001Any discussion? Ms. Davis. Um Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Cunya. Aye. Mr. Dombrowski. Aye. And Mr. Boyd. Aye. Ms. Cunya, could you please read the certification of closed session? Sure. Whereas the New Kent County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.2-3711 of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the New Kent County School Board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the New Kent County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting required requirement by Virginia law were discussed in closed meeting to which this certification
002resolution applies and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the close closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the New Kent County School Board. Do I hear a motion to approve the certification of closed session? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Cunya. Aye. Mr. Dombrowski. Aye. And Mr. Boyd. Aye. Everyone would please stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. We move to presentations and recognitions. Yes, sir. I think that's my Dr. Nichols. Yes, sir. Okay. So, we're excited to
003open up with none other than Quinton Elementary School, home of the Cubs. Their SCA is going to be here or is here, I should say. Um so, they're going to talk to you a little bit about the work that they've been doing at Quinton. So, we have Paula, Hayden, and Landon. I'm not sure if that's the order, but I'm going to turn it over to Quinton Elementary. Ms. Paula, are you going to I'm Yeah. You're the MC? I'm going to start off, but then they're going to speak a little bit, too. And none other than Good evening. Um we represent the Quinton SCA. Um we really started getting the SCA going being the learners school. Um and mainly our Student Council Association is to develop leadership skills for our students, to be able to promote
004communication between our students, our teachers, and our administration. Um a lot of community projects for just our Quinton community and outside of our Quinton community. And also to promote school spirit and pride. So, you'll see our group up there And then Sorry. No, no, no, you're fine. Some of the things that we've done this year, um we have found Last year we did a spring gram where during the spring our SCA made flowers and they um sold them to anybody. They students could come up in the morning for arrival and pick a flower and write a message to somebody. And that was such a hit last year we decided to do gobble grams this year. So, we had thankful letters. So, they had gobble grams. You can see in that picture up there Ms. Corrales
005and a lot of our SCA members were helping students um write thank you notes on what they're thankful for for their friends, family members, anything like that. And then the other picture showing them being delivered to classes. Um our latest thing we did was a shoe drive to get rid of all those old sneakers you have thrown in your closet. A little spring cleaning. Um we partnered with a family for shoe uh program for shoe recycling and our members stood outside in the mornings at the bus loop or at the car rider line and everybody just threw their shoes in the buckets. Very simple. Some other things we did are So, I think the thing that's touched us and the other teachers that helped um with the SCA the most was that the first little
006bit of money that our SCA members made, they immediately said uh Ms. Hicks needs more markers. Mr. Powers needs more buckets for um bucket drumming. Ms. um Slate needs more noodles. Ms. um Stein needs it was something to hold her markers on her whiteboard. Like the simplest things. They were like, we need to get them things. So, we coordinated and we bought them all supplies. So, these are pictures of us delivering all those supplies to all of our teachers. The excitement on Ms. Earl's face when she got stopwatches and tape measures. Like >> [snorts] >> um it was just really fun to see. Um so, they have done a lot of different things. I think our My favorite was something we tried this year was our coffee car line drive. So, how this worked was
007our SCA members made posters. Um our PTO helped us out by donating coffee for us. And during morning arrival, the students stood out there and people just literally it was a drive-thru. They handed them the money. They got a cup of coffee with however many sugars or creamers they want and then they went on their way. Um so, it's a good way to start off a Friday morning for our parents. And I think the students love being out there talking, interacting. We even got quite a few donations just because they were so cute out there. But it's Now, I would like a couple of our friends to talk about what they've enjoyed about um the SCA or something that the reasons why they wanted to be a part of it. Landon, do you want to
008start us off as our our fifth grader? Hi. My name is Landon Gillette. I'm a fifth grader at Quinton Elementary. This is my second year involved with SCA. Last year I was the historian and this year I'm a class representative. I wanted to be a part of the SCA so I could give back to the school and support students and teachers. This year we did a shoe drive giving second life to shoes we have grown out of. We also did coffee car line sales to raise money for extra supplies for our resource teachers. It brings me joy to be a part of this group at this group this great SCA team. Thank you for your continued support. And then Ms. Hayden representing fourth grade. Hi. My name is Hayden Waller and I'm a fourth grade
009SCA class representative. I joined SCA because I wanted to be a part of a school club. I also wanted to help teachers and students at I enjoy getting to meet new people and I am also enjoyed playing group games with the SCA team. And that's how we make new friends. My favorite event the SCA has done is the coffee car line. We sold coffee to families and in the car rider line to raise money for our school. We made someone's morning better and in the best part we made money to help the resource teachers so awesome. I'm happy I got this opportunity in SCA. Thank you. Paula's here for more sports for third grade. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Did Dr. Nichols donate any tennis shoes? I'm just curious. You know, we actually
010had a discussion about that. Yeah. We did. I did the motion that I did it I have not grown out of these. So, that's the only thing. Still working on it. Um uh the future of leadership is bright. And thank you, Quinton, for for being leaders. Uh so, now we're moving on to athlete of the month. So, we have two athletes of the month that we're going to recognize tonight. Um and we are about a month behind. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about basketball, swimming, even though we're now outside um and spring sports. Um so, our first athlete of the month, and Anna, it's your choice. You can either stand up here while I say these things or you can Um so, Come on. Uh so, our first athlete of the month
011is Anna Hetzel. How do you say that again? I got that butchered. Isn't that right? Yeah. So, Anna's a sophomore and member of the girls basketball team. She's already enrolled in advanced placement and honors classes and she has a 4.1375 uh GPA. She's the daughter of Tim and Melissa Melissa Hetzel. Um she had an outstanding season. Her performance and leadership, keep in mind just a sophomore, um and really leading that team. So, she set a school record for three-pointers made in a single season with 54 um made three-pointers. Um averaged 12 points a game. Um led us on a historic season. [snorts] Uh keep in mind we had no seniors on that team. So, we're going to be back and uh ready for more. I was actually at the game where she uh tied the
012school record for three-pointers made in a single game. I don't know that I could make eight three-pointers in a single season. You've seen me shoot. It's not that far off. Um her strong play earned her second team all-region district. It was an incredibly tough district as well as honorable mention in the region. She's a leader by example. She uh consistently demonstrates uh dedication in the classroom. Uh she also brings a positive attitude and strong work ethic across multiple sports. Uh right now, although only a sophomore, she plans to follow the enrollment pathway by attending a college or university um and she would like to take those basketball talents to the next level. And if I were a betting man, that's going to happen. Big up. Her next goal is to win the district and regional
013championships. So, I'm looking forward to being at VCU one day and cheering them on on the stage. Yeah. None other than Anna Hudson. All right, our next athlete of the month is not on land, he is on sea and this is none other than Finn Leggett. Not really sea cuz we swim in the pool, but Finn is a senior and member of the swim team. He's working towards his advanced diploma. He'll graduate in 5 weeks and 3 days. Sorry, family. It is coming that quickly. He has a 4.09 GPA, takes AP and honors classes. He's the son of Jason and Jen Leggett. This year he serves captain for the swim team. He added to his list of seven New Kent High School records. He has a lot even though we don't have a pool. We
014have a lot. Excellence in swimming. So, that was coming into the season. This season he added the 500 freestyle and the boys 200 freestyle records. So, that is nine. So, if you ever go look at the swim wall, it's Finn and a couple other people. I think Val's still on there one time. Did you He clinched the 2016 state championship in the 100 yard freestyle. So, he is now a state champion and one of the fastest races and placed third in the 50 freestyle. He's following his enrollment pathway by attending Virginia Tech in the fall. Currently plans either a finance, engineering and to swim on the Virginia Tech club team. So, his captain advice to the swim team next year is you got a big team is remember to have fun and also be fast.
015And the one and only Finn. Congratulations. All right, our next recognition is our senior of the month and it's no one none other than Brandon Krooms and Brandon's going to talk to you a little bit and we sort of set the bar high with our last senior month who sang. So, Brandon's going to take it to a whole 'nother level here in a minute. So, incredibly proud of Brandon and got to see him you know, really grow up and he's got a strong support system as well. So, Mr. Krooms, the floor is yours. Thank you. So, good evening Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, school board members, Dr. Nichols and guests. My name is Brandon Krooms and I'm a senior at New Kent High School. I'm truly honored to be here tonight. Throughout my time in
016high school, I have grown exponentially. Throughout my freshman and sophomore years, I've allowed my grades to drop and my participation in class to falter. I finished my sophomore year with a 2.4 GPA and little to no plan for graduation. That wasn't until I joined NJROTC. Where Chief McDonald showed me that I could go a lot farther than I could ever believe I could. The NJROTC program taught me the importance of personal accountability, hard work and dedication, which has allowed me to raise my GPA by nearly four percentage points. NJROTC's values of honor, courage, commitment have single-handedly guided me to my future endeavors and provided an academic refocus. You'll get to see a physical demonstration of this demanding focus shortly when I perform my armed rifle exhibition drill after my speech concludes. My E decision represents
017a combination of enrollment and enlistment. After graduation, I plan to attend the Virginia Military Institute where I have been conditionally accepted. There, I'll be majoring in cybersecurity. Going to VMI was a critical step for me because it will allow me to provide the rigorous academic and leadership foundation I need to achieve my ultimate goal, which is commissioning as an officer in the United States Navy. I'm drawn to the Navy cuz both my father and brother have served. I want to support something that's bigger than myself. I would also like to say I'm extremely grateful to Chief Zachary McDonald and Petty Officer Barbara Davis for helping me advance in this post-secondary decision. Cuz I genuinely don't believe I'd be anywhere where I am right now without them. Chief McDonald has not only supported me, but has
018also supported my family by providing mentorship in my next steps. Petty Officer Davis keeps me focused and reminds me to keep the bigger picture in mind. Before I close, I want to thank Principal Strickland for selecting me for this honor of senior of the month. She continuously supports our NJROTC program by being present at our events, assisting with growth of program by encouraging others to join even at the middle school and for specifically encouraging me at our area manager's inspection, during my commanding officer briefing and during our inspection ceremony. Finally, I want to thank my mom and dad for their continued support and for allowing me to pursue this exciting career path. My parents have always supported me, had my back and pushed me to be the best version of myself. Thank you again for
019this amazing opportunity. Mr. Superintendent, do you mind if I go While Brandon's setting up, just I'll give him a little bit of a pause time. The mission New Kent has always been to have programs for kids to be successful. This program did not exist you know, 3 years ago and under Chief McDonald's leadership, Petty Officer Davis and incredible people, we've grown. I think we're looking at at nearly 100 if not over 100 students in that program next year, but it's because somebody has the courage to go first and whether it was Brandon or some of the other people, like they've paved the way for future generations and the fact that you didn't start strong, but you finished strong, that's what life's about. I got chills and and tears. So, so it's the floor is yours.
020So, first and foremost, I need a volunteer. >> [laughter] >> Guys, I didn't know that was happening. I'm nervous. I'm a dad, you have insurance. After I say my name, I want you to salute me and say, "Go ahead." Okay? Do you understand? >> [laughter] >> Ma'am, this is Brandon Krooms from New Kent NJROTC requesting permission for my arm drill exhibition. Ma'am. Go ahead. All right, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. I don't know whether to do a handshake, hug or Just You can do all. >> Yeah. Well deserved. I mean that throughout myself. The one hand with the other. That's okay. Three months to learn. I don't know whether to say that I'm more deserving of senior of the month. So, it's Thank you. I can't wait to see you on
021stage. Five weeks. You got it. I think we just need to go home. Yeah, that's a mic drop. Board members, nice transition here. It is the month of the military child. You know how excited we are that we have a purple star designation across a couple of our schools looking to have it across all five and be a purple star just divisions next year. We currently serve over 200 children in military families. We take great pride and honor in supporting and educating our students and partnering with their families who sacrifice so much for our country. And tomorrow, Wednesday happens to be purple up day. So, we'll be wearing our purple and then we also have a change of command ceremony, I believe. Krooms tomorrow in honor of our ROTC programs. So, that is the month
022of the military child, but as a purple star place, we do that every day. It is also autism acceptance month. New Kent County Public Schools raises awareness, promotes understanding and celebrates the talents and contributions of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and that is on display across our schools. It is poetic that Quinton is here. Quinton really prides itself on uh being a school that promotes that understanding and celebrates. It is one of a kind place. So, it's poetic that you guys are here tonight. So, it is autism acceptance month. It is also school library month. So, the library is the center of the universe and our schools. We do want to acknowledge our wonderful media specialist, Rachel Stamper at New Kent Elementary, Meg Carmine at GW, uh Karen Stein at Quinton, Mary Mordica at New
023Kent Middle School, and Tracy Begin at High School. When they said they were buying supplies from Ms. Stein, if you've ever been in that media center, I had no idea what you're going to buy for. She's got worms. There's Uh who knows what's going on in there. She does have it all. So, it is School Library Month. Uh board members, I I get to work with amazing kids and amazing staff every day. I'm I'm glad we got to see a little bit of that. So, those are my recommendations. So, Thank you, Dr. Nichols. Thank you to all those uh who have been here. Congratulations to take a 5-minute recess uh in order that those who came to um celebrate with the students uh may now depart and not have to uh attend the rest of
024the board. How be it it is very exciting. Um most find that it's not uh worthwhile to stick around. Um but we understand. So, we'll take a 5-minute recess and begin. If you need any any And then on the agenda is public hearing on District 1 vacant school board seat. And just um for information purposes, um we will not be making a an addition decision or an appointment tonight for that uh district. Um we will, however, address that and make the appointment in the May meeting, a regular meeting, um so that we can fill that uh district seat. Um the citizen's comment procedure, uh if you have seen the agenda, is laid out in uh three different sections. Public hearing for uh vacant District 1 seat, public hearing for superintendent's recommended budget, and then a
025um citizen's comment at the end. So, we have a couple of folks signed up under citizen's comment, which would be for the end uh toward the end of the meeting. Uh we had no one identified uh to speak on behalf of the district uh filling or and or the superintendent's budget. So, we'll proceed with that. Um I would like to propose to the board um the opportunity to for historical purposes um um allow um Mr. Keith Pagano, who was in that District 1, to address how this vacancy came about. And um then move forward with the um candidate applications. So, I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda in order to uh let Mr. Pagano speak regarding the his vacancy. Okay. Do I have a second? A second. Okay. So, um Ms.
026Davis. Mr. Hymer. Aye. Ms. Kenya. Aye. Mr. Graboski. Aye. And Mr. Bolt. Aye. Any discussion? Anything on that? >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Uh Mr. Pagano. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Nichols, and guests, thank you for the opportunity. As a former member and chair of this board, would briefly take this opportunity to correct and clarify the record to maintain the integrity of process. Despite news reports, social media posts, I in fact did not resign. Simply put, my seat was vacated by law. But for this law, and this law only, I would still be on the board, still serve as chairman, and still work to propel the school district even further forward while attempting to consistently enforce the rules that apply to the board and all of its members, to which
027I, of course, am not immune. I'm an attorney, an officer of this court, and I believe in the rule of law. As such, I've yielded to the application of this statute. I did not elect to attempt to fight it or establish an exception. In contrast, resigning from a board seat is a voluntarily a voluntary decision to step down, typically for personal or professional reasons, which I did not do. Vacating a seat is not discretionary. It occurs automatically when a legal requirement is no longer met, such as maintaining a residency in your jurisdiction. To be clear, my seat was vacated by operation of law due to relocation. I relocated my primary residence when I moved from District 1 to District 2 for personal and family reasons to take care of my children. It was the right
028decision for my family, which is my top priority, and I would do it again. This is not a matter of discretion. And after consulting with board counsel and after carefully reviewing the applicable law, it is clear there are no exceptions to this requirement. Needless to say, the timing of the event is very unfortunate. I became aware of the law to which I had no prior knowledge on March 18th. I immediately requested the school board attorney to review the code section and advise me. The very next day, she provided me with final answers to my questions and what I considered to be good counsel. I then, without hesitation, advised superintendent and several of my fellow board members. The board has now taken the correct steps and commenced the proper procedure to begin to fill the vacancy.
029I was really looking forward to continuing to steward the board, to serve as chair, to collaborate in efforts with my colleagues both here and on the board of supervisors, to work through this year's budget, the building of the New Kent Elementary School project, and many other things to come. All of which must be dealt with with competent, intelligent action, and fulfillment of the duty and oath of each member of the school board. I wish the board the best of luck in finding a replacement candidate, one who knows the role, understands the position of governance, and can help and assist rather than deter from achieving these important milestones. I remain fully confident in this board's ability to continue with this work its work with integrity and focus. The application of the rules in the business of
030the board will and should move forward without interruption. It's been an honor to serve. I thank you all for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pagano. Here's this no there's no citizens comment for we have we have candidates. Um and um in terms of the um superintendent's recommended budget, there are no comments also signed up for that, so we'll move ahead to the consent agenda. Uh board members, by now you've had the opportunity to review the item that's uh listed in the consent agenda, including meeting minutes from March 17th regular meeting, April 7th special called meeting, monthly financials through the month of February 2026, as well as the superintendent's recommendations regarding personnel matters. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Mr.
031Davis. Mr. Riemer. I. Ms. Cunya. I. Mr. Dabrowski. I. And Mr. Ball. I. Moving ahead to new business. Mr. Superintendent. Yes, sir. Uh so we'll start off with the FY27 employee benefits. Uh we have none other than Matt Davis, who uh represents McGriff, who's our partner in this work. Um as Matt is getting ready, I was on a regional call with superintendents where they talked about health care increases in the year or so. Uh part of the reason that ours is where it is is because we have an incredible partner like Matt and McGriff. Um and our HR department, uh spearheaded by Tammy Waters and Allison Anderson, really kind of pushed that and finance with Miss Walker. So, uh we're in a different boat because we have different people uh steering that boat. So, Matt,
032floor's yours. Talk to us more about benefits. Very good. Thank you, Dr. Nichols. Parents, uh school board members and guests, again Matt Davis with McGriff in MMA. We were purchased about 10 years ago, but we're here in Atlanta, so we'll change that name within the next year or so. Uh do you have some good news for you? We just wanted to visit a few minutes with you, talk to you a little bit about the timeline first. So, we're here the 14th of April. I can't believe that, but we are uh moving very quickly into open enrollment, uh which a few years ago, as you know, we changed the effective date or renewal date from October 1st to July 1st. So, we actually hold open enrollment in the last half of May uh for July 1st
033effective date. Next slide, please. So, the good news to share with you is really um twofold. The first of all is the thing that really dictates your renewal is about 80% of your your renewal costs come from your claims. And your claims are performing very well. If we look at the kind of the middle table at the top, where it says current PEPM, that's in for per employee per month, compared to the prior period through the end of February, uh you had a 6% growth in enrollment. Your medical claims only went up 4% and more importantly, your pharmacy claims only went up 0%. That's incredible. Uh And so overall, your total paying costs went up 2%. You are running a surplus year-to-date of about 285,000. Um and then in the bottom right, if you look
034at the large claimants, which are are driving most of your costs, but your costs are relatively low. Um any claim over 50% of the specific deductible, which is your reinsurance. Um so, there are 12 of those claimants. Uh that makes up about $2 million, $2.1 million. And then you have a um a few of those claimants over the $125,000 uh stop loss or specific, and that equates to about $577,000. I like pictures. Pictures tell a story, and this tells a great story. The current year is at the top, the prior year is at the bottom. And you can see that your claims ran really well through November 2024, really all the way until July 2025. We had a little bit of a blip, but it continued to run uh at or better than uh break
035even, except for December. Uh in December for um just knowledge purposes, it was a bad claims month for all of our self-funded groups. I don't know what it was, but it just was a bad month. Um and so and then 2.2% plan cost on a per employee per month basis year over year year-to-date. So, very good performance. Next slide, please. So, this is a lot of numbers. Don't worry, we're not going to go line by line with you. So, um So, when you look at the claims on the prior period on the upper right-hand corner compared to the claims on the uh prior period, the rolling 12 months, not year-to-date, that's how we calculate your renewal. We used conservative numbers. We used 10% medical trend. Generally, you talk to the trend to run anywhere from
0368 to 12% right now, but 10% is is a really good conservative number because you want to end up with how I explain [clears throat] taxes. You want to break even. You don't want to over-contribute, and you don't want to get a bunch of money back. Um so, 10% is a good number. Then the number in the light blue is your per employee per employee per month cost that are trended uh forward. So, if I look at those claims in the prior period, it's $1,130. And then um the current period is $1,134. Pretty stable. And that's that's what we hope for in health insurance is stability. So, that means your claims cost projection is a 1% increase, which is fine. Next slide, please. So, this is your renewal. Um so, and then these are firm
037numbers. So, when we look at um the right-hand column, you can see the top half of that page is what we call your fixed costs. That's your administrative costs they have them to process claims, manage your the care. The stop loss on the specific side is the second item. Um so, the uh admin costs went up about 5%. The stop loss costs went up about 13%. Uh the average stop loss renewal right now is about 25%. So, uh and you have the utilization. They paid half a million dollars out in claims on your behalf. So, uh you won that. Um trust that that is a win to have a renewal like that. Uh gene therapy or aggregate stop loss covers you for the whole group for um all claims, and their gene therapy, it covers
038you for those very expensive therapies that actually um cure certain conditions like hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, uh childhood blindness, some other things, but they're very expensive. They range from $800,000 per treatment to $4 million. Uh there's about 15 of those treatments on the market right now. Anyway, so your your fixed costs went up 12%, your claims costs went up 1%. Even your our uh pharmacy rebate increased, but we're not seeing that in those groups right now, so that's pretty good. Uh but that money comes directly back to uh the school board. So, it's 3.73% overall, uh which is phenomenal. An- Anthem's average increase in the under 100 market, which you're a little bit bigger than that, uh for January 1 was about 15 to 20%. And you guys are coming in at and 3.73. Uh
039next slide, please. Uh we're not changing any benefits, except we have to make one change to the health health plan as mandated by the IRS. The deductible's going to increase from 3,300 for an individual to 3,400 per individual. Family's going to go up to 6,800 to 6,400. Other than that, benefits will remain the same. Also fitness. So, on your credit copies, I apologize. We had a printer issue and it's a little bit blurry. I promise it's not a vision test. I didn't get to fill out this in the parking lot, so I apologize. But, uh if you look at the bottom right in the blue bars, 3.8 4% by the time we round up to to $0, so that we just make it easier to administer. So, a little bit higher than previous page. The
040best news is the employees' cost don't go up. And the school board's overall cost when you take that into account, it's a little around 5%. I think I think I heard applause. Our folks have been working so hard on that directly for this year. That is great news. That's really hats off to the New Kent County School Board team. Uh so, that's good news. And then, the only other real major thing to share with you is the vision. We did get a shock of a 35% increase on the vision care from Anthem. So, we did market it. We checked the market. The best we could do was 11% increase. No change of benefits, but moving that to Delta Dental, which kind of sounds like an oxymoron, but Delta Dental does have a great vision program.
041They use the PSP network, which is the largest in the country. And that came in at 1%. All right. So, the recommendations are that the 2026 renewal is renewed with current benefits, except for the deductible change that the IRS requires. Keep employees' contributions flat. No increase. Uh and then increase the overall funding 3.84% 5% covered to New Kent County Public Schools' costs. Delta Dental renewed 0%. So, no change in coverage there. And then, recommending changing to uh Delta Dental for the vision, 11% increase. And the final point is we do recommend adopting a reserve policy that's consistent with industry standards. We've talked about this before in meeting with you, but I think we need to formalize it. It just protects the plan. It protects the integrity of of of the plan and the stability of
042the plan that should claims go sideways. And we'll come back to you with a formalized policy later in the summer and present that to you. So, we'll also show you the fifth year results at that time. Any questions that I can help with tonight? I have none, board. Anyone? Thank you. Thank you for having us so much tonight. Uh so, next next step, it is that season where we have to bring our federal programs. So, you'll see that across the next couple meetings. So, first read and second read. Uh so, tonight we have Dr. Young who's doing the annual plan for Title VI-B first read. So, Dr. Young, the floor is yours. Good evening, board. Mr. Chair, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, members and Mr. Superintendent. We're going to review the proposed spending for the Title
043VI-B funds. It's proposed because we base the numbers you're going to see tonight on estimates from last year, and the actual numbers come at a later time, which can be a little confusing. So, we're required to do an annual review of how we utilize this funding. And we're also required required to do three separate presentations. One was supposed to meet members of the community that home school or home educate their children about how we should use our proportionate set aside monies, and that meeting was held on February 18th. We're required to meet with our local special education advisory committee and get parent input. We did that also on February 18th. And then, the third thing is to present it to all of you tonight. When Dr. Nichols signs the VI-B plan, he signs that the
044district will provide a free and appropriate public education, develop not develop individualized educational plans, provide for inclusive learning environments, and prevent the over-identification of students. So, that goes with this funding. We have to commit to that. Um New Kent County provides a range of services under 14 categories as defined in the IDEA. The number 14 has an asterisk because it's technically 13 under IDEA, but Virginia recognizes developmental delay as an additional category that we use for our little ones. Um so, for the purpose of our plan, we have 14 categories. We serve students in a continuum of service delivery options, um providing different levels of access to the general education curriculum as appropriate for each student. And we also provide the wide range of related services you would expect, like speech and OT and PT
045and all of that. When developing this plan, we have to take into consideration the local jails' education program, which we do have a partnership with a local jails' education program, um that we we take into consideration when we divide up these funds. Um we have to submit something called a maintenance of effort, which shows that we are maintaining our effort towards special education students at a consistent rate. If our funds drop for any significant reason, we do have to file a petition as to why those funds have dropped. And Haney's a big support on our maintenance of effort. Of course, just saying. Um we also have to outline our proportionate set aside, and right now our district chooses to use the proportionate set aside funding to provide speech and language services. So, if a child
046is identified as home home education or private school or somewhere other than our schools, they can still access speech and language services with this funds the funding that's set aside. For Section um 511, that is considered to be for general education funding, K through 12. We anticipate $751,326 in funds. That will go 100% to salaries, benefits, contracted services, and then the proportionate set aside funding. You'll notice that last year the contracted services was was less. This year we're projecting a higher amount for contracted services, um because they were they were more expensive now, unfortunately. So, if you compare it last year and this year, that's that's the major change in our funding. 619 is our funding for preschool, and we fund one um It says ECSE teacher, I apologize. Should be teacher's assistant. We have
047we use that money as a partial funding for one position, um because it's 17,000. Any questions? No. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Next up is Perkins Grant. So, that is the career and technical education program. Um and no applause needed, but Ross Miller is at the podium. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Dr. Nichols. Yeah. Chair, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Tonight, I'm pleased to bring to you the Perkins Grant. Um This grant is intended to help us to strengthen our CTE department and our CTE offerings, which is career technical education for our students. Uh the Perkins Grant is to benefit students in grades 5 through 12 and provide career opportunities and career education as they move through those grade levels. Yes. There you go. All right. So, the way in which
048we developed the grant is we got a feedback from stakeholders. That's teachers. That's advisory members. So, in advisory members, that includes parents. That also includes industry members within the county. So, this afternoon, we had CTE advisory committee meeting. We have them several times a year. And which we had the CTE teachers as well as administrators and different industry leaders. Um we had a hospital person there. We also had someone from the bank and um a couple other industry that Rosie's had represented there. And where we talked about the industry in in New Kent and ways in which our students can be better prepared to enter enter enter into those industries. And we also look at labor market information that we gather from the VDOE as well as different avenues around the country to look at,
049hey, what does the labor market look like? And we do specialize specifically for New Kent as much as we can and surrounding counties. And so, that our graduates are competitive within the market. We also do look at um a basically, our data as far as enrollment in our different programs. One of the things that when you look at our Perkins Grant this year, we've set aside specific funding to benefit non-traditional um enrollments. And so, those are where you look at the traditional um basically, traditional employment in certain areas and look for well when I say that thinking like so typically an engineering world is a sort of a male dominated world. So, non-traditional would be females who are enrolled in engineering classes. And basically we would like to see more non-traditional enrollments. And that is
050an area that we identified in our comprehensive needs assessment. And it's something we want to look at is how do we how do we get more females into engineering, more females into agriculture actually and males into culinary and things like that. So, that is an area of emphasis for us this year. So, some of the activities that we're funding through the Perkins grant. To give you an idea of how much money we're talking about here and if we just heard $751,000, not nearly that much. We're our Perkins grant is $43,069, $43,069.96. We spend a great deal more on career and technical education than that. This is just a the grant portion of it, but thank you for putting that in perspective. >> Yeah. So, yeah, so we we fund a lot more in staffing as
051well as there are local state funds that we use for materials and equipment that goes well beyond $43,000. So, before the grant we use it for professional development for our teachers. We use it for promotion and training in non-traditional employment. And if you look at the grant this year, we've set aside some funds that we use for a student-run sort of career type fair for non-traditional and programming. And so, we're going to have sort of a fair where students who are non-traditional in their areas are going to be talking about these the different enrollment pathways and the different programs. CTE credential testing so that we can make sure that our students are receiving credentials that are industry recognized. We use industry production software such as the Adobe suite in some of our classes that are
052in basically media production. We use it to purchase some of our CTE curriculum as well as updating our technology equipment. This year, one of the sort of draw highlights to a couple of new programs we got going on this year. So, we're expanding our culinary program as you're aware we added in baking. So, for that we need some extra equipment. And so, some of our money's going to that. We also have been partnering this year with the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing. That's and adding in a new program at the middle school that is advanced manufacturing. We're excited about that one. We partnered also with the Hanover at Hanover Hampton Educational Development Economic Development Consortium who provided us nice lump sum of funds that we used to purchase equipment. And so, that's another add add
053on that we're putting in place this year that some of the funds will go to that as well. And then we also, another exciting piece that we're adding on this year is we have been we have had two students who have been accepted into the Rappahannock Community College electrical program. So, they accepted 10 students in the region. Two are coming from New Kent. So, we're excited to be able to provide that and part of these funds will go to provide tuition to that as well as an expansion on our welding program through Rappahannock Community College as well. So, those are the different things that we fund through the Perkins grant. Again, $43,000, but it goes a long way to provide new experiences for our students. This is up for vote tonight. It is single read
054vote and hopefully with your vote. Any questions you have I'm happy to answer. I do have just one. Do you remind me are they when you request that amount is that like guaranteed or Okay, perfect. They tell us how much we're going to get and we're guaranteed to get certain amount. That number similar to what Dr. Young mentioned about it being proposed is that is our preliminary number. And so, we will get a final number later this summer and we will adjust the grant at that point. We just need initial approval so that we can get the plan approved and then they'll tell us a number and we'll make adjustments. We don't come back to y'all once we get the final number. But we're asking your approval on these things the things that we're going
055to fund. We'd be asking for a lot more than $43,000. Oh, yes. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, if we got our own money, it'd be a lot. Mr. Miller. Yes. For the non-traditional employment promotion and training Yes. do you have folks come into the area who are non-traditional considered employees in those say female engineers or or whatever is So, we do some of that and we also basically highlight our students who are in non-traditional pathways already and have them do promotion as well for us. Okay. So, some of our students who some of our females who are in engineering and are in agriculture, they do some promotion on getting more students in as well. Okay. We do some of that too. Thanks, sir. Thank you. So, it is also that time of year where we are
056looking at next year and so Miss Morton is going to bring student fees, fines and charges oh my policy updates this year. Mr. Chair, board members, tonight we're just asking your approval for the 2026-2027 student fees, fines and charges. These are in board docs. Just updating a couple scheduling updates with different courses being offered and some changes to club memberships. I believe the dual enrollment price is going up per credit. Currently we have it set at 20. I'm not sure if that's like finalized for sure yet. So, there might be a little bit of adjustment for that particular figure. So, I'll take any questions you may have. Board, do you have any questions? No? Thank you. Thank you. All right, the next one is mine. Board members, we are in need of a slight schedule
057change which we made you aware of, but because we post calendar as board action has to come before you tonight. So, we were supposed to meet on Tuesday, May 5th at 6:00 p.m. here. We'd like to change it due to some schedule conflicts to Monday, May 4th, 2026. And it actually helps our office too because that is the big scholarship day for high school on the 5th. So, inadvertently it's helping us as well, but this does require action from you guys at the action agenda time. All right, thank you, sir. School board goals review and update. Yes, sir. Back to you again, Dr. Nichols. I don't really have anything in this one because of how significant the other portions of the agenda are. Miss Anderson is ready to present the recruitment and retention update, but
058we're going to push that to the May meeting because you have two public hearings and everything else on this agenda. The policy section I will actually get to get to section C under unfinished business. Under project New Kent Elementary, Mr. Hathaway and our meeting next week so I can get an update on that and I'll share that with the board and then share publicly at our May meeting. So, All right, and we'll move to unfinished business. Yes, sir. So, the first item under unfinished business will stay unfinished unfortunately through tonight and that's the superintendent's recommended budget houses and centers supposed to be coming back in the next week. Um Miss Morton, for the board members. Yes, board chair, board members. Dr. Nichols, thank you. I just have a brief update. I do want to just
059kind of keep us moving a little bit forward with the information we do have when we have it. As you know, we requested an increase of the 1.2 million from the county for the county transfer and currently as is in their most recent proposal, they have a $700,000 figure on that line. So, what I'm proposing here is that we simply shift that $500,000 deficit over into the state revenue line currently just while we await what the state will do in our upcoming capital and see where those revenues will land. Mainly so that when the county advertises the budget it's high enough that whatever actual number ends up being that we're good to adopt that budget. We don't anticipate receiving another half million dollars from the state. So, we will come back to you with our
060recommendations to balance those pieces, but to meet the needs of a public hearing and and those pieces, that's kind of where we are. Obviously another update is with the information that Mr. Davis provided to us this evening. That is great news. I'm so proud of Team New Kent for all their hard work in making that possible. We are going to keep the 7% line item that we have in the budget for our health care mainly to take on that additional increase for our employees so that employees will not see increases in their premiums which is amazing. Also Also, as I believe I told you we were not budgeting for health care for new position requests. And as you know, we can provide a $30,000 benefit for an employee for family coverage for example if someone
061does elect benefits. So, we'll have a little bit of contingency built in there. One change that we do have, we will look at eliminating the new teacher health and PE position that we had slated for the middle school. The team has worked internally to find a solution to um having that med that need met so that we're able to save the 78017. Um also >> Yep. We do still have a health and PE middle school opening. So, I don't want anybody to think there's some doubt. We still do have that opening. We don't have the additional one. We've been able to find savings. Excellent. Efficiencies. >> Um that funding that's going into the contingency line will most likely be cut completely out of the budget as we balance the our state budget. So, um um
062the 82158 we did speak about this a little bit, I think, publicly just about the summer school, um how effective that is, which students were able to get in those programs, and just the need for the after school remediation programs and to really support those and put additional funding into those programs because we're uh the students who are more readily available and able to stay after school and really target those students. Um so, that's the shift that we're proposing. And board members, our summer school this year is still grant funded. So, we will be on [clears throat] June 2nd, whatever the date is. This would be for the following year. And uh we had several board questions and comments about the impact of of summer. We will still do credit recovery for high school students,
063and and that's an essential piece that we need to do. That's our proposal right now. Outside of that, we're kind of just um waiting to see. We're going to try to push on the salaries as much as we're able to in balancing the state revenues that are coming in and trying to hold on as many of these new position requests that we can. Um and just really hoping for the best and trying to make the most impact possible. We should have a um hopefully a more conclusive update uh at the May 4th meeting um as long as the general assembly resolves the budget piece. Yes, there will be a lot of information, I think, at that meeting that we'll have to work through. Um and then we'll be asking you to approve the budget at
064that point and then also um we would then bring it back to you later in May, hopefully, um to adopt it at that time. Once we have a really good idea of what our salaries will be, with your permission and then Dr. Nichols communicating that with you, uh we would look to put out our contracts. Um so, we hope to do that soon. We're happy we have the information on the health care middle. I think hopefully that will make staff happy as well. And board members, you you green-lighted us on the contracts the past couple years, and it's really helped us. Uh so, as soon as we have that state number, we feel like we can finalize it and move that forward. So, uh but we'll communicate that every step of the way. Any budget
065questions? Um I do. With the um the model the the model change after the grant is over for summer school, do we have uh um a model or are there other places that we have looked at that are doing the after school remediation as opposed to the summer school model? Yep. We have a pretty strong elementary model for summer. Return on From yeah. Yes. Yes, for for after school. Sorry. Yeah, that's at summer. I I think what I think we need to spend more time is on is formalizing the middle and high school uh piece and kind of seeing I don't know if I'll speak for Mr. Miller, uh but kind of seeing like what are what are the best practices that get the most students uh related to I think elementary does have that
066figured out. Um but Which is currently also grant funded, and so that grant money would go away. So, these funds will go to continue the model that's going on in elementary and to allow us to expand to middle and high. And where we'll use some of the things we've learned from elementary to to do that as well as looking to some other some other divisions that maybe did that as well. Yeah, so we >> model's really good, right? >> Yeah, we see this thing coming. So, we've got a year to Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Sure. Mr. Chair. Yes. I I uh was going over the stipend schedule uh and uh I I would like to respectfully recommend that a review of the current stipend schedule be conducted at some point. Obviously, it's there's
067a lot going on. Um to ensure that club sponsors and coaches are fairly compensated in accordance with the requirements of the position, including time, responsibilities, preparation, competitions, etc. Um over my teaching career, I I have coached in various positions, and I I can attest to the amount of time, work, and dedication that it takes that's required. So, as an example, over the past several months, we've had wonderful presentations highlighting the amazing work being done by Beta and and DECA clubs and the outstanding performance by our students under the leadership of the current sponsors. Yet, both Beta and DECA sponsors are paid the lowest stipend, which is, you know, uh grade one. Uh so, lowest grade on the scale on the scale, which is about $590 per year. It seems to me that the stipend they
068receive is not commensurate with the amount of work and results they are producing. So, uh hopefully this will also encourage more teachers to consider coaching academic clubs, which in my opinion are often they do not get enough recognition. So, this is just an idea. Uh I know people have a lot on their plate. It may not be something that we could even do for this coming year and and increase their stipends this year, but hopefully maybe we can consider it for next year. >> say we're on the same page. Um I will remind the board in the presentation we did um increase the stipend schedule. So, one thing we had done to try to help with just making sure that it does move regardless of like the decisions that we're making is that we tied
069it to a teacher scale so that always when the teachers were getting increases, at least that those stipends were moving up. Um those stipends can be very stagnant in other divisions and just not ever move. Um this year our proposal for next year, we are moving that up to a master scale, which increases it a little a little bit further. Um but we do have HR has worked um Allison Anderson has worked on reviewing stipends, comparing to other districts, not to say that we're winning or but just to make sure that we're kind of um in range, but certainly absolutely we agree that that's something that can always continue to be looked at, and um we're happy to look at those items. Thank you. Mhm. That's a uh great suggestion recommendation that they they be
070reviewed and Right. and um because you're right, often academic involvement gets left behind and uh athletic involvement uh many times. And as we heard in the presentations, um the Beta teachers are All in. Yeah, they're all in and and uh providing on their own in a lot of cases. And yeah, so we definitely want to That's a great uh great recommendation. >> Absolutely. Uh this could yeah. >> March. Okay. Thank you. And yes. Anyone else? Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Uh so, our next presentation is a second read. Uh Ms. Lawler and Ms. Tucker center back >> [laughter] >> and ready to go. Board members, many of you have had an opportunity to kind of dig in uh to the curriculum. Uh so, they do not have a long presentation for you tonight.
071They really have the recommendations on the reviews and are more than equipped to answer questions. So, the floor is yours, guys. Thank you very much. Chairman Dr. Nichols, members of the board, and members of the community, Kim and I come to you this evening for the second time to talk about the curriculum adoption as part of House Bill 2777. So, our proposal for elementary is just elementary math. We are proposing to purchase one set of K through five materials for each building, electronic access for each teacher and student, and then professional development. The cost is just over 35,600 per year. Secondary is looking at expanding the math program that we've been using. That's Math Space. With this, this would bring us physical materials for teachers, electronic access for teachers and students. That does allow for
072print the resources that are available there as well as professional development. We're hoping for the five-year option that comes in at 126 955. Um then for secondary English, uh here too, it would be physical materials for teachers, electronic access for teachers and students. Again, with the option to print the materials there as well as uh professional development. Again, hoping for the five-year option at uh I'm sorry, 236,000, not 55. Board members, we do have this money in our textbook fund. I believe that question was asked last time, which was a great question. Just wanted to reiterate that for anybody watching. Any questions from the board? Yeah, what would the cost be for the three year? Um okay, one second. I printed out my notes from last time just in case. You have this right before
073you. Yeah, so um let's see. For the Math Space option, uh oh, this is teeny teeny tiny because what I've got would be enough. Big is my 5-year cost. Um I can give you a 5-year or I can pull it and let you know if you're sure. Uh can you pull it and let you know? And Amy, um could this be something to include on our uh on our possible uh reductions if there were budget issue? Uh I know it's textbook. Because the funds exist in textbook, Mr. Wymer, it's not really going to help us and we can't we can't put it I I love the idea. You can't put it in another category. There are local match requirements for the textbook funds. So, what we do is the state provides the textbook fund, we
074put it directly in the textbook fund, and then we come to you annually and >> get no savings from our current budget by The The funding is available for all of this for the 5 years, um and there would be no savings as far as, you know, uh saving money or using it in a different category. >> all I'm ex sorry. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Wymer. Anyone else? >> I have a quick question. Can we go back to the slide that has the breakup with the costs? Yeah, so the elementary math, can you remind me why we're just choosing the 1 year at the cost of K? So, K-on-dais a 1 year at a time purchase right now. Okay. So, they don't offer like Okay. It's a Put it into perspective. I opted for
075a 1-year option. And if I had my handy dandy pro function calculator that we were talking about when you guys came to visit, I could do this math really quickly. Um without that, though, math 3 second tally is 30,000 a year, 5-year option is 25,000, 7-year option is 20,000. So, that's about like the rough estimate difference when it comes to pricing it out by year. Uh for English, the 3-year option is 60,771. And then it's a big drop down for the 5 years. So, the 5-year option is 47,381. Now, that's not going to be charged to us by year, but that's just the overall cost. So, it's still like Given that we can't uh have any budgetary impact to the rest of the budget, unless I misunderstood. Okay. Yeah. So, elementary math just offers the
0761-year option. Okay. That's good to know. Yeah. Anyone else? Any other questions? Thank you so much. Appreciate it. VSP policy update, sir. >> So, uh board members, last month, uh we did the first read on VSP policy updates. I haven't received any questions uh related to that, so that is in front of you uh for a second read. There was a policy or two that would require the superintendent to do regulations upon approval. So, if approved tonight, we will work on the regulations and share those with you. Even the regulations don't require board action, um they do require board information. So, uh we would share those with you. But, happy to answer any questions uh if you do have them. Are there any questions? No? Mr. I just noticed Dr. Nichols, maybe I could explain
077Maybe you just explained that, but there's some areas in some of those policies where we have to make choices, right? Choice A, B, or C, or fill in the blank, include the list of individuals, etc. Is that's Is that what you're referring to that we can do that after? Okay, great. Anyone else? Thank you, sir. Okay, we've come to the point of citizen comment period. Um in the agenda, uh before we begin, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out tonight to share. Uh please note that comments are limited to 3 minutes. Once the timer sounds, please please promptly finish your comment and return to your seat. It is customary for the school board not to make comment during the citizen comment period. Please make sure your contact information is provided on the sign-up sheet
078if you would like someone to follow up with you. And thank you again for coming. We have two um Ms. Leslie Tribbett. If you would Welcome. Thank you. To board members, staff and administration, parents, thank you for giving me 3 minutes. Um before Easter break, my 13-year-old sons told me that they were given vision and hearing tests. Perhaps I'm okay with these medical examinations being administered to my children, perhaps not. I may have signed an online or hard copy permission form, but I don't remember doing so. Um my concern is not this particular situation or my thoughts about this particular exam. My concern is for overall transparency and ease of use for parents regarding parental notification rights and protocol and opt-out instructions. My research turned up 16 pages of Virginia state code that is required
079by school boards to give notification to parents. I'm not even going to try to go into them all. Um the most concerning for me were number one, the youth health risk behavior survey in middle and high school, the Virginia youth survey in middle and high school, which among other things ask my students about their sexual behaviors, my 13-year-old students, and their drug and alcohol use among other questions. 2 days ago, the governor signed Virginia House Bill 355 for middle and high school students to provide mental health screening. I may or may not be okay with that. Sometimes may or may not be okay with that. But, I sure as heck want to be given prior notice of it. And I don't want a fairy and pages and pages of online information given to me at
080the end of the school year. My request to you, school board members, is to provide written notification either by mail or online of all health, medical, behavioral, and risk assessment tests, screenings, and surveys. I would like for each one of those to require an initial understanding the scope of the assessment, the options for opt-out and parental notification, and I'd like to have to sign and initial each one of those individually. I prefer that it be in writing and on paper so it's brought to our attention because who reads the reams and reams of notifications we're given when we're signing at our doctor's office, at the bank, our mortgage papers? Um some of us do. I could point out a couple of you who read every page, but not all of us do, and it's very
081important that we know what our children are being subjected to when they're outside of our care. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Mr. Keith Pagano. Chair, school board members, Dr. Nichols, in my almost 2 and 1/2 year tenure on the board, I've seen the large majority of the school board come together with different and diverse backgrounds to discuss topics, engage in healthy debate, apply rules to the best of their ability, and act as a cohesive team in support of the school, students, division, administration, and the overall education and academic excellence of our children. Team New Kent not only strives for that excellence every day, but our children undoubtedly deserve it. The focus must remain solely on that goal. Talk of political constituency, individual initiatives, and ideas are not proper on a governing board whose
082primary responsibility are the children and students of this county. Remarks were made at a previous regular session board meeting that were selfish, irresponsible, unprofessional, unsubstantiated, and completely without merit. Neither myself nor any of my colleagues on this board have ever engaged in bullying, demeaning, belittling, or dismissive behavior. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under the law, no single member of this board has the power or authority to do anything. And being advised of that fact isn't buzzword worthy. It's simply the application of the rules, laws, norms, and protocols to which each member subscribed and vowed to uphold, whether that board member likes the results or not. For those still serving and those seeking to serve and fill the vacancy, I ask you to to strongly consider and take into account the following. As a
083member of the school board, you are elected by the community and accountable to every resident in this district. That includes the individuals who voted for you, those who do not, and those who didn't even participate in the election. All of those people hold equal standing in that regard. The key responsibility of your role on the school board goes beyond representing any single group or viewpoint or your own. The purpose of the school board is to govern in the best interest in the entire school division. And that is the gold standard. And that means prioritizing the success, safety, and well-being of our students, not yourself. Supporting our educators and our staff, not distracting them. And ensuring that we are responsible stewards of public resources, not wasting them. While you may value and actively seek input from
084the community, your obligation is not simply to reflect public opinion in any given moment. It is to weigh that input carefully alongside data, policy, long-term outcomes, and to make decisions that strengthen our schools for all our students both today and in the future. I lay out this foundation to say this, you are elected by the community, but you serve the school system. Every division Every decision you make must be continued to be guided by what will best serve student achievement, system stability, and the long-term success of our schools, not a political constituency, and certainly not a personal agenda. Your personal thoughts and inputs, as well as those of the community, are important to take into consideration. But once you assume that seat, your allegiance to yourself and your political constituency weighs much less in the
085face of your oath. It seems imperative to remind the community as a whole that school board seat is, in fact, not left, not right, and it's not personalized to the holder of the seat. It's smack in the middle, and the target are the students of our district, the teachers, administrators, and superintendent who tirelessly support them on a daily basis. I'm going to ask you deference to give me 30 more seconds. Therefore, it is a dereliction of duty and a violation of your oath to serve your own self-interest, or to put force or pressure on others directly or indirectly to do the same to achieve your personal goals by using the power and position of the seat you occupy. Skewing the rules and procedures and serving your own self-interest is incompetence at the highest level, a
086gross misunderstanding of the position. And if continued, they rise to the level of just cause for removal from the board. To the Facebook and keyboard warriors who fuel the fire of unfounded gossip as a result of these comments, I challenge all of you to stand up, walk away from your computer, do something of value for your neighbors, perform acts of service in the betterment of your community, or help someone, perhaps a student of our county, who is in need instead of contributing to division without merit. That said, I have every confidence in the New Kent County School Board, the superintendent, and the division leadership who do nothing but pursue as a whole the best interest of New Kent County schools and strive for the ever-expanding academic excellence on a daily basis to continue to do
087so wholeheartedly. I'm further confident that the majority of this board as a whole is committed to taking the focus off of themselves and putting a laser focus on the larger, more important work of the board and school division. I believe with all my heart that the majority of this board and my colleagues will continue to work collaboratively in pursuing big goals for this county, including the passing of this year's budget, the budget in years to come, the building of a New Kent Elementary School, and the relentless pursuit of academic excellence. I fully support them and wish them continued success, and I will continue to avail myself as a resource in and when when and if the need arises. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We move to action items. The first item is approval of
088the Perkins grant. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Kunia. Aye. Ms. Stambrosky. Aye. Mr. Wyatt. Aye. Motion passes. Approval of student fees, fines, and charges policy J N. Do I hear a motion? So moved. A second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Kunia. Aye. Ms. Stambrosky. Aye. Mr. Wyatt. Aye. Next item is school board calendar update. Move to approve the school board calendar update. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Kunia. Aye. Ms. Stambrosky. Aye. Mr. Wyatt. Aye. The next item is adoption of math and English curriculum as presented. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion? Thank you, Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms.
089Kunia. Aye. Ms. Stambrosky. Aye. Mr. Wyatt. Aye. Do I uh approval of the VSBA policy update. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Davis. Mr. Rymer. Aye. Ms. Kunia. Aye. Ms. Stambrosky. Aye. Mr. Wyatt. Aye. All items approved. We come to the part of the agenda for comments. Start with the uh school board members. Mr. Rymer, we may start with you. Um tonight I'm just going to pass. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Stambrosky. Um with that being the month of the military child, I just wanted to express my gratitude to first of all, everyone who is involved in the military, and the service that they provide for our country is extremely appreciated, and to their families, because I know that they have to make sacrifices
090along with with everything that their parents are doing. Um I had the great opportunity to visit for unity at the high school with Ms. Gray, and to just talk briefly with those students to learn about some of their experiences, and the challenges, and the things the resiliency that they've learned in the process of having to move a lot. Um I'm just really grateful that all the effort was put into making the schools a purple heart schools. Um that That means a lot to them and and personally to me, so I'm very grateful for that. Um Katie, thank you for all your work that you're doing on the budget. It's It's phenomenal. Well done, everyone, on the the health renewal. It's amazing to have no increase, and uh just very grateful for everyone's efforts and what
091they're doing to make New Kent schools so awesome. Ms. Kunia. Yes. Uh thank you. I I had the opportunity uh to visit the some classes at the middle school and high school last Thursday, and I really want to thank uh Mr. Miller for making that possible, and Ms. Hutchinson for being uh my liaison that day and taking me around. It was really wonderful to see firsthand the amazing instruction, teaching going on, uh classroom management, the engagement of students, and the conversations that were generated. Not to mention that intro culinary class is way beyond introduction. I will tell you, they were making bolognese sauce. I mean, So it you know, that's why it's so important for uh school board members to have an opportunity to go in and really observe the wonderful things that are going
092on. So kudos to everyone, especially those teachers. I'm not going to mention their names, but thank you for welcoming me into your classrooms. I also got to speak to um uh Dr. Carper. Carper. I It's She's the uh Reading specialist. Right. Reading specialist. And it it was so clear to me that her small group is 15 students. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that is not a small group. So I'm really advocating that we really feel we need another reading specialist. Um so it's so important for us to go in and see where those critical needs are. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, ma'am. That. Thank you. Um I would just like to thank the board um for the honor of serving as chair. I take that very seriously. And also kudos to um
093administration. Um the uh work that's done around here is absolutely amazing. Um I'm um just astonished at how things get done, and how they move, and how the students are tremendous benefactors of all your hard work. So thank you. Thank you very much. And um at that point, I'll pass it on to Dr. Nichols. Thank you, sir. Uh I had comments, and I will tell you that Brandon Crumbs really threw me tonight. Like he really moved me. Mhm. I understand that. I just think of you know, we have it there. We say it all the time, but you know, what makes Team New Kent special is in a program of building or in a single initiative. It's It's the people that drive it. Mhm. When I say people, it's staff, it's families, it's community members,
094it's student leaders. It's like They just show up every day. They believe students can succeed even when kids don't think they can succeed. Um So when we say Team New Kent, it's not just a catchphrase we put on the shirt. It's It's powerful. It's alignment about student outcomes, the shared purpose. Like when we work together as a team, we move mountains. Uh this Navy program, we've gone from 30 kids to over 100 kids in 3 years. Like the Navy can't figure out how to do that. We've done it. And here's how we do it. We do it because we employ really smart people, and we get out of the way, and we give them the resources, and we say, "Do great things for kids, and we're going to be your safety net support." Um so
095when it comes to the health care renewal or the budget or all the those are all just pieces of the puzzle and I pulled Brandon's grades up when he was talking and he's you know he had a rough start but he's got a family that cares about him he's got a community that loves him and he's got teachers that advocate for him and he's got a program that was funded in our budget that's let him thrive. So when we approve this budget know we're going to approve a budget that's going to open the door for the next Brandon Crumbs cuz that's what we do every day so it's an honor and a privilege to serve and I'm just thankful every day for the opportunity. So team New Kent thank you for being the difference and
096and kind of making my job pretty easy. So thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, upcoming meetings. Uh the next meeting of the school board will be regular session Monday, May 4th as approved tonight to be held right here in the historic courthouse board room at 5:30 and with that this meeting is adjourned at 7:30.