MCPS School Board Meeting 04/15/2025

001Item 2.2, we're reconvening back into open meeting. May I have a roll call vote for declaration of subjects discussed in closed meeting? May I have a motion? I make a motion to adopt the certificate of close meeting as written. We have a second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor by roll call vote, please. Yes. Yes. Item 2.4, approval of Personel action. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the personnel list as written. Do we have a second? I second it. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. I'd like to call to order the April 15, 2025 Matthews County School Board regular monthly meeting. Would everyone please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

002of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Item 1.3. Roll call. Present. Here. Here. Here. Present. Item 1.4. Approval of the agenda. Additions and deletions. May I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the agenda as listed. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item 1.5, consent agenda. May I have a motion? I make a motion to Excuse me. I make a motion to approve the minutes of March 18th, 2025 regular monthly meeting and March 21st, 2025 joint board of supervisors and school board work session. Approval of requests for school bus and driver from Matthews Rotary Club. Approval of requests for two school buses and drivers from Matthews extension office

003and monthly claims as presented on the consent agenda. And do we have a second? Second. Do we have any discussion? There being no discussion, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes and a note regarding the claims that are to be reviewed by the board members. We do have July through December available. Is anyone able to um assign their names to one of those months at this time? Did you say December? July through December are all available. I can do September. Mrs. Hodgees on September 15th. I can do October. Miss Diggs will take October 20th. I will take November 17th. I'll take December 15th. Is August still open? Believe so. All right. I I'll take August. So, we're just missing July then. Okay. We'll come back to July next month. Item 1.6, Matthews

004County School Board Governance Norms and Protocols. Mrs. Hodes, would you go ahead and Yes. Uh just for um um citizens that are here um we as a board have agreed to certain norms and protocols that we adhere to and uh at each meeting we read two of them. Um so I'll read the first two that we've agreed to. We will hear each opinion but ultimately act as one board. We will speak candidly and courteously to each other and listen to dissenting or different viewpoints with an open mind. We will help each other to depersonalize disagreements by agreeing to disagree. The chair or designate will speak as the official voice of the board. A single board member will not represent the school board without the consent of the entire board and board members making personal statements

005in any format including speeches, articles, social media posts, etc. should clearly state that these statements are of their own opinion and not the position of the school board. Thank you, Mrs. Hodgeges. Item two, we have a special presentation this evening. It's returning robotics to Matthews High School. The presenter please approach the podium. Presenters, please approach the podium. Thank you, Ken Childress. I'm trying to uh reestablish robotics in the high school. All we're asking for now is a classroom to use and I have other speakers that will will present the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Childress. All right. Hello everyone. Um ladies and gentlemen of the board, thank you for allowing us to speak tonight. Um we have a lengthy presentation here, but we know time is of the essence, so we're not going to read the

006whole thing. Um, I'm gonna kind of breeze through it. Uh, and we'll get to the last few pertinent slides. Um, I'm Jason Williams. I teach technology and robotics. Um, technology at Thomas Hunter and robotics for Matthews High School. Um, tonight though, I am not here just as a teacher, but I am here as an advocate for the robotics club. Um, our schools are kind of in a precarious position at the moment. Um there's a lot happening, a lot of decisions to be made and we understand that. Um but we're hoping to bring back some a little bit of light if we can. Um you know, there's uh there's some funding issues, there's some low enrollment problems, um and there's a lot of uncertainty in our public school system, but um in spite of all of

007that, Matthews Robotics is seeking a revival um from the dead, basically. Um, Ken Childris and Brian Donnelly have been working to organize and teach local robotics classes. Um, they have they have taught several classes um and built and programmed dozens of robots with some of our local kids. Um, they have offered one-day classes, multi-week courses. Uh, and additionally, Ken has volunteered in my technology and robotics classes for the past two and a half years as a vetted volunteer with the school system. Um, together, Ken and Brian are working very hard to bring the robotics club back to Matthews High School. Now, I'm going to zip through some of these slides because we've got a lot. Um, but is it clicking? It's not clicking. There we go. All right. So, there's a lot here. Um, but

008I'm going to cut cut to the chase. So, reinstituting an official MHS robot club would increase interest in other CTE courses. Um, serve as a sports alternative for some of our non-athletic inclined uh students. Um, it would align with the standards for technology literacy. um encourage all five of Virginia's five C's uh including that includes critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creative thinking, and citizenship. Um in addition, it would help maybe draw some more enrollment into the school system if we have something that they other kids can't get, you know, other places locally. um encouraging encouraging the students who are enrolled in schools to participate and not those who are seeking alternative routes like homeschool or um virtual Virginia. We would be utilizing thousands of dollars of equipment that the school system already has. It is sitting

009in a trailer behind the high school rotting. that is not being accessed besides the three of us who use it occasionally for courses or classes. Um it would definitely and has already increased parental involvement and communication in the school system. Um so why we need this sorry yeah why we need this um designated space will enable protection of all of our existing equipment um that many stakeholders and you know donations have helped to provide um currently because most of our equipment out there is motors and electronics once the trailer starts leaking it has a very short lifespan we've been fortunate that the trailer has held up for all this time, but it is a matter of time before an abandoned structure starts to degrade, you know, um without use. Again, we would engage uh a

010little more greatly with the student population. Um it would serve to attract more outside students, increasing enrollment, maybe drawing kids to stay in school. Um and you know, not everybody, like I said, not everybody's an athlete. So any kid, any child, any student who is interested in technology or robotics has somewhere to turn and explore that a little bit. Now we only are asking for a couple things. Space, a dedicated workspace to house the work of the robotics club in addition to the equipment and your permission to do so. That's it. That is all we need. Space and permission. The equipment has been bought. The talent is here. The students are already here. I've been working with students on technology and robotics skills for the past four years now. The skill base is there. Um

011the interest is there, but we need the ability to do something with it. I'm going to hand off to Brian for a few closing remarks. Good evening. I'm Brian Donley. I'm a citizen of Matthews after a couple years now. I'm a computer scientist by training and by vocation um and a hobbyist in robotics. Ken and I have been very fortunate to work with a number of kids uh along the last little bit. Um it's important to notice that of the students that we've worked with um the majority of them are homeschooled. Uh we have very few students in the school system that are attending our our classes. Um the most recent class that we've had was 100% homeschooled children. Um I find that uh startling and alarming. Uh last month we had a presentation on

012attendance truency and how to get the kids back in school. You're looking at it. Um it was noted we won't won't make a program we won't make a a class uh program for uh 510 students. That's true. This is the path to getting robotics back into the school through the club, making it available to the few students uh in the in the in the school and then growing from there. Thank you very much for listening to us tonight. Welcome. Members, questions, comments? Um thank you for your presentation. Doesn't sound like this is um Is there any prerequisite as far as math to be able to participate in this program or an age if you just both of those or grade? Currently academically there's no prerequisites. Um truthfully for my robotics class currently um I have

013done a lot of kind of backlogged you know kind of in uh instruction. Um, when you take robotics, I think people assume that you have to come in knowing everything, and that's not the case. Um, the majority of my instruction this year has been on design and programming, um, as well as electronics. So, there's no prerequisites. Anybody can come. Um, I if I can speak for Brian and Ken, I know that we've had several children or, you know, kids come to the 4 classes that have never touch an electronic device in their life, you know, as far as building or programming or working on one. So, there's no prerequisites, right? Right. Anybody can come, you know, you guys can come build a robot. Thank you. Thank you for your um willingness to work with our

014students. Mr. Dobson, do you have a question? Do you have a comment? Yeah. Um, I don't know how long you've been doing this, but I remember when the original robotics started here and there was a bunch of kids that enjoyed it. My son did. And he learned quite a bit about electronics. And I think it's wonderful for kids to take with everything being electronical today. they'll have an edge up on people. Uh I know of one child in this school that can uh he can repair one of these handheld telephones we all use and that's pretty good for a 15y old. So learning something like that that's that's it's always for the better. Thank you. Thank you. Just want to be clear then. You're seeking space at the high school, one classroom at this point,

015right? Okay. And permission to create the club. Anyone is welcome. Any of any age, no prerequisites needed. I don't see why we can't do that. Thanks. Great job. Thank you all. You're welcome. [Applause] Moving on to item three, Miss Jang, we have ready for your report as our school board student representative. I'm sorry honey. Okay. Good evening. We have a few updates from Miss Bray at the elementary school this past month. On March 27th, the Matthews Elementary School hosted Family Literacy Night and they had a great time learning about how to support literacy at home, especially um with parents and guiding them for their for their children. We played games and Kanto from K9 Companion was able to come as well and we even had cookies and lemonade and door prizes. So, I got the

016opportunity to meet Kanto. He was really sweet. And this I think this opportunity was a great um event for students to engage and to learn about reading and spelling and stuff like that. I even forgot my long and short ease, so I had to backtrack and go back to that. Um on Wednesday, April 9th, we wore purple to celebrate Military Child Day. And on Thursday, April 10th, the WHRO van came to Matthews Elementary School and they visited the prek, kindergarten, and first grade friends. The WHRO promotes literacy through engaging activities, interactive lessons, and free books, all while making reading fun and accessible for young learners. Our best doll, Kanto, came this week again to visit some fourth grade and first grade friends. Kanto loves hearing students read stories to them and I want to thank

017Miss Bray for promoting literacy as fun as it gets. Miss Simpson would like to share some news about Thomas Center Middle School. We would like to congratulate the FCS students for competing in the state convention and doing an amazing job. And I think it was hosted in Virginia Beach if I'm not wrong. Um so a few of these students won awards in gold. We have Autumn in fashion construction. And in silver, we have Leah, Ariel, and Emily in community service breakfast bags. In bronze, we have Gracie uh Aloy, if I'm pronouncing that right. Sorry. Um and Jordan's National Program in Action Financial Fitness. And um just want to acknowledge our school for competing in these conferences. That was an amazing performance. Amazing. And then also congratulations to the students for being selected as the student

018of the month by their teachers. In fifth grade we have Jackson Hod and Avery Horsley. In sixth grade we have Braden Smith and Austin Sadler. And in seventh grade we have Paige Morris and Jordan West. And also they celebrated um military connected students with the purple up day on April 9th. Um, I just wanted to note that these students have who have active military parents and thank you to those that sacrificed um, and these students have made support of their parents' work in the US armed forces. And thank you Macy, Aubrey, and Harper especially. All rising seventh graders will require the following three or require the next three vaccines for the next school year. And I'm sure parents and guardians can reach out to the school for the names of those vaccines. If your child

019has already received these, please have their doctor fax vaccination records to THMS and the phone number is listed on the website or 804-7252337. On Friday, April 18th, there will be a vaccine clinic at THMS provided by the Matthews Health Department. If you desire to utilize this clinic, consent for vaccines must be received to our office as soon as possible. and that's what Miss Simpson asks for. Um, next week is Veto's volunteer week. THMS is looking for help in sprucing up the grounds. If you're interested in volunteering to help out, please um give the school a call. Last week, the students completed their STAR reading and math assessment. Reports will be sent home on April 28th with individual progress updates. As our students get ready to take their so assessments, we would ask that students are

020here each day. There are still many skills to be learned and practiced this month and next month as well. Attendance rate were up in March. Congratulations to our students who are working hard to be at time um be at school and on time each day. Great job Seahawks and just continue this for the end of the school year and many more to come. Um here's a few notes from Dr. grieve at the high school. There have been a lot of exciting activities at Matthews High School. Career Day was a huge success and thank you to our volunteers in our school counseling department um to make it a valuable experience for all of our students. We appreciated all the support for our coffee shop jazz fundraiser on March 26th. The event raised over $1,000 for the

021MHS music program. And similar to FCS, they um we had a few students, the FCCLA members, for their outstanding success at the annual conference in Virginia Beach, and they competed against 650 FCCLA members in STAR events. Matthews High School did incredibly well with a bronze medal performance overall. juniors took the ASVAB. It stands for armed service vocational aptitude battery today, April 15th. And the ones who did not take it today will probably take it next year. We're also very excited as we are preparing for prom and the after prom party on April 26th. We really appreciate all of the hard work of our junior class and the enormous amount of volunteers and sponsors who make these events possible and a fun experience every year. Last but not least, we are holding a fundraiser for Hands

022Across Matthews until April 25th. So, please see Mrs. O'Neal or make a donation at any of our games at the concession stands if you all would like to help. Thank you. Great job, Miss Shang. Thank you very much. And Dr. Mr. Daniel, may I ask you a question regarding uh statement Miss Shang made about all rising seventh graders will require the following vaccines to start the new school year. Is there an exemption process that that that we have for that? I believe they just have to submit a waiver. Okay, great. If I may ask, um, how are parents being notified of this? Do we know? I don't know for sure. So, I'll have to go back and and double check what communication was provided. And I don't think the state requires um an official form

023or approval of the waiver. I think it's just notification um of what the um exemption um criteria is. I just didn't want school year to begin next year and then there's a backlog or challenge with getting done what needs to get done. Thank you. Good point. Great point. All right, moving on to item four, Dr. Daniel. Um, item 4.1, the ESBAR [Music] data. And just while Dr. Daniel is walking to the podium, uh, student achievement is always going to, uh, be in line following our strategic plan. So, we're always going to be talking about something that's tied back to, uh, the strategic plan goals for the school division. So, um, part of what we're looking at is, um, student discipline data today. And, um, some of the reason for that falling under student achievement is

024partially due to we're kind of in an an assessment, um, I guess like log right now in terms of having student achievement um, monitoring data um, at our fingertips right now. So, next month we'll have um STAR data to look at. I don't think our Val's data will be quite ready for us to report next month. Um but then we'll also be able to look at our ASVAB data. Um so, in the spirit of looking at data and kind of looking at really student health and um student prosperity, if you will, uh we decided to take a look into where what our student data um discipline um looks like at this point. Okay. So to date, so ESBAR stands for student behavior and response. That's kind of how the state categorizes um student um discipline

025infraction. So when an administrator um has to issue a sanction or they have a response to student behavior, there are a list of codes that we have to put into P school. Those are then reported to the state. That data is then tracked statewide. All those um codes and descriptions of those codes are listed in the um division code of conduct. So you have a number of events and then a number of sanctions. So to date for this year what is listed at the elementary school, middle school and high school um are in front of you. I will say that I double checked. So, so annually we have to submit an ESBAR report to the state as and that usually that is an end of the year kind of late June timeline deadline report that

026that we send off. This year the state requested a midyear report. So, this data is pulled from the the midyear report that we just submitted to the state. when I cross referenced these this report with what I can log what I can look into powers school and see the numbers don't quite um align tightly. So I've got to go back and ask some more questions about what specific data is being pulled from P school from that state report. I'm looking at discipline incidents when I go into power school and so those numbers um don't don't quite align with with what's here. So, we've got to get some I don't know if it's because of the mid-year reports or exactly what is what is happening on that data. Um, so as you can see, so an

027event is um just an occurrence. Um, sanctions would be so you could have an event and a student then not receive an inschool suspension or an out of school suspension or a detention or something along those lines. It may the the sanction may be just a conversation with the principal that wouldn't register as a sanction. You can also have an event where two or more students receive a sanction. So if you have an event, a fight for example would be an event. So you may have two students or three students um receive a sanction from that fight or from a horseplay event in the in the cafeteria or in the gym. So that's why there's not always a onetoone correspondence between events and sanctions. Okay. So that's that's kind of where we are um to

028date for this school year. So looking at the previous two school years. So prior to I'm trying to think of the year the SBAR the state went to SBAR. So I think it was probably the 2021 school year was about the time timeline when the state changed its um discipline codes and um perspectives. So looking at number of so I broke it down into events and then sanctions. So at the elementary school, you saw an increase of events from 22 23 up to and then into last year again saw some increases at the middle school. The high school actually went down in events from the 22 23 um going into the 23 24. But if you flash back to this year, the high school the number of events is is definitely up this year. You

029also have another grade level um that is at the high school this year. Um so that that's part of part of that factor as well. Um and you also have a code of conduct with um kind of outlining um behavioral practices and and sanctions and things along those lines. So, um, looking at, you know, numbers, um, it's kind of hard to draw a ton of conclusions, um, from just looking at this snapshot, these pieces of ESBAR data. It gives us, I think, a a baseline to look at and have some conversations about as we approach the end of the school year and some of our summer conversations about where um what are areas of the building that we need to tighten up supervision on, what does our regular classroom and um behavioral expectations look like.

030Um, I think we can go back and continue to reflect on the sanctions and how we applied sanctions and do we need to move backwards in terms of severity, do we need to move up in severity and some other some other sanctions. But I think getting in the practice of looking at our ASBAR data is going to be pretty helpful for us. Um, another piece that the state is building is called laser. It's a um a digital dashboard that integrates student achievement, attendance, and discipline. And so that will give us some additional um data analysis that we can use over the summer um to I guess help us help us drive some decision- making for what we if we want to make revisions to our student code of conduct or um you know, kind of

031what our what our regular kind of school-based practices are, our classroom practices. If you have any quick questions on ESBAR, um, happy to to answer them, but it's basically more this was more of an introduction in ter in terms of kind of ESBAR codes. What do we look like in terms of number of events and number of sanctions? I'd like to recommend that we add uh review of the ESBAR data into our summer session in conjunction with the code of conduct review and just make that a standing item in the summer session. members. I would agree with that. I would like to have some input from um principles as to where they would make recommend they would hopefully make recommend recommended changes to the code of conduct. And again, we're year one of the kind

032of a divisionwide code of conduct. So, I've asked principles to keep a you know, a running notetaking on on their code to like, hey, we need to adjust this. This has been a problem this year. This particular we need I need a rule for X, Y, and Z. Perfect. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Daniel. Welcome. Item five, citizens questions, comments, or requests. 5.1. Comments not pertaining to personnel or student matters are limited to one opportunity of three minutes. Please state your name and address for the school board clerk. Protocol for public comment. Period. Matthews County residents and school employees wishing to speak should sign up with their name and address on the sheet if provided. Comment period will end after 90 minutes. All comments should be directed to the school board. Speakers shall not address matters

033involving students or personnel as these topics may violate confidentiality and are not appropriate in a public forum. Public comment is the school board's opportunity to listen to the speaker. Since our purpose is to hear from you, the board will not engage in dialogue with the audience or whomever is at the podium. Matters requiring a response will be directed to the superintendent for research and response. The superintendent may report back on such matters at a subsequent business meeting session as appropriate. The school board carefully considers your comments when deciding on matters brought before us. We appreciate your attendance and your input and I do appreciate such a large turnout tonight. Thank you for that. Our first speaker tonight is Ashley McBurnernney. Ashley McBurnernney, 215 Church Street Matthews. And good evening. I'm a third grade teacher next

034door at the elementary school. I can only imagine how stressful that it must be to have to make decision decisions about the budget this time of the year. I was saddened to learn on Friday that our custodians may not be given a contract for next school year if by the staff but also for the students um in the building and they make us feel safe each and every day. After speaking with someone that works for a neighboring division who uses an outside agency for custodial services, I learned that overall they're not happy with the services. It was shared that outside services often have employees who do not show up for work. the turnover rate is very high and the custodial staff is not guaranteed to stay at that same school for the entire school year.

035I was saddened when they shared all of that with me as I want the best for our students and and for our building. These are the things that concern me not just as a teacher but as a parent if we decide not to offer our current custodial staff contracts next year. I was also very upset to hear that we will no longer be keeping the math specialist title one position at the elementary school. Elementary school is where we lay the foundation of learning. And when we eliminate essential roles like the math specialist position, I'm concerned about the long-term impacts it will have on some of our population that's most in need. The title one math specialist currently pushes into classrooms to help with instruction, pull students out for remediation, and meets weekly with teachers to

036provide us with support in our planning. I'm beyond shocked that this position will no longer exist considering the amount of students that the position currently supports daily. Please feel free to reach out to me with for any questions and I know it must be hard to create a budget but please consider keeping both the custodial staff and the title one math specialist at the elementary school. Thank you for your time. Thank you Miss Mcburnie. Our next speaker is Rosalie Brown. I'm Rosalie Brown. I live 1030 1083 Circle Drive. I was married to Larry Brown who was a high school teacher here. Uh he was the robotics coach. I know what robotics is all about. I could tell you a lot of stories about what the kids have done, how they did it, and how they

037enjoyed it, and much better than all of your athletics. We know we have to athlet have athletics as well, but we need the kids to do something else as well. Uh, I would like to recommend the old autoshop classroom. I believe is just used for storage now as the robotics classroom. It's got plenty of room. They could move all of the equipment out of this the trailer. That is a death trap. You really need to get rid of it. Um, and they could work there and be dry and comfortable working on their robots. This the robot over here is the one that um, Larry and most of his kids worked on were the big robots and they went to two championships, two world championships with them and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I know

038we went back to the smaller one in 2019 I believe because of COVID and then CO died. But his team in 2016 went to Illinois and came in s second in the world of 43,000 kids. and 46 countries represented. They came in second and they didn't get very they got very little recognition from the school board at that point. That's that's all I have to say. Thank you, Mrs. Brown. and I assure you they would have gotten full recognition from this board. Our next speaker is Amy Bohannan Stewart. Good evening. Um I'm Bohana Stewart. I'm a taxpayer. um a former MA MCPS parent. Um she just graduated last year. I'm also a former employee. Um I used to work in this building for 21 years. Um I know times are tough um and money is

039tight and I do want you to know that I'm willing to pay the taxes to maintain custodians as employees of the school system. um you know as part of Matthews County Public Schools. I do not like the idea of contracting out custodial services. I currently experience contracted custodial services where I work at New Kent and I've only been there since August. Um not even a full year and four different people have cleaned my classroom this year since August. I would estimate because I wasn't exactly counting, but at least about 20 times this year that I came in to find that my floor had not been swept and the trash had not been emptied. So, um, the custodians that took care of my room while I was here at Thomas Hunter Middle School for 21 years

040did a good job and they often asked if I needed anything. And, you know, now I'm worried about special events that we have at the school and stuff like that. Um, you know, the the custodian that helped me for years that that cleaned my room for years, Mr. Buu, helped me sand down my tables, um, my science tables one year before I repainted them. And I don't think you're going to teachers are going to get those kinds of things, um, which also helped students, um, if we have contracted out services. And I I think our children are in better hands. I feel better about us vetting our own people rather than contracting out with this, you know, this company and I'm willing to pay the taxes to pay to maintain our custodial staff as they

041are and to pay teachers properly. Um I and to pay support staff properly. Um and also I'm willing to pay taxes to give teachers proper tools like you. I can understand why that was gone. The teachers used it. questioned them after the town hall meeting answer I got about that question. So, I mean, we we all like to save money, but I don't want the schools compromised. I don't want public safety compromised. Um, and you know, I am willing to pay for that. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Mohan Stewart. Our next speaker is Mel Sherski. Thank you. Um, my name is Mel Sherki. I'm uh I'm the chief medical officer for uh Riverside Walker Reed Hospital. And the reason I mention that is because I'm intimately involved with um a lot of the budget

042and finance uh committees within the health system at Riverside. So I understand and respect your challenges that you've got before coming before you. This letter that I'm about to read has garnered um 64 uh parent and community members uh support in the last eight hours at least. And there's many more that have been emailing us. I'm just going to read this. Dear me members of the board of the school board, we are writing to express our deep concern regarding the proposed budget cuts that threaten to significantly impact educational programs for advanced students, including out of district programs within Matthew School District. While we understand the difficult financial decisions the district must make in these challenging times, we respectfully urge you to reconsider a reduction that would diminish the support and opportunities available to the vital

043population of learners. Advanced students have unique educational needs that are not adequately met through the standard curriculum. Without proper enrichment, acceleration and access to advanced learning resources, these students often become disengaged, underchallenged, and in some case cases underperform despite their potential. Programs designed for advanced learners are not a luxury. They are a necessary investment in students who may go on to become future leaders, innovators, and contributors to our community and beyond. Eliminating or reducing funding for advanced education, including out of out of district program undermines the district's commitment to equity and excellence. All students deserve to be challenged and supported in their academic journey, including those who learn and process information at an accelerated pace. In fact, research consistently shows that when advanced learners are not properly served, the entire classroom can be affected through

044behavioral challenges and lack of overall engagement. Furthermore, eliminating these programs not only threatens to drive away families seeking challenging educational opportunities, but it will also lead to a drop in enrollment. This decline could result in reduced government funding, setting off a downward spiral that negatively impacts the entire school system. We urge the board to consider the long-term impact of these cuts and to prioritize solutions that maintain highquality services for advanced students. Our schools must strive to serve every child according to their needs and advance and advance an out of district education is a crucial part of that mission. It cannot be understated that the reputation of our school system is directly proportional to the desiraability of our community and the value of our homes. Strong schools create strong, financially sound communities that continue to flourish.

045Thank you for your time, your service to the community, and your careful consideration of this matter. We would welcome any opportunity to further discuss how we can work together to preserve and strengthen advanced education in the Matthew school system. Thank you, Dr. Sherki. Um, I have a copy of We do not have any other people signed up on our list. Is there anyone who'd like to approach the podium? If so, please state your name and address for the school board clerk. Thank you. Richard Hicks, North Virginia. Tonight's comments are somewhat connected and cover various things that have been discussed over the year. For some reason, we're still maintaining classroom space for 1,200 plus students with a declining enrollment now around 750 students. Note, should be pretty easy to find those robotic guys a classroom. Why

046don't parents have enough money to feed their children? Could be. They spend waste money on jacked up pickup trucks, liquor, fancy cars, beer, chrome wheels, cigarettes, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, lottery tickets, jet skis, numerous other toys, Starbucks, Red Bull, tattoos, cable, body piercings, anything in 7-Eleven, online gambling, cruise trips, EIGs, takeout pizza, fast food, and of course the latest and newest cell phone. I'll move on. Expectations. Expectations of parents and students are low. Example, high school students should be expected and assigned enough homework that will occupy three hours per day, five days a week. Why students can't read in short phonics. A book titled Why Johnny Can't Read was published in, wait for it, 1956. The solution in that book, Phonics. I've mentioned before that we've only been teaching arithmetic for centuries. Maybe you need to try

047teaching techniques from a hundred years ago. And finally, with a declining enrollment, your budget should be going down and not up. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hicks. Is there anyone else you'd like to approach? Thank you. Hard to follow that one. Um Jessica Christensen, 128 Veterans Way Hudgens. Um I'm kind of here to preempt Amy O'Neal before she pops up. Um just to say that I don't know I'm not here exactly to preach to you guys because I know you don't want to make any of these cuts that are before you. Um I'm mainly would really like to can't wait for Thursday night for board of supervisors and and kind of glad a few of them are here to hear some of the comments. Um Amy's possibly going to follow me and talk about cuts

048that are being presented and I can't imagine this county hasn't figured it out yet that to the athletic program. Um I would think this room would be even more filled if people really knew. um in the tune of like I think 60,000 which our boosters club does a ton. They do more than we can imagine and ask for and I'm a volunteer and I'm not even on the board and they just they're run ragged and they're doing so much. But I don't know that the athletic programs as they stand and with how many kids are actually doing them will be in existence next year if we don't get that 60,000. Um, so hopefully the county and residents and parents and anyone that likes coming to see any of the athletic events or supporting any of

049our youth um, kind of make their opinions known about that. I know that inter mural basketball is also um, an option that to be cut and that saddens me because middle school really has nothing um, that's being offered in athletics and hopefully we can somehow figure that out um, to keep that program going. And to follow up with Mel Sherki there, cutting the non specialed regional programs, you know, just talking about Governor's School and ROC and things that you've worked so hard for welding in the last few years, it's just it it's it's awful. It's painful to hear and I'm really hoping that we can figure out ways to really work towards getting that funding. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Christensen. Donna Machan, excuse me, 278 Marina Road, Foster, Virginia. Um, the homeschoolers are

050outperforming without millions and often on a shoestring budget. Why is that? fewer students, supplies, small overhead, free employees, but not all can homeschool or can afford private school, but they instead depend upon the government. During hard economic times, we have to distinguish between needs and wants. Students need internal motivation for learning. Love of God, country, family, and special subjects are examples. If you instill the motivation and provide the curriculum, the students can perform well without the bells and whistles of expensive external motivations. You need to look for incentives and rewards that don't cost so much. Praise awards like gold stars and my children say pepperoni pizza slices. Excitement through career planning. lowcost field trips such as free capital tours and character studies for individual personal growth. Stick to the basics. I encourage you not to

051ask for to raise taxes because throwing money at the problem isn't necessarily the way to improve the scores. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Machin. Hi, my name is Amy O'Neal. I'm the athletic director for Matthews High School. I didn't plan on speaking tonight, but um I feel like I'm compelled to do that. Um I might get emotional because when I do something, I put my whole heart into it and I love this community and I love our kids and I I want to do my very best for them. When I was hired here, when I first found out, when I came to Matthews, I realized there was a lot of changes that need to be needed to be made. We lacked school spirit. Our programs were suffering. The kids did not feel supported. And that's

052no offense to anyone before me, and I don't mean that. There was no sense of pride at the school. In fact, I talked over and over to groups of students to understand what the pride of the M on the floor meant. It meant blood, sweat, and tears. It's not just athletics is not just sports. It's character building. It It's life lessons. It's I've learned in my life. I had a really good upbringing. I had great family, great parents. But I'm telling you, I learned probably a lot or just as much by being an athlete with athletics, on teams, with coaches who cared about me, who wanted me to succeed, who supported me, who helped me build my character. Excuse me for a second. Regardless of our budget, regardless of our small school, we still have

053the same amount of games as a 6A school, we have the same amount of transportation as a 6A school who gets pretty pretty um a big amount of budget, who gets funding, who gets whatever, you know, with a that a large school gets. We have the same amount of um referees. We have all the same kind of cost. Just because we have 300 students does not mean that we do less as a an athletic program. I gave Dr. Daniel a spreadsheet that shows that thank thank you Lord that we had the booster club to help support us because I got zero money from you. I came up with $30,000 on my own to support this program. I can't do that every year. I was um given nothing but thank God to our boosters who gave

054us $14,000 to get our football team started cuz without that we had zero supplies. We had zero equipment. Everything that we did have was dry rotted already was was e um out of date which was not safe. So with the booster's help, thank goodness, we were able to sustain that and build a football program, which Matthews County had over and over and over told me in every meeting, "Yeah, that's just great. Whatever you want to say, that's great what you're doing, but when are you bringing football back?" We brought football back for you. For you. Football makes a lot of money. It also cost a lot of money. $14,000 didn't touch what we had to to purchase for that program, but we raised money for that and we did it successfully. I can work on

055a shoestring budget, but we need to care more about our students. Not just because they play sports, but because we want stronger character kids in this school to make productive citizens, not just in the classroom. Yes, education 100%. They are student first, athletes second. But I can tell you out of 325 students, we have 199 kids doing sports. You cut that, they'll go to Middle Sex. You cut that, they'll go to Gloucester. Don't think they won't. Our enrollment is low already. Imagine what's going to happen when we cut that. Thank you. Thank you, Coach O'Neal. [Applause] Michelle Williams, 3171 East River Road, North Virginia. I would like to piggyback on what Miss O'Neal just said. Last week, I spoke at the board of supervisors work session and I made very similar comments because just like

056Miss O'Neal, family and consumer science was gone for 15 years. That position was lost due to attrition. 15 years our students in Matthews County lacked those living skills at the middle school level because of a budget cut. I'm one of the few teachers still left here at Thomas Hunter Middle School that went through that last round of riffs that cost us 10 years of raises. It cost us, I believe, if I'm speaking right, 18 faculty members. We did manage to hang on to our custodial staff, though. It frightens me that I have one grandchild in the system and one coming into this system. That Matthews County Public Schools, if we continue to cut funding from all of our programs, not even thinking about academics, letting that go to the side, even though yes, some people

057don't get those fun things. If we continue to cut, and I know what you are faced with, and I do apologize that it's coming toward you, but if we continue to cut the public school system, we might as well just close the doors, padlock them, and let's all move to Gloucester or Middle Sex or West Point because evidently Gloucester, Matthew, Gloucester, Middle Sex, and West Point seem to care about their children and their communities a little bit more than Matthews does. I do understand financial constraints, but I live here in Matthews. I just built a new home. My taxes tripled from my old home to my new. I pull a paycheck from Matthews County Public Schools that I will lose more money out of my paycheck for increased taxes. But if it takes that to

058keep our schools open, to keep the athletics going, to keep our programs that your teachers are finding the funds for instead of the board, instead of Matthews County, we're finding the funds from our citizens. That should not be. I would challenge the two boards to sit down across the tables with erasers and pens and pencils and these budgets and try to make them align. You know, if I have a budget in my household and it's not working, I have to find somewhere to cut. But I'm not going to cut my medical care. I'm not going to cut my spouse. And I'm not going to cut my children out of it. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. [Applause] Williams. Good evening, Sharon Fry, Port Haywood. Want to thank you for your service. Hard job. How about our

059band? That's all I have to say. Excellent. Thank you, Mrs. [Applause] Fry. Do we have anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? Right. There being none, thank you for your comments, everyone. We'll move on to item six, superintendentformational reports. with item 6.1 being our attendance data update tardies. No, no, that is later in the meeting. The opportunity for that is later in the meeting, Mr. Dobson. Can you go ahead and move to the march screen for me? Down. Down. All right. Right there. Um, so our March March update, um, in terms of attendance, um, one of the things that was asked was to, um, provide current school enrollments. So on the far left column, um, in parenthesis, you have the the current current school enrollments. Um, so again, just reviewing what's in the charts.

060Um so for the high school we're looking at 39 of 40 39 students at this time are are considered chronically absent. So they've already missed 17 days. Um at Thomas Hunter that is seven. At the elementary school that is 19. Um to have a little bit of frame of reference um I believe um 39 out of 324 is about 12%. Um approximately two years ago, the high school finished the year at 33% chronically absent. So while we're not ecstatic about um 39 of our students having missed 17 days and the remaining several months of school are critical to staying under that 15% mark. Um from where we were several years ago, um we've seen pretty significant growth. So I think when I go back and look two I think it was two years ago um

061we were at 34% I think 27 and 24% um for our schools in terms of chronically absent students. And again for the folks in the audits the federal marker for being chronically absent is missing 10% of the school year or more. So that's 17 that's about 17 and a half 18 days. Um the threshold and part of our accountability matrix is you want to have fewer than 15% of your students miss more or miss you know not cross over the 10% of days missed. So that's a lot of lot of percent talk. Um so we've we've had pretty great we've had some great strides in terms of getting students to school, working with families to make sure our students are coming to school. A ton of work goes into those other columns in terms of

062um issuing warning letters and developing attendance plans and staff working with families to make sure that students are getting to school um working with um the the juvenile justice system. So, as students really exceed or um absent rates or exceed the the law in terms of attendance, um we're taking those students to court. And the board talked last month about adding some additional pieces into our attendance policy that are linked to grades. So, we'll work on some draft policies um for the board to have some discussion. But I think as we've continued to monitor the attendance data and take a look at the attendance data, um, you know, we're not we're not satisfied with with where we are, but I think as you if you go back and look from two years ago, we've uh

063we've made pretty good strides. Um, can we scroll down to the next slide for me, please? All right. So last month the board um there was some discussion about tardies. So I asked our school social worker um to pull some data for us related to tardies. Um tracking tardies at the high school gets gets pretty complicated because are you tracking just tardy to that first period or are you t are you tracking tardies to every block during the day? So we looked at I asked her to just look at tardies to school um kind of that morning that that first bell. So what she was able to pull together is the average daily tardies to school during those months. And as you might guess over the course of the year tardies to school tend to

064increase. Um again it's um significant again at the high school you start having students driving themselves. Um you have the the early mornings and you can have conversations the science about adolescence and sleep patterns and um looking at start times and things along those lines. Um but you know we we tend to know that high school students um and tardies tend to be an issue. Um what is significant too though is as you look at the average number of elementary school students who are tardy each day. So that's that's not going to be they're not driving themselves. That's um that's developing habits um developing a culture within the community that arriving that attending school matters and that arriving to school on time matters. Um so again we're working with families. there aren't the legal remedies

065for tardies. Um we don't have great strategies um in place for how to address tardies at the elementary level for kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, etc. Um so that's that's a communication piece and working with families to try to get um those students to school to start the day um on time. So any questions from the board related to um absences or tardies? I want to thank you for Mich as well because you just correct. This would not this would not um capture a student who um doesn't have a first period, but their first instructional block of the day may be second block and they're late to second block. What I asked Miss um Thomas to pull was just tardy to first block, fifth block, and then um the same for the middle school and

066then the first part of the day for the elementary school. Thank you. You're welcome. to that point, do you see a way that we could focus on getting some of that information uh for next month to look at is how would we do you see a way to get it so that we can take a look at it because Miss Jen brought brought this up last month and I and she is boots on the ground. She knows what's going on in there. She sees it and and she brought it up as a concern. I think it's relatively easy to pull tardies to the individual blocks at the high school. You would have to go student by student to then determine if it's their first block of the day or not. Um that would that's um

067combing through probably 130 different schedules because I doubt I have very many sophomores or freshman who are um have late ends. Um, so you're probably looking at juniors and seniors and most likely that's going to be a senior. Um, but it's pretty easy to pull the the tardies per block. Um, where it might get complicated is do you want an average for the month for tardies to first block, second block, etc. Um, otherwise the reports get pretty voluminous. So you're going to print tardies for every day to every block and and tabulating tabulating that. So, I think we can start taking a I can work with Miss Thomas to take a look at what the what the reports the information the reports are providing to us and what may be the best way to make

068that data usable um to inform action for from the board in terms of policy or principles to look at different u procedures or practices within the schools to reduce the number of tardies. I mean, I'm I'm guessing there's probably um tardy to first block and tardy to the block right after lunch are going to be the highest tardies, highest rate of tardies. Um just from my experience, that kind of where it happens. I think what the goal is is to minimize this and to tighten up whatever needs to be done, whatever it is. uh hallway management. I don't know what the answer is, but that's what I want is to find out how we can uh ensure that the most instructional time is being used by each student and that we're not um having sort

069of a u and I'm not saying that this is happening, but perhaps uh in some cases there's a lax approach to getting to a class on time that's disruptive to the entire class, to the other learners, to the teacher. Um it goes to um it's disrespectful. It's work ethic. it it goes to a lot of things in character and and I think if that's a a problem that we have so I guess the first thing is assess is that a problem if it's a problem I think we need to uh try to remedy it in some way at least bring it up and discuss it members I agree and also first of all thank you for the yes this information um this is the first time we've looked at tardies to school um so I

070I appreciate looking at that I would um I just am curious if at the high school if the increase in tardies have to do with maybe seniors just out of curiosity. Um I don't know if we can get get that and then that would make me feel a little better that that the other one the other students are coming to school on on time. Um not that I'm making excuses but but it but I would at least feel like it's we could target um that grade. Um, so I I' I'd like to have feedback from the principles as to what ideas they have about addressing especially at the high school. Okay. Addressing this problem and back to I just wanted to make a comment uh back to the attendance rates. When we have a problem

071that starts at the elementary level, there's a tendency for that to become a pattern throughout the educational experience. Is that correct? That's correct. So most important that we that we set that pattern correctly at the elementary level. So that is that is a concerning that's a concerning feature. And I know that the the school leadership is doing all they can, but I think with a a mind that if if that is not corrected, set up for success at the elementary level, we have a good chance of that persisting throughout. And that's what the data does show. to go back and touch on the the laser the the state dashboard that I referenced a little bit earlier with ESBAR. They have a um I guess a crosswalk or kind of an integrated um tool that looks

072at attendance and um achievement. And so they look at the impact of absenteeism on achievement for different subgroups within your school division. So, it's a it's a pretty powerful tool that they're beginning to launch. So, we're we were supposed to get training on it last week. Um, and so that got moved to later this week. So, I'll I'll get to learn it a little bit more, but we're part of the pilot group within the state getting access to it pretty early. So, Oh, good. Yeah. Yes. Looking at the Matthews Elementary, I see three categories that have improved and that encourages me one. Um, looking at Matthews Elementary, um, three of the categories have in have gotten better and that's encouraging because that is where it starts and carries over. So plus on that one. Agreed.

073Good. There are no comments. Go ahead. For uh item 6.2, the high school and uh Thomas Honer Middle School asbestous test results. Yes. So some some good news um coming from our collaboration with the county and conversations on the health and safety of our our school building. So, in recent weeks, um mold testing, um air samples were taken at, um the elementary school, I think all three schools to assess or test for mold spores. Um all of that testing came back um negative or within um normal limits um for mold testing. So, we're there's no elevated um evidence. There's no evidence to suggest elevated um existence of of mold within our classrooms. Um Mr. Tillage with the county helped facilitate then having air sampling within Thomas Hunter and the high school to um measure or

074assess for the presence of airborne um asbestous particulate. Part of that testing process involved kind of fans blowing to um disrupt kind of the air and and particulate. Um all of those tests um came back um I want to say positive but positive in a good way for the school division and the people who are living in those classrooms. So positive for us, negative for the existence of asbestous particullet um in those in the spaces within Thomas Hunter and the high school. Um yeah, and just today we got the the mold testing back for the high school that again was um favorable conditions and so we had been waiting on on the high school. So, um, several air quality tests having been done at our three schools, all of which, um, come back to indicate,

075um, no existence of air quality issues in any of our buildings. So, in short, so well, that's fantastic news. Yes. Any other comments from members on this? I just want to say it's it's been a rough year in this in this area. So, this is very good news to hear this. Thank you, Dr. Daniel. We'll move on to item 6.3, our response to the proposed school division FY26 budget cut. Okay. Um, so I'll I'll start with um we're all in a very difficult um situation with um a shortfall in in funding both for the county and the school division. Um so we are um working with the county to find solutions um on our end to meet that shortfall. So, what I'm going to um lay out today is is a little bit of a

076review, but then also going through um what is available in terms of not aligned to state law per se or ways in which some are part of these suggestions or options may be used to meet that shortfall. So, it's not necessarily that everything I talk about tonight is going to be cut to meet that shortfall. Um, we are going to look at um we are going to attempt to meet the requirements um and cut with I guess like a razor blade as opposed to a butcher knife and hacking off things. Um so with that being said um we'll kind of highlight where we were in terms or or where what was proposed in terms of um funding funding sources. So this slide is a repeat from our um budgets budget process budget approval kind of

077highlights what the funding sources are. um kind of a review of um our expenditure budget that's all this is now available in board doc so that's a lot of numbers for me to um like kind of go over one by one and I don't think that's folks are particularly interested in that so as we what the school board requested basically the easiest way to talk about it is in new money so we requested because there's a maintenance merger as part of this that kind makes FY26 not necessarily aligned tightly with FY25. So while our overall request isn't significantly higher than FY25 in terms of the absolute number in new money, we did request about 1.13 million. So, where that amount of money came from was looking at a 5% pay increase for all staff, the

078health um the school division absorbing all of the increased costs for health insurance and also adding three new positions to our staff. Okay. So, that was um if we hadn't if we don't absorb any positions, it's 5% across the board for all those positions. Absorbing all the health insurance increases and then adding three positions um to our budget. That those things alone come to about 1.13 u million dollars in new money being requested by um by the school board. So, an easy way to to meet the budget request would be um pass on like no pay raise, pass on all the health insurance costs to employees, and don't um hire these three positions. That's not what our approach is going to be. Okay? I'm not um So, that's that's not what we are looking at

079doing. That's that's not a a proposed um solution. Um, again, a review slide from things we've talked about in the past. So, what's what our people costs are currently in FY25. So, of our approximately $18 million budget, um, $13.4 million is wrapped up in people, that's salary and benefits. So, that's just under 76% of our our total budget um is is people for FY25. Um, just looking at the benefits, so that's retirement benefits and health insurance. Um, that's that's about $3.6 million. So, of that 13.4, 3.6, 3.7, um, is is just benefits. Um, just as a review again, we've I've showed this a couple times, but where we are in terms of salary comparison um, with some of the school divisions within our within our competitive region. And I use competitive because typically what we

080end up having to do is competing for the same teachers or competing for existing teachers and trying to incentivize um, teachers from other divisions to come work come work for Matthews. And in um in comparison, we're also trying to defend other school divisions from taking our talented staff members and and going to work in those school divisions. Um so as we look at the at salary, we made great gains um last year in helping our staff um our staff compensation be competitive with our region. I argue that um the the experience in teaching in Matthews is extremely positive and and better than the experience in working um in some of our our neighboring school divisions. So that in and of itself, that quality of life, that quality of life from about 7:30 to 3:30 is

081much better when you're spending it in a Matthews school. Um again, so insurance cost comparison. So in many cases depending on what insurance plan and this is just looking at our lowest cost offering for health insurance versus our highest cost and versus high deductible health plan. Um so we're able to offer a centa and two different Anthem plans. Most places offer um three different versions of Anthem plans. So, we're the lone um school division in our in our um kind of neighborhood, if you will, um who participate in that in that Centa plan. And historically, that has been a very um coste effective plan for us to offer our employees. Uh and it but it and it's also in terms of benefits and coverage is pretty robust and and um um pretty helpful um for

082our employees our employees and their families. However, they went up significantly. All right. So, in terms of looking at at options, so what we've budgeted for is um if we do the 5% pay raise across the board, that is $565,980, give or take some some quarters and nickels and dollars and things, and depending on who comes back and what positions we fill. So, we can offer we can look at offering um no pay raise. We can look at offering all of that pay raise. We can try to one of the things we've been looking at is balancing um if we offer some amount of pay raise um to equate if we have to move some of the health insurance costs over to employees balancing the pay raise to balance to negate the increase in health

083insurance. So in effect being a net gain of zero um for our employees. Um, but the other thing we're looking at is so, and I I don't know if I mentioned this already, but are we do we look at different salary scales uh within our pay scale and provide um pay increases at different rates for different salary scales. So, we're exploring that. Historically, um, Matthews has not done that. It has been sort of if this is the pay increase for one, this is the pay increase for all. Um, however, we're in unique times and we're looking at at different ways to um kind of um cross a funding gap. So, those are the things we're kind of looking at numbers to try to figure out what that would be. Um so health insurance um either

084we absorb it all and that's $366,200 um that we take on as a school division that we would need to find um cuts for in in other places or we look at moving some of those costs on to employees. Um right now the the centara rate went much higher. That was about a 22% 21 and some change percent increase to our centa rate. Anthem did not go up as much. Um Anthem currently um costs more than Cintara. However, there's um I think Anthem typically is more widely accepted in the area. though I think a lot of our employees are able to find coverage, find medical care with Centa relatively easily. Um so we're looking at eliminating um extra period compensation. So one of the things that happened at the high school this year was when

085we moved eighth grade to the high school relatively late in the year um to get the master scheduled to work. Many of our um teachers at the high school were teaching extra periods. basically they gave up a planning period in order to teach an additional class um to make the master schedule work. So with enough time um to build a master schedule to adapt to everything, we'll be able to realize um some savings in that area. So we're projecting at least $20,000 in saving by um reducing u multiple extra period compensations. Um, we can look at reducing some staff contract lengths. So, we can look at some of our 11-month people moving them to 10 months contracts. Uh, looking at our 12 month some of our 12-month contracts and moving those to 11-month contracts. Um,

086but everything on this slide has to do with employee compensation. And so, in some way, there's an impact to what um employees um employee benefits employees will be taking home. Okay. So, the impact if all um health insurance gets passed to employees. So, the Centa plan um the current cost per month um for a single individual is is $68. Currently, the current cost per month um for an employee on the family plan is $679. If all the costs are passed on to employees, the impact of an employee on the Centa family plan would be an additional $5,760 in insurance costs for them for the year. Um, and so the additional increases are sort of are laid out there. Um if you're curious about why some of the costs go down, um as part of as

087being a part of the local choice, there is um a school division minimum uh minimum requirement. So, per plan. So, in order for us to meet the local choice requirement for the minimum payment, um the single um those single Anthem plans would go down slightly um for the for the pay period and the month and the year. Um but those are big numbers. I mean, that's that's a significant impact to um to teachers and families. Again, that's if all of it were to be passed on to employees. All right. So, looking at So, we just talked about compensation. So, looking at just staffing. So, um absorbing vacant positions. So if we look at what is currently vacant um from that we currently are in our budget those positions through various reasons um would be vacant

088that would be approximately $350,000. So that that would entail three teaching FTEES full-time equivalents. So, three teaching positions, um the math specialist position at the elementary school and two teacher assistant positions that are currently vacant, um that are in the budget but that are currently vacant. Um next is some support staff. So, we have um uh a nurse who is retiring. So absorbing that position and shifting some of their responsibilities around. We also have um a cafeteria position that will um also become um vacant. And so um we if by absorbing those two positions comes out to about $180,000. And then if we look at removing the requested positions in the budget that comes out to about $21,300. Um some other options include looking at eliminating um many of our part-time positions. So those positions

089are currently filled with people. So those would be part-time people who are employed by the division. Um looking at eliminating some of those part-time positions to save approximately $40,000. Um and then looking at some of our looking at looking to contract some services. So, I'm looking at contracting out our custodial services to save about $30 to $35,000 is the breakout for that. Um, and then substitute teachers contracting that out to a firm is about um is about another $20,000. So, and some looking at about $50,000 um in potential cost cutting measures savings um by um contracting out for custodial services and our substitute teachers. If we start venturing into programs, um what if we look at our non-special education regional programs um so looking at Chesig Bay Governor School, welding programs, nursing, NJOTC, looking at

090those programs, um there's about that's about $105,000 cost to the to the division. Um eliminating thrifty spots. We um for the last um couple years we've Thrifty Spot was originally supposed to be a self- sustaining program. It hasn't been that in a little bit. Um so currently the division is budgeting about $28,000 to subsidize um Thrifty Spot. Um when we look at athletics, we're looking at um any VHSL activity. So there are some things that are VHSL sponsored that aren't necessarily athletics, but what we would look So the sum total of what it costs to or the the rough estimate for what it costs to subsidize or have an athletics program um in Matthews County is about $60,000. That includes the inter mural basketball program. Um but it also includes other VHSL activities such as

091like speech forensics. We don't currently have a VHSL drama program, but that would fall under that that VH VHSL activity um rate. And there's also a registration fee that goes into VHSL activities. Miss O'Neal didn't mention it, but just the cost of officials alone to to um run home games is about $30,000 a year just for officials. So, um, again, not saying that that's that's, you know, the go-to thing, but that's part of what we need to look at. Um, Meals on Wheels, Meals on Wheels, while it doesn't um it it's not kind of something that impacts our students, Meals on Wheels runs through the school division budget. Um, so we get funding from Bay Aging, but the the ladies who do a terrific um service to the community through Meals on Wheels um kind

092of are doing that in our in our kitchens. Um there's a shared sort of line item and process. Um but there's there's an estimated savings of about $15,000 if we eliminate um Meals on Wheels. So other other budget cutting items um currently it says cut light items across the board. Um what we're doing is we're in the process right now of actually you know somebody mentioned earlier about sitting down with members of the board of supervisors. Um we did that at 2 o'clock today. We'll have continue to have meetings and um hearing suggestions and looking through line items for where we can find savings. also looking at um are we do we have accurate projections of our revenue sources and making sure that we're not cutting our revenue projection short um and really having accurate

093projections of what our expenditures during this year are going to be. And so as we go through those individual line items, you know, we may be in a little bit better shape. So that that $200,000 may be um a little bit larger, it may be a little bit less, but we're going to continue to comb through um every every line item. And so that includes looking at um where we have leases with for individual, you know, equipment um subscription costs. Um today we were going through it and kind of looked at our internet costs and so we just rebid our our internet services through. So, we'll have we'll experience some cost savings um from our internet service provider changing. Um so, that's been have kind of a running tally of if we do this, this

094is what the savings will be. And so, we're we're trying to find our find our way to get to that magic number. Um so, we're looking at current leases and current subscriptions. Um and the last thing on that list is beginning to beginning planning for a two school division. So setting the goal for fall of 2026 um operating the school division as two schools, a K7 school and an 812 school um and spending the next school year working through the daytoday minutia details of what that what that looks like. Um how do we operate out of out of one office? What are the impacts? We've con over the last at least since I've been here so this is my second budget cycle I mean we've continued to um and even before I got here op

095have been working towards that move kind of um position by position so this year we're operating with one librarian we're operating with one registar in this campus we've we've attempted one principal to to various um various success so Um, so we'll need to if when we get to the opening of of 2026 and operating one um out of one office, that potential is is maybe around just over $200,000 in terms of in terms of potential savings. Um, but again, we're we're always going to look to absorb positions rather than have to have have to riff folks. Um, so the current focus for budget cuts, again, we've we talk about it. We have um a segment in every board meeting talking about and prioritizing student achievement. Um, it was our priority when establishing our strategic plan.

096So, I think as we kind of comb through and look at um how do we shave expenses from our budget, can we do it in a way that does not impact student achievement? I would I would add to that the second piece is preventing dramatic impacts to our climate and culture. So, climate and culture is going to be a driving factor for enrollment and not just um defending or preventing a declining enrollment, but looking for ways to again increase um our enrollment. And then I think we've got to really um spend the next um several months with a commitment to what is a two school school division look like? How does this campus operate? Um what in terms of layout of the building, student movement throughout the building? Um what does that look like and

097how does that operate and how do we adjust staff responsibilities when that happens? So the goal is going to be we're going to continue to absorb vacant positions where possible. Um um significant is to lessen the impact of the increased health insurance costs. So whether that's how does that balance in terms of payraises and um absorb being able to absorb the health insurance costs and then looking at what programs are there programs or subscriptions other things that we can eliminate without impacting enrollment and without impacting student achievement. Okay, questions from board members, this is Hudges. Yes, okay. I wasn't sure. Okay, thank you. Sorry about that. Sorry for that. Uh we will proceed with comments from the board and questions to Dr. Daniel. Thank you for your presentation, members. Well, I'll kick it off. Um

098first of all, thank you for this information. Um we kind of knew it was there were no good choices here. There are no good choices here. Um just uh to put things in some perspective right now with information that we've received from the board of supervisors, we're looking at a $1.1 million decrease in local funding for our budget. Um I I first want to thank each of you. Um so many of you have spoke very eloquently tonight. Um and uh and spoke to many of the issues that we're struggling with on this board. Um, Dr. Sherki, and I hope I've pronounced your name correct. Um, I I really appreciate your remark about strong schools produce strong economic communities. I think I got that quote right, and I firmly believe that, and that's why I run

099for the school division because our future citizens are our economy in the down the road. And um, and and I I I feel absolutely powerful, strongly about that. Um, you know, with this potential $1.1 million decrease, we know um the budget adjustments will impact our teachers. I'm I'm repeating what um was said tonight and Dr. Daniel said. And most importantly, our students um our sports programs and our academics. My perspective is our students deserve better and our teachers deserve better. Um, last year we made significant strides working collaboratively with the board of supervisors in teacher salaries and many of the programs mentioned here tonight. Consumer science, we've resurrected that sports, you spoke much more eloquently than I could about the the spirit, the school spirit, the activity level. I had not heard the number about

100199 students participating in it. I don't know if that includes um forensics or not. It's a VHSL sport. Um but that is for student many students who don't like to compete in teams. It's a great sport for them and the thought of losing that um hurts my heart because my daughter participated in that and went to states through that. Um uh it it teacher stability. One of the teachers wrote to me um and I hadn't thought about this, but we all want stability amongst our teachers. We don't want new teachers every year for our children. I don't have any children in the school division. Um but our children deserve stability. We don't need one year teachers stay because our salaries are increased, the next year because we don't they leave. Understandably, they leave. They may

101come back. That is not contributing to a stable school division. Another strength we have, it looks like we're going to bring back robotics after it being gone. Um, over the last year, we've the school board worked on a worked very diligently with many community members developing a strategic plan and our budget that we submitted is based on the goals and objectives of that strategic plan um with priority being student achievement. Very few of the choices that we have in front of us to me are palatable. The outplacing of students, ROC, our welding program, Governor's School, let me speak to ROC and welding. What I've heard from so many people in these meetings and in other meetings, we need to strengthen our CTE program. Both of those programs strengthen our CTE program. Ches Bay Governor's School

102is where our high achieving students attend and they deserve that opportunity. It challenges them and I think again Dr. Shy spoke to that on behalf of many parents. Um I'm not sure he said governor school but those those that's what I assumed he was referencing. We know math has been a longstanding problem in our division. As long as I've been on this board, we have not done well with our math scores. Maybe for one year, but we regressed the next. So, considering losing a math specialist, um losing that, um to me, it makes no common sense that we we know where the weakness weak areas are. We know we have a strategic plan. We have a focus on math, not just math, but certainly math. But yet, we can't afford to move forward with a

103math specialist. A nurse, one nurse for two schools. That in itself is a challenge. Certainly, the way our schools are set up, I don't know if any of you have been in a nurs's office at the schools, but they are constantly busy. So to have one school for two nurses without supports for that nurse, I worry, I'm concerned something is going to go south with this child in one school when the nurse is in the other school. Um continue not having a support for a librarian who's being shared between an elementary and middle school. We want children to read on grade level, but we don't have the capacity to provide what they need in the library to access books. Um, I'm going to reference what I said to some of the board members the other

104day, and I apologize to those who are here for repeating myself, but in ' 09 and 10, we lost, and I think someone here quoted, do you say 19 people 18 people. Thank you for that. I didn't realize it was that many. For three years, people did not get an increase in pay. Three consecutive years. Since then, some years we made some uh some improvements with substantial pay increases for our teachers, but then it lagged behind. Made a little bit increase, lagged behind. Some years they might get an increase, but the cost of their insurance left them with less money being taken home. First, this is a year that we thought we could avoid that. We thought, yes, we will pay for the insurance increase and they'll get an increase in pay. And I thought,

105yes, finally, we're able to do this. teachers time and again over these last 16 years have borne the brunt of decreased funding to our school division and and and um and for too many years it's the cost of health insurance as I just said they've taken home less than the previous year um I firmly believe that with these potential cuts that rather than bringing in more students we will lose students and I think Amy me. I appreciate your comments because I had not thought that far in that specific area about sports. We've already kind of um sidestepped that with some of our students going to a private school in Middle Sex and not plenty of sports here. I think we've gotten some of those students back. I'm not sure, but I believe they will go

106to Christ Church School. Um they will be there on a scholarship. Um and and to speak about this is is 16 years. Let me take that back. It's certainly the last two years and the hopes that we had for this division. It's just taking um an axe to our um our academics and axe to our um our sports. and uh you know I don't want to see any of it but certainly we're going to have to make some very difficult decisions as a board moving forward. Thank you for the time. Thank you Mrs. Hodes. Miss Digs. Um I want to thank everybody who's here tonight. I know you're all here because you love Matthews and you love the schools and you're trying to do the best you can. Um, I was having a hard time

107doing the beginning of the meeting tonight because I see your hearts out there and I love Matthews County a great deal. I don't want to see any of these cuts coming because we are trying so hard to do the best for the teachers and the students here. And this th this was not a meeting I I wanted to be at tonight, but I I am and I am I'm still positive about Matthews County and the schools and I will continue to be because there have to be solutions. I recall very clearly when Matthews County was in a different position and people were paying to come here. They they wanted to be in Matthews. We have a lot on our plates and we have a lot that we need to do here. But you people are

108the ones that are here tonight and that are supporting us. And I'm sure there are many more watching. But as Michelle Williams said uh a little bit earlier, you talked about program building and we have done that as as um my colleague just said here and the athletics, the football coming back is fabulous, but I can't imagine that how much money you raised this year with no help from us. I apologize for that. But I see the character building because I taught health and fitness for 27 years and I see how it can build character. I saw it at the elementary school when I subbed over there long term. I saw it in my career and I see it beyond that because when we have the opportunity to go to governor's school or do things

109outside of the school system, we get a different world view. it becomes larger, not smaller. It doesn't matter what the job is. When I left Matthews or Gloucester to go into missions, um I came back, I went for one year and I came back 12 years later and I was a different person because of the experiences I had, the people I met, the countries I was in. And we owe this to our children. We owe it to them. we can become better. And each one of you, you people that we know and love on our custodial staff, on our athletics, in the classroom, we know what you need. You people in the secretarial areas, we know that and we want we stand with you and I feel positive that we can reach further than we

110are tonight. Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you, Miss Diggs, Mr. Morgan. Thank you all for coming. It's great to see this room almost full. Really thank you for being here. Um there's not a lot that I can say that hasn't already been said here this evening or comments from our board members. Um but I want to say a couple of things about CTE. It's kind of special to me. I was a CTE teacher for a few years. Um, I'd love to see at least one more CTE class added. Um, it's going to require a teacher. Doesn't look like the money is going to be available right now. Um, one thing we do need in CTE is a um, economics personal finance teacher. I think that's a necessity and not a luxury.

111Another thing I want to talk about just briefly is um the ROC and the welding program that we partner with Gloucester I believe on ROC and Rapahana Community College for welding. Uh they're very very valuable to our students. Very valuable. Uh I would really really really hate to see that cut. Uh, I'd hate to see any of these cuts. I really would. I think it's going to be tough. Um, going to be some positions eliminated, some some positions absorbed, and it's just not going to be fun. Um, however, given the current budget situation, I I don't see how we're going to avoid some of these cuts. Hopefully, we won't have to make all of them, but I think some of them are pretty much certain, guaranteed. Uh there's been talk this evening of contracting out

112some services. Um I understand the the reasoning behind it, but I will say publicly that I do not support contracting these services. And um I just don't think it's a good idea. And I'll leave it at that. Um thank you folks for showing up. Thank you for listening to me and hopefully we can get through this thing and we'll have a tough year probably, but let's work towards making next year better. Thank you, Mr. D. Want to thank you all for coming tonight. I'm glad to see everybody here. I wish more people would come and try and understand what's going on. It's hard to cut anything. What one student does versus another student does is completely different. You'll have a a a a boy that can run down the field faster than anybody. You'll have

113a kid in a carpenters shop that can build anything. All your associated clubs and classes. Child learn something from all of it. People usually draw to those classes for subjects they like. And nobody wants to see any of them cut. Believe me, everybody learns different and learns things that they'll carry the rest of their lives. And I would not want to interrupt that from anybody. Like he talked about Roxy, there's two two children in that program right now that plan on going on to the military and they need to finish up that program. Not finishing that program would hurt them if they went in the military. They wouldn't advise at a higher rank than what they would be if they if they had not attended the the final years. I don't know what we're going

114to do. We have two choices. We either cut or raise taxes in the county. That's the choices we're facing. Some people going to not like it one way versus the other. I know what we decide up here some people are going to like and some people aren't. I mean, I'm being faced with things I don't want to even touch. But we're going to have to do something with it. Um I don't I at this point I don't I I I've looked at the budget the last week. I've been home and I've done one right after the other looking at where to save money. Bottom line is there's $14 million worth of salary and that includes the benefit package approximately and that leaves $4 million for the rest of the school. $4 million for the rest

115of the school after you pay salaries and the fringe benefits. Okay, $4 million. That ain't a lot. Transportation takes a million of that up. The cafeteria takes about 800,000 of that up. Now you're down to 2.2. Don't know where you're going to cut, but that's the choices we have. So, we gave a nice pay raise last year. I'm glad that went through. I asked for a percent more because I figured something like this would happen in the future. So, we could have got a little bit more. But, uh, like to hear from from y'all, see what your consensus are. I've heard some good stuff here tonight and and I understand where people are coming from. I'm just glad my children are out of the school. Won't affect them, but these these decisions here are going

116to affect your children that you do have in here. and let's hear from you. Well, there's hardly a thing left to left to say, but I will say this. I think as a county we're at a turning point with how we view schools in general and do we want to have viable vibrant schools in our county or as I said in another meeting recently, do we just want to have schools? This county is special. The people here are special. The 200 employees who work in our school division run this division so well and we are making strides. We are turning this ship around with Dr. Daniel and a strong board supporting student achievement and those teachers who make it happen. I would say that our two boards need to continue to work together. I will

117not continue. I will not accept this as what we must face. I do not accept it. We must continue. We must continue to work and try harder. The comments that were made at the podium tonight were stellar. I know there are people watching tonight who are we're cheering those people on. We owe it to our students. We owe it to our community. We owe it to ourselves to do better, to work harder to close this gap because this reduction is not palatable for our county. So, I'm confident that we will improve the situation. This board will do its best to be persuasive and convincing to work with the board of supervisors, to work with the county citizens who have to face the impact of the increase to convince them that the schools are worth it.

118And thank you all for coming out tonight and the comments that you've made. We appreciate you very much. and I can feel the passion in this room and that is wonderful. Thank you. We'll we'll continue on if there aren't any more comments. All right. Um 6.4 information for school board. Thank you. Um so um in that packet is is a letter from the VSBA um acknowledging our wonderful Richardson's Cafe and um all the again. So you get you tell everybody all the time to like push the button and then you like forget to push the button yourself. So I'll start again. Um, so within within that section is a wonderful letter from the VSBA recognizing Richardson's and their contributions to Matthews County Public Schools um just as um just as a as a tremendous um

119asset to our um school division. Yes. Um great. there. Also related to that is then um I guess the invitation for Richardson's to come be recognized as part of the VSBA honor role. Um you have board members, you have the um Thomas Hunter school-based financial report, the high school school-based financial report as well as the elementary financial report. Um you have um list of I believe that is field trips. Um so for the gifted program um specific field trips for that program and also is the March FY25 expenditure report. So that is a list of our um category areas expenditures to date for your review. So at this time that report indicates that we are under budget right now. Um so we're balancing that with some of our projections. Um, Miss Laauo is, like I

120said earlier, is is going to be running some more numbers and looking at our projections to gauge um the accuracy and making sure that we're we're on on pace to um come in easily under budget and then to begin kind of our examination of line items to see what we can reduce or um eliminate to reduce that the the gulf in funding. So thank you Dr. Daniel. You're welcome. We'll move on board to item 7 7.1 the policy committee discussion. Um again, we are we are seeking to um assign standing committee for policy uh a policy committee and that'll be a first for the county and uh we do have we do indeed have some work to do in this area. Uh Mrs. Hodgees and I have approached the policy manual and we're still we're

121continuing to work on that uh to find out um review dates that are that are out of compliance that need to be um that need to be in compliance. And so before we assign uh standing committee members and I believe Mr. Dobson and Mr. Morgan uh that you had expressed interest at uh a work session about being on that committee. We're going to continue to do a little bit of more prep work on that and then get get to the business of uh compliance with the the policy manual. And then for your information, there are hundreds of policies hundreds of policies that um are to be reviewed at a minimum of at five years. some more um one year, two year and three years. U Mrs. Haj, do you have any comments on that? In

122addition, no. No. Okay. Any any comments or discussion from the board on on this item? It's an important item. It is the responsibility of the school board and we are going to be getting up to snuff on that one as ASAP. Item 7.2, to there is u a textbook public review um information notice that was from April 7th to May 7th. We do have uh textbook and instructional materials available for public review in science for grades uh 3 through five, nutrition and wellness, uh hospitality and tourism. So, please refer to the website for instructions on how to um perform a review. And this is open to the public. And I of course encourage all board members to review the textbooks uh that are up for adoption and that'll run through May 7th. Item 7.3, schoolboard

123conferences and webinars. Please note any trainings that you may have uh that are coming due and everything that's available to you. In addition to everything that's noted from VSBA, of course, we have other entities that provide training for the school board. And item 7.4, uh, Matthews County Board of Supervisors meetings are held on the third Thursday at 6 PM. In fact, there is one this Thursday uh in this very room with the public hearing for the budget, I believe, being held prior to the meeting. That hearing will begin at 6 pm. And it looks like we are all signed up as far as representing the school board. Uh there's been a new date, the May 1st, which is the adoption of the proposed FY26 county budget and tax rates uh at 6 p.m. at the

124historic C courthouse. That was not assigned. Um, and I will take that. Mrs. Morgan, item eight, action items. Item 8.1, we're looking for a motion for the approval of the CTE local plan for 2526. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the career and technical education local plan for 2025 2026 as listed. Do we have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Item 8.2. I'm looking for the approval of a 2025 2026 special education annual plan. I make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 special education annual plan as listed. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Eight. Item 8.3, looking for the adoption of

125resolution requesting Matthews County Board of Supervisors to grant permission to transfer funds among categories in the 2025 2026 school budget. I make a motion to adopt the resolution as written. Do you request that that's read the resolution? Yes. Yes. Let's go ahead and read that resolution and then uh we'll second Whereas certain expenditures beyond the control of the Matthews County School Board and the administration will exceed the amount budgeted. And whereas in order to maintain positive balances in some categories of the 2024 2025 school budget is required by the code of Virginia and the annual appropriation method used by Matthews County Board of Supervisors. And whereas it can be reasonably predicted that certain categories will need funds to maintain a positive balance before the end of this fiscal year. Therefore, be it resolved that the

126Matthews County School Board request the Matthews County Board of Supervisors grant permission to transfer funds when necessary from categories in the 2024 school budget in order to maintain a positive balance in each category. Signed by the chair. Thank you. We have a second, Mr. Morgan. Yes. Yes. Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, board. Item nine, citizens comments on the items discussed during our meeting. Hello, my name is Tom Bowen. 425 Waterview Avenue, member of Matthews County Board of Supervisors. I speak for myself only tonight. I am a strong supporter of the public schools. My mother and wife were both teachers. I am in favor of a tax increase, but we have to we I think there's a lot we have to do at the school

127system from a management standpoint. You've already talked about one tonight and that's the consolidation of the schools and I'm in favor of the school of the supervisors paying for that study the 30 to $35,000 that has come has been mentioned for the uh professionals to to look at that consolidation plan. But when we talk about the school system, I think from a supervisor, I would like to see some parity between the school employees and the county employees. I have a hard time supporting the school budget without that parity. I'm in favor of a 5% pay raise for the teachers. I am not in favor of 5% pay raise for everyone else. The county is getting a 3% pay raise. That's what the state has recommended. That's what the constitutional officers are getting. So, I want

128the two boards to get together or at least the leadership of the two boards and to sharpen their pencils and work on this still. Um, I want to see some parity in the health insurance and county employees pay a portion of their health insurance. It's my understanding a much larger proportion than the school employees. There has to be some parity. The county employees only have an Anthem plan. They don't have the Centa plan, which apparently is much more expensive, the difference between $1,700 and $5,700. If I remember the slide correctly, that if you pass a 100% of the cost on to the the uh staff, what they would pay, that's a tremendous difference. So, I encourage you to think outside the box. When you talk about one of the big assets we have in Matthews

129County is small classroom sizes. That's one of the things that has attracted people in the past. Just recently, you all increased your tuition for out of state, out of county students because you were at the low level to begin with. But look at that. Would it be feasible to eliminate or even reduce that tuition if that encourage more students to come? Would the money you get from the state be be helpful? Help cover that cost? If I understand correctly, you get about $5,500 from the state per student. If that's correct, then every 38 students you lose, that's one cent on the real estate taxes. 1 cent increase on the real estate taxes for every 38 students. Think about that. That's unsustainable in the long run. That's where we are now. That's what I need you

130all to think about is what is the long-term answer and approach here? And we have to find the answer. I want to have exactly what you said, Dr. Gibbs, a strong school system with high achievement. That's our number one goal. That's our number one obligation to our students. I want to have a strong athletic program. I want to see us to have a track field. We're the only school in our district without a track field. I want us to see that. That's a huge expense. And the thing we're thinking about looking at now with the school consolidation plan and these other plans, we're going to talk about in the next year, not this year, but in the next year, we're going to be talking about capital improvements and 30-year bonds and how much money in

131extra taxes is it going to cost to fund the 10 to 15 million dollar that we're talking about that you all are talking out we all right so we need to to work together further and I look forward to doing that in the next days Mike Walls Hudins Virginia. I made some notes here. A lot of stuff my colleague, Mr. Bowen, already mentioned. It disappoints me to see half of the crowd get up and walk out. I sure hope they're going to be there Thursday night to hear what I'm about to tell the people who remained because this is where the rubber meets the road. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak. I agree with Miss Gibbs. We have created a really good working relationship over the last three years. We're between a

132rock and a hard place. I don't want to raise taxes either, but looks to me like we're probably not going to have a choice. Last year, I was a strong advocate for the 6% raise for the teachers. I'm an advocate this year for the 5% raise for them. I think they deserve that. I think we still have to be competitive, but this these are the facts. We started this budget season either four or five workshops ago at a $3.8 million deficit in this county. That's an 18 cent real estate tax increase for every 1 cent that we raise real estate taxes. And unfortunately, that's the way we get our operating capital around here. I wish it wasn't, but we're at the end of the road. That's the way it is. For every 1 cent that

133we increase our real estate taxes, that's a $210,600 increase to our budget. And you guys are right. Your budget was cut by a million dollars. That's 5 cent. When somebody else earlier mentioned raise our taxes, I hear you. I hear you loud and clear. What I would suggest to everyone that was in this room, and God I hope they're at home listening, 48 hours from right now, we're going to be right back here in this building, right here in this room, and we're going to be having a public hearing, seven of them to be exact, but one of them is on this year's budget and tax taxes. I sure hope the folks that were talking about raise my taxes are back here again because I can pretty much assure you those people who don't want

134their taxes raised, they're going to be standing at the podium. We and my myself and my colleagues, we have cut entities this year that this is my fourth budget season that's never been cut before. I don't want to cut the budget for the schools. I really don't. But I do know this enrollment enrollment's going down and the budget's going up. It's not sustainable. Mr. Walter, time is up. March 21st, we received One second, please. March 21st at our budget workshop. This is what we received from Dr. Daniels. If you need to cut the budget, where you going to cut it? Number one's people. Number two is salaries. Number three is programs. Please sharpen your pencil and do better than that. We've had to sharpen our pencil. I would strongly encourage you to find the $566,000

135that you need to give these teachers their 5% pay increase. Thank you, Doc. Dr. Gibbs. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walls. Good evening, board. Um, Dave Jones, 10344 Buckley Hall Road. I'll also be here Thursday night. We have a long agenda, so I'm gonna get to to my numbers real quick. Number one, um, and I've spoke to Dr. Daniel about this. I've spoke to our board about this on how the numbers line up. Um, as you scroll through the slides there, they kind of went quick and some of the some of the people here might not get have gotten to seen the figures, but typically the state is giving you $5.9 million this year, okay, to fund the schools. All right, we have the local composite index is at 60. So that means by their

136calculation and trust me I had an hourlong talk with the people up at the board of education to make sure that this was correct their funding what they proposed that your budget should be at 40%. Which is 5.9 million. Okay. So by their calculation before the federal government kicks in anything and I know the federal government government doesn't give a lot. It's 14,250,000. So the 60% that we have to kick in is $ 8.5 million. That's where they say that your budget should be. This is by their numbers. Okay? Now, we can take these numbers and we can kick these numbers around any way you want. and our uh meeting earlier. A lot of this stuff is coming from the from the healthc care 21%. That's a pretty steep increase. I understand that. The biggest

137problem is is as I looked at the cuts, what disturbed me the most is you went right to the bottom to the custodial people. You're not going to save anything by putting those people up. Okay? And I mean to be honest with you, that's a pretty low way to look at things. I think maybe you know you take a look at your administration and see how that plays out and take a look at some of those instead of cutting the people that are boots on the ground that are doing the work keeping the classrooms done. So in my opinion that would be one that I wouldn't even suggest. But getting into these numbers about 600,000 from the federal government and then you have the thrifty spot and things like that that are netting you money.

138I'm going to go back and ask you to take a hard look at your current budget. So when people say that we're cutting your budget, when you say the board of supervisors cutting your bud, we're working on a current budget right now. You put forth a proposed budget. We have not ratified a budget yet. So there's no cut to that budget yet. Okay? We're dealing you're in the budget. Nobody's cut your budget this year. But that's the play on words. And that's what makes this very hard to work with. Okay? Transparency is key. You've given us you've ratified what your budget needs to look like. Understand that. Okay? We have to look at the whole county school system, the other people that are here. We're working really hard. We really are to try to keep

139the taxes low and keep some continuity. But to come out and say cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. That's not a cut. We haven't cut anything. I'd be interested to know though um how much money and I'm working on this to see what we're going to get from the state for you. Okay. and state be sending down for the lack of enrollment because there is some money coming down or should be they can sign it bill. Okay. Every dollar that we can find in a quarter, I'm here to help you. But the pencil's got to be sharpened. It does. And we got to look at every penny and how it goes. But going down to cut the cut your custodians. I mean that just you know and then fear the fear in your cuts in your presentation

140tonight. I would have really gone back and sharpened my pencil and really looked at that before I laid it out to make sure that I was absolutely accurate. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Richard Hicks, North Virginia. Want to save some money? Why are we freezing in here with the AC on? Thank you, Mr. Hicks. Good evening, board. Tim Doss, Port Haywood, chair of the board of supervisors. Um, I wasn't going to talk tonight. I really wasn't. But this everything that I heard from this meeting tonight led me to believe that um this is being perceived as a board of supervisors result. So, I don't understand a couple of things and I'm just going to throw this out there because I don't understand why the cuts are there. So this year you had 9.7 million

141from the locality, from us, from the Matthews County. You told us that you were not going to put in your budget $958,000 for maintenance. When if you look at the two positions for maintenance at 165,000, the electricity at 378,000, the fuel oil at 169,000, the propane at 9,000, and the service contracts for 464,000 that the county is going to start paying all of those. That totals 1.1,185,000. So, when I take the 9.7 that we're giving you this year and I subtract the $1,185,000, that leaves me with $8,65,000. I add back in $435,000 because you were anticipating a 75 student reduction in attendance. So 75 time 5800 gives me $435,000. So I'm now at $9,ion40,000. So then I add in $339,000 for a 3% raise for the staff. That takes me to 9.379. Then I split

142the 366,000 health insurance that's what's we're being told is the increase. I split that in half and that's at 183,000. I figure that we don't want to do it, but we're doing it with the if they have to pay half, it's better than having to pay all of it. So that takes us to 9,562,881. So right now, we're anticipating approving, and we haven't approved it yet, but we're anticipating 9,148,000. So that leaves us a deficit, the school board, a deficit of $414,881. In your proposed budget, you have a proposed three positions for $21,344. Now, we've been told in our joint meetings that you have four or five positions that you haven't been able to fill all year. So, if you don't fill those three positions and you utilize some of that other vacancies, now we're

143at 213, $537,000 deficit. And if you take the $220,000 that you said you're going to gain from going to two schools, we're about $7,000 to the good. And we haven't had to cut athletics and we haven't had to cut a teacher. So I don't understand. I have asked and asked and asked and the numbers don't add up. I was not going to do this tonight because I we have tried very very hard to work and build a good relationship with every one of the school board members. But I'm not going to sit here and take the blunt of this. We are a team. We want to work as a team. The five of us on the board of supervisors want nothing more than to have the best education for our students and have the best

144relationship with this school board. But we are not the reason that you're proposing these cuts. Thank you, Mr. Doss. Thank you. Good evening, Sharon Fryport Hwood. What I can't understand is our student population is down and the budget has gone up. I want you to know I love teachers. They taught me everything I know. Didn't have a mother. My dad couldn't read or write. So, I owe my uh career to the teachers. I I want to um ask about the 1 million for clerks and support. It was on the first screen. It never came back again. I thought that was kind of high. Um I I also uh support the teachers raise at 5%. But the taxpayers are going to get an 18% increase in their real estate taxes. That's what I hear. And I

145want you all to be aware that there are older citizens in the county on just uh fixed income. A couple of my friends make $900 a month and y'all are going to increase our taxes 18%. Really? Also, I disagree with change in teachers. We change teachers every single year. If you're a military family, you change teachers every three years. I don't understand why we have to have very very topofthe- line teachers from another coming in because they're experienced. I have a niece and nephew in South Carolina who are brand new teachers and let me tell you they're Johnny on the spot and they can outperform some of the older teachers in the school. I as a nurse when I came in right out of school I could outperform the older nurses. So I worked during

146the Carter years and there were years that I didn't get a raise. I didn't get a raise. I also worked down at the convolescent center as an RN for six years. I could have gone to Gloucester. I could have gone to uh Newport News or wherever for a better salary, a better job. But this job was five minutes from my home. I saved on gas. I saved on time. And I am a nurse. I am dedicated. And I did a dagon good job even though it was a hard job. So the teachers that live in this county, it is a benefit to work here. Now, I I know it's a hard job, but I also want you to think about the people on fixed incomes. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Fry. Good evening. My name is

147Robert Lee Riddle. I live 468 Weston Hall Road. I'm also on the planning commission, but I'm here to represent myself. Um, I thank you all for your hard work. Uh, it's a tough job. I'm I'm a modestly successful retired businessman and I know how budgets are and uh it's a struggle every year as perhaps it should be because of your responsibility. But I have a request and a suggestion that might reveal some hidden costs and expenses that need to be further analyzed. I appreciate the spreadsheet that you did on the four different counties when it came to the health care and you broke it down, but I don't I'd like to see a spreadsheet. Being a businessman, I live by spreadsheets, but I'd like to see a comparable analysis of each line item from each

148county school district. And take that out to cost per student. And if you see one or two item line items that's exorbitantly high, there may be hidden issues or problems in there that need to be identified and possibly removed. Um, I once was at a school board meeting. I guess uh we had 30 successful business owners and all the department heads from the schools there and we had this amazing roundt discussion and you know we need more computers, we need more this, we need more that. when they got to the end of it, I said, "You know, I used to be married to a special ed teacher, had her doctorate degree in special ed, and everybody here wants something, but I haven't heard anything from the person that job is to cut things, to look

149for the waste." And probably the best place to find that waste would be to consult and talk with the teachers very confidentially, but look for those hidden expenses that not don't need to be done. I remember my wife said she had a certain budget and if she didn't spend it all that year, she got less the following year. So, there was this fury of excitement to try to spend that money before the the time ran out. But just a couple suggestions from a again a modestly successful businessman. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Randall Dobson, 1085 Rome Point Drive, Cobs Creek. like to thank everybody up here for everything you're doing. Like to thank the board. Um I was born and raised in Baltimore. So I was a city kid. Didn't do well in school. I

150was behavior problem Dr. Daniels. They bored me. I misbehaved. Ended up quitting school at 16. Been pretty successful with my life. Maybe I was just lucky. Maybe I was naturally smart. I don't know. Been a resident of Matthews County now for 40 years. And one thing I know in the 40 years I've been here, Matthews County is and always going to be a taxpor county. You don't go through Matthews to go anywhere. Amazon's not coming to build a distribution plant. There's not great jobs. Young people ain't coming to move here with their kids. It's too far to go make good money at Newport News or Richmond. So, it's a retirement community and it's always a strain. Mr. Mr. Walls is right. None of us want to see our taxes go up. It's a fact of

151life. You know, we have to pay our own way. The state's not doing it. Federal government's not doing it. No big business is going to come in and do it for us. So, yes, there's probably going to be a tax increase. Yes, the county expects you to do the best job you can for them by their money, as I do. I love it here. If it takes a little tax increase, I mean a little, not a lot. Okay? If that makes the difference, so be it. I can afford it. But there's, you know, like I say, you got a tough job. But the big thing is that I feel everybody's not on the same page knowing what's going on. The the board of supervisors will tell you they're paying for things they didn't have to

152pay for 40 years ago. 40 years ago, the fire department and rescue squad was all volunteer. All the money came from our pockets, not tax dollars. They're doing the best they can. I thank everybody for what they're done. And I hope we can all go forward and have the smartest kids around. And oh, by the way, we're not Middle Sex, we're not Gloucester, and we're not West Point. Let's quit comparing ourselves to them because we're not them. Have a good evening. Thanks. Thanks, Mr. Dobson. Good evening. Leanne Bray, 43 Waiting Creek Road, Dutton, Virginia. I just want to say I think it's incredibly hard to sit for everybody here and listen to proposed budget cuts. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to hear about it. Everybody feels some kind of way and we

153all have different perspectives. But I think that we could all agree that our love for children is what drives us, right? And so I hear the passion in the voices of everyone that spoke um wherever they stood on the on the matter, there was a lot of passion. I see the stress in your faces and I appreciate you and I feel for you guys. Um I want to say that on spring break, I took a trip. I visited Freedom Trail Elementary School in Avery, North Carolina, and they were devastated by Hurricane Helen. Tragic loss. They were currently living in RVs, and they're I mean, it's just a disaster. I was shocked from that storm in September how much damage they're still suffering. And as I exited the school, right on the wall, there was a

154little thing painted and I I want to read it to you. It says, "Along these halls," and so I'm stealing this from them and I'm now speaking about our halls in all of our schools, okay? But I'm giving them credit. Along these halls, you will pass some of the greatest kids you will ever know, our students, teach them, encourage them, help them, but at the end of the day, make them feel loved, for they are our greatest blessings. And I've heard that echoed throughout the night. You know, the kids are our future. we need to pour into them. And so there is great challenge ahead of us. But I have um lived here my whole entire life. I graduated from Matthews High School. I taught at Lee Jackson Elementary School for 19 years. I was

155gifted coordinator for the division. I was assistant principal at the high school. I am now principal at the elementary school. I believe in this system. I love the people that work here. They are amazing. I love our students. I believe in our board. And so I want to just leave you with this thought. My um girls, I have two girls. And so this is something we talk about all the time in my house. When we're faced with something challenging, we say we don't have problems, we solve them. And so I just want to encourage you because you have a tough job. And thank you for what you do. Thank you, Mrs. Bray. [Applause] Good evening. Marie Walls, Port Haywood of Virginia. We're clearly at a precipice. This is the first school board meeting where I've

156actually seen every board of supervisor member here tonight. The one thing that we've heard is everybody loves Matthews County, but I sit here as a county employee and for my child, I pay $500 a month for his insurance just for him. I have employees in my office that we don't get a pay raise. It's a 3% cost of living and their insurance this year will be more than 3% and they're supporting their children on that. I don't go to the board of supervisors and ask for raises for them because it's not something that they can pay for this year. So, we're all at a precipice and I know my budget items have lost. They've went down and we're going to absorb that because we have to do it. Mr. Doss has expressed numbers. The county

157gives money to the school board and you have to divvy up that money. But as a parent, one of the decisions I made when I came to Matthews was private or public school. And what drove me to Matthews County was I heard wonderful things about the teachers and these teachers are wonderful. But I was driven here for the governor's program and I have a child in the gifted program. He's benefited from Miss Richardson from here. He's benefited when he was in Miss Williams class. He's benefited from Dr. Olsen and Miss Burroughs, but we're here for the governor's school when he gets to high school. He's in middle school and he's busted the high school um for certain blocks. But if he's not given the quality of school, then we have to look elsewhere. I know

158you said, Mr. Dodson, you don't have children in this school, but my most important job on this earth is to give him the tools to succeed. And unfortunately, there are times that he's bored in school and it's not the teacher's fault. It's because there's a lot of students in class and there's a lot of things for those teachers to do. So, I implore for each of you, and I see other gifted parents here, that letter that you've received was put together within eight hours. We have to take care of those students, too. I come to just about every schoolboard meeting and we talk about the numbers falling. These students help your numbers. We help the school. Athletics is absolutely important and we do fundraising for that. The band is great. We do fundraising for that.

159And he participates in those activities. But his education is central. When you look at education, and there was a quote that I pulled as I sat here, and it says, and it's a French philosopher, gifted education is not about meeting the needs of gifted children, but about tapping into their extraordinary potential to shape a better future for all. I would say for all of Matthews, we at a precipice. The board of supervisors wants to work with you. The community wants to work with you. I'm prepared to pay extra taxes for you, but we've got to spend that money wisely because we want our children to succeed so that we are better, that you are better, but that this community thrives. Just sports has to thrive, these teachers have to thrive, and we have to support

160them in every possible way that we can. And I will tell you, I will be here Thursday and everybody that signed that letter, I've told them this is just the starting point. If they want to affect change, Thursday, they should be here as well. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Walls. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? Right. Donna, Foster, Virginia. Um, I just wanted to say that I'm kind of shocked that the thrifty spot is subsidized. I I go to all the thrift stores in here in Gloucester, Yorktown, Newport News, Hampton, and that is the most affordable one ever. And I was like, "Wow, this is really great." But I assumed it was a business that was supporting itself. And I just told myself, they must have a lot of things coming

161in and out quickly to be able to make ends meet. And it just seems like that's outside of the jurisdiction of a um education facility. And I will have to do some more um research on that. Thank you, Mrs. Machin. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach? All right. Moving on to item 9.1, we have the opportunity for school board member comments. Yes, I think so. There seems to be a misunderstanding of how we get money from the state. People say, "Well, there's less kids that should be less to be needed to put them in school." That's not the case. For every child we lose, we lose money. And that means we have to pay more at the county level. So for every student, it cost us more money. As people say, well, how

162can you be paying $20,000 a year for a student? It's because the composite index that they use is for real estate. And if you have people at the lower end of the scale and the real estate's up here, it doesn't match. So, it's costing the county itself more money because of that. That's why everybody says, "Well, gee, you're losing students. It should be cheaper." It's not true. Now, everybody here can help fix this problem. You sit down, you write a letter to your senator, your rep, and the governor, and you tell them they need to change the compound. uh compoundousing. Uh local Yeah, local compounding. I'm tongue tied tonight, but that's how we're going to have to change this. There's they know they're having problems in a lot of area and there the board has

163been talking about it, but if we can get a push them to get it to go that way, then it might come sooner. But as long as we continue to lose people, it's going to cost us more money. Now, capital improvements, there are none this year. We've kicked the can so far down the road that we done run out of road. There hasn't been nothing done to these schools in the last four or five years for sure. Everything is an emergency patch. You know, the boilers break down, boom, then we react. Boilers break down, boom, then we react. There's there's nothing in the replacing it or keeping it online in proper shape. None of that. And in the next couple years, you think this year is bad. Next year, you're going to start off where

164we left off this year. And you So, it's going to get worse before it gets better. And if you go 20 years down the road, you're looking at a school that's over a hundred years old, a school coming up on a 100 years old, and one that's going to be 50 years old. So, we got some serious doings coming up that we all need to sit down and think about, just not this year. But there's a lot going on here in the near future. Thank you. I want to thank um again all of you for being here. But I also want to thank the um board of supervisors. Thank you all for being here and listening and giving your comments to us. Um, it's valuable and I am glad to be able to work with

165you all. Thank you. Any other comments from members? All right. All right. Moving on to item 10 is schoolboard member reports. Um, chair, I there's nothing more to report. Uh other business by school board members or Dr. Daniel. Any information? Anything else? Anything else at this time? Okay. All right. And before we adjourn, I just want to remind everybody that we have the textbook and instructional materials public review uh up from April 7th to May 7th. Consult the website for details on how to make an appointment to do to check out the textbooks up for adoption. Item 12.2 is a reminder that our next regular monthly meeting is Tuesday, May 20th at 6 PM in this building. Of course, it will be preceded by a 5:00 pm closed meeting. And finally, item 12.3, a reminder

166that our school board summer work session is Wednesday, June 25th at 8:00 a.m. to 3M in the Chesapeake Bank community room. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you for your