001We are coming out of closed meeting and reconvening to open meeting in item 2.2. Item 2.3. May I have a motion for the roll call vote for declaration of subjects discussed in closed meeting? >> I make a motion to adopt the certificate of closed meeting as written. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodgees. May I have a second? >> I second that. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. Is there any discussion? There being none, Miss Morgan, may we have a roll call vote call? >> Yes. Item 2.4 for approval of personnel action. May I have a motion? >> I make a motion to approve the personnel list as listed. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Do we have a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Morgan. Thank you. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >>
002Opposed? Motion passes. 41. Item 2.5, approval of parental request for release from compulsory attendance for religious reasons. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the parental request for the release of child from compulsory attendance for religious reasons. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. May I have a second? >> I second that. >> Thank you, Miss Digs. Do we have any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Closed meeting is adjourned. I'd like to call to order the July 15, 2025 Matthews County School Board regular monthly meeting. Miss Morgan, item 1.2. May we have the roll call, please? >> Mr. Morgan, >> present. >> Here. >> Present. Item 1.3. Will everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the
003flag 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 1.4, approval of agenda, additions and deletions. May I have a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve the agenda as written. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Do we have a second? >> I second. Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion passes. >> All right. Item 1.5, approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the minutes of the June 17, 2020 close meeting, June 17, 2025 regular monthly meeting, June 25, 2025 summer work session number one, and June 30th, 2025, End of the year special meeting 2025
0042026 Virginia High School League. Um membership application approval of request for use of two school buses and drivers for the Matthews County Market Days. Retroactively approve the use of a school bus for Matthews Little League and monthly claims as presented on the consent agenda. Thank you, Miss Diggs. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thanks, Mr. Morgan. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion passes. And I will make a note that all of our claims dates are accounted for from upcoming August through December of this year. Item 1.6, Matthews County School Board governance norms and protocols. We read a couple of these each month at the meeting. The two we have highlighted for this evening. We agree to follow the following protocols. Here are
005the first two in terms of developing the board agenda. The chair, vice chair, and the superintendent develop the agenda. And in regarding placing items on the board meeting agenda, the board members contact the chairman to add an item to the agenda and that information will be shared at the agenda setting meeting. Information should be sent to the chairman prior to the agenda setting meeting with the superintendent one week prior to the board meeting and that should be updated to align with policy. Item two, we have student achievement um strategic plan student achievement items from Dr. Daniel. You have a presentation on MTSS. >> Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry I got logged out um for a second. So, getting log back in real quick. Okay. Right. So, over the last year and a half, we've talked a
006little about MT MTSS or multi-tered systems of supports. So, um, some of the elements of MTSS that you're probably now familiar with will be, um, our universal screener, which is the STAR test. So, we're testing students in grades part part of first grade all the way through eighth grade in uh, reading and mathematics. And so, we give these really quick, brief, kind of snapshot assessments three times a year. uh we've been presenting that data um over the last um again last year and a half but MTSS um can be expanded can be um kind of narrowed in its focus and it it just takes a little while um to develop the systems and the processes. So, um, I'm just going to spend a couple minutes going over kind of where we are in that implementation
007process, what we can expect to see, um, and hear about and be doing over the next school year as we go into the next school year. Okay. All right. So VTSS is a consortium of um professionals both from the Virginia Department of Education but also in a couple of um colleges and universities within our area who work to support the implementation of MTSS. So their kind of motto is VTSS is who we are and MTSS is what we do. Okay. So kind of what is MTSS? And I'll just kind of read the slide. So MTSS is a systemic data-driven approach that allows divisions and schools to provide targeted evidence-based interventions to meet the needs of their students. This is done through a clearly defined process that is implemented to fidelity by all stakeholders within the
008school and or division. So a lot of the work that we're doing right now is defining the process and defining how we're going to then check for fidelity and who are going to be the people who are checking for fidelity. So if we're saying um tier one instruction, what does that look like and who's going in to um verify that tier one instruction is taking place that we have a um rigorous and um researchbacked curriculum things along those lines. Okay. So, a little bit about the um the support that we have or I guess kind of from students all the way up to national support for this process and best practices regarding this process. And it's a lot more information here than what you need to know, but basically our division, Matthews, is working with
009state agencies to help um guide us and allocate some funding towards us um and helping us then to provide training for school leaders. So, it's kind of a train the trainer model. So, as we train leadership teams within the division, that leadership team will then train um teams within the schools. um and those teachers will then have support for MTSS and in that process. Okay. So, some core components with MTSS is making sure that we have um aligned organizational structures. So, basically that means we're all singing from the same sheet of music. So, what the division's focus is is the same as the school focus is the same as the classroom focus. communicating that clearly and so everybody in the community, parents, stakeholders, everybody can kind of know what it is and why it is
010we're doing what we're doing. Um a problem solving process. So what that means is when a student is struggling, there is a systemic um like a systematic process that we engage in to go figure out well why isn't that student achievement? And we we do that somewhat naturally anyway, but it's formalizing that process. Is it attendance? Is it support? Is it is it food? Do they not have the materials? Is it is it a learning disability? Is it attendance? Is it And so you're just basically going through kind of a problemolving question asking process to figure out how do we align supports, which is the next column, with needs. So that that again that third level is a tiered continuum of supports. So you engage supports for students when they need them and continue that
011level of support with greater intensity as students um may not meet benchmarks. So we'll talk a little bit about pyramid um in a second, but that will kind of help provide a visual for that continuum of support. And then systematic implementation. It needs to be um consistent school to school, classroom to classroom, leadership to leadership about how we are implementing this process. What is to be expected um as we as we go through it. And then evaluation, making sure we're going back and again checking for fidelity. Fidelity at all the different steps, whether it's fidelity of our problem solving process, fidelity of instruction, fidelity of the interventions um that we're providing students. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Who's responsible for these components? So that's a big part of what so we had um several the principles
012myself reading specialist um school psychologists attended a conference in Richmond yesterday and a a big part of that um conference was trying to determine um who who were you know who is that person who were like we're a small division so we don't necessarily have a whole another parallel silo of people to be doing these things and So, our MTSS coach who's based out of William and Mary um and I had had a conversation basically at the end of the conference where my comment to him was like MTSS needs to be our guiding practice and not this additional side thing that we are doing. So it needs to be the leadership team that is engaged in this process and have the responsibilities of this process. If we do all of these things well, a lot
013of the distraction pieces that take a lot of our time are going to fade away. So the the idea that we've spent we've spent weeks trying to figure out there's a division leadership team and then there's a division planning team. And so for us, those are all the same people. And so I need the the coaches from MTSS to give us a more utilitarian approach. Like I need specific actions and who's responsible for these actions so we can move this process a little more quickly. So basically what long answer to your question is um like it's going to be um leadership within probably existing leadership within the schools and division leadership like nobody else is coming in um and so there's some state funding um that will be allocated hopefully in September um to help
014with our implementation of this and so we'll provide some supplements for staff members who are doing additional duties that may come along with this. I >> I I think what goes along with that, I just want to make sure that like whoever's doing the evaluation like there's one person for either the school or the grade level that it's not going to be like oh you're evaluating this and you're eval and and can get chaotic. That's that's what right my concern >> well and going through question really >> right. So part of that is developing the fidelity for that for what we're trying to inspect. So whether that's a specific um instructional strategy, is it fidelity in how we're implementing an intervention? >> Because what we're finding is that some of our interventions aren't necessarily as
015effective as we thought they were. >> Part of that going through the problem solving process then you go back and look well are we implementing it that intervention the way it was designed to be implemented. So is this a 90minute implementation for this intervention but are we only devoting 45 minutes to it? So, it's making sure that we've doing the fidelity checks and making sure we've got research base and so it's just like asking the right questions and making sure we're doing the right stuff. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So, MTSS is for all. I mean, we've had this conversation. We started last year's conversation um convocation rather with all means all. So it's using data and refining our practices and having established systems to make sure that every student is getting exactly
016what is needed to make sure that they are achieving at the levels that they need to achieve. So, and and it shouldn't matter um like what part of Matthews you're coming from, what your family's economic situation is, um where your parents went to school, like all of our students should be getting what they need. >> And we've talked like well I've talked the the bulk of this presentation about interventions, but that also means enrichment activities. So, as we're looking at student achievement, I anticipate that we're going to see students who are um in need of um enrichment activities who may not have been identified earlier. We do a pretty good job of some universal screeners and universal testing to identify students for gifted. But as students transfer in and students kind of self-identify as they
017mature and gain skills like this process should allow us to better identify and target students for gifted services or other sort of enrichment services. All right. So the implementation stages. So last year uh we spent a good deal of time at the exploration stage and right now we're kind of in the installation slashinitial implementation stage. So we're establishing leadership teams where we're struggling right now is setting up those data systems. The hurdle of finding a repository for all of the student data is that struggle is real. um and paying for it using spreadsheets. Who has the time? How does how do we keep the um that like the spreadsheets get quite long and quite detailed and who has access to it? How many people are inputting the data? Um so that's that's a bit of
018a process. So starting this year, we'll probably be in the initial implementation phase where we're working through some of our practices. We're getting our grade levels and our administrators used to those problem solving meetings and data meetings to review um formative assessments with our students. It'll take us a couple years, probably two to three years to where we're at full implementation and then we'll look at okay, how do we continue to get better at this process and how does it sustain itself? I what what you want to have happen is that this process becomes I would say baked into the bricks of the buildings. And so it's not it's not a Dr. Daniel process. It's not a specific principles process. It's a process of um researchbased solid practices for getting students to achieve. So when
019I'm long gone, Matthews is still engaged in in this process. Okay, set me back up. So part of the precision statement, so part of our um exploration and um initial implementation was really developing a pre precision statement. So this is taken directly from our strategic plan. So MCPS needs to increase student achievement, student performance in reading and math K12 as measured by so test specifically increasing division reading pass rates from 79 to 90% and division math so pass rates from 52 to 70%. And so it goes on into specifics. So a big part of as we're that's kind of our overarching um statement for where we want to see student achievement in the next couple years. I think hopefully we'll be able to go back and revisit that math goal pretty soon to up it
020to 90 as well. Uh we may we're I'm pretty sure we're going to make some gains towards that 70 this year, but um it's having a very measurable numeric goal for where we want to see overall overall achievement and ultimately we should be moving beyond that 90% but from where we were when we developed this precision statement to um what how long it will take to kind of build these systems and the capacity within our schools. that seemed um a pretty um smart acronym um goal setting. >> Okay, so I talked a little bit about tiers. So we we'll talk coming in, you know, the next couple years, we'll talk about tier one, tier two, and tier three. And so I think I've mentioned it as I've reviewed star data and universal screening. So ideally
021where we what we want to see is that on any screening at any particular time we want to see 80% of our students be successful with whatever that benchmark is. So whether that's a star reading assessment in third grade, whether that's Val in kindergarten, whether that's an at any particular grade level, what we are doing for every kid should get us to about 80% achievement. 80% passing. What we would expect then for tier 2 is then about 10 to 15% of the students are going to need some sort of targeted group support. So that's going to be a small group five seven students. Tier 2 would look like afterchool tutorings um pulling pulling back from lunch for additional reteing staying after school. Um I know uh Miss Simpson is looking at kind of a a
022power up kind of intervention block in the middle of the day where it's a flexible time where students can flow in and out for support. So that would be a tier 2 um level of support. So it's small group five to seven kids couple times a week. Tier three and then we can even talk about tier four but tier three is going to be about three to 5% of your students who are going to need intensive individualized support. So, while it says individualized, it may be in groups of one or two, maybe three depending on what that intervention is, but that's probably going to be three to five days a week, one-on-one, one two direct, scripted, um, very systematic interventions. Usually, that's to help students. Um, in most cases, that's helping students read. So, if
023there are significant challenges with reading, you're looking at kind of a tier three intervention. Um, tier four can be special ed depending on how we define our tiers. Tier three or a tier four can be um special education identification, but if you go back and look at some of our data, um we have way more than 5% of our students are identified for special education in Matthews. Um so those numbers are are quite high. So then going back to that problem solving piece, when we look at our STAR data and we know we're not at 80%. That tends to indicate that we have a tier one issue. That's either instruction, that's curriculum, that's resources at that universal sort of baseline classroom level. So that's that's what we're targeting first to make sure that we're using
024evidence-based practices. we're signing on to CIP so that we have a more sustainable uh more researchbased kind of curriculum and pacing guide and then we can monitor that much more closely with benchmark assessments all the way through the year. So again, what is tier one instruction? Tier one includes highquality schoolwide academic, social, emotional, and behavioral programming and supports designed to meet the needs of all students. for academics. Students receive high quality instruction with a researchbased curriculum. So the thing about MTSS is you can apply this philosophy to um behavioral practices. So we will talk about tier one classroom management strategies, tier one behavioral expectations. You can apply it to um social and emotional supports. You can apply it to gifted endorsement. our focus is is on the academic piece right now and on the student
025achievement piece and once we get good at that then we'll determine um probably how do we do this same modeling um this same process for behavioral programming. So solid tier one behavioral would look like the classroom rules are exactly the same in every classroom across a grade level or across the school. Um, we've talked a lot about attendance practices and making sure those are universal. So, that would be kind of a tier one behavioral piece. A tier two behavioral would be kind of a check-in connect program where a student is checking in, you're working on rewards to help that student develop better behavioral habits. Tier three is a more restrictive sort of program setting for a student with chronic behavioral challenges is just to give you a picture of what that would look like on
026the behavioral arm. Okay. So what do we what do we um intend to see during the implementation phase or what can what do you expect? So what does tier one instruction what will we begin to see? So we started that last year with the Virginia literacy act. Um part of that is our benchmark advanced textbook series. So that instruction is very systematic and guided by state code. Um I talked about signing on to the comprehensive instructional program. So that provides us with pacing guides and benchmark assessments. Um tier one assessments. So we'll have another way to look at tier one assessments is kind of that universal screening. So tests that everybody's going to take or everybody in a grade level. So we'll have Val's data to look at. We'll have STAR data to look at.
027CIP benchmark data which will be very new for us this year. So it'll be our first time implementing that. and we've had so data to look at, but it's also difficult with SOS because of the SOS like the um the standards change, the assessments change over time. So, we'll we'll do our best to kind of compare year to year. All right. So, other things that we're going to start um practicing this year in the in the initial implementation phase is student performance tracking. So, developing systems to capture and report multiple pieces of student data. So that's where we're talking about the struggle to find that great tool is is real. So right now we're using kind of Excel or Google spreadsheets. Um we're going to pilot um some software that goes along with our um
028testing system Mastery Connect and we'll see how how well that works. Um and then the schools and at the division level there will be regular data meetings. So grade and department level, school level, and then division level data meetings. So I'll start having quarterly data meetings where principles are reporting kind of what their school's performance is across multiple indicators. The schools will then kind of be targeting that either by departments or or grade levels to then look at to make look at kind of how our students are doing and that becomes a a regular part of the process. I would equate MTSS almost to a medical model where when you go into the hospital, you're taking um different assessments to assess your health. So, you're taking the temperature, you're seeing, you're pro applying some sort
029of medicine to see if it's fixing whatever the problem is. You're still kind of going back and testing, monitoring, you know, is this um is this intervention having the desired effect or is it not? And if it's not, then we need to switch switch to a different medication or a different strategy or a different approach. So, this is probably a easiest way to um kind of compare um what we're going to be embarking on. >> So, any questions from the board? >> I'm just excited to see that this dubtales with our strategic plan. >> Yes, >> exactly. and that we're looking at the academics first and the behavioral to follow in the same pattern. >> How many counties or how many divisions engage with MTSS? Um this certainly is is something you selected to do
030>> and it's something we selected to do. I think there are a lot of divisions who say they um follow an MTSS approach. Um but there's a fidelity measure that comes kind of at the division level. Um so we had to take a pretty lengthy assessment ourselves to establish a baseline for our implementation. Um the DSFI. Um so it looks at um how um you know our strengths and weaknesses in in following all of these kind of best practices for implementing MTSS. Um doing it really well um is probably I would say maybe 15 to 20% of the divisions across the state somewhere around there. Um but I think probably 85% of them would say, "Oh yeah, we do MTSS. >> We do that. Yeah, we look at student data." >> But having and continuing
031to practice the process wanes over time. >> And so there's a buildup and then you get rusty at it or you kind of like superintendent leaves, principal leaves, the the teacher on that that team um who was the lead person kind of um leaves and then it kind of falls apart. >> And that kind of begs that question on the legacy leadership piece beyond Dr. Daniel or beyond whoever the leaders are in the schools. How do we begin? How do we and I really appreciate the dedication to the model and the fidelity aspect of this. I think that is what it's going to take. But how do you build begin to build this into the >> that's been a big part of our conversation in trying to determine who's on the division level leadership team.
032And so we're trying to it sounds funny for me to say at this point, but we're trying to make sure we have young people on that um on that team who aren't within um >> you know a stone's throw of retiring. um who have kind of um you know commitment um over multi you know still for they have multiple years before they're probably going to go find what their next passion is. So um that's that's been a part of our conversation to make sure that it's not um just three or five people and that we're training teachers down into the schools. And um I've been guilty of doing several things pretty quickly um in my tenure here at Matthews and making some pretty quick decisions and and acting while a window was open or the
033having to strike while the iron was hot, if you will. So part of this has taken I mean we've spent kind of 16 months on this buildup now and building capacity and trying to take a slower approach to make sure it gets into every part and every classroom um to give it a better chance at longevity and sustainability. >> Excellent. >> So So how how often do do is a model evaluated for fidelity in not internally, but is there an external group that comes in every three years or five years or something and says, "Let's, you know, this is what you're doing well and it's, you know, fidelity of the model and this is where you some adjustments need to be made, >> right?" So, it's I wouldn't I wouldn't compare it to um the
034old Southern Region Education Board where the S reb would come in and you had your um accreditation review and you would have so that you I mean you can do the DSFI and there's another um >> internal tool that you can use to selfassess your fidelity in implementation. We as we're going through this process with VTSS, we'll do the DS we'll revisit the DSFI annually to kind of measure our progress and to see do we need to pick up the pace a little bit. Have we are we excelling in this area but we've kind of dropped the ball in this other area or do we need to provide more attention in this other area? But I think um you can revisit that that self assessment annually for as long as you want. >> Okay. Thank
035you. I think board as we have discussed expanding the role of student achievement in our meetings and taking up you know more and more of time of our meetings which is appropriate that this is perfect element to discuss on a regular basis and I think it would afford sort of a measure of a little bit of um public awareness and uh maybe accountability but this is where we need to go and and I'm thrilled to hear about this and can't wait to hear about updates um more than once a year, right? Um I think often this is where it's at, >> right? >> And this is kind of just again kind of revisiting a little bit. We had a very quick sort of um intro to MTSS probably a year ago, maybe 12, 14 months
036ago. We did a kind of I did a real quick sort of overview about MTSS. this um in the sake of fidelity, I asked the our VTSS coaches, can you give me some slides that are pretty boilerplate that are standard for communication, the same verbiage, the same language to make sure that we're that you all are informed as word than training our teachers and so we're all >> excellent. Excellent. >> Any other comments? Thank you, Dr. Daniel. >> You're welcome. Item three, moving on to citizens questions, comments, or requests. Comments not pertaining to personnel or student matters. Protocol for public comment period. Citizens wishing to speak should sign up with their name and address on the sheet provided. Each individual will have three minutes to speak. All comments should be directed to the school board.
037Speakers 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 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 at the podium is Sheriff Edwards. Welcome. >> Good evening, board members. First, before I start off with the reason that I'm here tonight, I just
038did on a on a real positive note, I wanted you all to be aware that I've started some funding research for school bus stop arm cameras to outfit our whole fleet because we're having a problem with um drivers running to stop school buses. So, I'm on a mission. I have a quote. um it is not something that looks like a very expensive continuing cost. So um just that's kind of at the forefront right now. So I just wanted to make you all aware just in case you start getting messages from Clyde wondering what's up because I've already made one phone call to him. So I wanted to make you aware of that. Um okay. Secondly, for those of you who don't know, I served as the school resource officer um here for Matthews County between
039the years of 2014 and 2016. Um that was one of the highlights of my career because I became attached to our students in all schools. I loved to think outside of the box to help the kids that were going down the wrong path and try to redirect them into a better direction. There are two extremely successful stories off the top of my head that I can recall from kids who changed the course of their lives during those years and I will always hold those students near and dear to my heart. One of the first things I recognized working in the schools is that we as law enforcement had to do more than do develop relationships. We had to we had to do more to develop relationships with our students because the family unit is struggling.
040students generally have a lack of support at home, especially during those critical pre-teen and teenage years. As a result, I've seen that substance abuse was increasing. I've seen kids were falling prey to peer pressure. I have seen that there was an increase in thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts, and kids started to show more aggression overall. In 2014, I created a new curriculum and this was called the TIDS program which stands for teamwork in drug education and safety. This was to combat drug use, peer pressure, bullying just to name a few of the topics. We did role- playinging scenarios so that kids could understand how it felt to be pressured so they could get the tools that they needed to know how to deflect and get away from those that are pressuring them. I also showed
041them videos of a person under the influence of methamphetamines or heroin so they could visually see instead of their curiosity. They could visually see what those drugs do to the body. And then I didn't have to tell them to say no. They determined for themselves that I never want to put that in my body because I don't want to look as weird as they do. And that was pretty much what they what they would say in the classroom. I guess you could call this a form of reverse psychology. I tended to use it on my children as well. On another occasion, I can recall a teacher coming to me with a concern of a child that had no friends, and they compared his significant number of risk factors with those of the Coline offenders. My
042solution to that was to get to know that kid, sit down with them, have lunch with them, and be all up in their business. What I noticed was the child began to open up to me. So he went from dressing very dark to actually being looking forward to that somebody cared just to have a conversation with him. Someone was paying attention. In 2016, former Sheriff Barrett reassigned me to the investigations division and initially I was heartbroken. I loved working in the schools and I loved the kids even more. There have been two SRO's after me and they have continued the TIDS program. Then we fast forward to 2020 when COVID happened and the technology world exploded where it was oftentimes difficult for a child to have a face-to-face conversation with others because they were used
043to looking at a screen. After COVID, there seemed to be a drastic increase in threat assessments and concerning behavior across all three schools. For the past three years, I wish I could say that the schools have offered a welcoming presence for the SRO program, but is it is my opinion that they have not. I am saddened to say that this year, the TIDS program will cease to exist. SRO's have instructed this same program at the middle school for 11 years. This instruction has been provided at least three to five times a week during the school year. We would change classes every quarter so that every class got an opportunity to spend the quarter with the SRO. During this past school year, the importance of this program has been cast off as the SRO was only
044able to provide this valuable education about once per week. It is impossible to teach the entire curriculum one day per week for a nine-week quarter. And SRO's job is not only about education. And it is also about school safety and security. Developing that rapport with our kiddos, ha handling incidents that rise to a criminal level, training students and faculty on active shooter scenarios, and participating in threat assessments. The Matthews County Sheriff's Office had an activeou with the Matthews County Public School over the years to clearly define what our responsibilities are as well as the duties of the school. My purpose of being here before the school board tonight is because there have been multiple attempts made to remedy some of these issues that we have been having with the schools and they clearly violate the
045terms spelled out in theou. Many of these attempts to try to remedy the situation have proven unsuccessful. When the public elected me, they wanted accountability and transparency. Sometimes that's hard to digest because I'm going to say what I think. Um, I I welcome constructive criticism. I'm just one of those. So, you're going to hear me, and this is just the brutal, honest truth, and this is how I feel. So, tonight, that is what you're going to get. The board and the public are going to get that blunt truth tonight. So, number one, the SRO has a job of making recommendations on building flaws that pose a safety or security risk to faculty and students, specifically concerning locked doors, windows that were stuck closed, failure of lockdown buttons to function properly, which all of these were
046a continued problem through the last school year, and to my knowledge still have not been remedied. Two, in the last school year, the school failed to do a lockdown test prior to 3252025, which goes against Virginia code 22.1-137.2 in lie of doing the lockdown drill. Um, I'm sorry, let me go back. That code specifically says a lockdown drill must occur during the first 20 days of school. Instead, they use the active attacker response training that Sergeant Hill provided as an alternative to the actual lockdown drill. The code specifically calls that the lockdown drill must order that students and teachers be thoroughly practiced in such drills. Matthews County School and employees received one of the first trainings offered by DCJS to enhance school safety in the form of civilian response and casualty care and stop the
047bleed. This was back in 2021. After the first year, Sergeant Hill, our SRO, became a certified DCJS instructor to teach that program to continue to improve and enhance safety training for Matthews employees, staff, and students. This training continued for all new staff until the 23 24 school year, but refresher courses continued to be provided by the SRO to all teachers, staff, and students. At the end of March of 2025, the SRO was told by school administration that the superintendent decided that the school would cease the DCJS protocol regarding active attacker response. It was adi it was brought to our attention that all of his training had shown that different responses were better. Superintendent requested proof of this program's effectiveness. He reminded he was reminded that he previously attended this very same train training when he
048came to Matthews schools. However, he stated he did not remember any of it. Our agency can only utilize DCJS protocols when it comes to school security. Our agents and if the schools need want to veer away from the standard, then we cannot be a part of it. Lastly, in regards to lockdown drills, the schools have been holding lockdown drills for all schools at the same time, which prevents the SRO for being from being at every school at the same time to where she can assess any problems or concerns that may arise or any weaknesses found in that in that protocol. Why would a lockdown take place without the SRO present? or why would one wait till the last minute to tell the SRO of a drill occurring at both schools at the same time? There
049was zero coordination between the schools in the sheriff's office. I now move on to assault and battery within the schools, potential gang activity as well as threat assessments that are not taken seriously and some incidents of criminal behavior by students that are not being reported to the SRO as is so required in the existing. For example, a student is posing on social media with various guns and indicates gang involvement. This does pose a threat to the school they attend, even if the photos are taken outside of school. This is important information for a school and SRO to discuss as to whether a legitimate threat exists. If an SRO determines a particular student is a threat to other students and no threat assessment is conducted, this undermines the actions and opinions of the SRO as well
050as the intelligence that our office receives. Intelligence that you all aren't always privy to. The sheriff's office should also not be finding out about assaults on students from the parents who come into our office in the evening to report an assault that happened at school and we know nothing about it. This blindsides our office and because we are not made aware of it right when the incident occurs. DCJS is now encouraging schools and SRO's to circumvent the legal process when crimes are committed and rule these events as quote excessive horseplay and such. I disagree with this logic. An assault is putting hands on another with the intent to hurt. Horse play is pro playing around with zero intent to commit a crime. If kids fail to learn as a minor, they will continue to do
051these acts and as an adult and typically we see their behaviors escalate over the years. In conclusion, after conducting extensive research across the Commonwealth, the SRO programs are funded in most localities completely by the schools. Gloucester County Public Schools, for example, has one or more SRO's in every elementary, middle, and high school, and the patrol vehicles, equipment, uniforms, and salaries are funded partially or entirely by the schools. The Matthews County Sheriff's Office has completely funded the SRO program since its inception, and it takes one of our state funded deputies away from the community as a whole. While everything I have presented to you tonight or with everything I have presented to you tonight, it is as if the schools only want a security guard. They want us when a parent is being difficult in their
052presence to be their personal bodyguard. They do not want us for the purposes that we are actually intended for. I've discussed most of these issues with some members of the school board in the past and it feels we are just treading water and getting nowhere. For the upcoming school year, the SRO program is being dissolved as well, and the deputy position is being returned to the county to allow an extra body to return to the road in a patrol capacity. I know parents and faculty may shift their anger towards me for making a change such as this, and I'm willing to bear the burden. I can assure you the safety of our school as it pertains to our students and faculty is very important to me. I promise our eyes will continuously be on the
053schools during the day. In fact, you might see more deputies walking the halls and getting to know the students at lunch. I just cannot fund a salary at $70,000 a year and continuously have more and more of our duties and responsibilities in the school taken away from us. They are not earning their salaries if they can't do it. And we cannot properly evaluate them on the job they're doing if they're not doing everything they're supposed to. especially if all these concerns are going to continue to fall on deaf ears. As you are well aware, our office stays busy. We do have a use for an SRO out in the community if they're not going to be maximized to their fullest potential in the school system. It is frustrating for the SRO and it's even more
054frustrating for me as I recall the days where both agencies used to work together to f fulfill one goal which is to ensure safer schools. I welcome board members to my office to discuss further as many of the circumstances surrounding these issues. I just cannot disclo disclose everything in its entirety in public without further compromising school safety. I ask each of you to please understand this was a decision that was not taken lightly and hopefully strides can be made down the road to restore this vital program. And that's all. Thank you. this important information and I would highly recommend if you are available that um we have a meeting by Thursday at the latest uh with Dr. Daniel at least myself and you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. David Jones. Good evening, board.
055How you doing? I'm here to echo those sentiments by sheriff. Had a talk with her today about this issue. This is something that needs to be taken care of immediately. She is our law enforcement top dog in this county. And if you know the other day what took place in this county and how fast people were brought into justice, that tells us what kind of job that she's doing. So I applaud her and her efforts and her department and every sheriff's deputy that we have here. What I'm concerned about is safety comes first. The protection of these children come first. TheseUS need to be done. What I'm I'm extremely concerned about is is that as an educator on the superintendent side that anything to diminish active shooter training or to circumvent that process not going
056to go for that. When I was chairman of the board for Matthews County public, I mean for Matthews County Board of Supervisors, I had active duty uh active shooter training for our people there. May have been the first one to do it, but I felt that it was important that we have that for those employees there. I feel it's extremely important to have these things for our children. Our sheriff's department is the best and a lot of surrounding counties have are going to have a hard time competing with the job that she's doing because that's the job she's doing. And I can tell you right now, our board feels the same way or I will say I know a couple board members that feel exactly that way. I would encourage you at this time to
057go back and revisit this. And I'm glad that Miss Gibbs, you're willing to want to get to sit down and get this remedied because I think this is so important and these these kids that are struggling out there um with their identity crisis and things of that nature. Okay. The reason why we have this active shooter training is because a lot of schools have been shot up by these kids. they go off and they come back come in and there's no mechanisms in place and you get caught off guard. I'm just going to ask you a question and I'm gonna leave you with this. Would you rather know that you had a a resource officer in the school at the time that this happens or would you rather have to dial 911 if you're under
058fire? Okay, I'll ask leave you with that question because that's the question that you should be thinking about. Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium tonight Sharon Fry 106 Weston Hall Road Port Haywood um thank you for your service and thank you Sheriff Edwards for the very informative discussion, very informative report and I totally agree with Sheriff Edwards and David. Um, my question is how long has MTSS been in effect and who developed it? Then I want to know if Matthews County Schools is required to do this program. It seems too much input for all the teachers and the principles to me. I don't know, but there's a lot of uh graphs and variables in it. Um I want to know if this program is carved in stone. You said
059it takes a couple years for it to get in effect. In a child's life, a couple years is a long time. I realize I don't have all the information on this, but back in my day, we didn't have all these programs, all these graphs, all these ratios. And I really think that my generation is more knowledgeable than our coming generations. I don't know why. Why can't our children read? Why can't our children do math? And yet, we have all these very, very big programs, MTSS, in effect. I just can't understand it. Maybe you can explain at the end of the session. >> Thank you, Miss Fry. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? >> All right, moving on to item four, superintendent'sformational reports. All right. So, um 4.1 is opening day convocation.
060So, um we're going to tweak convocation a little bit due to the the number of professional development and training sessions that our teachers uh will be attending during the first two weeks and they're back to service time. Um so, what we're going to do is start convocation at 8:30 in the Harry M. award auditorium on Wednesday, August 13th. Um we're going to do a little bit of overview, welcome everybody back, um do some of the um award pens. Um but basically try to um scale it back a little bit to provide teachers a little bit more time in their classrooms to get ready for the opening of the school year. Um I'll go through some summer projects. If um that can get queued up on the screen for me, I'll kind of go through those.
061All right. So, to highlight a couple of Well, there's a lot going on. So, at So, this summer, so by the from the time um kids left um up until now, about 95% of Matthews Elementary School has been painted. About 90% of the lights at MEES have been converted over to LED. Um what we're planning is for all the ceiling tiles to get replaced in Matthews Elementary School. Renovations to the yellow and blue bathrooms uh hallway bathrooms are ongoing. So, they've busted out the tile there. Um, I guess in the staging um for getting uh replacing the tile and then upgraded fixtures. New fencing has um is now encircled the back playground. Um the gym floor has been um refinished. So, new polyurethane has been put on the elementary gym floor. Exterior lighting has been
062upgraded to LED with solar sensors. um there's a better word for solar sensors, but um 50% of the seals in the hot water HVAC lines have been replaced. So those were the seals um that were routinely leaking. Um but the the worst of fenders have been replaced. Um so they still have to go through and um change a couple more about half of those um seals further down the line. and the ethylene glycol that was a scare in January that is slated to be replaced after summer school probably about two weeks after the close of summer school at Thomas if that wasn't enough we're going to go to Thomas Hunter Middle School so the abatement is entering phase four so they um the abatement started by the band room um in between the band room
063and the current art room moved up that hallway towards the gym hung a left going down the main hallway towards the office. So they have completed all of that first all those basically first two hallways and they are now beginning to go down um where the the counseling office the where fifth grade was located and two years ago seventh grade was located. um floor tile has been delivered with installation scheduled to begin on July 21st so long as the abatement is far enough ahead the floor tile installation will move a lot faster than the removal of the old floor tiles. Um as abated classrooms are determined to be safe, those classrooms are being painted. Um final touchups are happening in preparation for tile work. So, they had to go back and do a little bit
064of cleanup um on where they removed some um ceramic tile from the um from the walls. So, they're going back and doing some touchup in advance of the tile work. Exterior lighting um at Thomas Hunter has been upgraded. We've gotten some new exterior cameras installed at Thomas Hunter and there is now a new back stop on the kickball fields. Um so that was an exciting exciting addition at the high school because um the other schools are engaged in so much construction and renovation. Um the high school is undergoing some pretty significant deep cleaning as we've signed on to HS. So that has taken place here. We've done a bunch of exterior, not we because I had no part of it, but um maintenance has um worked to upgrade the exterior lighting to LEDs here as
065well. Um we had there was a schedule in place. All the all the ducks, all the stars had aligned for the auditorium roof hatch to get replaced. Um however, it was the wrong roof hatch. So that is that has been delayed um a little bit um for a couple more weeks. Um again, additional cameras have been installed here. Um environmental sensors have been installed in the restrooms. Um environmental sensors is sort of the upgraded version of vape detectors. So not only do they do kind of sensory for vape or tobacco, they also have kind of noise monitors and it can with AI can detect and kind of track the number of people and where they're located. Um, and so it integrates with our camera system, so for who's outside the bathrooms. Um, so it can
066coordinate with who's going in. Um, and so it can give alerts to administrators or whoever set up that, hey, you've got like eight people in the in the bathroom right now. You may need to go take a look or these people have been in there for 45 minutes, etc., etc. Um, several classrooms have been or will be painted here at the high school. Um, the goal is if the progress on the I think I skipped over it, but at Thomas Hunter, the two bathrooms on either side of the Brooks Auditorium have been retiled. Um, I think the fixtures have been delivered. They have not yet been installed. So once they get those done and then the two at the elementary school, if there's enough time, um then they'll move over to address the men's um
067wood hallway bathroom, which is in pretty rough shape. Okay, so that's a quick overview of the what seems like 30 projects that have happened or are happening um at the schools right now. So, it's been a very it's been a busy busy busy um place right now. Any questions on the projects at this point? >> I just want to say thank you for all the hard work on these projects by everyone who's participating in them. It is amazing the the amount of transformation that's taking place in such a short period of time. Thank you. >> Exciting. It's exciting. It really is indeed. Okay. So, some other information um for the school board. So, there are lists of um items. So the procurement is related to our cafeteria and so it goes through um it's just
068for your information um how we have to go through federal regulations with USDA and such on um requirements for how they contract and um procure food for our cafeteria. Um the VA update we have to submit that annually to the department of education. So, Miss Hunley has provided basically an executive summary of kind of those those changes and updates. Um, it's been approved by the Virginia Department of Education. Our VA plan is posted on their website. Um, you have the financial reports for each school and for the um postyear July FY25 expenditure report. The other thing that's relatively new that Miss Laauo has worked on is the FY26 July 1 through 15 line item expenditure report. So we're working through the um in an attempt to address some of the supervisor's concerns with um our
069budget and enough detail within our budget. Miss Laauo has worked to expand the RDA report and has provided um I think it's like 32 pages 27 pages um of kind of expanded monthly um actuals for review. Um I don't know that it's tenable for every month to add on each month because not only will it be 27 pages long, it's going to stretch to however many pages wide. Um, so we'll work through a little bit how to, um, how, you know, provide that information, make it publicly available, but also make it digestible. >> So, um, but this was kind of an attempt to like, okay, let's let's take a look at doing this to provide more information for the board, for the community, um, to, um, look at what we're doing. >> Yes. Has there
070been any feedback from board of supervisors or the county as to whether this helps bridge that gap? >> This is a fairly recent um develop. So I think Miss Laos started working on it probably two I'm sure it took her more than two weeks but um I think she pres asked me if do we want to for this board packet present it in this fashion or continue with the RDA kind of printout fashion. I was like, "Well, let's let's put it out there. Let's let's see if um tracking it this way or publicizing it this way will help." So, um it's they probably haven't had a chance to look at it or digest it um to any great deal. >> Can we discuss this tomorrow at the meeting? This is something at the leadership meeting.
071That's a great idea. Miss Lao, thank you for this. This is a great start. This is a really helpful Okay. And that's all for me. >> I had a comment about the VA update. Um, Miss Hunley's uh, information here. Uh, one of the last bullet points was the Matthews Elementary School hosted kindergarten camp which introduced incoming families to important literacy topics. And I just want to say uh Mrs. Bray and all of the teachers and other providers there that introducing Val to the families was essential. It was well done. It was amazing. And I'm I'm was just it's a small bullet point, but it was huge. And I think it's um a sign of how we should moving forward with um how we are approaching our efforts to increase literacy and starting at the very
072beginning with explaining to parents. Um it's a it was a totally different orientation than I'd ever been in any time in my life for for parents and I thought it was excellent. Thank you. All righty, moving on to item five. We just we have a few items here. 5.1, as you all know, the summer work session number two for the school board will be this Thursday, July 17th, from 8 to 3, the Ches Peak Bank Community Room. Item 5.2, we have required and optional trainings listed for board members past and future noted here. And regarding item 5.3, board and committee reports by school board members and superintendent, uh we have all of our members assigned for the balance of the meetings of the year for uh board of supervisors meetings. We also have our meeting
073dates for the various boards and committees that we are on here. Does anybody have anything to add regarding any board meetings or anything at this point? I think we're going to tackle the Heretta situation in an action item. Speaking of, we are on action items. Item six, 6.1, looking for uh a motion for the adoption of resolution requesting unexpended all-in tutoring funds. May I have a motion? I make a motion to adopt the resolution as written. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodgees. Do we have a second? >> I miss. Thank you. Do we have any discussion and like to read the resolution? >> Madam Chair, would you like it to be read? >> Well, let's read it. I think this is this is good. >> I think I think it'd be good for the public to
074know the financial pieces. >> I do too. I do too. I'll go ahead. Matthews County School Board resolution to request reappropriation of unexpended all-in tutoring funds from FY2025 to FY2026 school budget. Whereas Matthews County School Board received $240,766 in state funding for the All-In tutoring initiative in FY24. And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia notates that any unspent all-in flexible state fund June 30th balances must be reappropriated by the local governing body to the school division to be used in FY25 or FY26. And whereas Matthews County School Board expended $24,48549 in FY24 and $73,6646 of all-in tutoring funds in FY25. Therefore, be it now resolved that the Matthews County School Board requests the remaining FY25 all-in tutoring funds of $142,61645 be reappropriated to FY26 by the Matthews County Board of Supervisors. Any any discussion? All those
075in favor say I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Action item 6.2, adoption of resolution requesting unexpended Thomas Hunter Middle School asbestos abatement state funds. May I have a motion? >> I make a motion to adopt the resolution as written. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Let's go ahead and read the resolution on this one as well. Would someone else like to read this one? >> I can read it. >> Thank you, Mr. Martin. >> Matthews County School Board resolution to request reappropriation of unexpended Thomas Hunter Middle School asbestous abatement state funds from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 school budget. Whereas Matthews County School Board received $1 million on May 31st, 2025 for asbestous abatement at Thomas Hunter Middle School. And whereas the Commonwealth
076of Virginia has notated that school divisions are permitted to carry over and spend their state general fund grant allocations during fiscal year 2026. Whereas Matthews County School Board expended $20,74347 of asbestous abatement funds in fiscal year 2025. Therefore, be it now resolved that the Matthews County School Board request the remaining asbestous abatement funds of 979,25653 be reappropriated to the fisc year 26 school budget by the Matthews County Board of Supervisors. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Any more discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Item 6.3, adoption of resolution requesting unexpended Virginia tiered systems of supports BTTS grant funds. May I have a motion? >> Yes. I'll make a motion that we adopt the resolution requesting unexpended Virginia tiered system of supports grant funds as listed.
077>> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Do we have a second? >> I second that. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. We'll go ahead and let's be consistent. Let's read this one out. >> I'll read this one. >> Oh, thank you, Miss D. >> Matthews County School Board resolution to request re appropriation of unexpected unexpended Virginia tiered system of support grant funds for FY2025 to FY2026 school budget whereas Matthews County Public Schools received $5,000 on June 30th 2025 for a one-time Virginia tiered system of support BTSS grant And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia has notated that the school divisions are permitted to carry over and spend their state general fund money allocations during FY2026, whereas Matthews County School Board expended $645.90 in VTSS funds in 2025. Therefore, be it now resolved that the Matthews County School Board request
078the remaining VTSS grant funds of $4,35410 be appropriated to the FY26 school budget by the Matthews County Board of Supervisors. >> Thank you, Miss Diggs. Is there any more discussion on this? >> I do have a question. Um um Dr. Daniel, you referenced earlier during the presentation that there were some funds that could pay for some of the faculty uh who might be taking this on. Is this where that money is going to come from or is there additional money that's going to be coming forth? >> I anticipate additional um funding from the states. Um this is the exploration money to help pay for initial um co payments for conferences, attendance at conferences, travel, um reimbursement for substitute teachers, things along those lines. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Any more discussion? There being none,
079all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion passes. Item 6.4. for the naming of the 2025 BSBA annual convention official delegate and alternate delegate. We have at our last meeting I believe it was the last meeting we had Mr. Morgan had gallantly offered to be the lead delegate, but we had not selected an alternate >> delegate. We do have until August 29th to determine the delegate and alternate, but if we could come up with if no name is submitted, which we do have a name submitted, but if no name is submitted, the chair and the vice chair will be listed as delegate and alternate. It is recommended that the delegate or alternate not be a member of the SBA board of directors. So >> is there anyone who would who would select
080to be the alternate at this point? >> It's it's on that given date. >> It's on November 20th I believe is the date on that 2 o'clock. >> And you are not in town right not in town. >> I'll volunteer to do it. >> Well, thank you. Mrs. Hodgees, that is wonderful. >> Alternate. I'll be the alternate, Mr. Morgan. >> So noted. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Moving on to item 6.5. Appointment of the Heretta EAC representative for 2025 2026. And this is a position that I have been doing up until this point where I'm requesting that we have another member take over this um position. Is there anyone who's interested in in this? >> May I ask a bit more on the detail of this? Yes, >> Dr. Gibbs. >> Yes. I believe they
081that we have four meetings, four to five meetings a year. You can attend virtually. It is in Hampton, so it's a hike. I've attended both in person and virtually. The meeting is one hour. Um, and it's it's, you know, getting updated from the from on the WHRO. Um, and usually speaker uh that comes in and talks about one one time they had uh they have a lot of musical events that they're trying to get into the school divisions and to get children to be able to see. >> Um there are the legislative update uh round that they had in I believe it was at the May meeting and you get the the lowown on uh what's been going on in the general assembly which Interesting. >> Okay. >> Um, and it is a there is
082no speaking involved. >> Is it always held the same day? >> Uh, let me see if I can pull up that calendar. >> It's a something was a Wednesday. I think >> um have those dates over here. The next meeting I believe is October 15. And I think there's a December meeting. It is not a taxing position. Uh and I think it's it's some one that somebody that we should all give a give a you know have at some point. >> Okay. >> I I u wanted to do this for the board. Thank you. You very much. Let me give you I've got October. Here are the dates. There are four meetings. October 15th, December 10th, March 25th, and May 13th. >> March what? >> 25th and May 13th. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Miss Digs.
083>> Yes. Item seven, citizens comments on items discussed during the meeting. >> Do we have any citizens who would like to approach the podium? >> Pardon? Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. >> To prove an the it wasn't an was it. It's not listed as an action. It is listed as an act. Pardon me. Mr. Could you sit for a second? Thank you. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. Um, may I have a motion? >> It make a motion to approve the appointment of Mary Katherine Diggs to the um HRA Educational Advisory Committee um for as Thank you, Mrs. Hodes. Sorry that I skipped over that important point. Thank you. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Any discussion? >> I will just say if you have any questions on any details, >>
084I'll help you. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, Miss Dicks. >> Sure. >> All right. Mr. Hicks, you are up. Richard Hicks, North Virginia. Short and simple. The county website shows this meeting occurring at Thomas Hunter Middle School. I don't know who's in charge of maintaining the county calendar, but they need to get their act together. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hicks. >> Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? Moving on then to item 7.1, schoolboard member comments. >> I do have one brief comment, Dr. Gibbs. >> Yes. Um, in regard to the sheriff's report that she gave earlier, um, I'm very disturbed by the fact that we are not going to go into the new school year with an SRO
085program. Doesn't appear we will, if I understood correctly. And I think that we should as a board just a suggestion here just just a a thought that we should somehow try to remedy this situation. I can't imagine not having an SRO and it's very disturbing to me. >> I agree. M Mr. Morgan, anybody else? is this um one of the first questions I asked when I started subbing in Matthews um we had a different situation perhaps then but we had had plenty of active shooters across the country and many schools and many people lost their lives and one of my first questions as a substitute was are we on the Alice program still for safety in the schools because that's what we had been in Boston and um I realize that it can happen in
086Matthews County too and I too like Mr. Morgan am very concerned over this and u am in favor of having this reinstated and training for all of the teachers. Um it's It's vital. >> I mean, I have to um echo what my two colleagues said that um we need to sit down with the sheriff to find out is it repairable? Um and I think you've already started that, Dr. Gibbs. Um I I would have um it would have been my preference if in conversation before a um public statement withdrawing the SRO. And to my knowledge, there hasn't been any knowledge that there it was as dire from the sheriff's perspective. Um so again, I I feel sure that when you meet with them that you'll try to um bridge whatever the challenges are. Um from
087my perspective, seemed to be kind of vague and she referenced that, you know, that there's a lot of um information that shouldn't be public. Um I don't know if it's with one school or both schools. I mean, there's I have more questions clearly than answers to this. Um but um I I I feel sure that you're going to drill down to find out what the issues are and see if we can repair them. Um I would well I'm also um on to um um question. I'm not sure I'm going to answer it as clearly as we might like, but I I would disagree with you that um back in the day when I was in school that um students received a better education. I think some students did, but I think there were far too
088many students that did not return after um leaving school because they were falling behind and no one would follow up on that. Um the good news is we're keeping that data now. We know who's not going back to school. The bad news is we're keeping that data and we know who's dropping out of school. Um I I've said this before um and I'll repeat it. Um, so I apologize if for those who've heard it before, I'm like, there she goes again. Um, my husband has said many times to me over the past 40 plus years, so and so didn't come back to school after this, or he didn't come back to school or he left school at this. So, there are many students even in his era, he's older than I am, that dropped out
089of school um, and did not obviously get a good education. Most of them because they had fallen behind. And I think this program targets those children in a s systematic manner. So it's not who the teacher might unfortunately teachers are human and they are teach kids they might like more than other kids. Um as we've said and I like all is all all our students are worthy of getting a response um to any challenges they have in school. Thank you for that. >> Well said. Uh just back to the safety issue brought up by the the sheriff. Uh I'll just say to the county that I'm confident that by drilling down on details that we will resolve this issue satisfactorily. We must resolve this issue satisfi. >> Agreed. Yes, we must. >> Yes. Other school
090board member reports any reports? >> I have nothing. >> Not at this time. >> I have more of a question. Dr. D, have you heard about the governor's school? Is there been anybody in place? I have not received any. There has. I must maybe I missed an email, but I didn't know there had been a um a director in place. Yes, they um I think they announced >> Yeah, I was gonna say I was thinking it was mid June um they announced um the replacement. It's >> Robight. >> Yeah, Dr. Rob Wright um who is an alum um from Ches Bay Governor School um was working at the Virginia Department of Education. >> Okay. >> Um for a little bit in some I think in federal programs um but will be coming back to run
091CBGS. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So he's he's reached out um at least to superintendent with a quick introduction. >> Thank you. >> Anything else from anyone? >> All right. Other business by school board members or the superintendent 9.1. Again reiterating, we will be having our schoolboard summer work session number two this Thursday. That's July 17th, 8 to 3 in the Chesapeake Bank community room. Item 9.2. Our next regular monthly meeting will be Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 at 6 PM in the Harry M. Ward Auditorium at Matthews High School, preceded by closed meeting at 5:00 p.m. And finally, item 9.3, opening day convocation is Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. in the Harry M. Ward Auditorium at Matthews High School. There is no other to conduct and we'll call this meeting adjourned. Thank you
092very much everybody.