the school accountability framework um now in terms of that's part of that 3E um enlistment category um we now give the ASVAB to all of our 11th grade students like we were it was an optional test for students who were interested before but you pivot based on what you know what how you're being measured. Um and then also too the the probably the most significant other than changing the cut scores is the um the science of reading and the Virginia literacy act um that went into full effect K5 um last fall is expanding 68 this year. I mean that's a significant change in how reading instruction is is happening in all the elementary schools in Virginia. So that's that's a massive massive change. So there's as much change as as we've done just in
098Matthews. Um there's a lot of that is related to the massive amount of change that is happening at the state level. So just lots of things questions on cut scores that I may or may not be able to answer at this time. >> Yes. Um Dr. Daniels, back to the example you gave about a child who passed, let's say, at 4:25 >> or Yeah, maybe 4:30 and the cut was at 4:25 and they would be recommended to go to take algebra in 8th grade. Is that recommendation uh can the parents and child accept or decline? >> Yes. So um the the legislation um the way it's written is for students in the upper quartortile to then be um automatically recommended for an advanced math class. the parents can then opt their students out of that
099um advanced math class. I would not recommend a 425 on on a grade seven math test to then go into algebra 1. Um I don't think a math a seventh grade math teacher would make that recommendation. A middle school principal um school counselor would would make that recommendation. So, but it's parents then have that option based on the um based on the legislation based on the bill. Yes, >> Dr. Gibs. >> Yes, absolutely. >> The first one is to follow up um to Miss Diggs um question about the recommendation for uh enrolling students in algebra 1. Does Dr. Daniel know if there's any if that's based on any research that these these students that get these certain cut scores that they have found that they they do they are successful in taking algebra one at
100an earlier age. That's the first one. And the second one, if I understood him correctly, that these these selected schools, there were four schools in the state that were select that are um utilized to um to um are selected for the the um the scores at the federal level and if so, where are those four schools? Where are they? if he knows. >> Okay. >> So to clarify, it's four 78% of the schools come from four divisions. >> So it's not just four schools. I don't and >> I don't I haven't seen a list of the schools. I've only seen a report that states that. So it's it's I probably need to do a better job before kind of spouting that out um to have seen the where it's cited. Um, and so this is
101this is I haven't I haven't seen the list of schools. Um, it was reported on um some notes some um something that came out of the um I think superintend the state superintendent leadership committee. Um and so to clarify clarify that point. So it's not four schools, it's four divisions. >> Um >> thank you clarification. The other question is I'm not aware of any research that demonstrates or shows um that and there was no research cited as to the rationale in that piece of legislation for upper cortiles. My unress researched opinion is that there were school school divisions were doing kind of one of two things. they were either trying to shove students into algebra 1 who weren't ready and wanted to say, you know, algebra 1 by 8th grade for everybody. Um, and I
102think there were also school divisions who were doing the opposite and withholding advanced mathematics opportunities for students to bump up um so pass rates. So, I my gut feeling is that they were trying to um find a legislative remedy to um get school divisions to um allow for advanced mathematics. It's also super difficult if you're in a small school to find um a middle school math teacher who has that high school endorsement to teach algebra 1. So, if you're in a small rural middle school, um we're lucky. We're we're busing our kids to the high school, the algebra one endorsed teacher, um but in some localities that may be a 45minute bus ride. So, that's that's difficult to do and so it's hard to staff that. So, they you know, >> other questions? Anything else?
103>> Mr. Morgan or Mr. Dobson? Mr. Morgan. quickly. Um I I guess I've never really understood how they score these so tests. I'm just looking back here at a previous slide. Uh scored on a scale of 0 to 600 with proficiency set at 400. Does that do you believe does anyone believe that that is truly a better representation of what the students have learned and retained than just a percentage scale of zero through 100. I think there um there are a lot of PhDs written and there's a whole career field called psychometrician who go through and analyze test questions and alignment and do the statistics on equating different tests and level of rigor. Um so there's there's there's a whole field of of people who just who just do that. I think um I think
104because of questions being weighted differently and the rigor being different, using that kind of 0 to600 range provides those um psychometricians the flexibility to provide a universal pass number that is 400. And so like where you see here as they adjust the cut scores the current equating is then different for every test. And so that's going to be confusing if now oh I need a 439 on this test but a 445 on that one. So what they would either do is say, okay, if it's a 50, if it's a 50 question test, you're moving it from you've got to get 27 right to getting 37 right. And now getting 37 correct is now a 400 where a 400 used to be getting 27 out of 50 right is kind of what what they're doing. But
105there's also a parallel movement to move away from that zero to 600 and go to a zero to 100. So that's in the legislature. The board of education is dealing with all the psychometricians and the the cut scores and the whatnot. So you again two different lanes trying to figure out how to um improve student performance, you know, make Virginia schools more competitive across the nation. >> Right. It it seems that once again at some point in time some years back we fixed something that wasn't yet broken and now we're trying to figure how we going to dig out of that hole we got in. >> Right. >> It's I I equate it often to it's a currency. So, you know, past, you know, for whatever it is now, 25 years, we've had people, students
106in Virginia taking so tests. And so, we've known since then for 25 years, you you you need to get a 400, 400. Hey, I really want you shooting for the 500 or the 600. So, that's become a currency that everybody knows. There's some common knowledge that that goes along with that. Um, so I I I also get that there's, you know, the the zero to 100 that most of us deal with or have dealt with on the day-to-day basis in school. Um, I think it just makes it difficult if a 70% is passing on this test or a 65 or an 85 on that. It's kind of like SATs and 600, 800, that sort of stuff. with the SATs and >> or ACTs. You've got a whole different metric on the ACTs. >> Mr. >>
107Well, at this at this scale with 0 to 600 proficiency at 400, >> you you have to get approximately a 2/3 or 66% to pass. Am I understanding that correctly? I guess this is applying the the cut score to current um 400. So the cut score on today's measure would actually a student would need to score a four. So, a grade three reading, a student would need to have scored a 444 to get the same number of questions right to get a I think what they're going to do is to then get a 400 on a future test once this is completely phased in. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. It just seems to me that the way they use these numbers, it's just adds confusion to something that's already confusing. >> Yes, agreed. Lots
108of ph lots of PhDs written on that stuff. >> Mr. Dobson, do you have any comments? >> No. >> I just want to say that definitely. Thank you, Dr. Daniel, for taking a very complicated, convoluted topic and simplifying it and helping us all organize it as we go through this tumultuous time of change. Uh it just I'm anchored back to probable parent concerns which is can my child read, write, and do math? And because that's always at the heart of what we're looking at, I'm wondering if this is making your efforts in MTSS strategic plan. I mean, just thinking very locally about our schools, our teachers, our classrooms while all this is going on around us that we are working well um and controlling as much as we can for the actual teaching of our
109students. So part of our strategic plan is then making sure our our goal is to have a 90 90% pass rate. So we may need to adjust and look at what what that pass rate would be with these new metrics because we were looking at old cut scores. Um, I'm confident that the process that we are getting or training on and working with school-based administrators to look at data is the right process. What we can begin to do then is up where our bar of concern. So we've talked about when we've looked at star testing and we've looked at meets benchmark is improving and so that bar then begins to move up as well as we adjust for the everinccreasing cut scores with so tests. I think the impact for us is going to be
110not in really change in the process because that's there and it's easy enough to to tweak kind of what the benchmark measure is. I think as more the potential exists that we are going to need more support staff in order to get students who are are struggling to make that amount of growth over the next three to four years. >> Um it's also like looking at then you we've got to start earlier too. So, how like working with our preschool partners and making sure our VPI classes and community outreach that students are prepared when they're coming in and reading over the summer and doing things over the summer that it now becomes um much more important for it to be a community year rounds effort. And I'm not saying go to year round school, but
111I'm saying that, you know, the the learning can't stop on June 9th and only pick up again on August 25th. Like that we have to have um continual growth. So we'll we'll have to look at um summer school differently probably and making sure we're capturing more students with um summer school. And I think we're looking at I think the the two weeks didn't work out so well. Um, so I think we're going to go back to looking at a four-week summer school. Um, we may have to look at different funding models to get um, teachers and how do we get like the the right people for summer school and um, we may have to look at, you know, after school tutoring programs and do we need to um, transport students? How do you know how
112do we get students to stay here and back home? So, it'll generate more questions on how how best can we serve students and get students up to the level that they need to for for these cut scores. But the process that we're doing now lends itself to getting us to this point. >> Just the hill got steeper. It's we're still doing the right things. It's just the hill the hill is going to get a little bit steeper in the coming years. >> Well put. Well put. Any last questions or comments for Dr. Daniel? >> Thank you so much, Dr. Daniel. That was very helpful. >> Moving on to item 10, school boardformational reports 10.1. We will have a schoolboard town hall meeting Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 at 6 PM in this building, the J. Murray
113Brooks Auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School. Item 10.2, 2, we will have a schoolboard work session Thursday, October 30th, 2025 from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Chesapeake Bank in Matthews, the community room. Another date to remember for item 10.3, there will be the school board legislative school tour on Thursday, November 13th at 9:00 a.m. beginning at Thomas Hunter Middle School. Item 10.4. We will have a community and civic organizations representatives tour Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. at Thomas Hunter Middle School. That I'm going to repeat that one. That's item 10.4. Community and civic organizations representatives tour. Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, 9:00 am Thomas Hunter Middle School. Moving to item 10.5, we have schoolboard conferences and webinars past and future for board members to consider, noting uh due dates of specific trainings.
114And finally, item 10.6, Six board and committee reports by school board members and superintendent superintendent. Uh and just a note, we do have all of our dates filled for the board of supervisors meetings. Um we are booked. Mrs. Hodgeges will be Oh, a note, Miss Laauo. I I took Mrs. Haj's place at the September 18th meeting. I am slated to have October 16th, November 20th, and then Mr. Dobson is slated to have December 18th. Moving on to item 11, action items. I believe this is the first time since I've been on the board, we do not have any action items tonight. Item 12, citizens comments on items discussed during our meeting. Do we have anyone who'd like to approach the podium for this purpose? Uh, good evening, Amy Bohan Stewart. Um, 11150 Buckley Hall Road.
115Um, so I noticed we have an upcoming work session for the school board from 8 to 3 p.m. You were just talking about it and uh I went to those this summer. Um, and I was the only member of the public there. And it is, you know, pretty hard for the average person to get to an all day meeting that's when most people work. And those meetings this summer were not streamed. So I felt fortunate that I could attend those. Um but is is this work session going to be streamed or will at the very least be recorded um somehow so that people can access what actually exactly what took place. And I know you can't answer questions, but I think you should think about that and make sure that that happens. Uh so so
116that everybody can at their own leisure after work in the evening watch listen to whatever happens um during that work sessions. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to approach the podium? There being none, we'll move on to schoolboard member reports. Uh I just I would like to address Miss Bohannan Stewart's uh request or question regarding the streaming or at least having an audio version of the work sessions available and I agree with that and I we are working on that. began to um investigate uh with it if this is going to be possible in that setting. I would love to be able to provide that. I do think that an 8 to3 session is a full day. It is something that we absolutely do require several of a year and it's a
117full day and so we're going to have a full day. We're going to have full day sessions. But yes, should they be um transparently shown to the to the community? I I believe so. So, I think um we are working on that for October 30th and I'm hopeful that that can happen, but I do not know if it can in that setting, other members, Mrs. Hodes, any comments? >> I don't. >> Okay. >> No comment. No comment. >> All right. Moving on then to um item 14, other business by schoolboard members or superintendent. Item 14.1, our next regular monthly meeting will be Tuesday, October 21st, 6 pm here in the J. Murray Brooks Auditorium, Thomas Hunter Middle School. Closed meeting will start at 5:00 p.m. Request that all board members are in place ready to
118go at 4:45. Item 14.2, 2 schoolboard town hall meeting Thursday, October 23rd as previously mentioned at 6 p.m. in this same building, the Brooks Auditorium, Thomas Hunter Middle School. And finally, another reiteration of item 14.3, the school board fall work session is Thursday, October 30th, 8 to 3, Chesapeake Bank, Matthews Community Room. Are there any final comments by anyone board? Dr. Dr. Daniel, Miss Hunley. Okay. Thank you for coming out tonight. This meeting is now adjourned.