001Good evening everybody. I call to order the regular session of the New King County School Board 6 p.m. May 5th, 2025 meeting. Miss Davis, please take the role. Mr. Pagano, present. Miss Kuna, present. Mr. Broski, present. Mr. Ba, present. And Mr. Rhymer, present. All members accounted for. Do I hear a motion to come out of close session? Miss Kuna has the motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Rhyr. Miss Davis, please pull the board. Mr. Rhymer, I. Mr. Vaude, I. Miss Dumbroski. I. Miss Kuna. I. Mr. Pagano. I. Mr. Vault, could you please read the certification of closed session, sir? I will. Thank you. Whereas the new Kent County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote in accordance with the provisions of the
002Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And whereas section 2.2-3711 2-3711 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the new Kent County School Board that such closed meetings 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 requirement by Virginia law were discussed and closed meetings to which this certification resolution applies. and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the new Kent County School Board. Thank you, Mr. Vault. Do I hear a motion to approve the certification? So moved. Mr. Dumbroski has the motion. Do I have a second?
003Second. Mr. Rhymer has a second. Miss Davis, please pull the board again. Mr. Rhyme, I. Mr. B. I. Miss Dumbroski. I. Miss Couna I and Mr. Pagano I thank you very much Dr. Nicholas, we have somebody who's going to lead us in the pledge. We do. As I am speaking, the SCA president for George Watkins Elementary is making her look at that. Are we a team or what? Making her way to the podium. Everybody, please rise. We will also be performing here soon. So, we will follow your lead, my friend. 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 very much. All right. Ne first item on the agenda, Dr. Nichols,
004is presentations, recognitions, and school spotlight. That's correct. So, George Watkins Elementary is our school spotlight tonight. You've met our SCA president. Miss Jerick is now coming in as well with Miss D and some lovely, talented Wild Cats. Welcome, Wildcat. And while they're getting set up, if you have not gone to a musical performance that Miss D puts together, they are absolutely efficient and fantastic. Mr. Jackson is there settled, the floor is yours. I can't spell. I promise. Yes. Good evening, Chairman Padano, board members, Dr. Nichols, and guests. Tonight, George Watkins would like to share with you some of our highlights of SCA and conclude with a song performed by some of our first and second grade students. Here to tell you more is Oakley Carlson, fifth grade student at Watkins and our SCA extraordinaire president.
005Good evening. Each year, Mrs. contribution and fix a song that supports a target that a school has chosen to focus on. This year, I was spreading kindness throughout our school and community. At the beginning of the year, our SCA worked a lot with Mr. Lensky and Miss Madison to brainstorm way to support this store. On two occasions, our SDA made cards for families with families they love and support Christmas. We made cars and sent them to military families overseas which we found out when we found out a tornado had destroyed a school called Destiny Elementary in Texas who thought was also a wild cat. We knew right away their students needed some cheering. We next we held two food drives. one as at Thanksgiving to help Providence United Methodist Church build their food center. We
006collected and boxed up all the donations and went on a field trip and delivered the food. We had so much food donated wouldn't mean anything for months. Later in the year or cost of medical collected and counted boxes of macro and cheese, we arranged the real biograph so students could see who were collected the most. We collected over 600 boxes and then they load the varieties food pantries as well as new camp to help support the backpack. For kindness week, SCA chose to support all the staff with handmade flowers and person. I think they really love their kindness. We also greeted student one of positive affirmations to enhance now special day. Thank you for inviting us to share about this and this fall at George Father SC truly tried to model and set an expectation
007for our peers and hopes that George would continue to be a safe and happy place for Earth. To close, please enjoy our first and second graders performance, our schoolwide song just behind my step. It sounds like 7-Eleven here. Okay, I'll be your friend. I know you'll be mine, too. I'll be the most important thing and we can all be a very special thing for you and for me just because kind words. I feel kind to you. The most important thing that we can be a very special thing for you and for Just be your good friend. I like your ideas and I listen to them. When you fall down, I'll help you back up. When you have a bad day, that's okay. Sometimes we still try to be still. We continue to try to just
008be The most important game that we can all be very special for you and for [Music] me for you and for [Music] Wow. [Music] validated. Okay, first going to go out this way. Go to this side, please. Thank you. Hey, just for the audience, we are going to finish the recognitions piece and then we're going actually going to take a recess. Um, the way the rain is behind me, probably good to hang out for a few moments. So, uh, thank you, George. Thank you. I just have on pants in my class. All right, our next recognition is support staff of the year. And our support staff, we could not do this work without them. We've done teacher of the year forever and ever. A few years ago, uh we made the decision, although the state
009doesn't require it, that we wanted to recognize uh everyone in our organization, especially the support staff that really makes this organization go. So, we surprised them at their school and we told them we'd recognize them a few more times. It is uh teacher/staff appreciation week. So what a great time to do it and then we'll celebrate them one more time. Um so we do want to recognize them tonight. So we're going to start with George. No we're not start we're starting with elementary school and we have our schoolbased substitute uh office support superintendent trainer extraordinaire uh with high school. the banner. We're going to do you have to sing. So, this song No, you will go over there. That'll make me take a sports center. You just have to go first and stand there alone.
010Our next employee is from George Watkins Elementary. Uh, and Becky Davis really does it all. So, congratulations, Mr. Davis. Thank you. All right, our next awardee, we're going to stay elementary. Um, and words can't describe what Miss Bennett actually does to make Newton Elementary an incredible place. So, we want to celebrate her and recognize her. Moving up to the middle school, uh, New Cap Middle School. Uh, the quiet voice that makes things go in that classroom is, uh, Janica Ker. Last, we do not see. We'll make sure she gets this. So, our high school support staff of the year uh has double honors because this year our high school staff support person of the year is also the division staff support of the year and we didn't know that she would make it on time.
011So, sometimes the weather is a blessing because uh she's the athletic trainer extraordinaire and she takes that gator all over the field. So, we thought we'd have to delay a little bit, but congratulations Miss Emily East. The question again staff person. All right. Grab a chair to Oh, no. That's better picture without us. Go ahead. Get one more. [Laughter] Congratulations, guys. All right, continuing recognition. There we go. It is also teacher appreciation week. So, we are celebrating our teachers and staff everywhere this week. Uh there's no corner unturned that does not have some amazing food. So, it's also the week that you gain 10 15 pounds. So, uh this is the week we celebrate our teachers and staff and all that we do. So, if you see a teacher, see a part of team new
012cat, please thank them for their incredible work and what they do each and every day. So, it is teacher appreciation week. It is also May is very busy. The recognition of school nutrition employee week. So April 28th to May 2nd, um our school nutrition employees are lunch heroes. Often they wear capes and are dressed up as such. So we want to thank them for their hard work and everything they do to provide thousands and thousands of meals to our students. It is also a recognition of Children's Mental Health Awareness Day. That is May 7th. It's dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of children's mental health and well-being. It emphasizes the children's mental health is crucial for a child's healthy development and we do have a mental health grant that we work in partnership with
013the Virginia Department of Education. So definitely want to recognize that it's also recognition of school nurse appreciation day uh initially uh for most of good tornado warning. Great. Carry on, sir. Carry on. It's a school nurse uh day uh has been set aside to celebrate our school nurses. Yeah, the alerts. Yeah. Do you have that set for New York or Province Wars? Uh, we're going to continue the meeting, but everybody stay in the building at least for the next 20 to 30 minutes. Certainly. Yeah. Um, New Cat Elementary, Amy Coyle and Karen Fish, George Watkins Elementary, Amanda Avery, Kimberly Dodson, Quinton Elementary School, Debbie Harris, Lindy Duncan, New Middle School, Amber Ronin, the Sel, and then Julia Lman and uh, Patricia Van Fson. Uh, we commend them and celebrate them. It is also recognition of
014better speech and hearing month and speech pathologist day that is May 18th. uh dedicated to raising awareness about communication disorders and celebrating the contributions of our amazing speech language pathologists. Next up is our senior of the month and I believe I Oh, yes. I never mind. Let me introduce you to our senior of the month who is none other than Isaiah Colts. Uh, senior of the month was started last year, last month. So, we had our first senior of the month. We want to introduce you to Isaiah. Isaiah is an incredible uh, student who's going to tell you more about his career plans and what he plans to do after high school. So, Isaiah, I'm get the podium for you because we kind of the floor is yours, sir. Thank you for being here. Good
015evening, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, schoolboard members, Dr. Nichols, and guests. My name is Isaiah Kohl's. For my e decision, I chose enrollment. This fall, I will be attending Virginia Commonwealth University to receive a degree in music. I chose enrollment because I've known ever since freshman year that I want to dedicate my life to music. It has proven to be an invaluable source of joy, growth, and connection. And it is something I cannot live without. After exploring my options, I realized that continuing my education at a university with rooted connections and dedicated professors would give me the best foundation for my career. At VCU, I plan to major in music performance, focusing on low brass, more specifically the tuba. After college, I hope to perform professionally, teach music, and bring the joy of music to
016others. A class at Nick High School that has been instrumental in helping me reach this point is the band classes of Mr. H. His encouragement, guidance, and dedication to music has helped me grow not just a musician, but as a person. His ability to connect with others through music has inspired me to do the same. As I move forward and pursue music at the next level, I hope to carry that same spirit with me. Before I finished, I would like to sincerely thank Mrs. Strickland for nominating me as senior of the month. I am truly honored to be recognized. I also want to thank my parents for their constant support and encouragement along the way, as well as the countless sacrifices they have made throughout this journey. I truly could not be here where I
017am today without them. I am grateful as well to the many mentors who have helped me along the way such as the VCU professor Jeff Hudson whose guidance over the past four years has been an incredibly important part of my musical growth. I am incredibly thankful for all the people who have believed in me and helped me reach this point. I'm excited for the future and I look forward to carrying everything I've learned here at Newton High School into the next chapter of my life. Thank you. tremendous app just swimming in to thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you. When I say I get to work with incredible young people every day, Isaiah definitely embodies that. Um, so we have some state champions. Uh, we hope to have more state champions. We'll talk about that
018later with the athletes of the month. Um, Bridging Communities recently went to states um and they took I believe five students to states and three of them are part of team new and also team bridging I guess together. So uh the first person we want to recognize tonight is Caleb Merritt who is the state champion in HVAC. switching. So, Caleb is uh going to work for Merit Holmes. Um so, he is already on his employment pathway. So, very proud of Caleb. I could have used you last week. Seriously, I don't know why I didn't call you. Um, so that is Caleb. Uh, next up we have Harrison Adams. I'm older. Harrison. I'll forget if I don't read it. Harrison is the state champion in marine services technology at the Skills USA competition. Now, fun fact,
019Harrison has already decided on his next steps in employment pathway and he picked an incredible employer. He's going to work for New County, not not schools. Okay. Yeah, we we're very territorial county schools. Uh so, we're very excited. He's going to join our maintenance team. We also had a third place uh winner and that was Nathan Sweeney. Nathan uh for his achievement in power equipment technology. So yeah, I'm his mom here for my daughter. Mom's doing double duty today. Well, thank you mom. want to make [Music] sure board members none of this work could be done. They will also represent us in nationals I believe which is in June and Atlanta June in Atlanta. Uh board members your commitment to bridging communities we've added 20 more seats this year but really none of this could
020be done without Dr. Ellis who is the director of bridging community. she really makes this go in opportunities like this. So, uh congratulations again guys and uh thank you uh for everything you do. Thank you. Right. So, next up we're going to recognize our athletes of the month. Um, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the first one before she comes up here. Uh, so Kenley Row, actually, it'd be more embarrassing if you came up here first. I do that. All right. Kenley Row is our athlete of the month. So, just let me let me tell you a little bit about Kennley. Uh, Kennley is a 10th grade student at New Kent High School, working through honors level coursework on her advanced diploma. She's the daughter of Mike and Amy Row. In addition to
021being a star softball athlete, she's also a hardworking student. Um, she currently has a 3.6385 grade point average and is recognized as an honorable student. Um, she's held the highest batting average on the team with a Is that possible? These are the stats I have. So, it's it's official. 727 average. She scored 15 runs, 10 RBI's, four stolen bases, zero errors at second base. She leads by example, puts the team first, and she is fantastic. She plans to follow the enrollment pathway with hopes of becoming a nurse. Uh, so want to congratulate Henley on being our student athlete of the month. Our next student athlete of the month is none other than Michael Hzel. Let me tell you a little bit about Mr. Hudzel. He's a 12th grade student at New Kent High School, working
022through dual enrollment level coursework, pre-calculus, calculus, biology, and honors level English on his advanced diploma. Um, he's the son of Tim and Melissa Hetszel. Uh, off the field, he also excels in the classroom as he upholds a 4.176 GPA and has been recognized as an honoral student for quarters one, two, three, and soon to be four. He's had an outstanding start to his senior baseball season. Um, these stats are at the time I got him, so if they're a little off and I missed a home run, I'm okay. We're okay. Uh, Michael's led our team to an 81 start. Is currently batting 522. He leads the team with 17 RBI's and has the most a extra base hits on the team. He's a team leader on and off the field. He signed a letter of
023intent with Rono College. He plans to follow the enrollment pathway. Um he plans to play baseball at Ron Oak. Um he believes that college is the best fit for him. Um and he's excited about doing big things there. Plans to declare his major in engineering. Um and Michael being who is wants to thank coach Ronin and his family for everything he's been able to accomplish. Uh so incredibly proud of him and uh tried to get him an extra year of eligibility here in New Thank you, Dr. Nichols. We are now going to take a fivem minute recess. Everybody is free to leave, but obviously proceed with caution. We are under a storm warning. Thank you. session. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. So board members, by now you've had the opportunity to
024review the items listed in the consent agenda, including the meeting minutes from February 2025 meeting, monthly financials from March of 2025, and the superintendent's recommendations regarding personnel matters. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Mr. Vaude has the first. Do I have a second? Second. Miss Kuna has a second. Miss Davis, please pull the board. Mr. Rhymer, I. Mr. Vaude, I. Miss Temprosski. Hi. Miss Kuna. I. And Mr. Pagan. I. Consent agenda is approved. Moving on to new business. First item is the launch programming update. Mr. Miller. Yeah. Uh good evening members of the board. Dr. Nichols. Um it's my pleasure to come to you and give you just an update on where we're at with summer for this year. Um so our goals for this year um
025is as you can see provide basically some targeted support for students um who basically need building of of skills over the summer just to be ready for the next school year. And so we're focused on sort of what are those skills, those entry level skills for next school year that would be most helpful and having teachers um providing support there. Um we're also at that upper level um providing recovery classes. So what recovery classes are are for students who um were unsuccessful in classes during the year. So um and need to recover those credits. And then we also do some so prep courses at the high school level. uh for a student to graduate they must pass one so in every subject area and so um we want to provide as much uh basically remediation
026um ahead of time or immediately follow the course and then retest so those students who are taking well prep course courses will actually test this summer again and so it's a quick turnar around try and get them remediated on the skills they missed and then also our students with disabilities um if they have it in their individual education plan then they will have extended school year um program in the schools as well at all levels. There we go. So um we've been working with we have admin interns at each of the elementary schools and middle school and then and the high school and they basically are the admin for summer school. And so I've been working with them on identifying students who to invite. And we're looking at um basically benchmark scores or class grades
027or um information on how students have done throughout the year um to as an initial selection invite. And then as we've starting to give SOS last week and this week as students if we see students who have struggled on those then we're adding them into the list as well and to go ahead and get them in there. Um and that's for elementary and middle high school. uh it's basically it's students who um were not successful in a course or were not successful in an so either way from either in high school remember we're all semester so anyone who was in the first semester who wasn't able to get it basically a repeat class in their second semester they will be invited to come for some so um we're going to be starting right after school
028let out this year um with still another shortened summer but then the addition of time back at the beginning of June we wanted to just jump straight into it as early as we could. Um, and then go right up to the 4th of July break. Um and so it's does run four hours a day each of the basically all those high school we do go one extra um one extra week u to get some extra hours in for the recovery courses um because they do need since they're recovering an entire course need more time and and board members I just want to point out because you've had some of these discussions um and Ross could talk specifically about the funding piece uh related to it um we're trying to maximize the money that we have
029allocated for summer. So if we were to do let's say a full day or let's say six six weeks seven. So the funding associated with that is not present now. We're already relying on we were eser grants first now we're doing some all-in grants. Um so uh the idea of doing more um we talk about quite quite a bit. Right now this has us maximizing the funds we have allocated for summer. Um, so if we want to do something different or more, we we'd really have to look at that differently from a from a financial aspect. So just wanted as he was kind of going that through, we've talked about it quite a bit, the length, the times, and all of those different components, too. So once again, we're ineligible for a lot of grants
030that support extended learning because of how successful we are as a school division. Um, so success sometimes is is held against you in in the world of grants. So, sorry. That's okay. Um, yeah, the um I we are looking at other other forms of funding for the coming years because we came to the end of now we're coming to the end of all in and so we'll need extra funding. Um and then and as Dr. Nichols said either our achievement and or the other thing they look at is your pre-re lunch list and we don't have a high enough percentage there to really qualify for a lot of grants. So, but we are going to be looking for additional funding for next year and see basically how we can work things or work things differently
031for next year. Um, the different components that we are going to have is we will have reading and math are the main two um subject areas will be focused on for elementary and middle. Um, all classes will include pre-est, post- test, uh, beginning and end. We will have um steam classes at the elementary school that students cycle through for a little bit and then middle school will have resource classes as well to go ahead and give them um a different way basically of hitting some of those literacy and math skills. Um and then high school again like I said credit recovery it's basically a shortened version of what they took during the year um to try and hit the just the skills that they missed during the year. Why off of the resource classes? Um,
032basically it's some of it is we talked about removing them this year. We had them in the past. Um, there was a a feeling that basically if we went a full three or four hours on reading and math, students would burn out some and they already got that feedback last year. um we asked at the end of the year and so there's um we do already have students who don't come um and because it's summer and we want to get get as many on here as we can who need it. Can you the board member have a question? Mr. Chair, Mr. V. Um Mr. Miller, I'm assuming, and which is a terribly dangerous thing to do, but in terms of communication with the parents, uh, has this been ongoing that they're following the parents are
033following either the the the the failure part of it or andor um they're fully aware, in other words, at the end of the school year, my student, my son, my daughter is going to need to be a part of this. Yeah. Mo most most of the students who have been invited have been receiving intervention throughout the and so they're aware of their student um that we're trying to provide as much intervention as they can for their student and so they're pretty much all aware there unless there something came up weird on the so that suddenly we had a student that we for some reason um they just didn't do well on the so other than that pretty much all of these students have been receiving some type of and Mr. Mr. Chair, if I can
034follow up with that, please. Um, have we considered and is it feasible for a public/private type grants involving the community for students? I can't think of any business or any individual who wouldn't want to see a student have more time and do better. We we haven't we haven't looked for any specific private ones. Um, but I we would not be against that. Um, okay. I mean, is that something that we can Yeah, we can definitely look into that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome. Any other please? Um, as far as the number of Do we have like an approximate number of students that will be invited right now? I know there's some still things up in the air, but yeah. So at elementary we've invited approximately 300 and
035um the about the same number at middle school. I'll say the the return rate has not been high and um we've even we've basically sent out direct invitations. We've had teachers calling home and talking with parents. Um and the return still hasn't been all that high. Um and middle school um we've at this point this past week we've just went ahead and opened it up and sent it out as a general. Hey, if you'd like to come, we have these that have already said they're coming, but anybody else who would like to come, we're taking people as well. Gotcha. And then one more question if I may. In regards to the high school students or middle school maybe with they don't pass the class, if I understood it correctly, this opportunity gives them the ability
036to in that period of time pass the class so they don't have to take it again. Correct. Correct. Correct. High school. High school. Okay. Great. And then I do have one more question in regards to the so test um or just the testing in general. Well, there'll be testing before and after I'm assuming again a dangerous thing but getting the results uh presented to the school board. Yes, definitely. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you, M. Sorry. Just one more question. It It's still called launch. So, is it pretty much the same program as last year? Very similar to last year. Yeah. With just those tweaks with the reading and the math. Yeah. Okay. It's more of a focus on the reading and math. Okay. Because last year you did both during that time.
037Um are students who are struggling more in math going to have more time to devote to that or is it still going to be split between both? Thank you, M. Miller. Thank you. Moving on. Approval of fiscal agents and authorized signatures. Moreheim. Mr. Mr. Chair, board members, Dr. Nichols. Um, two things tonight. One thing that's in board docs is actually the authorization of signatures and absence of the division superintendent. Um, so Jonathan Hogman, assistant super operations and Hanny War, myself, chief administrative officer. Um, we are requesting approval for a one-year period um this evening that we're able to sign u basically anything that the superintendent could sign and we only sign if if by chance he's not available. So, it's not very often um but sometimes required. Separate of that, I do believe you all
038need to just um make note that I am your fiscal agent along with Dr. Nichols as well so that we can make financial decisions on behalf of the school board. So, two separate items kind of similar reasoning behind it. And board members, this is an annual this time last we'll come before you every day uh with this annual uh update. So, and the authorization runs June to June. Correct. Well, July 1st. Correct. Yes, sir. Anybody have any questions of Miss Morheim? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Miller, you're up again, sir. Federal grants. Federal programs grants. Great. Uh members of the board, u have bring the federal uh program grants before you. Um this is four of our federal program grants titles 1 2 3 and four and those applications are due
039July 1. So we start now with a first read this month in May and then a second read in June for that'll then come up for vote in June. So just to give you a little bit of overview of what each of them is for. So, Title One is intended to provide funding for um low-inccome um basically schools with low-income students to provide extra intervention for those students. Um and while it says, you know, schools with high numbers or high percentages of students from low-income families, pretty much every every division in Virginia has the opportunity to apply for these and we'll get them if they apply um with a basically an application that is approvable by the state. So um even though we have a lower percentage we still can apply for it and we
040get a certain amount of funds that are guaranteed to us uh title and so that is provide intervention services as well as um services for um homeless students as well as u parent engagement activities and I'll go into that a little bit specifics. Title two focuses on teacher quality um making sure teachers are quality are licensed as well as receive professional development. Title three is to support English learners and provide extra services for them. And title four is this newer grant that came out about six or seven years ago and it's called student support grant. And so you can um basically put money in different pockets for technology or for um expanding the well-roundedness of education or college career life planning. So, so going through each one of them more specifically, title one, this is
041our largest of these four grants. Um, we received we're anticipating at least $39,000 or 31326 um because they do try and guarantee you get the same as the previous year and that's what we got this past year. We currently have two of our elementary schools who are eligible for title one. To be eligible, you have to have a free reduced lunch percentage less than the division average and so um higher high sorry yeah has to be higher free lunch has to be higher than the division otherwise and so why yes so George Watkins was eligible up until last year and there's their free reduced lunch fell below the division So um so the the usage of these funds as I had said we use them for intervention services mostly through salaries and benefits for some
042of our specialists our reading and math specialists. We also use it to provide materials supplies for those specialists to use as well as some of some for the teachers to use. We um use it to fund some of our parent engagement events. So if we have um say food at a parent engagement event or some sort of uh books that we give away for a parent engagement event, build a home library, things like that, we can use title one funds for that. We also our um our school social worker Carolyn Kelly, she f she works with our homeless population and so she uses funds there to also support students um that are currently experiencing homelessness. Title two. Um, this past year we received $65,390.35. So, we expect at least that much. Um, we use this
043for a couple different things to promote um teacher quality. One is tuition assistance for teachers to either extend their lensure to a new area or to um or to go to school to keep their license or to if we have students or teachers who are have a provisional license meaning they haven't quite finished their lensure then we'll use it for tuition assistance there. We also have a mentor program for all new teachers and we use this to as a to pay small stipens for all our mentors. We pay for conferences um for teachers to attend to go ahead and provide professional development. We do have some consortiums that we're members of um that provide professional development for our teachers and then also um to help teachers with endorsements as they are um trying to progress
044as far as the number of endorsements they have. One case of that is right now we're using it to fund some teachers to get their ESL endorsement this summer. And um so we have sent out a a survey. they had about 10 to 11 people say, "I'd love to sort of go to that program, learn how better to um assist those students because that population is growing." So, speaking of title three is to support our ESL population. This is our smallest grant. Um, we only get about $4,100 for that. Um, we use that to buy get materials to support the instruction for their ESL population. Also to provide professional development for both our classroom teachers as well as our ESL teachers. We do use it for some parent engagement events for our ESL families. And
045then also we um purchase some assessments that we use for progress monitoring throughout the year u before they get to state assessments towards the end of the year. Lastly is our title four grant. Uh there we received $22,500. We use that to fund some career planning software that we use for our students to both explore careers at the elementary level and then they build their academic career plan starting in middle school with that software. It follows them through and actually interfaces with powers school, our scheduling software so that as they look at career pathways, they can see the courses that would align with that they would want to schedule into. We also use that to pay for welding course enrollments for our students. Uh four students per year to go to the welding program at
046RCC. And those students have the opportunity to earn up to four credentials in the welding field while they're in that program. Then uh we also use it to provide steam materials for our steam classes at the elementary level. So this is again this is a first read. The grant applications are in there if you'd like to read through those. um they are extensive. Um one of the things that you that you'll notice that I didn't talk about in here is any private schools that are within our geographic area uh we must offer title two, three and four services too. And so we do have one of one private school within our geographic area and they do um take part and so our title for title two and title four. So some funds do go to
047the private school for that. Um for title one it's actually a little bit different. we actually have to contact any school that may be receiving one of our students from the title one schools. So, we actually contacted 43 different private schools this year and um thank and thankfully none of them wanted any money. So, um they've all declined and um and so we're able to keep all that locally and use that to fund our inventions here locally. Mr. Miller, I have a question back. the title one grant obviously out of the total funds it gets proportioned between the items you have listed there under fund usage but I'm curious do we have a range of students in new kent that are experiencing homelessness so yes each year we have it's not so large but each
048year we have between 15 to 30 um students that um that are experiencing homelessness that we provide u materials to through to throughout the year and and the depth Just to make a point of clarification, the definition of homeless. My next question, does not necessarily mean that they're not, it could be I'm living with a relative or family friend. I do not have my own residence uh and I'm experiencing uh those different pieces. We also have students because under the Mckenn Vento Act, uh we're required to continue to provide medication if a student experiences homelessness even if it means they're outside of our district. So, we um I can get you exactly where we go, but right now we're going to several other jurisdictions to pick up kids who have become homeless during the year
049so that they have the continuity of George Watkins Elementary or they have the continuity of New High School when their world is changing. We can continue to give them what we do every day. Um so, federally under federal law, they're required to do that. Um but it's it's not necessarily it's it's multiple definitions of of homeless. Thank you. And we can use title one funds to provide that transportation. We have not needed that as of yet. Um Mr. H has been able to do that without the title one funds. So mostly we use that for back to school items, backpacks, um and um pencils, notebooks, things like that. As well as um more recently people getting ready for graduation were able to buy caps and gals for um state. Does anybody else have any questions?
050I do. I have one. Mr. Chair, Mr. How many ESL students do we currently have? Is that number growing? And has it grown since last year? Yes. So, um this year we've had a pretty large influx of students. So, we currently have there we have 55 students who um are either in um either classified as ESL or currently in monitoring status. So, once the student test out, you have to monitor them for four years afterwards to make sure they're still making progress. um approximate I think it's we're in the 44 45 range currently are currently identified as ESL. Uh we've had um this year over the last two years we've almost doubled um in two years. Um this past year we've had a larger influx of students who are coming in with um basically a
051lower proficiency in English um than what we've had in the past. So um when you measure English proficiency, it's on a scale from basically one to five. technically one to six, but once a student gets to above to a five, they test out of ESL. So, um, so all those students, a lot of students we've been getting this year are testing in at a level one. Um, which means basically extensive support is needed and it has very little English. Um, and in some in some cases, they have limited u formal instruction from the c the country they're coming from. And so, um, there's a variety of different supports we put in place to help those students. Level one in kindergarten all day every day because level one as a junior and I think we're starting
052to some of our growth is in areas that we weren't really anticipating in secondary schools. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've had a lot of middle school high school growth this past year. I was going to ask and a lot of them are coming in with sort of a level one to level two proficiency. Wow. And so my last question is why is the grant amount so low? Is it based on the number of students or it it is based on the amount of grant funds that come to the state and then they divide that down by how many you have in your division and so yes so we have a we're a low incident division and so um we don't get very much and the grant in and of itself just is is small to start
053with even at the state level is insufficient to provide the support that that our students really need. Most definitely. Yes. And I think that's a good point too, Ross. While we do have the federal grants, it's a very small part of our overall budget. So all of these things we also do from an operating perspective. Sure. Yeah. We we have three three ESL sta um full full-time staff members. So I mean that's way above $4,000 um to have those services and then we also provide um additional materials for them above and beyond $4,000. Yes. But what's the cost to us the grant application? No, it's freed up a lot. Yes. And the time the time that goes into it, um which is probably more of what you're leaning towards there. Um it's probably it's a
054couple hours um to fill out the application. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Yes, please. Couple of questions. with the state with the department of education being in flux I guess do you I noticed that they have the department of education for Virginia on them is that always just funneled through them and then goes it way makes its way to the state. Yes. So um federal grants most of them um that are these title grants flow through the state as an agency and then from the agency then they flow it out to the local agency. There are some grants that have straight flow through to the division um and but there are very few and we've had one that we we did for a couple years which was for Native Americans and so nothing at this point has
055changed in that regards as to how that operates. Currently, yeah, currently nothing is being adjusted. I mean, we're keeping an eye on it, um, to see if any of these get readjusted. Um, but as of right now, they have not indicated that any of these are being adjusted. And Musk, my understanding is where they originate at the federal level will shift, but our process on our end with the state uh should not as of 658. Thank you. And then how is it determined how much will go to the local private school? Good question. So it actually is dependent on how much we're spending on each individual student within our division. So um we take a look at we we do our part of the grant first and then the private school it's big Excel document.
056Private school has towards the end and we have to get information from the private school how many students they have and how many students would qualify for that specific grant. And so we filled that in and it kept then goes back and looks at well how much did you spend towards your students and it should be an equivalent amount going to these students. Um so yeah that sounds really fun. Um anybody else? That's all I had. Thank you Mr. Miller. Thank you. Thanks sir. Thank you. Next up's code of conduct review. Miss Sutton. So Miss Sutton is coming to the podium. She is pinch hitting for Mr. Hoffman who is not here tonight. um wonder some wonder but this pinch hitter will knock it out of the park. So by day uh Stephanie is our
057assistant principal at George Watkins Elementary School. Also by day/ night she is our division safety leader. Um so she helps keep us safe and really coordinates with the rest of the schools and part of safety is the code of conduct. So she's going to talk to you about a first read. Once again this comes back to you in June. uh asking for your approvals. Uh Miss Sutton, thank you for being here. Uh the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Nicholas. Good evening. I'm here tonight on behalf of the code of conduct committee to present the first read of the proposed updates to the 2025 2026 code of conduct. This committee included teachers, staff members, parents, and administrators from all five schools, as well as a student representative. The changes
058that I'll outline tonight reflect both the committee's recommendations as well as updates required to align with the revised state reporting categories. Our current code of conduct is divided into five sections. This um last update from the state has included a six section which is entitled um persistently dangerous behavior which we are proposing to add to our local code of conduct. The next few slides will illustrate the levels of discipline that are assigned to each behavior listed in the code of conduct. They range from level one, which would be um interventions such as a parent contact or after school detention, and then they go through level two, level three, and four, and then up to level five, which in comparison includes long-term suspensions of more than 10 consecutive days. We will now review each section of
059the code of conduct and the proposed changes. In section A, behaviors that impede the academic progress, there is one proposed revision. In BAP3, the term dishonest will change to dishonesty to read scholastic dishonesty with cheating and plagiarism in parenthesis. And this update ensures that we're consistent with state language. In section B, behaviors related to school operations. This section has several changes. BSO3, refusal to comply with requests of staff in a way that interferes with the operation of school. Currently, this um and this behavior has a discipline code of 1, two, or three, and the committee is proposing to add a level four discipline option. BSO4. This item will be removed to align with the updated state code. And then BSO15, students not going to classes assigned. And BSO16, student and unauthorized area of campus. These
060are both new additions from the state code. So the committee recommends discipline levels of 1, two, and three for both of these offenses. And board members, just a reminder on the code of conduct. So the range allows an administrator to make a decision based on the student further if a student is there for the third time or the severity of what they're doing um warranted. It allows for a greater consequence. So that's why you're seeing level four in BSO3 because if you're refusing to apply requests of staff in a way that and it's dangerous um then it needs to be more than 5 days. we need to send a message and and really be strong with it and the same with the other pieces. So just that's a lot of the conversation that the committee
061has had is giving the school the flexibility uh when the situation wants it. Can I have a quick question? What was BSO4? You said it was moved but removed. So several of them are moved into the later persistently dangerous or they're rewarded. And so this one is BSO4 is failure to be in one assigned area or excuse me assigned place which then kind of goes to that BSO 15 and 16 not going to classes assigned and students in unauthorized areas of campus. Makes sense. Thank you. Mhm. And section C. Um, if we could hold our questions to the end of the presentation, that's fine. For for order, pertinent to the place that we are, but that's fine. Go ahead, M. Thank you. Thank you. Um, section C is relationship behaviors, and in this section, there
062are no changes being proposed. Section D is behaviors of a safety concern. BSC13, engaging in reckless behavior that creates a risk of injury to self or others, which includes shoving, pushing, hitting, biting. The committee is recommending adding a level four discipline option here. It is currently 1, two, and three. Right now in BSC 17, the wording will change to from shoving, pushing, striking a student with no visible injury to minor physical altercation with no injury. And this is to align with the changes in the state code BSO 20 or excuse me BSC 20 and BSC21. These items will be removed as they no longer appear in the state code. If I come to those um these two are actually listed separately in the persistently dangerous which we'll get to in a second. So they're not
063being removed as much as they're being moved. Um the last one in this section is BSC 24. The wording will be revised from leaving school grounds without permission to leaving without permission, alopement. And that is to be consistent with state terminology. Right now with the previous terminology, it was a level one and two. The committee is recommending a level three, four, and five just because of what Dr. Nichols spoke about before. the safety of the incident. And the next section E, behaviors that endanger self or others, B E3, fighting the use of physical violence between students or another person where there is minor injury as determined by the school administrator. Currently carries a one, two, or three level where the committee is proposing to add a level four there. also be ES08. This will be
064removed as it has been um moved to that new section of the persistently dangerous BES8 crime charged in the community. This is a new addition in the state code. So the committee is recommending adopting it with discipline levels 1 2 3 four and five because it can carry such a broad range. The last section is section F persistently dangerous behaviors. This new section has been introduced by the state. It includes both newly defined behaviors and items previously removed from earlier sections. The committee recommends that all behaviors in this section be assigned discipline levels 1 2 3 4 and five along with the involvement of the school resource officer. The next section is we wanted to report on the data from the portable electronic communication device. And right now we have in the middle school there
065have been 215 violations involving 140 different students. In the high school there have been 490 violations involving 347 students. So board members, you can see in that that for most of our student, well, one, most of our students have not had a violation. Uh just over half at the high school. Um but when you have a violation, that's typically the end of it. Um so students have done a nice job, staff have done a nice job, and our families have been very responsive as well. Um in year one, if you remember code of conduct from last year, most of our conversation was around uh this topic here. So, uh, they've done a nice job of of the enforcement and implementation. So, there are two updates being proposed from the committee. The first one is in
066the first paragraph. The committee proposes to add field trips to the list of times when electronic devices are prohibited. The updated statement would read, "Students are prohibited from using any electronic device, cell phone, and or wireless earbuds during the instructional day, including class changes, lunches, and field trips. And then the second um proposed change comes in the first offense section under the secondary consequences table. And the committee is proposing to change the second bullet of the first offense from the teacher calls to state the teacher contacts the guardian confidentially and notifies them that the device is now securely stored in the main office. These are the revisions that reflect the committee's commitment to maintaining a safe and respectful learning environment. We thank you for your time and consideration. And if there are any questions, Mr.
067Chair, Mr. B. Um, according to Dr. Nichols comment about the administrators making the and make sure that I understood what you're saying. Yes, sir. The administrator will make the determination of the level on a particular fraction. Has the state not provided any guideline so that we don't find ourselves in a situation where two different students same infraction but are given two different levels which could ultimately become quite a because that's that's determined I realize the student before then but it also um I don't think any of us um are impervious to some biased or bias or or something. No, I think that's a a great question. So, the state guidance piece, the state guidance piece that I know of does not include uh levels. It just includes the fences. It does include which ones we
068have to contact law enforcement for, but other than that, it's my understanding that it does not. And and most of the time, Mr. Bla, it goes down to the number of times it's happened. So this is Miss Well, it would be Miss Stephanie's first offense or it's her second similar to the cell phone piece in the second, third, fourth. But uh another piece that we do behind the scenes with the administrators is to go through uh the consequences they've given out to students and kind of uh regulate, check and balance to make sure that we are doing that. So you take the high school for example, you have three different administrators. That's not true. We have an inter intern as well that could give out consequences. If I get to in high school, there was
069one assistant principal I always wanted to go to. Not that I ever went to them, um, but I knew the consequence was going to be different versus the other piece. So, we do behind the scenes that sort of cross-checking piece to to try to offset that concern that you have. Absolutely. Would it not be worth consideration as if I were the administrator? I would rather have a definitive than an opinion um in making a decision so that that doesn't come back on me if that makes sense. That makes sense. Just for conversation sake something we may take up at a work session but just for consideration. Well consideration we could so this is a first read. Um so I think some of the work we can do now is to consider sort of tasking the
070committee with that pieces. So some of our ranges are one to five. Like one of the things in my head as we saw the the PD the new section I don't know that there need to be a one in there at all. Um so maybe it's it's so I mean I think one of the recommendations could be to tighten those ranges. Yeah. Um so that there is when you have a range of one to five that's that's a lot. Um so I I think that's something we can work with Mr. Hutton and the team on in between right now. Absolutely. Anyone else? I do have one question. I don't know that it pertains specifically to this, but a leader in the community approached me at one point and asked if we had anything established where
071students who have been suspended can go instead of just going home and being allowed to do different things or, you know, they're like, "Yay, I got time off from school." Um, it was something that he mentioned he'd be happy to be involved in, but I'm not sure with the logistics what we can do as a school releasing or encouraging a student to be able to attend something outside of something that's governed by the division. So, I've actually done this in a previous school division and there are a number of ways that you do. Your faith-based community is is often a great partner in this piece. Um, so what we had done then is we set up u it's called stay up while you're out but it wasn't at night so that the name never made
072sense to me but um so they would go and do their work under supervision but the arrangement was really between the organization and the family and we didn't really have a a a piece there but um that is something that we can look at um in terms of community partnerships um and those pieces Um now in it we did not provide transportation and all those other logistics that have been given away. Um but um it is it is something that we can look at and I think we have some community partners may be interested in trying that with us or at least one maybe. You know I have a quick question. uh the notion of Saturday school when I was going through the different levels I think it appeared once or how how do you
073determine what would fall under a Saturday school and is it a matter of staffing and just resources not having enough to to have more Saturday school as an option for I think that's a big piece of it is the um the number of people that it would take um I'm in the elementary side so we don't see that used frequently. Dr. Nichols, can you speak to that? Absolutely. So, so the high school is the one that that uses it most often. Um it is a logistics issue in terms of the the student has to get there. Um it is an elongated detention. Um the high school uses detention quite often and quite well. Um and we're able to utilize transportation related to that piece too. Um so there are occasions where they do that. Um
074and it's it's sort of a teacher assignment piece. Teacher uh basically volunteers it's it's a duty assignment. So the teacher actually runs a Saturday school for that student that did cause the inraction students. I mean it be more than yeah more of an efficiency piece for the number of students. Is that teacher compensated for that time? I believe it is a self- selected duty. Yeah. So really so there teachers at the high school partnership and I can get you more information on this miss but do have um some authority and everybody has a duty. What duty would you like to do? I see. Um so there are a couple that do detention as their duty. There are some that go to lunch uh which may be a detention for the person going to lunch. Um
075so it just really depends on on the staff member. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you for the assistance. Anybody else have a question? All right, Miss Sutton, I have one. Okay. So, with respect to and just because you know I'm an attorney, right? So, I the language is important to me, but with the committee had I imagine discussions upon about the language and adopting the language. Was there any debate about any of the items or was it sort of all right, let's just adopt what the state said and and specifically I've got heartburn over BSC17 where we're changing a a definitive explanation of a type of behavior to say now just minor physical altercation. That's a broad vague term subject to interpretation. You know, if my kids walking by your kid and they bump shoulders,
076is that a minor physical artication? Because parents are going to have all kinds of opinions about that. So I, you know, and that's just a generic question. I'm sure you guys discussed it, but that might be one I would say if the board agrees that the committee pull that back up, please. The committee might want to section D page 11. Suggest. Oh, go ahead. No, I was just going to say we utilize the state code because that's what we report out our discipline on. Um, so there was not discussion as far as the wording of it. We wanted it to match what we have to report to the state. Um, but I wonder if it could be inclusive and not exclusive, right? So, you could say minor physical altercation including but not limited to and
077then have some categories that people can apply it to. Some of them kind of because so many of them were rewarded, they're almost reworked in other places. So, this, you know, like to use your example of the pushing or the uh minor physical altercation, the shoving pushing was moved to BSC13. So when we went and pieced it, there are a whole lot of pieces that are like moving over here, moving down here, um being combined. Then why separate them? Because stay Yeah. But you're right. I don't like I don't want complicated. Yeah. Vague. All right, Dr. Dr. Nichols, you are up again, sir, with VSBA policy updates. Yes, sir. So, it is that time of year. Um, we are bringing to you uh first read of 20 plus uh policy updates. Um, fortunately for you
078this evening, I am not going to go through all 23. Thank you. Um, so I do want to let you know that these are primarily focused on um, updated language for clarity, cross references, uh, and so forth. So, in terms of substantial changes, um, you're not seeing uh, substantial changes between this meeting and next meeting. Um, Miss Davis will be putting in uh, where it says blank school board. um we'll be putting in new Kent County public schools. Um for example, one of the changes said um the blank school division and they've now changed it to the blank school board recognizing the school board has the authority, not the school division. So, uh a lot of it is just word smithing. Um and if you're in school systems long enough in 3 or 4 years
079you'll see it change back to school division or um we went through a period of saying he or she and now we name that entity. Um so like I said um that is really the gist of those updates and these updates are really only connected to the things that are have lines or changes uh not the actual content in the policy. So, um, if there's something specific you'd like more information on, I'd be happy to do that. Like I said, it is a first read. U, I can bring you any of those answers, um, prior to the second read. All right. Anybody have any questions? I don't. You will see a whole host after July 1 with all the general assembly and the code changes related to that. So, we'll clear the queue and be
080ready for round two. Great. Thank you, Dr. Nichols. policy revision for advertisements. Miss Morgan. So, board members, this is outside of VSBA. This is a specific new county public schools need. Share board members, Dr. Nichols, uh we have been working with the high school to really try to get a um set standard way of raising some funding for our athletic program program. So, this is coming soon, but we wanted to make sure that what we were trying to do was in line with our policy and procedures. Um, so we looked through our policies and reached out to our legal team just to assist in rewriting policy KJ, which is advertising in the schools because that really only included publications. And so, you'll notice on here really most of what's written is to authorize the high
081school and athletic director to be able to sell advertisement on our property. Um, specifically what this will look like is banners, um, in our stadium, um, flags, things of that nature, um, things on the football field, A-frame signs, um, that would advertise different businesses or community supporters, um, that would also then raise funding for our athletic department. Um, so this policy just clarifies that we're able to do that. Um, and that the principal has a discretion. um there's certain things that cannot be on there and usually it'll just be a logo of something of someone that's supporting our athletic program and and board members you may see banners out there now. Um actually I think somebody up here has a banner out there. Uh those are done through uh the booster organizations. This will allow
082the school to do it directly, raise the funds directly, spend the funds directly. We have some incredible community members that are ready to step up and support it. The high schools have been working really hard behind the scenes to develop a a protocol and opportunities. Um, and we have some coaches that are real go-getters that want to do some special things. And we will be opening up a brand new football stadium uh or phase one of that stadium um in the fall. So, we think it's a prime opportunity to revise this and really kind of showcase and raise some funds from for some incredible things. So, um this one is a little more time sensitive. um just in this once we have policy finalized we can move forward with actually generating the revenue pieces. So
083um so you will see this coming back to you pretty soon um if it doesn't require substantial revision and this would set the foundation for the things we talked about uh last time the ability for for example at the basketball game or have a sponsor to let all the students in for that. So part of the um the flyer that we've developed has all of those different components in um and what it would do is it would standardize it more and we'd actually be able to sort of predict some revenue and income coming in um so that when we're making purchases and doing those different things but yes it has a student sponsor component to it. It has uh all different components and you know new Ken is an incredibly special place. I say it
084all the time. uh folks are going to rally around this and it's going to be sort of a um a gamecher, pardon the the pun. Um but it's it's also going to set us apart from other places and and I think coaches are want to be here and uh it's it's going to help us build even better programs. Really separated it out between business advertisement options and community support options. So, all of the items that you'll see as community support options, meals, um allowing folks to attend the games, buying passes, things of that nature, those are already fine. We're doing those things. We're going to beef it up and do it more organized and a flyer. Um but all of the business advertised options will include the banners and the flags, and we will be
085the ones that'll be um purchasing those flags. They'll be consistent. They'll all look very similar. So, we'll have control over that. will just be folks giving us things to put on our field. Awesome. Thank you. Anybody have any questions? I do, Mr. Chair. Please. How will it be determined how the revenue so to speak received is distributed amongst the different teams and organizations? Great question. Right now, we are really gearing it towards athletics. Um there's lots of different ways that we could allocate that, but really right now we're looking at um filling our our needs that we currently have, whether it be support for um security or officials or uniform across the different things that we already have in place. That funding will kind of support those initiatives. Maybe one day down the road we'll
086look at having buyin from teams, but right now what we're really pushing for specific team support is either a direct donation to the school. Uh you could simply write your team name on there and those funds would go directly to that program. Or we are formalizing the Trojan 100 which we plan on having a banner for each team where if Morcon family wanted to make a $100 donation for soccer, Morcon family would be displayed on that banner as part of a Trojan 100 and that $100 would go directly to the soccer program. Does that help answer your question? Thanks. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Miller, you're up. This is course requests followed by military family resolution. Thanks. Speaking of athletics, leadership, and coaches. Yeah, Mr. Miller. I'm none of this, but good evening. Um,
087so we have one more course that we wanted to be able to offer next year. Um, and this is a course to promote leadership amongst our athletes. And um so this is a um an interesting mix of a course where part of the coursework in the classroom is on leadership and building leadership skills. The other part is internship where they will work with our athletics department to uh basically maintain equipment, maintain fields and um those things throughout the day um to exercise some of the leadership that learning here in the classroom. Um so this is it's a new course. It's there will be there's two different levels. level one and level two for juniors and seniors. Um there's no prerequisites to go with it. Um and be within the physical education department. So happy to
088answer any questions. Otherwise, um it is up for approval this. Great. Anybody have a question? No. Thank you. Oh, I do have I need to be faster. Yeah. Was this something that was being requested by students? uh something that there's been like an interest in and that's why it was added or it actually we had a staff member approach and said they had taught us this in a previous division and said that they saw great growth within the athletes they have there and so we then did some surveying and did find that there's interest there thank you military yes m sorry u so the one of the things that we're working on right now is our support for military families And last month was military um a month of military child and um we a
089couple years ago had started looking at our supports and one of the u programs the state does to recognize schools is the purple star program and Dr. Dr. Nickel mentioned that we were sort of starting to work on that um uh this year and so we've been doing different things within our schools and one of the things that they asked is that the school board basically agreed to a resolution um and this is the resolution that we put together locally um but u basically they asked there's some sort of military support resolution to give you a little bit of sort of around the supports that we're currently putting in place that you know sort of what we're doing there is the resolution is really about our commitment to our military stu our students who are
090military connected and then the fact that we'll do things that we can to provide extra supports. So we do have um a military leaison currently identified as a division level. Um Pam Brooks is one is one of our school social workers and then um we have a military leazison identified at our middle school and high school and they are currently they've gone through training and they're working on providing training to the our committee on what are the different supports that military students get would benefit from. We're also um in the early stages of basically implementing a peer-to-peer mentor program where as new students come in that are military connected, they'll be connected with a student who's already been here um who also is military connected who can take them around, give them a tour and
091get them introduced into social groups as well as just help them to understand how if I need to do something in school, here's how it how it happens. And so that is already um like I said in progress at middle and high school. We have students who have already been identified who are interested in being mentors next year and we're going um going through the training process right now and so we'll have that in place for the start of next year. Next steps we're going to be working with the elementary schools. They have had the in the past. We just um we need to reidentify them and then get those programs going there as well. Um but look forward to doing that next couple weeks. Um, so we do have this resolution for you um
092to approve if you so desire us this evening. Sounds great. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Anybody have any questions? No, I love it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yeah. All right, we are moving on to schoolboard goal review and updates. And out of the three items, we have one, sir. Dr. Nichols, strategic plan update, please. Yes, sir. Let bring you a quick strategic plan update. board members. Last month, we talked about goal one. Uh we're going to go in order. So, we're going to talk about goal two tonight. Uh so, just a reminder of our strategic plan and our four goals. Goal two is all about the recruitment and retention of highly effective talent. And what an incredible time to do that as we begin the process of issuing contracts. Um so, it's really, and you
093heard this thread through um Mr. Miller's presentation with the federal grants and how we support teachers um and support staff. you got to see with our support staff tonight, too. So, we want to dive in uh with that goal. There we go. Um so, we have several strategies underneath um and also the key performance indicators related to it. Uh similar to the last meeting, I want to dive into one specific strategy. There we go. Um, and that's to find, develop, and implement professional growth strategies and opportunities for each employee career. In order to do that, you need to know the certifications, endorsements, and degrees that they currently have in order to continue to build that out. So, I just wanted to give you a glimpse of where we are now. Um, so, uh, as we
094work on salary scales, work that, uh, Miss Morheim's been doing throughout the budget process, you know, that we focus on teachers with master's degrees, um, and continue to emphasize that scale. Part of that has to do with knowing the teachers that we have. So, of our teachers, 114 currently hold a bachelor's degree. We're working with several on the master's degree piece and 145 hold a master's degree. We have 25 teachers that have a professional license. They do have a degree. We're just partnering with them and the state. Well, that's we're partnering with them to navigate the state um and the certification process for lensure. So, we have 25 teachers there. I want to tell you a few quick stories about our teachers. Um so the first is Mr. Wolf who came to us from another
095state um who we had to work through the reciprocity process. Um so uh Tammy Waters and uh Allison Anderson uh Tammy really walks people through the lensure piece um is able to take a teacher teaching from another state and make sure they have the reciprocity and get the license that they need. Um, just another example of the work we're doing under this strategy is is Leslie Wolf. Yes. Relation. Um, you if you're if you're a teacher and you're married to a teacher, we're trying to get you both. Um, and to do an add-on endorsement. So, uh, what else could you teach? Uh, so partnering with them and also using that tuition reimbursement money you saw in the federal programs to make that happen. Um, our division teacher of the year is also a career switcher.
096Um, so Lee Jordan does a fantastic job in the science world at the high school, but she started as a substitute for us. So we're able to partner with her and work down that pathway uh to be a teacher. Uh, one of my favorite stories this year is uh, New Kent Elementary School and that's Lori Watson. Uh, Lori was a bus driver for us and if you can navigate 50 kids going down 249 in the rain, you can navigate a fifth grade classroom. And she is doing that beautifully. but just partnering with people on alternate pathways. Um, teacher Washington is a fantastic math teacher um at the middle school, but it's an example of of starting with a par profofessional. We have a lot of examples of that and kind of building them out to
097be a teacher. Um, we also were unique in the fact most school divisions don't do this, but we do our career switcher program. You don't have to work for us. You just have to live in the county or work for us. Um and Samantha Christian is doing a fantastic job at George Watkins Elementary. Um started as the community member did the teacher piece. Uh and then of course we're also doing the student or student teacher uh to teacher piece and Patrick Kimray now leads English at New Kent Middle School. So what is the strategy to be fully staffed? All of that and then so continue to find pathways. Uh, but it starts with knowing where your folks are. Um, and not just where your teachers are, but where every employee is and what their hopes
098and dreams are and how do we get them to that next point. So, uh, so showed you some quantitative data that was really for Mr. Rhymer and then some qualitative data and tell some great stories about our employees. Uh next month board members we're going to take on goal three which is perfect time to do that because we're heading into summer where uh we'll we'll look at organizational efficiency effectiveness and talk about strategies and KPIs there as well. So uh be happy to answer any questions. We'll certainly bring you updates whether it's in my Friday follow-ups or future board member board meetings about hiring and staffing. Mr. Chairman. Yes sir. I have one um statistical question to ask you. Yes sir. There was no differentiation between masters with of education and masters of uh subject
099matter m uh do you have any data on that? Uh I can get you that data. Um well you should get if if you're going to get it should be to the board. Yeah. So we can definitely do so masters of education versus masters of continentary that separates uh dual enrollment from Exactly. Yes sir. We have it. I don't have it currently but we definitely have it. Anybody else? No. I asked that question. I'm a little upset. I didn't anticipate that one. Anyone else? All right. Thank you, Dr. Nichols. We are moving on now to item eight of the agenda, items for vote of consideration. So, the following items, board members, you may recall, were tabled at our last meeting. These items are back on tonight for they were tabled for um additional information, additional
100details in a proposed framework. Um so, tonight they're back up for anformational update by Miss Dumbroski. All right. So on the monitoring progress webinar that I had proposed, it is a total of 1 hour 16 minutes and 35 seconds. The cost for the entire board to watch it is $160. So broken out um $32 per member. Um again, we do are required to have certain number of professional development hours. Um it's also it is considered professional development. It's not a legally required professionally professional development much um like FOYA or FOYA is. This is just a professional development course. Um so I appreciate Dr. Nichols reaching out to SBA to get that information for me and they would just work through Johanna and making sure that that's all paid and we have the ability to access
101it without any issues regarding a copyright or whatnot. Any additional questions on that? No question. So sorry um evaluation of schoolboard operational procedures. This uh is something that I had recommended uh that we do as part of a work session per policy AFA and then also section P of the new Kent County Schoolboard governance norms and protocols uh which specifies that annually the school board will assess itself to determine the effectiveness of the board in the discharge of its role through both individually and as a board through self-reflection and/or the use of an evaluation instrument developed by the board. Now, that is something we can find or as we discussed last time, if it's something that we want to remove from the policy, instead of evaluating ourselves or having somebody else evaluate us, I have
102not put any more effort or time into determining what measure or metric we may want to use in that effort since there seems to be some differentiation on whether or not that's something we actually want to pursue. Um, but again, it could be used as just a way to determine short-term and long-term goals and have an opportunity to discuss what each of us wants to do at the school board. Any questions? I have a question. Uh, I think the last time we asked, was there any model or tool out there that you were aware of that looked good that you could share with the board? Um, I decided not to put any more effort into finding that since if it was determined that we didn't want to use one. Okay. I, Mr. Chair, I volunteer
103I volunteer to go ahead and evaluate myself tonight and be done with it. Moving on, Mr. Broski, to the next one, please. You bet. The last one is the November 7th Victims of Communism Memorial Day initiative. If you remember, this is something that was proposed by the civics alliance that was uh I came across and it includes the endorsement or the encouragement of the victims of communism memorial curriculum which became something we wondered if that could be included or adopted into our curriculum. I believe Mr. Bot was past experience had indicated that unless it was on the VDOE website as an approved resource and it couldn't be utilized. I did some research. I can't find anything in code or on the VOE that specifies that that is the case. Um I did send out an
104email uh to get some more information on that is within New Kent. Um, I'm so waiting to hear back on that. But again, I can't find anything that says we can't use any curriculum that's not included, but by all means, I did not do an exhaustive Yeah. search. That's just my understanding now. And then one of the other questions was, what do I envision as a part of adopting this? I think it's important to keep it small and simple. Um, I don't want to put any undue pressure or stress on the teachers, but I would like to use it as a way to at least have some an opportunity to have some kind of lesson taught at least in the middle and the high schools. Um, again, there is some curriculum coming out for fourth
105and fifth grade which focuses on the freedom movements. So, it's a little bit more upbeat. Um, I think there's also with the different uh televisions in the different schools, uh, that could be used to maybe at least say, you know, today is victims of communism memorial day. Perhaps put up some different stats about communism and why it's important that we remember what it, you know, over 100 million people have been killed essentially because of communism. And I think it's important that we remember that also perhaps um in the moment of silence that occurs that could be something that's mentioned. These are just a couple thoughts but again just keeping it simple. Maybe throughout the years teachers will come up with other ideas. There is that free uh professional development online available through the victims of
106communism. Um there's also in addition to the curriculum they have witnesses where it's just brief videos where somebody who has suffered through communism in some way they just it's they provide their experience and that's something that's simple enough that again could be vetted by the teachers and they could determine if that's something they want to use. But again I think it's better to leave it up to each teacher as to what they want to do. And again, it would be focused primarily middle and high school with a little bit maybe for fourth and fifth grade. Do anybody have any questions or comments? Mr. Chair. Sure. I think in policy we're required to review curriculum, not create curriculum. If I'm not mistaken, I'm not interested as a board member to take this up and have the
107board make the decision. I would certainly be willing to have administration, those who set the curriculum, look at this as a possibility or not and accept their decision on where this goes or where this doesn't go. That's my response to that. Thank you, Mr. V. Anyone else have any comments? Yes, Mr. chair. Um, I agree that it should be a partnership with uh curriculum uh with administration. Um certainly the the topic is relevant and important. Um and it's an opportunity for more discussion. More discussion on an important topic is always better than less discussion. Um but I really think that it it should be uh in coordination with Mr. Miller and and and and curriculum people that maybe we could take a look at it uh if they're in agreement to doing so um and
108proceed from there. I just Mr. Chair, I just I I don't think that it's I think we're stepping over the line from board to administrative in this matter. Yes. I and and this has nothing to do with the relevance or the irrelevance of the subject matter or whatever. It's got to do with our board responsibilities. Uh we don't create curriculum. We approve curriculum and review curriculum. So like I said, I think this is something that if there is a call from administration andor the teaching staff and administration to look at this, then we we look at it and we review it as according to policy. If not, then we don't I would recommend that we not spend any more time on it. We have this is a second meeting. We have been discussing it. We
109have been listening. And with all due respect, I don't feel like it's part of the board's responsibility. Mr. Rymer, yes, I fundamentally disagree with that. Uh I fundamentally think that uh board has a role in curriculum if it if nothing else there's a policy role and I think we can easily discover a policy role in this um and delegate the fleshing out regul. What would that policy be? that uh we advoc that we advocate that we teach that uh the historic evils will come. What is the policy numbers and what am I asking? I think I haven't worked it out yet. Okay. I'm responding to your assertation that there is no role for the board in this and but I disagree and I think it can be we can work something out that not isn't
110necessarily a creation of curriculum could have directed to create I don't know of any policy that gives us that well I think all right gentlemen we're not going to engage in a debate these items were actually tabled Tonight is informational. Does anybody else have any other questions or comments on these topics? May I? This is not up for vote this evening. May I ask just one question? Yes, Mr. is if we remove any mention of the curriculum from the model policy specifying that November 7th is recognized by the new school board as a memorial day for victims of communism. Is that something you would feel comfortable in proceeding with? Is that a direct question to me? Yes. I I quite frankly would only be willing and interested in moving on this with a recommendation from
111administration. Um, one thing I printed out policy if curriculum development and adoption. The curriculum is a coherent co comprehensive plan for teaching and learning built upon a framework that promotes continuity and the cumulative acquisition and application skills. The curriculum shall state clearly and specifically what students are expected to know and to be able to do by grade level and course. New Kent School Board curricula shall meet or exceed the requirements of the code of Virginia and regulations of the board of education. I get that's not really an answer to your question. And that's just one thing I have printed out. Um I also noticed that curriculum guides and course outlines uh policy if was deleted. Um so that's not in there. Uh or it's no longer part of the policy. And then basic instructional program
112is policy is no longer uh has been deleted several years ago as well. Um I know there's you know questions about it but how what our role is in the curriculum process. Um I just want to add another point of clarification. So to to me it seems like we're doing exactly what we did last time, which is sort of having an overview or or hashing out a discussion of we're not exactly sure about what I feel like this evening the the program was reexplained, but no details or specific framework of of proposing something to the board to consider to approve or deny to then pass down to the administration and the teachers has really been presented. We're just talking again about the generic program, the pieces and parts that it has, the resolutions and the
113policies that it has in a in a very broad stroke in my in my opinion and and the point of tableing it was to bring it back with specificity to say this is what your proposal is and these are the things that we want the school to do and then the board votes on that. So, I don't think we've made that progress tonight at least on this particular item. Um, and I'm going to hold my opinion as to whether or not I believe this is something we move forward with or not until we have something concrete to to make a decision about. So, Dr. Nichols, do you want to weigh in? Yeah, I just and and I'll set the November 7th resolution aside for a second, but um the Virginia Standards of Learnings for History
114and Social Science really do aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of communist communism's historical impact and influence. it is seen throughout the SOS at students. So I just I want the board to know that we do teach that um whether it's in US uh with foreign policy u contrasting democratic capitalist and dictatorial communist Soviet Union. So those pieces are part of our um standards therefore are part of our um well in a simplified version you're saying we already teach communism. Yes. Yeah. With the origins, the development and the harmful impacts related to communism as it threads through history. Um, so I just that's outside of of the uh the resolution piece, but just know that it is part of the the work that we do um in the classroom. All right. Anyone else? All right.
115Moving on. Number nine, unfinished business. Dr. Young annual plan title 6B second reading a long time. Good evening Vagano members of the board and Dr. Nichols. Tonight we have a second read of the annual federal funding application and I'm here to answer any questions or clarify any information you've read that you would need. All right, board members, we have the floor. Does anybody have any questions or comments for Dr. Young? Mun, I read it. I have no questions. Great. Mr. Broski? No. Mr. Vault? No, sir. Mr. Rhyr, I'm good. Thank you. Easy does it. Thank you. Next is citizen comment period that no one has signed up for. Correct. All right. Moving on to action items. First is the approval of the fiscal agents and authorized signers as presented by Miss Morheim. Do I hear
116a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Mr. Vaude has the motion. Mr. Rhymer has the second. Miss Davis, please pull the board. Mr. Rhymer. I. Mr. V. I. Miss Tumbroski. I. Miss Kuna. I. Mr. Pagano. I. Motion is passed unanimously. Now we are voting for approval of the annual plan title 6B. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Miss Kuna has the motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Dumbroski has the second. Miss Davis, please pull the board. Mr. Rhymer. I. Mr. Ba. I. Miss Tumbroski. I. Miss Kuna. I. Mr. Kagano. I. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on. We are considering the approval of the course request as presented by Mr. Miller. Do I hear a motion? Motion to approve. Mr. Rhymer has the motion. Second. Mr. Vaude has the second. Miss Davis, please
117pull the board. Mr. Rhymer. I. Mr. V. I. Miss Drosski. I. Miss Kuna. I. Mr. McG. I. And then finally, approval of the military family resolution as also presented by Mr. Miller. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Miss Kuna has the motion. Second. Mr. Ba has the second. Miss Davis, please pull the board. Mr. Rhyme. Hi. Mr. B. I Mr. Broski I Miss Kuna I and Mr. Pan I motion passes unanimously. Moving on to the comments section. Mr. Rhymer. So I had the opportunity to talk to um the superintendent and my mind just went one. Um our noble director uh Mr. Terry. Yes. Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Terry. And uh we had a very good conversation about uh the um technology committee technology committee and whether or not that was necessary. It may
118be Yeah, I know. It may be that a volunteer is appropriate. We're trying the superintendent and I are trying to work out an alternative proposal for the board that wouldn't involve a committee. um and might involve a volunteer and uh we'll bring that proposal to the board once we've worked it out. That's great news. Thank you, Mr. Rhymer. Any further comments, sir? Uh no, thank you. All right, Mr. Vault, no comments. Thank you, Mr. Broski. Want to give a shout out to the George Watkins fourth and fifth grade choir that uh the concert they put on. The new Kent High School employment and volunteer expo was awesome. I also had the chance uh with Miss Cuna to attend the Green versus New Kent County School Board court case lecture given by Mr. Anthony Green which
119is one of Dr. Green's sons. It was phenomenal and so much information was gleaned from that. Also want to thank uh Dr. Nichols and Principal Strickland and everybody else who is so helpful and assisted in the stellar presentation that was provided uh to our honored guests from the general assembly on April 22nd. Um, I had the opportunity to attend the New Kent Elementary School talent show where I also got to be a judge and was very surprised to receive a uh performance by New Kent Elementary School and American Idol contestant, former American Idol contestant Grayson Torrance. It was super exciting. And then also the New Camp Middle School. just incredible, talented people along with the art show that they had recently. Just super impressed. Um I was very sorry. I know this has nothing to
120do with the schools and school board, but I'm just heartbroken to hear about the awful vandalization of Liberty Baptist Church. It either occurred on or just before the National Day of Prayer. Just wanted to send out my thoughts and prayers to them. Um, at the National Day of Prayer, the new Kent Cadets performed another fabulous color guard. And then at the commemoration events for the Patrick Henry's march through New Kent that was occurring this last weekend. Um, very exciting. There was a um, lecture the night before by a Mike Cesery. He's an author who specializes in American Revolution. His works include several books that are tailored for fourth and fifth graders, bringing history to life for young learners. And on Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Kenny, who's the owner of The Ordinary
121across the street. And he generously donated a set of those books to each of the elementary schools uh personally signed by him. and uh he insisted that I keep it low-key but his wife gave me permission to publicly express my thanks and so I have done that's all. Thank you Mr. Coun. Um I had the privilege and honor of of being on the interview panel with Mr. Pagano and Dr. Nichols and Miss Strickland, the three finalists that are going we're considering for the school board uh student representative and they are just amazing. Each one of them was an incredible incredible um student. It's going to be a hard decision to make. I'll let Mr. Bano speak more on that. Um I'm going to be holding office hours uh this coming May 14th from 8:30 to
12210:00 at Safari Coffee. So, if you have any uh if you have some time to come out, if you have any concerns or uh issues you want to address related to New Kent County Public Schools, I'll be there. Thank you. Well, I was going to say no comment, but you now passed the buck to me. So, just piggyback off your comments. The three high school students that we interviewed, each in their very own unique way, were phenomenal. These kids are multisport athletes. Academic successes did very well under fire interviewed by four adults. Uh it was very impressive. It's going to make it um a difficult decision or it's going to force the board to change how we're actually structuring this thing because all of them were were amazing. Uh and as always, I just want
123to thank everybody for coming out and participating tonight. We appreciate all your hard work. Dr. Nichols. Thank you, sir. uh tonight just embodies why it's a privilege to lead, work, learn, and serve here and everything. We have fantastic kids who you saw them perform and get recognized, be the honored staff, which is just the tip of the iceberg that makes us move. And then our families really rally and support. So just um as we close out the board meeting, just incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to be here and do this work. So thank you, Gordon. Thank you, Dr. Nichols. Thank you. The next meeting of the school board will be a work session on Monday, May 19th to be held here in the historic courthouse boardroom. The work session will begin at 6 pm.
124Our meeting is adjourned tonight at 8:00 p.m. Thank you.