001Good evening. I'd like to call to order tonight's school board business meeting on March 18th. With everybody, please join me in the pledge of the allegiance. Pledge of alliance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item 1.3. Roll call, please. President, here. here. Present. Item 1.4, approval of the agenda, additions and deletions. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the agenda as listed. A motion. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? There being no discussion, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item 1.5, consent agenda approval. May I have a motion? I make I make a motion to approve the minutes of February
0026, 2025 special meeting, school tour. February 18th, 2025 regular monthly meeting. February 25th, 2025 schoolboard town hall. February 26, 2025 school board winter work session. and February 28th, 2025 schoolboard work session, schoolboard governance, norms and protocols, 4 spring break campbl requests, and monthly claims as presented on the consent agenda. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I second it. Okay. Any discussion? Yes. Yes, Mr. Dobson on the vendor payment uh page two item 10 to Jones and Frank Petroleum Group. What did we get for $1,140 was I guess it was some type of bus repair. Um actually Mr. Dobson that's related to inspection of fuel tanks that are required every three years. So that's a kind of a a recurring All right. So that was at the high school right? Correct.
003Okay. Uh, next item, page five. Item five, Sheiley Hajes Group. It's a grant for CTE. Uh, was $61363. What do we give for that? That I'll have to look up. I don't know that one off the top of my head. All right. I got one more actually. Hang on. So actually that's ice machines. That's related to ice machine. Um ice machines. Yes sir. Okay. And page eight item two uh Sweetwater. It was another grant for CTE and it's purchasing services $749.87 87 software audio software. Okay. I I turned these in earlier, but seat licenses. What was it? Oh, okay. I turned this in earlier, but I didn't get to work on this until today. Understood. Any more discussion? There being none, all those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. I do just want
004to give a reminder that uh on the claims, I will be doing the April 14th claims. Mr. Dobson will be doing the May 19th claims and Mrs. Hodes and Miss Diggs will be doing the June 16th claims. Moving to item two, we have questions or comments from our school board student representative, Miss Jen. Good evening. Um, this past Thursday I had another wonderful opportunity to meet VSBA's president again, Joanda Risens. Uh, though this meeting was unlike the last one, like the last annual capital conference that we had. Um, she made it feel like we were in that same environment. It was virtual and there were fewer presenters this time but the discussions were all tailored towards the students and we had many interactions even going into separate breakout rooms and discussing discussing challenges in each
005of our uh school divisions. Despite the challenges that schools may face, I liked Carol County's mention of utilizing their uh location and to their advantage to provide for things like their CTE courses or career readiness including agriculture. and they talked about how they had a lack of variety of clubs and they incorporated agriculture into their advantage. And then some other things that we talked about were time management and what resources we used to accomplish that especially being in a beneficial role like this one. Agendas, planners, and calendars in your phone were among some of the few that were mentioned in order to plan. We did have one presenter, JT Kesler, the director of legislative services at the VSBA, come on and talk about bills that the state has in place for school boards. And one
006thing that stuck with me was that they had over 2,000 bills this year u mentioned and they are aiming for every school division to have access to mental health services. And then we also talked about roles of student representatives and skills that we learned um how to collect data and have those one-on-one conversations with students and how to be active and have fun as um as this role goes on. And a couple of hot topics we talked about was the lack of variety of clubs as mentioned and then behind the scenes. So again, engaging with students and um having afterchool activities and then also funding was another hot topic. And then we also talked about navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles. So voices are important and also seeking to understand first. That was one of our
007key mods mentioned in the Zoom meeting. So if you're, you know, questioning a topic, you have to seek to understand first. Um the third thing was making an impact. So bring data when available and adding that support when available. And then our fourth thing was advice for future leadership and future student representatives including um people skills and just having fun and then first impression and be yourself. So that's all for the Zoom meeting that I attended. Um our first report comes from Mrs. Bray at the elementary school this month. She mentions that our student um our second, third, and fourth graders kicked off the Virginia Reads One book initiative. Chespig Bank sponsored this program and bought a copy of the book Lemonade War for each student and each teacher. Our students have been reading a
008chapter from this book each night in March. And each day we have a drawing for the question of the day and the students can win some fun lemonade themed prizes in relation to the book. On March 4th, Matthews Elementary School celebrated ReadAcross America. Seventh graders from Mrs. Burrow's English class came and read a book to our prek, first, second, and third graders. The Matthews Memorial Library sponsored this event, and they purchased a copy of the book to donate to each classroom library. Our fantastic cafeteria ladies made cakes so they could all celebrate at lunch. Our first graders won the B Present award for February. And thank you, Mrs. for implementing this incentive to keep our int attendance numbers up. Last week, the book fair visited Matthews Elementary School and we also hosted grandparents breakfast. It
009was a very exciting time. On Thursday, March 27th, Matthews Elementary School will host family literacy night at 6:00 p.m. We are excited to have special guests including Dr. Jennifer Mweeny, our literacy coach from UVA, and Kanto, a therapy dog from K9 Companions. We will have a separate session for parents and students, and then the families will come together to make and play a literacy game together. We will also have cookies and lemonade as well as door prizes, and we are looking forward to that great evening. Mrs. Simpson at the middle school has recognized that students have been working hard on their academics this month. With the new extended day, Thomas Center Middle School students have the opportunity to work within the school day on improving their math and reading skills during our power up block
010that has been incorporated into that day. Students in Power Up are also able to work on an extension project to take their learning on a topic even further. The intramurals basketball season has come to a close and Matthews Elementary and Thomas Hunter students enjoyed games on Saturdays and during the winter months. and she wants to thank our PE coaches, Jen Doss, Lori Haynes, and Carter Rumman for organizing the season. And also a big shout out to the Matthews High School students who assisted and refereeing and working with the school boards at scoreboards at both schools. We appreciate their help. We could not have had our season without the help of the many parents and who were coaches and assistant coaches for the teams. So, thank you to them. The Thomas Hunter SCA had two school
011dances, a sneaker ball and the spring fling. Students enjoyed an evening of dancing and fun in the auditorium here at Thomas Hunter. Thank you to the chaperones who came to supervise and snack donations that parents provided for our students. The end of the quarter is coming quickly and we encourage that all families to check their grades um in Power School. If your child is missing work or not has or has not turned in the assignment, please have them get the work completed, there's still time for students to improve their grades before next Thursday. The first week of April is spring break. During the week, your child uh have your child read a book or work on math skills so they can be ready to return when they come back to school. And we would also
012like to encourage all the students to make a commitment to be present every day at school, especially in the last last stretch of the year. Um, THMS had a dip in attendance during February and we want to see our attendance rate move up for the next month. From Dr. Griev at the high school, we have had a lot of fun celebrating Pi Day last Friday as our math department not only had pie for students, but students made a circle on the football field in a group activity and then calculated pi. The cafeteria also got involved and served all students a PIS pie to celebrate. We have a huge turnout for spring sports and we have had a few scrimmages last week for baseball, softball, girls, varsity, soccer with competition um in all different areas, all
013different classes of sports. Our junior class is still selling car wash tickets um for their fundraiser for prom. Wednesday, March 26th will be career day at Matthews High School. Students were students will participate in career activities beginning at 1:00 p.m. They're selling a $30 car wash at Title Wave in Gloucester for only $15. So, please see someone in the junior class if you want to get a great deal on a car wash and support prom. The self-contained class at Matthews High School has been at hard work making and painting some beautiful birdhouses, which are available for $10 donation to benefit the MCPS self-contained transition program. These programs help students develop essential life and vocational skills. Birdouses are available in the main office of Matthews High School and at the Thrifty Spot. The Key Club is
014collecting supplies for the local nursing home. Items such as socks, chapstick, blankets, and other basic necessities are needed, as well as puzzles, coloring books, and more fun things for entertainment. The drive will be open until March 27th, and the donations will be brought to Mrs. Morse's room or given to any key club member. The FCCLA is also holding its books and toy drive for the children of CHKD hospital. Your donations can bring smiles to the faces of hospitalized children. Please see Miss Hayes for a list of items or check out the FCCLA flyer posted around the school. Donated items can be delivered to Miss Haye's room in room 310. Seniors are at hard work uh to turn their scholarship applications as deadlines are approaching and acceptances are rolling in. Students can find scholarships on the
015school website, the Google classroom set up by our school counselors, and the bulletin board across from the school counseling department at the high school. Also, for our seniors, a representative from Justins will be here uh during lunch on Wednesday, April 9th to to deliver caps and gowns for graduation. That's always an exciting moment for our senior class as it reminds us how close we are to graduation. And then a couple more notes I want to touch up on for our seniors. Recently, we just completed mock interviews to prepare for our future workforce and mostly positive feedback was received. And I know in my English class, we discussed some uh pros and cons of the experience. And additionally, our CBGS seniors at the governor school marked a major milestone on their CBGS career on the 8th.
016They went to VCU for their annual symposium to present their research and their conclusions. And we will see some of that later. and but the start of uh February and the end of start of March, excuse me, and the um end of February have definitely been busy. So, great job, Matthews, as we gear up towards the last quarter. Thank you. Thank you. on item three, which is recognitions. We have some wonderful recognitions this evening, beginning with item 3.1 for the 2026 New Teacher of the Year Virginia ACT Award to be presented by Mr. Bo Bundrich, President Virginia ACT, and that's the Association for Career and Technical Education. Welcome, Madam Chair. I have a few prepared remarks on behalf of Miss Williams that we were supposed to present her with this award at our annual conference,
017which was unfortunately cancelled due to water issues in Richmond that week in January. Miss Williams began teaching in 2004 as a substitute teacher and then began teaching middle school math and reading full-time in '08. After the pandemic, this stress encouraged her to switch content areas and fulfill her lifelong dream of teaching. Family and consumer sciences where she had to start completely from scratch to build and supply her classroom. With an overwhelming show of support from her community, Miss Williams has been instrumental in building a thriving set of courses, earned both state and national CTSO awards, and she continues to strive to offer new and varied opportunities to her students both inside and outside the classroom as well as throughout her community. So, on behalf of the Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education, we would
018like to present Miss Williams with tonight's CTE New Teacher of the Year Award, Thomas Hunter Middle School. [Applause] Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Bundri. And congratulations, Mrs. Williams. It's wonderful. Item 3.2, we have the VSBA student art contest. Principles will be presenting award information. Good evening. We are super excited to be here tonight. I bring before you Colton Helbrandt and our art teacher, Mrs. Mcclair. And if you just take a look over here, Colton's picture is the very first one that you see. And so I want to tell you just a bit about that. I talked to Misslair who explained that she was teaching the students about um gesture brush strokes, about leading lines, and about moving the viewer's eye as you look at a picture. So that was the lesson. And
019she taught that by showing them different famous artists and pictures they had created and whatnot. And so I had the opportunity to chat with Colton a bit and say, "Tell me about your picture." And he immediately didn't even think about it. He said, "Well, the inspiration for this artwork came from the beaches of Matthews County and also the Outer Banks in North Carolina." He had me from there. I was with him. He said the waves and the white caps really helped to motivate him in this piece. But he also thought a bit about um the volcanic islands in Hawaii played a part in what he did. And then I said, "Is there anything else you would like the board in the audience to know?" And he said, "I thought about what Missair taught us." And
020as I thought about it in my head, the picture just came out. So, wow, that's amazing. Do we want to hold his feet or maybe at the end we'll get a picture? Congratulations. Great job, Colton. Wonderful. Great job, Colton. Good evening, everyone. So, our winner is not here with us this this evening, but Marvin Uma was the winner for Thomas Hunter, and would you like to explain um his piece of work that he did? Sure. This is Miss Watowski, our art teacher. Hi, I'm Miss Watowski. Uh Marvin's actually at eighth grade orientation, so that's why he can't be here tonight. And his mom was really excited about it. Um so this was a surrealist landscape and it was done in oil pastel. Um and then I think he called it something inferno. I'm trying to
021remember the exact Oh, infern inferno scars. So it had to do with he was thinking about like the wildfires that are happening. Um and so that's that was his kind of motivation for it. So yeah, great job. Great [Applause] job. All right, I have Marissa Hudgens with me and her teacher, Miss Morris. And uh the one of the first things I do when I go into any school building is I look for the artwork because that's a good indicator on the quality of students in that building. And I'm happy to say we've got three very high quality art pieces over there. Um I've known Miss Hudgins for a while now. So her artwork has always been good and has been getting better and better every year. Uh since being at Matthews High School, she's been
022in the art studio class for four years and the 3D art class for two years. Um, and her future plans, she will be attending Randolph Min as an art education major. So, she will continue her art dreams as she moves to the college. Now, as far as the techniques used in this piece, I will defer to the experts here because I'm not. We're gonna fight over who has to talk. Marissa was actually selected to do this. It was just I asked her because I know that she's planning to continue an art and I wanted her to have this experience. So, she picked her design, she picked her medium. Um, and she it was an independent project. She did not get last time to do it. She had to do it on her own. So, she
023is not gonna talk about it. She's but she's very proud of it. [Applause] If we could have the students um come up um and the teachers and uh so we can get a picture that'd be awesome. And also to note that Marissa's um artwork won third place at the VSBA regional competition. And so that's region three extends from um the southernmost point of Gloucester up towards um Fredericksburg um Stafford, Spennsylvania and includes all of the northern neck counties. So there are 13 um counties school divisions uh in that competition. Very impressive. Some of us were at the um dinner and the meetings that night uh for the artwork. And I was quite surprised that our our Matthews High School student didn't get first place, but you all's artwork was is beautiful. Congratulations. And if I
024may add, um I was I attended as well, and the artwork is not marked by either the county or the student. Um, and I want to say Colton, yours caught my eye right away with the colors, you know, it's just very vibrant. Um, and and I didn't know it for Matthew. So, when I later found out that it was um, our our elementary school student, I was like just beaming. And Marissa, I want to say I said to Dr. Daniel, that's a picture. That's a photograph. That has to be a photo. The detail in that is absolutely amazing. Um, and that isn't doesn't give it justice, but it was I was just like, "No, this is not real. This is a picture." But it really it welldeserved third place. And I agree with Miss Digs.
025We thought it should be first, but thank you. And finally, for our recognition, we have item 3.3, the winter sports season, uh, with Coach Amy O'Neal, our athletic director at the high school. [Music] Good evening, Dr. Daniel, Miss Hunley, and members of the board. Um, before I get started, I do have a presentation, but I do Thank you. Um, I've been meaning to put this in my presentation for the last three times, and I keep forgetting. And I want to acknowledge this person who works tirelessly for Matthews. doesn't work for Matthews, but every single game he's there taking pictures of our wonderful students and their athletic ability. And I would like Charlie Koig to stand, please. And everyone give him a round of applause. I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything you do
026and your pictures are magnificent. They blow mine away, of course. Great. Okay. U first off, I'd like to um talk to you about boys basketball. Well, we had a complete 180 from last year with our boys basketball program. Um, we did have uh we didn't have a a strong point guard last year, but we got a point guard that came back from Christ Church, and that does make a big difference. It's like the quarterback of the team. So, Trey Green really led our team this year. And um the the ability that they showed, the improvement that they showed was magnificent. Um these are the members of our varsity boys basketball team and our coaches. Um, we are Tidewater District co-ch champions this year. I'm very proud of them for that because like I said, last
027year we finished almost last and this year we were at the top. So, I'm I'm extremely proud of them. Um, I would love to acknowledge Jordan Cosby for all district first team, all region first team. He scored 1,337 points this year, this over his career and uh, 1250 rebounds. Um, that is not an easy thing to do, especially for a big guy because now with the three-point line, it's a lot easier for guards to get a lot of points. Um, he worked his tail off this season and um, it showed. Trey Green, all district first team, all region first team, and scored 1,386 points. Both of these guys are going to be tremendously missed next year along with our other four seniors, which were all starters. So, um, we're hoping to build back up again
028and, um, pull from our JV squad and and see where we can go with that. Uh, this is our JV boys basketball team. We had a wonderful, um, new coaches, Coach Clarence and Coach Greg. They have, um, if you watch the beginning of the season to the end of the season, these boys improved tremendously. Um, the the future is bright for our basketball program. I'm I'm extremely proud of them. Also, um, one thing before I get to cheer, I do want to say we made it to the regional tournament for the, um, boys and, um, we played North umberland and I'm, I truly believe that we, if we had won that game, we probably would have gone all the way, honestly. And I know I'm biased, but I really do feel like we we would.
029We got in foul trouble early. our big guy got four fouls at the start of the second quarter. So, he was very timid after that. So, um of course because he had one left, but um they just played really great and I'm very proud. Um our cheer squad that I I highlight every time. They're there every single game. Uh they don't get enough recognition. They're so small a squad, but they give they give it all they got. They've got the crowd going. Um, in fact, one of the games before our regional game had the whole entire crowd going. It was like the good old days before COVID and all that. So, um, kudos to them for all the work that they put into it. And Jen Doss is a wonderful coach. Girls basketball. This is
030our girls basketball program. Um, our girls struggled a little bit, but they did try really hard and improve. They did not make it to the regional tournament, but um they did improve every game. We did have some great players that were selected as first team all district, Grayson Griffith. Second team all district, Llaya Duff. Um in our in our district, it's uh the girls like West Point right now is really has some great girls. Um in fact, one of the girls there scored her thousand points. She's just a junior. So, we had some tough competition, but we really uh we really worked hard and did great. This is our JV team. Um, again, just like I said with the JV boys, the JV girls team, um, they're spitfires, so they're going to they're coming out,
031they want to learn. JJ had them doing I'm a basketball coach, so I can say this. Uh, I was very impressed because he had them pressing. Pressing takes a long time to understand for a player. they had them pressing like the second game and they weren't doing bad. So, so um I I look forward to seeing what they're going to do in the future. Also, indoor track, we had some great uh we had a great season indoor track. Um we um let let me get it. The boys are the track region runner up and we have a twotime state champion, Donovan Forest. I would love for you guys give him a round of applause. I wanted him to be here tonight so I could introduce you to him as a second time um state champion,
032but he's doing his work at West Point right now. And I hope to in the spring when the spring's over to introduce a third time state champion because um and I will say, and this is no knock on Matthews, but we all know what the facilities look like in our track. If he can be a state champion on our track, we have a lot of state champions that we could have if we had a real decent facility. So, um, extremely proud of him. He will be getting a ring again along with his coach. Um, this was the indoor states at Liberty University. Um, if you haven't been there, it's remarkable. Everything at Liberty University is remarkable. Um, every time we go there, there's a new building popping up. So, my dollars went to that. So,
033my tuition went to that. So um but all these uh players they we have so many and I think um I saw u Mr. Bowen's uh Facebook post and he was right that we have a lot of good athletes especially on our track team that excel year after year after year and they don't get the recognition that they deserve. It's not the football team. It's not the basketball team. And nobody really, we don't have home meets because we don't have a track where we can host home meets. So, you don't really get to see how good they really are. And we have an exceptional team. And and I hope one day to have the facilities that we can have several state champions. Um I'm not going to read all of these, but just look at
034the list of all of our um state um accomplishments. It's and again our our 55 meter hurdle uh state champion wrestling. We have a wonderful wrestling team. Um every year we do extremely well with that. Um I can't talk to you enough about how wonderful our coaches are. I am extremely blessed to work with the coaches that we have. They they're dedicated. They put time in. Anyone that's ever been a coach or been around a coach knows how much time and effort it takes to do this and to make your athletes better. And we have those and I'm extremely extremely blessed for that. Um, we are the Tidewater District Champions and the Region A champions. And if you've ever been to a wrestling match, which I have never before, uh, Matthews, it uh, it's it's
035a sight to see. I don't know how they go out there and give their all four and five times. They give everything they have and then they've got to go up and do it again. But, um, it's it's something. Um, we have several regional regional finalist who meddled. And we have again our region A coach of the year, Josh Shyel. Please give him a round of applause. Again, very blessed. Josh runs a program, a very organized program. You would think a wrestling event, if you ever go, it looks like just chaos. He's got it all down pat. He organizes it. The kids are doing exactly what they're supposed to do. He's phenomenal. Uh we did a sendoff to states for our wrestling team. So all the school came out and um saw them off and
036unfortunately they did have to drive to Bristol. They were supposed to drive to um Salem but because of the snow things got crazy. So it was almost a seven-hour drive on the bus. Um they were saying please can we get a Greyhound next year? I'm like they're a little expensive. Maybe if you fund raise. But um here is our state finalist. Third place Ivan Shyel Frank Cardinis third place Sal. Cardina is first fourth place and Jesse Monasterly sixth place. Congratulations to them. And as always, our cafeteria staff is phenomenal. Anyway, anytime they go to a trip, our teams go to a trip that's going to be either overnight or all day long, they will pack them lunches. And um I have to say this, this is pretty funny. They started a program where they give
037free cookies for wins. And it was getting so so they were having so many wins that we had to work out a new system where they had to come to me to get a pass to get a free cookie. And so I was putting a medal on one of our athletes at the wrestling tournament and he said free cookies. So they really appreciate everything that the cafeteria does for them too. So that's great. I think that's it. So I just want to say thank you so much and it was a wonderful season. Wonderful. Thank you so much for all that you're doing for our division. coach. She's awesome. Thank you. [Applause] Up to item four, student achievement. Dr. Daniel presenting. We're going to be hearing from Governor School. Sure. We invited um two of our
038Governor's School um seniors to come talk about their research projects. I think uh Miss Grayson Griffin um bailed and left Miss Katherine Murphy to be the lone presenter this evening as part of our student achievement. Um, so we are excited to hear a little bit about what uh, Miss Murphy's been working on. And actually, Miss, if could if you could explain a little bit, I think it was not last weekend, but the weekend before, kind of the presentation and maybe some of the uh, the the recognition that you and Grayson received, and then tell us a little bit about your research. Yeah, so on March 8th, I presented at VCU um, along with all the other three um, Governor School campuses. So it was Glenn's Warsaw and Bowling Green. Um, and me and Grayson both
039received an award for outstanding presentation. So only six out of the Glenn did. So we are really happy to be repping Matthews. Um, I'll talk a little bit about my research. Um, I have a presentation if you want to see. So again, my name is Katherine Murphy and I'm a senior at Matthews High School this year, but I'm also a senior at the Chesake Bay Governor School. And today I will be discussing my research on the study of anthropogenic beach pollution along the Chespig Bay and Outerbank shorelines. Um so yeah so some background information 12 million tons of plastic pollution has been entering the ocean annually. This can then go on to affect marine life. We can see this through ingestion, entanglement and even habitat deterioration. Um but I also want to add that this
040can affect human health as well. We can see this through torsline areas um and even productivity levels. Um, so 12 million tons, um, 80% of this is coming from a land-based source. Some examples of this can include runoff, direct discharges, or even recreational activities such as hunting or fishing. Um, and then some other sources that have been traced to this can be navigation actions, commercial shipping, and um, commercial fishing companies. So my research question that I conducted was, "What source is most abundantly polluting along the Chesig Bay and Outer Bank shorelines between four different categories?" And the categories I came up with were common household hunting, fishing, and construction. So these are just my hypotheses. I won't bore you with this. Um, on the left would be my Chesig Bay beach sites I cleaned, all
041located in Matthews County, Virginia. And on the right would be all of my Outer Banks, beach sites that I cleaned, all located in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So within my research, I would walk along a beach for 30-inute increments, and I would pick up as much trash as I could find. After the 30 minutes were up, I would then take all of the trash and separate it into those four collected categories. Again, those were common household, construction, hunting, and fishing. And then after I sorted them all, I then tallied up the total number of each um individual piece into each category and put that into a spreadsheet. Um and here's some pictures. This is a beach cleanup on the left from Janette's Pier in the Outer Banks. And that is a picture of
042me on Bethl Beach in Matthews County, Virginia. And some more pictures just so you can see what I was finding. Um lots of trash, cans, bottles. Um yeah, and this is me doing the pick three method again on the right. Um, I just wanted to include one of my graphs, one of my many graphs. Um, this is a graph showing the comparison of the Outer Banks and Chesig Bay mean abundance values. So, as you can see here, the common household category was far greater than any other category of trash collected. Um, but the ch Outer Banks had a higher value in construction while the Ches Bay had a higher value in hunting and fishing, which is very interesting. In my results summary, I did do a two statistical test of the ANOVA single factor. And
043when I did this, um, both the Ches Bay and Outer Banks gave me a p value much less than 0.05, meaning that my, um, research was significant. Um, but since Common Household was far more greater, I decided to take it out and run a second statistical test. And when I did this, my p values were greater than 0.05, meaning that there was no statistical difference when that common household category was removed. and my hypothesis conclusions. Again, I was able to reject my null hypothesis and accept or fail to reject my alternative that the common household trash is far more abundant than any other category of trash collected. And so, some final conclusions. Um, the common household category outnumbered any other category, indicating that anyone and everyone could be responsible for this issue. Um, I think
044it's going to take a stewardship mindset if we actually want to see a decrease in this pollution frequency. Um, the ocean is a life. It's a cycle. It provides so much for us and humans are just deteriorating it in return. Um, so yeah, my literature cited and I think that's it. If you have any questions, I'll take them now. This is great research. Thank you. I I've lived in Matthews all my life and when I'm out in the bay kayaking or whatever, I'm always picking up. But in your research and with the people you work with, has there been any um suggestions on how we might decrease this household, especially the household debris going into the our waters? Yes. So here that I have a recommendation side. So I really think education is very important.
045Um I think a lot of people just don't care or they're putting their own convenience above the productivity and health of the earth. So I think if we educate especially younger generations, it can stop um potential future pollution levels. Um as well as implementing portable trash cans. Um within my research, I actually made portable trash cans and gave them out to people in help of the problem. Um, I made it easy so they could put it in their boat or their truck or their car. Um, I really think it's a convenience issue. So, it's people to stop being lazy and actually realize that their actions do have consequences. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Go ahead. This is very um the re this research is very applicable to us as you know to our
046county and I think everybody in Matthews should hear about this research. Um maybe the board of supervisors would invite you to present as a jumping off point to be more mindful and more be more of a steward of our beaches. Um because we know the consequence when this is in the bay. But this is this is fabulous. I can clearly understand why you placed. So congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. I have a question. Yes. What was the most challenging part of developing your research? What what did you find to be the most challenging and how did you overcome that challenge? Um well, I think the most challenging part of my research was um I really wanted to make a difference with my uh research project. So, if you don't know governor school, it's
047required that every single senior through the program has to do it at the end of their senior year. Um and it's kind of a buildup. like you learn about it your sophomore year and you think about it your junior year and then you're like senior year it gets here and you have to have something. Um but I wanted really wanted to sit with my teacher and talk about something that was personal to me. I love the beach. Um I see this problem everywhere. Um but I really getting past that milestone of really being secure in what I want to do. Um but after I figured that out, it was really smooth sailing. So that was probably the most difficult part was um finding a very strong project that I really cared about. You're you're well
048on your way to doing a dissertation, finding a problem and Yes. trying to solve it. Good. Great. Wonderful. Any more questions? I have one. Could you tell us a little bit about um the benefits from your experience of attending Chesig Bay Governor School? Yes. So, when I was a sophomore or freshman, I did not want to do it at all. I was very scared. It was a big challenge. I knew that it would take a lot of my time, but I'm so glad I did it. I met so many people, and I think it really helped me get out of my comfort zone. Um, I'm a very shy person. So, um, I just know that me my sophomore year, I could not stand in front of a room of people at VCU, at Longwood, or
049even here, um, and present confidently in what I was doing. So I definitely learned confidence and um met the best teachers. They have helped me along the way. So yeah. Wonderful. Excellent. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] All right. Moving on to item five, citizens questions, comments, or requests. 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 involving students or personnel as these topics may violate confidentiality and are
050not 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. We have one person signed up today. It's Mrs. Kelly Lockerby. Hello. Good evening. Um, as you said, my name is Kelly Lockerby. I'm a resident here in Matthews. Um, I just wanted to uh take an opportunity to uh mention that March is developmental disabilities awareness
051month. Um it is a time to raise awareness, celebrate achievements and advocate for um students with disabilities rights. Um I would like to see the division um put more not just our division but school divisions in general put more emphasis in the achievement of students with disabilities. I spent um a few days about a week ago in Richmond um with at the quarterly state special education meeting and I am actually a uh state subcommittee chair for students outcome and achievements and so that is kind of one of my passions and um right now we're working on legislative priorities for the state at for the next general assembly meeting and One thing that I think is different is when we talk about, you know, everything's coming out now about post-pandemic um student uh decline and we
052have the graphs and we're able to have matrix of, you know, the percentages that everybody's down. But you really can't do that with students with disabilities because their their progress reports come out in ways not percentage-wise or pass or fail, but it's like emerging skill, proficient making ski. I mean, it's like vague little and it's really like what does that mean? So, my committee has is trying to get students with disabilities to be able to be graded on more of a trackable uh method. And that way we could also because obviously if students that are typically developed have suffered uh decline, obviously students with disabilities have as well. And so I just don't think that that has really been getting any emphasis that they are because it's really not tracked properly. And so um that's
053just something that we're working on on the state level just trying to get our students that have you know um developmental disabilities, dyslexia, you know, reading kids that aren't on what you would consider the so track. um but they still matter and they still need to achieve as much as they possibly can. So that's it. And um I just want to invite everybody to the uh Matthews County Special Education Advisory Meeting uh Wednesday, no I'm sorry, Thursday, um next week the 26th at 3:30 at the high school library. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Lockerby. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the podium? Richard Hicks, North Virginia. Expectations. parents, the school board, the board of supervisors expect taxpaying citizens to provide financial support for the school system. And as a taxpaying citizen providing a
054lot of financial support, I expect something from parents. I expect them to send their children to school ready to learn, properly, and appropriately dressed, well-fed, clean, and wellbehaved. I don't think those expectations are too much. Do you? Further, as a taxpaying citizen, I expect the school system to demand these things of parents and their children. And finally, as a taxpaying citizen, I expect the school system at all levels and all classes to send children home with homework. Not so much for first graders, but certainly three hours of work, five days a week for high school students. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hicks. Would anyone else like to approach the podium tonight? There being none, I would just like to make a comment that board members will be reserving any comments they may make till after
055the second public comment period. We'll move on to item six, the superintendent'sformational reports, attendance data update. if you can just scroll to the February um screen for me. Now, I'm just going to I think what's included in the board packet has um December, January, and February data. One thing I will note on the February data is in that um second column um it delineates the five parent excuses for second semester. So the previous months are looking at first semester. So part of our attendance policy is parent excuse notes reset um at the beginning of second semester. So that reset towards the end of January. Um however um the rest of those columns are um related to accumulated absences and attendance behaviors um for the for the entirety of the school year. So in terms of
056number of attendance letters that are written, attendance plans that have been developed um the number of at risk students for being chronically absent and one thing I'll note on that column as well that that number goes up by two monthly. So if you'll notice in February the at risk threshold is having missed 11 or more days at this point during the school year. Whereas if you um look at um January and the previous months it was less. Actually January was 11 but December was nine. Um so the threshold is looking at kind of a pacing guide if you if you kind of think about the Olympics and when you look at swimmers and kind of the the world record line if you will. Um while we're not hoping our students are setting world records for
057being absent um that is kind of a moving mark in terms of a benchmark for um meeting um chronically absent by the the state guidelines. So some highlights um again our attendance is is not where we want it to be. However, compared to this time last year, we do have a reduction um in the number of students who have already hit that chronically absent threshold. So while that's um a relatively low bar at already missing 17 days, uh we have at this point in the year worked to reduce uh the number of students who have hit that mark. I think it's also looking at the number the the work that is going into um working with families and developing attendance plans has increased tremendously over last year, especially at the high school. And so that's
058the work of administrators, our school social workers, our school counselors working to develop attendance plans for students um who have missed a certain number of days. So, I do believe that work is is paying off, just not as as quickly. And I think in uh Miss Nang's uh comments to the board, she was able to highlight some of the things that are happening at at the schools related to attendance. So, there's um some carrot while there's also some stick involved with um the attendance programs. And I know in our work session we also talked a little bit about um revisiting our attendance policy and looking for additional ways to tighten some of those tighten that policy up a little bit going into the next school year. So we'll look at some drafts draft policies a
059little bit later um in this calendar year to um get ahead of um the opening of next school year. And again, as a reminder to um some we this is year two of a tightened attendance policy, the the major step the board took two years ago was to limit the number of parent excuse notes. So that was a first step towards um trying to tighten up an attendance policy that allowed parents to um write a note for any number of days they wanted to um during the year. So we went to having five and five. Um, historically, parents could excuse any number of days and that prevented us from being able to pursue truency and some of the other state code allowances. So, um, the first step was hoping to, um, get that attendance policy
060in place, tighten it up a little bit, assess after a little while, see how it's working. I think we see we need to um look at tightening it a little bit further to again incentivize um students to um attend school. Okay. Um item 6.2 some information. I'm sorry. Any questions related to attendance? Sorry. Yeah, I got a question. Um have we determined what the major cause is of aism? Um it it really is quite varied. Um we talked a little bit about it at our work session and we um put some some data besides some student numbers to to look at the different types of absences. It's some of it is illness, some of it is chronic illness, some of it is the flu hit the household. Um some of it is um cultural in
061the sense that school may not be a priority or you're not moving heaven and earth to get students to school. Um it's it's some of it is um my kids doing okay so we're we're taking a couple days to go do X Y and Z for whatever whatever X Y and Z may be. Um, so it's it I don't think there is a specific um pattern. Um maybe we could I mean gonna go back to Miss Murphy and see if she could do some statistics and do some re additional research on it. But looking at the numbers and looking at some um just cursory review of the data, there's not a this is the one or two things that's um preventing students from coming to school. It's kind of a mixed bag. And the flip
062to this is as we develop attendance plans, as we pursue truency charges, frequently then those students, those families elect to homeschool. So that's a lot. We see that fairly regularly as the school year goes on as we um begin to enforce things, especially attendance, then families elect the a homeschool option. So, however, those numbers are still in this data even though if the student has withdrawn, their numbers are still reflected in that data currently. You brought up another another item that if they're if they're then pulling kids to homeschool, how do we know they're really homeschooling adequately if they can't get their kids to school? Um part of the homeschool regulation is that they have to provide proof of progress annually. They have to provide a documentation that they are enrolled that what the curriculum
063is that they are going to be studying and some level of achievement over the course of the year. It is not incumbent upon the school division to apply our standard of progress or to apply any standard of progress. It is basically that they are engaged in education and that they are making progress and that basically fulfills the the code for um homeschool. um if a a family can also elect to homeschool for um as part of religious exemption and in that case there is no requirement to provide any information. Mrs. H. Yes. Um, I was going to say this towards the end when I um board member comments, but I since we're on this topic um and I don't expect an answer now, but it's just something I would like to hear more from the
064administrators on as well as as as you just the thoughts about would a change in policy make any difference, you know, um and do we have any goals that we're working toward? board, you know, what I what are other um counties doing, other school divisions doing? Um and I just didn't know what our measurements might realistic measurements might be. Um you know, this there's a lot of work. It's evident there's a lot of work going into this and I just don't know what's a realistic expectation on on the other end. So I just be curious what the kind of the thinking is. um with the schoolboard office and and the principles and and also I I need to say, you know, if my student my child was a straight A student and and I wanted
065to take a week off, I you know, it's it's difficult to argue against that except that we do have this chronic absentee policy and the state expects that they need to be in school. Well, I would also add that it's it's a federal measure that the states have to comply to. The federal measure of um chronic absenteeism. So, the the state's um accountability framework has to include attendance as part of the measure to be in line with federal federal regulations. Thanks for clarifying that for me. I just I wanted to add in a comment or ask a question. we we haven't gone down the road of tardiness but my so my first question would be do we have a concern of tardiness in our division um I would say yes um and I think as
066we have conversations about workplace readiness and thinking about um getting to work on time getting to school on Um those are those are habits that are formed early and are frequently passed down. Um track there isn't a um code piece that aligns with tardies. So it is left to school divisions to work on reinforcing a con or applying a consequence related to tardies. It's what's difficult is at the younger It's it's not the kids who are bringing themselves late to school. Um once students start driving that becomes a little bit different and also tardy within the school day is a little bit different of an animal. So, I know the high school looks at and addresses tardies within the day, but tardy to school to the first block each day is a little bit different
067at the high school based on is the student driving themselves? Um, is it is it parent drop off? Did I miss the bus? Some of those things. um you know below below really 10th grade it becomes more like a a family or a lifestyle um situation where students are chronically tardy. The pol the way the policy exists the enforcement of is if you miss more than half if you're tardy by more than half of that period or that block you're counted absent. But the the chronic 15 or 20 minute minutes late to a 90 minute class is is disruptive. But there's not a great tool to address that. So I know the schools look at detentions and inschool suspensions related to some of that behavior, but frequently um it's it's it's not all sometimes it's
068the kid who's making the making themselves late and kind of dragging everybody late. Um but And there's some there's some household features that cause that for the board's edification. Would it be possible or do you think it would be uh doable to take some data on tardiness? We can pull some power school data on on tardies to get a feel for um what it looks like. uh we can begin. I guess we can take a look at first semester tardies and just see um you know see if there are any patterns that emerge and see what see what we can do. I I think the magnitude just understanding the magnitude of it and and then seeing um becomes difficult on how to address it but I think if it is a significant problem we'll need
069to find a way to address it. So the first step is seeing how significant the problem is. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Item 6.2, uh, information for the school board. So, um, in the in your board packet, you have minutes from the CT advisory, the school-based financial reports. You also have um second semester field trip requests for our three schools as well as the division FY25 expenditure reports um for your review. Members, are there any questions? Mr. Dobs? Yeah, the I noticed uh in there there was a comment. Of course, I have the same comment, too. Um what do we need to do to bring the robotics club up to par? Um, so I know the high school is looking at um a space um and so we have had some conversations about the progression
070of club to does that club have enough participation and does the tech foundation's class that's kind of an eighth grade class right now does that then lend itself to um a high school creditbearing class at Matthews High School next next year. So, we'll look at student interest. I think equipment wise, we're in pretty good shape, but it also has to line up with lensure for teachers. So, not every not every teacher license or every CTE license would align with being able to teach a robotics class. And it also has to line that license would have to line up with a SCED code. Um, state council on educ I forget what SCED stands for, but um it's basically every every course code, every class that we offer has a specific code that works through state reporting.
071So lens sure has to line up with a teacher's license has to line up with a specific class code to make sure that that aligns. So, we'd have to look at competencies that um are existing in a specific CTE class and then do we have a teacher with that license to be able to teach it and then do we have enough students who are interested in taking that class to then offer that class. So, those conversations um are ongoing. I know the first step was where can we do it? So, um Miss Dr. Griev has um thrown out an idea about a space. Uh I've talked with Mr. Anthony this morning about what is currently in that space and what we would need to do to that space to make it um workable. Currently, it's
072kind of a storage room for some old technology. So, we would need to kind of clear out some old technology um to to free up that space to house that. Where do we have the space before? I'm sorry. Where did we have the space before? um the classroom space in the auto mechanics lab. It's still available, right? It's just filled with um old it's it's kind of a storage room at this point. So, we need to remove the storage items from that space. I know in the past that has been a uh pretty good class kids have wanted to go to. So, trends change. So that's why we would just want to make sure that we have the the student interest to be able to divert instructional resources to a class that has the enough
073student interest. And I think in the initial years of offering a class, you give it a little bit of time to build momentum. Um, but we are having conversations at the high school about enrollment and course offerings. as we're having budget conversations, are we offering classes that students are signing up for? How are we maximizing the master schedule in order to deploy our teacher resources effectively and efficiently? So, um I don't want to necessarily offer a class to five kids. Um, I kind of I tend to look at a threshold of about 10 to 12 in our size high school to have that course start the year. Kids are there's going to be some attrition and schedule changes and things along those lines. Um, but in the initial years of offering a class to build
074some momentum, you may start with a smaller number to to build some interest into that class. And I know Mr. Applegate is also looking at a video production class. And so we're looking at a couple different classes to expand our CTE programs um especially with the three E and accountability framework and making sure those classes have a natural um completer um sequence to it. So there's there are lots of things that that go into do we offer a class. Yeah, those conversations are being had and they're working on building the master schedule and student interests and and all those things. And the only other comment I got is uh if we're cutting the budget, uh please don't cut that new line we gave Miss Williams. I'm going to do what I can. All right. Any
075other questions or comments? I wanted to make a comment to just point out um our fabulous volunteers who are working uh just so they're so dedicated to the robotics um program that we do have whatever we are building right now with great goals in the future. Mr. Ken Childris and Mr. Brian Donnelly who spend countless hours along with Mr. Williams at the middle school. Uh really trying to rebuild this this program whether it starts off as a club and segways into um a completer course. If we can make those connections, great. But we do have such outreach from the community in this area. And I I just I want to let everyone know that there is a lot of a lot of effort going in the on in the background for robotics in Matthews. Okay.
076Anything else? M. No, ma'am. Right. Item seven, school boardformational report. Item 7.1. Members, you'll see the first review of the VSBA February 2025 red lines. We are taking no action on this. This is purely the first the first review. Most of the February updates are strictly small word changes, not much substantive change in these drafts. Um, I attended the virtual policy update session on this and uh the facilitator was able to go through this in about 40 minutes. Uh just quickly going through the slight changes that were not substantive for the most part, but please take a look and they will be up for voting next month. Does anybody have any comments about any of this at this time? Okay. All right. Item 7.2 just a brief discussion on the policy committee. uh we are
077we have established that we can have standing committees. We've we've drafted a policy for standing committees on the board which is new and the first one that I would like to look toward is policy and I brought the policy manual and it may not be I wanted you can see what it says it's the schoolboard policy manual but this if this gives you a sense those of you who can see this this visual aid of the policies um that we are responsible for maint maintaining and reviewing on a timely basis. And so the the impetus for moving towards a standing committee for policy is that we do have policies that have not been reviewed uh in their five-year time frame. That is a school board responsibility. So we will have our policies reviewed. And it's
078when you open the book and you and what I what I did I opened the book and I last reviewed was 10 years ago. No, that's not acceptable. So, we do have some work to do to get us up to speed. Um, we have new policies coming in. Those are fine, but it's all of the the ones that don't get touched that don't get don't get reviewed. uh will establish ultimately a tickler system of reviewing and review will be part of the regular job that we do. Policies will be continually being reviewed. They may just be read and reviewed. No changes necessary, but they need to have eyes set on them at least once every five years, and some policies require more than every five years. Does anybody else have any comments about this? If
079not, we'll be looking to establish a committee um probably take an action on that next next month and we'll be rocking and rolling ready to go. Okay. Item 7.3. We have established the schoolboard summer work session. and it will be Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 from 8 to 3 at the Chesapeake Bank community room. Item 7.4 shows our schoolboard conferences and webinars, all those that have due dates and all offerings from VSBA. Keep in mind there are additional organizations that provide trainings such as schoolboard member alliance of which three of us are members. Item 7.5, board and committee reports by school board members and superintendent. We are looking for November um an a November attendee to for the board of supervisors meeting. So going once, going twice. I will do it. I'll take it, Miss Morgan.
080Oh, well, by all means, it's okay. I'll take it. Thank you. I'll take it. You know, trying to be inspirational here. I'll trade you December for November. At least it'll give you every other month. Yeah. Really? No, thank you. All right. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. All right. All right. Moving on to it. And we do also have the meeting dates for Peretta and Cleo and uh Governor School and the um the regional special education meetings noted here. Action items. Item 8.1, the adoption of the 2025 BSBA business honor role resolution. This is just the resolution. May I have a motion? And I think we'll read that resolution as well. I make a motion to adopt the resolution as written. Let's go ahead and do you mind reading that out? Second. Oh, yes. We have a
081first. We have a motion. May I have a second? Second. Okay. That's what I was going to ask. Okay. Do you want me to discussion? Yeah, let's go ahead. Yeah. Um, this is exciting to read uh these resolutions to acknowledge our our uh businesses in the community that's that support us. Um whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral part of this community and whereas many local businesses play a crucial role in support of our schools and whereas the economic health of our community, state and nation depend on strong public school systems. And whereas collaboration between public schools and local businesses strengthens schools and the business community alike by providing a well-trained and highly educated workforce. And whereas an excellent public school system is vital to the quality of life in this community and
082fundamental to preserving a strong democratic society now and in the future. Therefore, be it resolved that the Matthews County School Board names Richardson's Cafe to the 2025 Virginia School Boards Association business honor role, showing appreciation for the ongoing support of this community's public schools. Their generosity has aided uh this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child who attends them. adopted in Matthews, Virginia, this 18th day of March, 2025. And I don't know if you were gonna say this, Dr. Gibbs, but but I'm not sure the public knows that time and again um Richardson's Cafe has um provided lunch for us um at a day at our dayong meetings um and a joint meeting that we had with the um with the board of supervisors as
083well at no cost. um and is just beyond gracious and um well most appreciated. Absolutely. I agree. Yes. Thank you, Richardson. Any more discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes 5. Item 8.2 to approval of revised Matthews County School Board meeting schedule. May I have a motion? I have a motion. I make a motion to approve the revised regular monthly meeting schedule as listed. We have a second. Second. Okay. Discussion. We'll go ahead and read this out as well. This is a change and this change is a result of community input and collaboration among the board members. Um, Matthews County School Board regular monthly meetings will be held in the Thomas Hunter Middle School J. Murray Brooks Auditorium at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month, preceded by closed
084meeting in Thomas Hunter Middle School, room 20 at 5:00 p.m. effective April 15, 2025. That will take place next month. Any more discussion on that point? We hope that this is uh this is an effort to make meetings more efficient for the community and um it as is a request by the community and seen prudent by the board. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes 5-0. Item 8.3 approval of student fees for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion? I make a motion to approve the student fees for the 2025 2026 school year as listed. We have a second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Item nine, citizen comments on items discussed during our meeting. Comments are limited to
085one opportunity of three minutes. Do we have anyone who'd like to approach the podium? My name is Tom Bowen, 425 part Lane Matthews. As a member of the board of supervisors, I'd like to just comment on what Linda Hodgees said about Richardson's and y'all's recognition. They are just so great. They they have many times given us. Uh we had a meeting the other day. It started at 2:00 in the afternoon and I got home after 1:00 in the morning. Uh and that's crazy. But Richardson's is there many times to help us out when we have those long meetings. What I wanted to talk to you tonight is uh truency. that it truency is enforced by the Commonwealth attorney in court when you go to court. I've served over 20 years as Commonwealth attorney uh both
086in Matthews and other jurisdictions. And to me, the weak link is the escape valve that Dr. Daniels talked about of homeschooling. Once you file a petition in juvenile court, they have what's called a multiddisciplinary team which is a group of professionals involves your school guidance counselors. It involves social services uh and many times uh uh uh health professionals and and they can look at the uh tremendous amount of information about that child and they put together a recommendation for the judge and for the court. And the judge can then if the if counseling is recommended or needed, the judge can then order the parent or the child to go to counseling. If and if the child goes is supposed to go to counseling and the parent doesn't get the child to counseling, then the judge
087can call the parent into court and hold them in contempt and punish them for not getting the child to counseling. Now, it's a lot harder to do all of that than it sounds. But that is the hammer that you don't have. But the weak link of all of that is exactly what doc in my opinion at least is exactly what Dr. Daniel said. If the family gets tired of this and says this is just too much, then they say I'm going to homeschool the child. And that can uh many times the judges will say, well, if you're going to homeschool, then there's no further violation because there's no compulsory school attendance. And there's very I am not as familiar with the homeschooling parameters and requirements, but my understanding, limited understanding, is that there's very little
088oversight. um in that area and that it is basically maybe once a year they have to at the end of the year have to file a report. If things haven't gone well then you've lost a whole year and and we had students in school who uh in court who dropped out for homeschooling and we find out two or three years later that they're still in homeschooling but nothing's been accomplished. really didn't complete anything. Mr. Bowen, I'm sorry your time is up. So, if the school the state is concerned about compulsory education, then I think that's something the legislature needs to address. Thank you for your comment. Would anyone else like to approach the podium? Okay. Sharon Fry, Port Haywood. I just want to thank you all for the student achievement presentations. It does my heart
089good to see what we have accomplished in our school and I thank you for that. Thank you, Miss Fry. Would anyone else like to approach the podium? John Matis, Gwyn, Virginia. I know I'm gonna probably pile on a little bit here, but I agree with what you guys did wholeheartedly with Richardson's. Uh Lynn Davenport is a treasure to this community. And in saying that, um again, our next dine to donate for the foundation will be at Richardson's on May 6th. It's a Tuesday, so if you're having you need some ice cream after Cinco deio the day before, uh please come by. But uh all proceeds for that will go to teacher and classroom supplies at all three schools for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh and then the last dine to donate we had over
090at Howard Duly broke all our records. uh we raised about $3,000 and that vast majority of that money is going to the music department and uh scholarships for kids uh and uh any other mini grants that we can get out to the schools. So, thank you for the for that and I hope to see everyone over at uh Richardson's on May 6th. Thank you. Did you ask the Mr. Mison? Uh the dine to donate. It is May 6th all day. Correct. All day. Okay. And thank you so much for all you do at the Gwins Island Civic League Foundation for the school division. Would anyone else like to approach? Good evening. I'm Brian Donley. This is Ken Childress. Good evening. Uh we're both Matthews residents. Uh I want to thank you all for your interest
091in the robotics program and re uh bringing that back to Matthews County. Um quick commercial. Uh we've been working really hard for a while now on this. Um there's a lot to as as was mentioned, there's a lot to bringing it to the classroom. It's a long path. We seek to start that path. We're not going to get there yet, but we're going to we're going to move along the the path um with the guidance of all y'all uh a club something to bring it. Uh so those five students have an opportunity which makes seven 10 and now we have a class. So um uh we hope next next board meeting to have a formal presentation for you with uh with with some good material. So, thank you again for your interest tonight. Thank you
092very much. Thank you for all your hard work with our students. Thank you. Anyone else you'd like to approach? Right. Item 10, school board member reports. School, excuse me, 9.1, schoolboard member comments. Any comments from members? Miss Digs? I was able to get over to Howard Douly's um a little later in the day than I anticipated, but I met some of the people that um the eight people who support the endeavor that you all do over and over again for our schools. And it warmed my heart and um I just want to say thank you again. We appreciate it. Yes. Uh Dr. Daniels, um I'm going to give a list to uh Stephanie. I got about 15 16 items that were already at 100% this year. And what I what I want to do with
093that is to make sure that we haven't undercut those for next year. All right. Are you finished, Mr. Dobson? Yes. Oh, thank you, Mrs. Um I every schoolboard meeting I always appreciate hearing about student achievement and the recognitions. For some reason tonight, um the just the varied recognitions we've had with the teacher, art contest, winner sports, uh um governor school presentation. It it just does my heart even more exceptionally good because it's so well-rounded. And what I'm hearing more is that our we have such many and varied opportunities for our students. Um and it's and also um robotics. I didn't I didn't want to forget that robotics. It's just it's just it's just getting better and better. Um and I just want to thank my colleagues here um certainly Dr. Daniel, Miss Hunley, and um
094the faculty for moving us forward in this direction. Thank you. That's it. Great. Absolutely. I completely agree. This is wonderful. And Dr. Very quickly, uh some of us on the board were able to go to the um Virginia School Board Association of the Eastern Region. Yeah. Northern Neck um where our art wig work was taken and it was wonderful. I got to go last year as well and it was wonderful to listen to the speakers who had very limited time but I think we had about six that evening and to hear what's going on in the other divisions around us. um to hear their questions, their comments, their accomplishments um and what they're striving for. And it I think with all of our difficulties and challenges, I can agree with Miss Hajes on hearing what
095we've heard tonight and being so grateful for what the citizens of Matthews County and the rest of you do for our schools. Thank you all. Any more member comments either on items from earlier or of your own making? Mr. Morgan. Yeah. Um, my comments have absolutely nothing to do with this evening's uh meeting, but u I had an opportunity yesterday to speak with some parents that um had some issues with school buses getting to their residents, pick up their children. Um, and apparently it caused some confusion. So, I would just like to maybe offer a suggestion or or just throw the idea out there to the board and to the central office. Um, perhaps we could do a little better job of communicating what our policy is regarding sending school buses down flooded roads. I
096I do believe that yesterday's or I should say Sunday night's rain event probably caught a lot of us by surprise. I did not expect anywhere near that amount. But regardless, there were some roads in the county that apparently buses could not get down and parents didn't know that. So, just maybe we could do a little bit better job of of getting the word out to the parents u you know via email, text, Blackboard, whatever means you know deems necessary or is deemed necessary because people were fine. And I didn't have any any ugly comments, hateful comments, but they just didn't know that buses were not supposed to travel on roads that were underwater. So that's just my two cents worth. I'll clarify a little bit. Um so anytime water um is across the road, our
097practice is that buses are not going to go across any regardless whether it's 2 in or 2 feet. Um buses aren't going to go over go across um flooded roads. Um I would probably agree with Mr. Morgan. There's a better way to communicate that right now as our drivers encounter um roads. We typically I mean our drivers we're very very fortunate to have an experienced fleet of drivers in our division and they've been on pretty much the same routes. So they know the roads and they know the areas that are prone to flooding. So they are equipped with cell phones that they can um call families when they know that um they can't get down those roads. But sometimes that's late in terms of there may be a situation where um the parents have already
098left for work and they're expecting the child to get themselves to the bus stop. So um that's that's a bit imperfect of a system. So my conversations with Mr. Royals have evolved around some of the bus software and integrating the bus software system with P school. Um trying to identify locations and bus stops and overlay that with known areas prone to flooding to send out some advanced notice. But that'll that'll take some work and some some process to be able to to get that to happen. But we it we know it's a it's it's not perfect at this time. But I agree with you. there's probably some at least front loading of in advance of this weather event coming. Please know that if your road is flooded, um we won't we won't send buses down
099there. So, that was helpful helpful clarification. Any other comments from members? All right, I have a comment. Yes, Miss Shane. I think it's important for us to look at the tardiness numbers because not only are students absent but I in the high school I often see students running late to class um whether that's just roaming in the hallways if that's being in the bathrooms um if you're letting your teachers know I mean that's great that's fine um but if you're chronically tardy I think that's an issue in our school well thank you for your input all right we'll move on to item 11 closed meeting. May I have a motion? I make a motion to enter. I make a motion to enter into close meeting in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act section
1002.2 to A1. Discussion of consideration of personnel matters, support staff rec uh resignation, professional staff appointments, professional staff retirement, spring coach appointments and spring volunteer coach appointments. And section 2.23711 2 A2 discussion of consideration of admission and disciplinary matters concerning students. Thank you. May we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. We are now in closed meeting.