March 3rd , School Board Meeting

001good afternoon everybody we call to order the regular session of the new County School Board uh meeting of March 3rd 2025 do I hear a motion to come out of close session so move is there a second second any discussion Madam clerk please pull the board um sorry Mr ryer hi Miss K hi M Mr Pagano hi moski hi Mr B hi do I anybody you got it thank you motion passes 5 Mrs dumki could you please read the certification a closed session yes I can whereas the New Kent County school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 22- 3711 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the New

002Kent County School Board that such closed meeting was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the newent County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirement by Virginia law were discussed in closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the newent County school board thank you very much do I hear a motion to approve the certification motion to approve second second any discussion Madame clerk please pull the board Mr Rymer I Mr VA i moski i m i Mr Pagano I motion passes 5 if everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge

003allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right everybody our first item on the agenda tonight is presentations recognitions and school Spotlight by our superintendent Dr Brian Nichols all right so first off we're excited thank you guys for being here I think the last time I saw a crowd this large is regional finals basketball prod so we're sold out again um and we're sold out because we're um going to see some amazing students so tonight we're going to start with a school Spotlight uh it is youth art and music in our schools month and we have new camp middle school so I'll invite Dr Frank wheeler hopefully I said that loud enough um

004hi or not Dr Frank wheer he's coming oh he is coming he back in line okay uh to introduce our first performance I'm G to take the please take over thank you so much for having us we really appreciate for being here thank you um so today what we're going to show you is we're working on our spring music right now getting ready for our spring concert in April um so we're in the middle of repertoire right now and we thought what a cool way to show you to kind of get you inside of our classroom is to show you things that we do every day in the classroom so we start with warm-ups and warm-ups can be simple as me me me me me me me me me or it could be mommy Mas

005MY M&M's or different things like that right um but they can also be Musical and intentional and song like so I have three short ones to show you all today um we have a short small group of friends from our highest talk group box on I'm very excited to present for you guys um so I hope you enjoy thank [Music] youal love [Music] awesome so what we just hearded was round singing um where we're singing the same Parts but we're starting at different times you're also going to see that with the next one that we're doing one bottle pot but we're doing um kinesthetic so we're doing some motions with our hands um and we do that a lot in music just to reinforce our learning um so yeah one bottle pop this time we're

006splitting into three groups one two ready two five six s don't put your in my my [Music] myin b [Music] F chip vinegar salt and F chip vinegar salt and pepper a lot [Applause] and the last that we have for you today is Yonder day so this is different than around this is um three different parts that build off of each other so you're going to say that they're singing in unison at first um and then we have one part drop down and we have another part drop up thank you so much again again for having us thank you is oh my soul Y come day day is breaking is in my soul y [Music] thank you great job all right next up we have recognition okay uh next up we have recognitions we have

007recognition of Beta convention achievements so I would like to talk to you a little bit about beta first and then introduce you to some amazing students so State Beta convention was February 5th and 6th it was in Hampton I had opportunity to attend so coming through right now should be new elementaries beta all stars um so we actually had 87 students if you guys want to stand right in front of the team new camp piece there we go just like a class picture life touches here that's okay I I can St for U so once again State Beta convention was February 5th and 6 in Hampton I got the opportunity to hang out with a lot of these folks at the Beta convention if you've never been to State beta it is Controlled Chaos all

008over the convention center uh but our students compete and they do an incredible job across our three schools that participated we had 87 students compete at the state level so they made it to that part what you see in front of you are some of the newent elementary delegation we had 28 newent elementary students placed in the top three which means a now advance to Nationals which is in Orlando Florida I got that right um so some of the categories uh that our folks in Junior Beta uh competed in we had academic uh social studies spelling language arts Spanish health and PE social studies poetry creative writing we also had art black and white photography digital enhanced art jewelry what uh performing arts dance we're going to have you do the performance right now um

009so mixed media Fiber Arts accessorized design 2D design Premier performer Elementary dancer we also had um teams with uh book battle musicology quiz Bowl umine engineering um and more so I just want to say congratulations to our Junior Beta And I want to thank Miss car for leading this endeavor do you want to and also to thank our families because this is just such a joint operation and it's what makes Team New Kent so special is we just have that partnership so miss car I don't know if you want to say anything about Junior Beta so it's four pillars um service character academic achievement um and service and so we have done a lot of service projects and these kids have already had over 2,000 hours and you know we've only been in school you

010know a few months it's amazing how much they have done um and I want to say we took four teams this year um two we're brand new we have never taken an elementary team for quiz Bowl we have never taken an elementary team for psychology um we had taken b battle on engineering last year we were second in the nation for engineering and so I just want to say the fact that we took four teams in everybody place I cannot begin to say how much these kids and their families have done so thank you awesome so and Miss car mentioned a service component so uh some of the things that these students in the Middle School stud that you'll see coming uh helping with our backpack program uh food drives otter days that's really specific

011to you guys uh Special Olympics uh clean up after games you've ever been to one of our ball games you see people help other F chairs and do that's that's often beta getting those service hours steam night volunteers the Comfort Quilt Project which is a beautiful project with the sheriff's department uh Personal Care tote bags and and also tutoring so these students are um what we want students to embody and they are ambassadors and not only do they lead new they lead the state and now I guess are are leading the nation so thank you new elementary and thank you beta what's that M car do you need any uh chaperon for the trip to Orlando [Applause] [Music] that would be my colle that would be my colleag exactly it right so we can give

012just a second for parents to trans transition as well if they need to or want you're more than welcome to lot ofun thank you for being here thank you we still have to do Middle School beta so if you're here for that thank you for being here [Laughter] way mhm yeah TR [Music] I [Music] all right board members as traffic is clearing we're now welcoming Middle School beta we can bring yes let's bring let's bring listen too I will not confuse you with middle school you got your own p uh so board members we had 28 Newan elementary students that placed in the top three uh not to be outdone uh you have a sampling of our middle school students we had 20 uh new newent middle school plays top three in 21 separate events

013which is incredible so and those events are wide ranging so I do want to touch on those so you have campaign skit Junior digital portfolio quiz Bowl three-dimensional design two-dimensional design songfest um creative writing health and PE health health and PE sixth grade health and PE 8th grade language arts 8th grade so those are some of the categories that are represented in some of the teams new Cent middle school once again qualifying to go to Nationals this year in Orlando [Applause] Florida and I believe this to be a first if not I'm saying it's a first tonight uh New Kent High School also had a state qualifier um and no stranger to the world of beta right yes so [Applause] Miss luner is a third place handdrawn anime specifically and she will also be representing

014New Kent High School in National so once again beta is all about service and giving back we currently have 131 students throughout the schools uh and we can't do this so we have U Miss Collins and Miss Wallace hear what this is so and we can't do this work without them and and everything they put in so I don't know if give you the same opportunity that missar sure um at new camp Middle School we have a very active Junior Beta Club um and our students are um you know some of the best and brightest that we have at our school um we take our four pillars of data really seriously achievement character leadership and service um and we focus pretty equally on four pillars in our club um we're really proud of the leadership

015skills that our students are developing um one of the things that sets us apart from the elementary is we have um a group of officers who run all of our meetings and plan our events um and they've done a really great job with that this year um and I think that's in our service we do a lot of service um so we we spend time um doing school beautification and staff recognition at the school um coming up in the spring we are um collecting food um for the Ronald McDonald House um in Nori last year we did Ronald McDonald House in Richmond um and we also oh yeah we also have um three teams of kids who qualified for Nationals earlier this fall at the Leadership Summit and they qualified specifically in leadership events one

016of those is Project proposal and so those kids um presented an idea for a project for a charity dodgeball tournament um that's going to hopefully raise money for Childhood Cancer um in our community and uh that's we starting they have the idea we're kind of starting the more intensive planning so look out for that coming with through this spring awesome wonderful what's again we can't do it without our families and you see they show up in force and that's what makes this partnership um on the national scale so thank you thank you to our families and thank you to our amazing students uh who are now heading on yes you're the high school you got you don't get the middle school well done great job great job good job everybody thank you thank you for

017being here this part of beta as well I mean is this just for the Arts well we just had it up while the they were singing but yeah this is Middle School art I it wasn't from the art show that was we will have our art show we have art show but this is for some things that were that we could fit almost Tetris like on this board amazing that's so good thank you yeah we figured we would bring some excellent good night four members we do have two more recognitions to get us through the recognition pce um School social worker week is March 2nd through 8th uh we do have three social workers um who do an incredible job for us uh Pam Brooks carolly and Kelly and then our newest edition um who

018is primarily focused at the high school is uh Stella so they do a lot of work and a lot of partnership and support you'll hear some of that in a presentation later uh this evening to a degree um and we're very thankful for the work they do so once again School social rep her week uh the last recognition and you got to see some of that in action is youth music and art in our school's month we're very proud of the Arts and the work that we do you saw some of that holl with the chorus and you saw some of that with the artwork that was on display so whether it's on the field as part of the marching band or in the classroom or on the stage we have the Arts covered um

019and do an incredible job with it so thank you to all of our teachers and support that make the Arts come alive and we have a lot of events coming up in the spring where you be able to see the Arts on display so um that concludes the recognitions uh Mr chair thank you Dr Nichols are there people still waiting to come in and out or are we good anybody on the board need a recess you want to keep going all right we're not going to do a recess so the next item is uh the consent agenda board members by now you've had the opportunity to review the items listed in the consent agenda including minutes from the following meetings June 3rd of 24 January 13th of 25 January 27th of 25 as well as

020monthly financials and the superintendent recommendation regarding Personnel matters do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved is there a second second any discussion all right Madame clerk please pull the board Mr Rymer hi Mr VA hi Mr oski hi m I and Mr pagana I right the motion passes 5 Z and we're moving on to the next item which is new business and the first item under new business is Miss morheim regarding textbook transfer and appropriation request Mr chair board members Dr Nicholls each year we come to you with a request to transfer funding from our general fund budget into our school textbook fund um so we budget it that way it's a match specifically for our textbook fun we do receive State dollars directly that go into our

021textbook fund and then we basically move an expense over and we're able to carry that balance forward annually um the balance at the end of fisal year 2024 is 70 and tonight we're asking that you transfer an appropriate 194 289 for the local match portion into the textbook fund and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone have any questions or wish to be recognized thank you thank you all right the next item is school-based mental health and wellness with Miss Anderson and Mr Miller good evening Mr chair um board and uh superintendent I'm very happy to be here tonight to talk to you a little bit about some of the things that we do for our employees um and times in need of assistance there's tons of things that we do but these are the

022highlights so one thing that um that we discuss a little bit in our employee assistant program is that life happens and education is hard so one of the really um things I'm most proud of in my career is the fact that I was a teacher for 20 years and now being in HR I've told you before that that's unusual usually an HR department is really HR based and hasn't been in the classroom I'm glad I've been in the classroom because I know what it's like to have work bleed into home I know what it's like to have to take um care of your own children when you have 30 children to take care of in your classroom um and so I think that helps me to know um kind of what our people need and

023when they need it and how to offer it to them and so the things that you see in front of you right now for example is our Anthem EAP um EAP stands for employee assistance program and it's one of the things that we Prov provide for all of our employees um super important because it's not just for our employees that take benefits it's for every single employee that we have and this service is free for everyone and the most important thing I hope everybody knows and people can help spread the word is anyone that uses the employee assistance program it's Anonymous so we receive data that says the services are being used but we do not receive data saying who uses them so it helps the employee have some anonymity and so some of the

024things that EAP offers um is free counseling this is one of my favorite things so you can get counseling obviously through your benefits but this is um a separate and completely free so you can get three visits with a counselor whether it be virtual or face Toof face um if I want to go sit in the in the uh office of somebody I can do that or I can um you know do the zoom that we learn how to do the last few years I can get three free visits per Life issue so let's say I had a death in the family I need to process it I can have three issues with um three visits for that for free now that's 100% free no co-pay no nothing um and then if you need to

025continue that Services they'll help you set up um through your benefits or if if you don't have benefits through US they'll help you continue to get those Services uh for that issue um and then let's say a month later um I need some counseling for one of my children my children need to see somebody this is a great option um because they will serve your entire family as well so this is a a nice uh thing to help our people out we've had several employees um have some significant events in their life and it's a wonderful thing uh for them to be able to do they also do crisis counseling so that helps uh employees that may need something in the immediate uh time they do legal counseling sorry Mr prono they we help them

026out with that um and then they also will do a lot of people don't know this financial counseling um they can meet with financial professionals talk um about online resources they'll give them articles information and things that they need to help with finances and they also in this day and age um of identity theft will help with ID recovery um they will help set them up with somebody that can help them through that process and has been there before um they offer um information on U dependent care whether it's for child or parents we have a lot of our teachers um that are um helping their families their adult parents um in a new stage of life so um EAP will help them with elder care and assisted living um to help them find the

027right resources sometimes just having someone that's walked in that path before um is very helpful for our people um and then just other daily living resources um I learned and even prep preparing for this tonight um that they have uh things to help with pets and if you have pet problems they have somebody you can talk to about that um or if you have a more um crisis uh needs um whether it be self assessment tools for depression anxiety um helping with alcohol or um eating habits they do all those type of things they also have an online site that you can go in privately uh and just use the resources that way so we do also for for our employees just talking about some things that try to help them U frontload sick leave

028I think this is a fabulous thing um because sometimes if you just start to work somewhere we we ear in about a average of one sick day a month and if you were to get the flu let's say in your first month of working um we wouldn't want you to not have the sck leave so we give our employees all of their sck leave up front and they can use it as needed so I feel like that's something that really does help people out and if you are new you will get sick in the first mark that's right guaranteed physical wellness uh we have pre free preventative care for all of our benefit members so those of us on our benefit plan you can get free um preventative care which has helped tremendously um we

029also offer lower premiums as a wellness participant so to be a wellness participant if you're on our benefits all you have to do is have a preventative um maintenance like a tuneup you can go and get your mamogram or go and get your um annual checkup um that's all you have to do we actually had a report um with our insurance providers last week that said that program is highly successful and has really helped us to curve our uh benefits bills because people are catching things early which is one thing we definitely want so they have lower premiums for their benefits if they're in that program Dr Nichols kicked off our first team new 10K this year um I believe in your message this morning said we're up to almost 100 uh people that are

030going to be doing the 10K in Rich almost 20% of our staff has participated which is wow for 10K is pretty fantastic so it's a good team event it's healthy and it's it's good stuff we also have Wellness clubs in each of our schools each of our school has a leader for wellness so they may do yoga one day after school or walk around um you know meet at the track and do something that way but it's just a group of people that that focus on exercise and mental health wellness and just a few other things that we try to do to help um we have our annual health and wellness fair that benefits started last uh school year with uh the help of Miss Waters who planned a beautiful Fair she's going to do

031it again this year uh in conjunction with convocation just allowing our employees to see what we have to offer um as well as other things in New Kent that they may be interested in I think they even had a line dancing class last year so to help them with exercise we have benefit counseling year round as well as a new uh program that enables people to get a consult to find out would they be best um to at 65 to go to uh Medicare would it be best to do this or that and helps them to do you know choose the right choices for their benefits we have retirement counseling and uh even taking a walk with a superintendent when you walk to on Wednesday so we try to do a lot of things to

032help our employees um education is hard and so we try to do a lot um just to help our people um with needs that that sometimes need professional assistance thank you thank you thank you student side so we broke this presentation up board members into staff and students so M Anderson's lead LED you through the staff side of things Ross's Mr Mills going to take you through the the student side of things Mr chair members of the board Dr Nichols um glad to come present as Dr Nichol said about um service the student side of school based mental health and what we do there um as you can see here this is a list of sort of team members that form our division level School based mental health Team myself Dr Young Dr Day from

033elementary school then our social worker Miss carolen Kelly Elizabeth Malone counselor at the middle school Les beatley counselor at high school and then we have two student support Specialists um Devonte fer Megan burough so um that's a division level committee that each school has has a group that that works on it as well so take you through some of um The Journey we've been on so we started this team two years ago as part of a grant that we received U from the state it's a six-year Grant so we're in year three now and um so in year one really starting um with the ground up of we hired student support specialist so mentioned that we have two of them now the first was Devonte FG to work with our secondary students um and they

034work directly with students to provide um sort of in intensive um Services I I'll go a little bit into detail a little bit later on but um then we did funding for professional development conferences for our school based mental health professionals such as counselors and social workers um we instituted retention bonuses for school based Mental Health Providers um for staying on um year over year and then um purchase some data collection tools scoa is a school counselor time analysis tool so our counselors use it to track all of their time and um to um in counseling worlds um school counselors are expected to spend 80% of their time directly providing services to students and so this allows us to see how we're doing there and see where we need to make adjustments to help our

035counselors get to that to that spot if they're not already there U one of the challenging things year one um was securing school psychologist um so we've had a variety of different methods that we've done used to do that um for a while we've had one school psychologist but then we on staff but then we've contracted out and had virtual psychologist everything recently we hired a new school psychologist to to have a second one year own staff which is nice so um in year two we hired a second support student support specialist for elementary Megan buroughs and um and then we also again provided additional support for professional development um conferences both at the state and National level for our school basement on Health Providers more retention bonuses and then we added in this year

036um therapeutic day Ser Treatment Services um for our students who are underinsured or uninsured and so we're able to add basically extra slots for one of our community providers to come in and do therapeutic day treatment on this on the premises um using these funds and then we've also support um purchase material for our student support specialist therapy rooms within the building um and then again our data collection tools continuing with those so some of the additional successes in the first two years um we did develop a resource map so all the division level resources that we have from school based mental health we mapped those out and have them all charted out as to what are they and how how do students get access to them things like that so that's to give us

037a chance to then look at so here's where we're at how do we need to fill some Gap to make sure that we're providing for our students across the board um then of course I mentioned the student support Specialists professional development we've also taken time to reconnect with some of our community stakeholders and Community Partners UMO mental health we partner with some of our faith-based organizations our churches and strengthening those Department of Health Czech health district as well as um the the community health Improvement steering committee um through chomy health district so recently this year year um we've um taken a step back and felt like we really needed to Define who we were and um and develop a vision and mission statement had a a retreat um in January where we worked through these

038steps of who who is a school-based mental health team do we want to be um as we move forward hopefully through this Grant and Beyond um and so um vision for the team is just that we build a team newent overall that offers and engages in sustainable comprehensive system of Mental Health Services to support students unique needs and promote their overall well-being during their pre education and Beyond and prepare them for postsecondary as well um and so then we develop a mission statement as well some of the goals that we set um these are um current goals knowing that we will need to adjust these over time but uh first one is establishing clear roles and responsibilities for our providers and the approach that we have in our schools so that um everybody Team new

039staff all staff included um it understands what are the roles of different School based Mental Health Providers and what role do they play in that part um a goal number two establishing a robust data system to support mental health our mental health approach we currently have our basic our school counseling tracking tool but we need something to better track our impact on students and so we're currently working through that process process of identifying what are the indicators that that we're looking for and and then as we get those in place where the data where that data currently stored and then how can we then harness it into one space so that we can use it to make decisions as well as um U take a look at what are additional services that we need to

040make um another goal is educating the greater team nent on what is um what's the purpose of this and how do we as a team work together um and providing professional development on a larger scale our school BAS Health Providers have received a decent number of professional development but we need to go beyond that to classroom teachers who actually are you'll see our tier one support so they're um the first first interaction with students so they definitely need professional development as well as our um as well as our school administrators and basically all staff so we're working on that and then overall just increasing um what are the services and supports across the Continuum um that we can provide to students increasing those services so here are some of the roles and responsibilities um that

041we're mapping um as I said first and foremost our teachers and they are um they see our students more than anyone and so they provide sort of the tier one level of support in the classroom um and so making sure that they they understand their role in providing welcoming environment in classroom for students and then um basically interacting with students on on the B basic supports in the classroom and school administrator job on supporting that effort the school counselors are s of the next step in that in um in next here I guess in services that we provide and then third would be um our student support specialist School social workers are all along the Continuum um our student support specialist would be s a tier three for students who need more intensive support and

042um you'll also see our lill partnership at a that does more as well so here's some of the structure the different supports we have in place already um so classroom lessons mostly in k through eight we have classroom lessons um either through like morning meeting with our Elementary uh classes where basically the whole class gathers and really works through different things as far as what's the day going to look like to go ahead and so students understand what day ahead look like but then also deals with different things going on in the classroom and working with through with students um some of the basic things that they would typically feel anxiety about um and then school counselors also push into classrooms to do lessons periodically um Elementary it is through that morning morning meeting format

043once you get to Middle they push in monthly into different classrooms to provide lessons as well our student support specialist work directly oneon-one with students our counselors do as well I'll say in our counseling tiered supports I'll jump to there next so they do our classroom some classroom lessons but then they also do some small group um work with students and working through through different um school-based mental health concerns and then they do individual um support counseling supports as well um once a b say students needs extend beyond a certain time period or intensity then the student support specialist take over there or um or LK therapeutic dat treatment they'll go one one way or the other um and so they both provide sort more intensive and long-term um therapeutic supports for students here's some

044of the Community Partnerships that we have that talk about us strengthening um one of those um is our backpack program um that we have a strong Community Partnership with some of our faith-based organizations to provide food and resources to families um it is not a direct service for mental health but it is a service that definitely helps um with mental health concerns and something um alleviates some of the anxieties and things that students feel um and then some of our direct more Direct Services hit with rer mental health and Department of Health and CH health district as well as our we have a strong partnership with our department of social services as well so as I said some of the things that we're working on um are our clearly defin as roles and responsibilities and

045making sure that everybody understands those the data system that we're working on and then um we're working on a professional development schedule for next school year to make sure that all teachers and administrators understand the supports in place how do how do they access them how they how do their students access them and what each the role of that they fit into that and what what was the role of each service and how does it fit into the overall supports for those students any questions yeah Mr Miller do we know what number or percentage of the student body in in general is taking advantage of the mental health support offered so in quarter one of this year um we had approximately a gathering data from um the different providers approximately 1,200 students um and receive

046some sort of support U from and that's across the board and then in different degrees um so like counselors um counselors would be the largest number there and then um your student support specialist they each have a case Lo anywhere from s 20 to 40 at a time and then and then El Hill has even smaller case Lo than that thank you Miss Miss C Mr R Mr Mr Miller um Studies have shown that over the years um teachers are being asked to doing more and more related to this this area um and often times it's beyond their scope of responsibility and professional credentials so with that in mind can you explain how this just a example of their getting lessons in the classroom um a teacher what things would the teacher be able to

047teach in the mental health feel you know related to mental health uh that would fit within their professional credentials versus uh things that maybe a school uh psychologist needs to come in and provide those Services because there is that level right um there are professional boundaries that shouldn't be crossed right so the lessons that teachers are actually doing are mostly around sort of social interaction within the classroom cont resolution Tes like um and we provide training on that and sub is when necessary curriculum to support that um but mostly is just hey we had conflict in the classroom here's how we handle those types of things so that's the types of things more Stu teachers are handling counselors come in and do um a little bit more direct but still along the same lines they're

048still handling a lot with conflict resolution anxiety management and is social interaction within the classroom so that is is that what's considered tier one intervention so what would tier two or tier three look like so tier two is more when I talked about the counselors doing like a small group and when they have students who are struggling on certain like type of anxiety or something like that they'll then have a small group of students that they'll work through having discussions with and things on how do you deal with that and how do you work through that here in a school setting to make sure that you're able to be productive in the classroom um have small groups around um students who are geving from Bloss um and once again this is all in Partnership with

049families um so you know I've seen specific School groups working through they've had a loss in the family and a relative in that piece and it's um kind of processing through that that's that's out of tier one into more tier two um as an example at what point are students referred to U clinical psychologist outside the class outside the school so usually if they've start of been working with the counselor and um Andor student support specialist and or El Hill and they determin started that the needs go more intensive than what we have there and or it's impacting things greater than just a classroom um and environment then they'll have me with parents and say you may want to consider here's some Community Resources that you may want to consider which would include you thank

050you Mr Broski just one quick question out of curiosity do this are this teachers allowed to roll over any portion of their sick leave yeah sick leave rolls over every year it rolls over every year nice okay um and then last year at the uh New Kent High School government Roundtable one of the students seemed to not be aware of maybe some resources that would be able to help and I almost got the impression I could be wrong that maybe she felt embarrassed or you know because of the stigma that's often associated with mental health issues unfortunately is um you know sometimes I don't know how to reach out or where to reach out and if I remember correctly she seemed to be asking if you know we they could have posters up just in

051places throughout the school that said you know if you need help um I know there's a suicide you know Prevention Hotline um if that's anything that that is in the school already or if that's something that could be considered um just so that if people are if kids are really struggling and they're maybe afraid to go into their counselor they're having a hard time finding their time during the day because they're all busy um just having something in the school that where they can see it regularly and know that there's someone that can call for help yeah we definitely do that yeah thank you Mr VA yeah um just a couple of questions um at what point in time um from level one through are the parents notified and are they aware throughout the entire

052process that their child has you know has an issue with that and yeah so as soon as they would be pulled into like a group of counselor or anything outside the classroom then parents would be notified um anything beyond tier one tier one is just basically everybody hey how are we getting along and things like that um as soon as you shift over to tier two parents are are hey we have a greater need here that we can service to different variety of needs here's what here's what we're going to do about it and make sure parents are all on board with that um and one thing and this is thinking ahead um we're finding out that um maybe what authorities have deemed as healthy lunches and food turn out that they're not and are

053we looking at that as we move forward because I suspect that menus are going to change rapidly and the association of food-based products causing issues um our school nut nutrition staff pays very close attention is where the where the national Trends and what the National Data showing and makes adjustments pretty quickly on what they need to do there we were actually C conversation about some of the dies that have been in the news recently and making sure you know where we were with it um so definitely monitoring that closely and and looking to for additional guidance from the state moving forward but yeah I I I agree with you I think you're going to see another shift yeah thank you Mr Rymer yeah it seems to me that we're conflating a couple things here um

054one is normal developmental issues right one and those I assume are included in the 1200 incidents that you talked about um trying to think no no those are all tier one yeah that's just basically everybody receives it that's 100% of our student so everything else is something that might be if not pathological at least not normal behavior or could I wouldn't say not normal behavior yeah I would say so you know having been a middle school student there were times that I I had some bumps in the road um and it required tier two to sort of tier two is still developmental style issues growing kids like a tier 2 example like the example I gave I'm in a group about grieving about loss you know that's an incident in a period of time normal

055right so so I wouldn't say that I wouldn't make that direct connections so do we have do we do we separate thing uh kind of things that are part of normal human development from those that are more pathological we have it by tier and then we can see sort of the overall summary of what it is by tier so so yes sir we can it's not necessarily neat by tier um just it's it's by student but yes well I trying to get it uh when I first started listening to this I was worried that we had a lot of uh children who had substantial issues but now I'm beginning to see that this really is an umbrella that covers a lot of normal human development correct that would be accurate thank I have one more

056question yeah um so I was on the shab committee last year and I'm on the same committee this year or Advisory Board um shab is student health Advisory Board and I noticed last year that um the board focused primarily on school nutrition and physical wellness and I was wondering if perhaps it' be worth exploring if we could expand that committee to um advise on more of these issues um that are uh impacting our students so that perhaps it could be another another feather in our cap sort to speak you know to provide um maybe they can and I know there are a lot of confidentiality issues there but maybe provide um research or uh and and then advise uh the school board and and and such on what what programs or anything that might be

057beneficial that can add to what we're already providing and our leader of the student health Advisory Board is in the audience and uh so we will definitely look at that as as we schedule an upcoming meeting yeah and she's on the team so yeah it's a nice Dove tail because she's already doing that work yeah M Anderson I have one more question for you on a lighter note so the the EAP program right s sounds fantastic the retention and recruitment piece obviously that fits in very well how are we making our employees I think that's aware of this program I think that we need to do a lot better job of that so um I think tonight's a nice opening up I was thinking as we were sitting here um maybe of just putting we

058have a flyer that that encompasses all of that information that we always give responsibly I think probably proactively we could do a little bit job a better job of um publicizing that so we have something called HR corner and I think that might be our next one um to just send it out and give everybody access great thank you you're welcome we I do want to shout out our principles we do have them um uh eyes and there are eyes and ears as I always say in our trenches and so anytime that they think they an employee needs it they do have that flyer that they can give out um which is always nice to be responsive but I think we need to shout it from the rou pops yeah Mr chair may I offer

059put put the flyers in the the bathrooms of the teachers oh yeah just to have it where they great idea you know can read it a lot all right thank you moving on Mr Miller you're up again sir with early graduation application and I plan to say this while Mr Miller was walking up I didn't realize he'd already be there um so board members this is a u regulation uh just a reminder just a distinguish between the policy this doesn't require an approval um but it does require the superintend because it's it's more on the day-to-day operations piece to kind of notify you of the shifts and kind of talk through them so that is what Mr Miller is here to do uh related to this regulation um around early graduation so there you go

060there was your welcome thank you so um as Dr nich said this has to do with early graduation and just the regulation around it so it goes hand in hand with policy ik which has to do with accelerated or acceleration and um so when I met recently with the high school um counseling department and administrators to talk through early graduation and just to get some clarity around it um and so we took a look at the um the regulation and wanted to simplify it some and so as you can see at this point or previously it had sort of two sections one was for acceleration and one for financial or personal hardship but when you actually dug into it it was they were talking about basically the criteria everything was very similar and so it's

061like why do we have basically all this language when we could really drill this down to a much smaller document and much easier understand so that's why it's very red over this page we struck a a lot and rewarded a lot um I do have a version that is just basically plain that doesn't that just has the update language that we'll get to y'all U and so basically what we did was we removed like the term academic acceleration at the top and just made early graduation regulations um made some um overall just sort of structural CH or um wording changes um like taking um shifting parents to Guardians and things like that um to clarify um there but then also under the criteria um we wanted to give a little bit of additional criteria here

062so um made sure that they a a earned all their verified credits which was not previous in there but um because this was originally written before the idea of verified credits and how many they needed was was clear by the state so we added language in there for that um we also put in there um a that we wanted a detail postsecondary plan um if they're going to graduate early we wanted them to clearly Define hey I'm graduating early to go do this and um and a plan for how how what sort of professional development or what sort of education has led them to that point so what are they prepared for by what we've prepared them for but then is there additional training or profession or education that they have to go after we

063want to know that we want to know what's their plan for getting that um prior to um sending them out um and then um just clarifying that we need teacher counseling administrator as well as um parent or Guardian permission before they move forward and so basically simplifying the language and then clarifying that the whole piece on the postsecondary plan was important to us to make sure that they they as they're graduating early they actually have a plan they're not just um basically running off um the we also did shorten the time frame um prior to that it prior to this it never said s how early you could graduate we s we limited that to only at the end of first semester of your senior year um to go ahead and make sure students have

064put in all time up to theirs and gotten full AC or High School experience we also adjusted the form which the form that yall have doesn't have the final adjustments so um I have that we'll get that loaded for you um just basically takes to through that process and has a little bit more space for them to clearly Define what's that postsecondary plan and so we get a clear picture of what they're trying to do watch did you mention the the hardship please um well the hardship we went ahead and sort of um moved up into so to clarify that um that basically any for any reason if you want to graduate early here's the reason um but hardship is a part of it if there's a reason why they need to um basically go

065to the workforce help provide for their family or whatever that does come up here the overall ship board members is is you need to meet the requirements no matter what and you need to have a plan when you leave us if not you're going to stay with us longer and we're going to get you that plan is is really the the the major adjustment with this but we did want to share that with you um and this would um baring any uh major revisions would would be in place for the class of 202 6 well we goad and start now yeah yes you're graduating early now you're not actually early yes exactly sorry thank you Mr Miller does any board member wish to be recognized I do Mr VA yeah just real quick um so

066we can clarify this isn't a policy change sir this is a regulation change correct yes sir and is that because the policy was ambiguous and didn't have the time frames or just to make this um easier and and easier to figure out yeah okay more clarity yeah the policy's broad as it should be we just tried to really Hammer home Mak it clear the r i get it I just wanted to make sure thank you yes sir thank you thank you Mr Miller I have a question oh I'm sorry Mr I noticed that uh in the first paragraph it talks about all students should be urged to plan a four-year program of studies but in uh section or number I can't find it but given that our you know we have the three e employment

067enlistment enrollment I just wondered if that should remain in there given that sometimes I mean fouryear degree is not really the best option for them but they may be graduating early to go to a trade school so that's a foure high school four year so we can add the word school to that we want every student coming into high school to have a fouryear high school plan to get them to the 3E but without high school being in there I can yes that makes sense and the other thing was just to add an S to Guardians and students uh Guardians well it's one student but yeah oh I get it so but we'll definitely add High School in there thank you so sorry so foure program of high school study way to Mr mow so

068so cently a student who's super focused um cannot have a program that's less than four years then at with our school like can they go you know what if they were on a fast track and they were had everything good to go and they knew exactly what they want to do after they've met all the requirements but they could do it in 3 years so we currently have where it's it's sort of wide open and we felt like we need we need to put more sort of guard rails around it here's more clarity on hey we really want you to go four years and we really do think a foure high school plan is is more well-rounded but if you do it in L um we'll work with you up to Bally we still want

069to keep it within sort of that senior year okay not go too early now if there is an exception of exceptions so we have a young man who's taking every High School Math course we have before he enters high school you know you're going to run into those exceptions that you have that's the type of student I think and it's that's sort of that 1% you know 2% but they still have to have that strong post leading us plan some do some don't um so it really comes down to that too so this gives us guard rails but it does allow us the flexibility for um exting circumstances of unbelievable students yeah I I have a final question Mr Miller with regard to the applicab applicability of this how many students are actually submitting an

070application to graduate early so um I think it the most we've had is it's less than 20 um it's like upper teens but usually yeah annually but usually um I'd say on a normal basis like around 10 um it can get up to up in the te stuff got it thank you thank you thank you Mr Hackman vehicle remarketing request sir good evening Mr chair Vice chair members of the board Dr Nicholls um this evening I'm here to request approval for the remarketing of seven school buses currently in our Fleet um this remarketing is a result of our transportation mechanics that the buses to be beyond their econ economic life typically that's a combination of things that can lead to that overall mileage and condition of the buses and also the amount of money that

071we are spending on maintenance to keep those bus is running we keep some data on that um and when they get to a point where they are no longer economically feasible to keep on the road um we will put them up for sale so I'm requesting uh your approval to do so thank you Shar any board member wish to be recognized yes Mr chair Mr are there uh new buses that are going to be coming in to replace these or do we already have those buses we're good we're good we'll have more than enough buses not more we'll have enough buses to cover those buses that are being sold we have a system where we rep place um and we know replacing request not to do so great no kids will be walking unnecessarily anyone

072else thank you Mr har All Right Next item on the agenda is unfinished business and the topic is the superintendent's recommended budget for fiscal year 2026 M morheim yes Mr chair board members Dr Nichols we are bringing a little bit more solid of a budget request to you this evening we have spoken about some of these items at that last board meeting but just wanted to give you an update and a little bit more information um just going to jump in we do have a process that we reviewed last time and I just want to thank everybody in the school division for really participating and providing feedback and really helping us to build this budget I hope that they see some of the things that they're looking for when when we're going through the details

073the revenue Outlook so we do have an additional state revenue I'd say about half of that revenue is in our current C tool that we receive from the governor's budget which is basically just a second year uh carry forward so kind of status quo and then we also have two proposals currently from the House and Senate that are actually um both an alignment um which is very rare and so I did actually go go ahead and include those Revenue dollars in this recommended budget I'm very hopeful that we'll see that Revenue come through specifically what that is is about 586 th000 is in basic Aid funding um you hear a lot about the support cap and that being removed and things of that nature and then also um special education add-on so we've talked a

074lot about um special education and the differences of the supports that each student needs and so that will be very helpful as well and some of the things that we're looking to add in the budget uh we will continue to budget at 3500 I do think our enrollment will be a little bit higher than that I try to be conservative we've kind of pushed on that in the past few years um quite frankly from Co and just the fluctuation of students leaving and then coming back so just trying to get into a more steady routine and what that looks like um as we've talked about in the past there's no really true contingency buil into this budget so that's one way that I can be um careful to make sure that if something does come

075up that we have a little bit of legal room our local Composite Index is 4391 um that's our local ability to pay so every school division is a little bit different um and then our like I said the revenue that we're anticipating is already built in so we'll see how that um plays out and go from there local revenues we did look at just locally things that we're collecting and I did put an increase of sale of school buses as Mr hotman just presented and also um just because the the price that we're getting on the bus is a little bit higher um so just wanted to tip that up a little bit and then also transportation funding for students so this is money that we receive for field trips and Athletics for transporting our

076students um we're doing more of that and the hour the hourly rates are increasing so just kind of bumping as well the additional operating request from the county that's an additional $1.2 million and we've talked about for the CIP transfer that we have so in the past that's a way to help us balance our budget but also fund the on toone initiative through our CIP funding um so thankfully the county has agreed to hold that at 300,000 which helps us um better utilize the additional Revenue that we're receiving for the needs that we have in the division I will say um there is one item that's not on here because it's more of a FY 25 possibility you've heard about um bonuses and things of that nature so there is in both the House and

077Senate $1,000 bonus for S soq funded positions um they both funded a little bit differently so maybe like $350,000 versus like a $400,000 um it would cost us more than that so that may be something that I'm bringing back to you later in the year either to try to um there's no required local match for that but there will be a local match that we will have um if we're able to do that so stay tuned for that I just wanted to mention that salary and benefits just a couple highlights and we've talked about the additional positions that we added in the current year um we've also talked about a 3% increase for staff and then additionally um now that our teacher scale is equalized every step is 1% so we'd like to um also

078give teachers at 1% step which would be about a 4% raise um one thing that's unique in raising the scale the 3% is that our folks that are at the high end of the scale will actually receive a 3% pay increase where in the past maybe they had half of that or some portion of that as a cost of living adjustment you'll see the comparison that we put in there and that one is sorted on the master scale so you can kind of see where New Kent Falls that is typically where we try to be the most competitive so I showed you there percentage wise um you can't pay 8% higher for our master's teachers um I do think we're a little bit more competitive at the Master's level um this is starting to be

079a little bit obsolete just because we're not getting uh first year teachers as often as we used to um so there's not as many people just looking at this this is just starting salary only and I think there are a lot of other divisions that are still compressed so we are able to be a little bit more competitive um because our scale is stretched out if that makes sense we have a neighboring School Division if you're on steps three through six it's the same step whereas here each is an individual 1% difference so U starting is is one piece of the formula but when you go all the way through the 30 plus steps um you guys last budget helped us make those equal so U that's another reason that it it this slide's becoming

080a little not slide this chart is becoming a little Obsolete and most have Masters so it's nice to yeah and we can bring that to the work session um it's probably over half of our teachers um that are Master's teachers minimum wage and other adjustments those are really mainly Transportation adjustments our car drivers we are increasing a dollar per hour um in our AIDs that we're taking an hour um we have included a mechanic hel adjustment for them onto our maintenance scale with our U maintenance technicians and our part support So combining those three together um and then every year we do take our stien scale which is you know all the coaches and things that we have and all the academic type stiens that we have in our schools we tie that back to

081our bachelor's salary Step Zero um so that when we do adjust that scale 3% up then all of those stiens also get that same 3% if that makes sense we do not have a healthcare increase this year we are so excited about this there are so many of our um colleagues that are seeing five 10 18 huge crippling increases in their healthare and my heart goes out to them I'm thankful that we're here um that can be a big number and I'll talk about that in a minute but we're very lucky that we don't have that you will see an increase in the budget in the healthc care line item for about $187,000 so I want to explain what that is that's really just folks that chose their healthcare plans this year during open enrollment

082and I just want to give an example so the employer share of a base um contribution so our share and you can't share for a family plan is 22,9 $6 per year so when you look at and then um a a plan with that's a family plan with just children so it does not include the spouse we actually make that a little bit more affordable for families um because we have found that spouses often time times can um bring additional expenses so those we pay $3,588 for so that [Music] $187 $87,000 change could could approximately be seven employees so I just want you to have that kind of in your head um how much health care and the cost of Health Care is not only a benefit to our employees but also how drastically it

083can fluctuate and why it's so important that we have a self funded insurance plan where we have room to make those type of adjustments during the school year um no vrs rate changes stay the same and just a general note that our budget is made up 85.2% of our general fund budget is salary and benefits so we are very heavy on people that's the business we're in um the things that we have to spend money on not so much Regional program I was just to say you think about that board when you think about 85% of our organizations people and everything else we do is on 15% U that's not atypical um for an organization but uh we invest heavily in our schools so we talked about this at our last board meeting the only

084thing I'll say that has changed since that meeting we had a virgin communities meeting and they are increasing their enrollment to 220 students new camp will have 93 of those so that will be an increase of [Music] $1,157 I guess the good news is that we've had close to that enrollment for quite some time and um now we're just trying to level out what that budget looks like we do believe that we'll be able to fill those seats um it's very popular we've done a great job our counselors um Administration in the high school have also done a great job of making sure that those seats St I'm Sorry Miss Mor Mr chairman uh the bridging communities um how much does it equate to for student for tuition for that or cost per student um

085yes ma'am I can get you that exact number it's like 5,000 uh almost say like6 I'll bring to the work session I wrot all the other ones down I didn't write that one down right so is that like I'm just trying to think like cost per pupil right like our our our County compared to other counties and I know that we're relatively low compared to other counties but would that be 5,000 above like the 13,000 or like3 ,000 plus 5,000 for those students or so we for that particular program and each of these programs is a little bit different so they actually don't receive any state funding directly other than a little bit of equipment about um they do receive some bpsa funding for like technology um and sometimes like a grant for some equipment

086but per pupil no we receive the per pupil for that student here in New Kent and then we're paying that tuition to bridging communities um and that's not a full day you're not there all day so that's why it's a little bit less than some of the others when you're looking at like $111,000 for some of our other programs yeah so it's not really on top of the actual because they're spending they're spending half their day there not with us it's sort of it's it's so when we report that $113,000 number those kids oh it's already factored it thank you for clarifying that so just some highlights of our other operating expenses that are changing custodial Services um Mr hogman and I worked really hard U with SSC our custodial services provider to be sure

087that we're really including our custodial staff and our newent team newent love having that there to point to um it's very important that they're happy working in newent they've had a lot of turnover and we've really sat down and brainstormed why and what we can do different we've supported them with um just some awards and different things showing up and doing different things having them come together with us we've requested that they increase their pay for individuals that work in SSC um that's what this figure is along with eight paid holidays there was a time over the winter break when folks were you know not working and so they were not receiving a paycheck this is very similar to what we do for our employees where we do equalize our pay um they also do

088rece paid holidays um so this is something that's comparable where those folks would feel like at least that they had some income coming in during that time that they weren't working so we're appreciative of that partnership student services um the bulk of that is really Dr Young and just kind of evening out her budget and really um providing her the resources that she believes she need and a little bit for Mr Miller um specifically to help with the beta group that we saw earlier um to meet their goals and things that they want to do each year school base Lear adjustments that's a minor adjustment we do a per pupil amount for each school so that's overall the changes that we had in those line items security is specifically for athletics that is for um

089security at our games so I think anywhere you've gone and you've seen security that price has increase over the years um sometimes we have more games so we need additional security this just to help to fund that technology this is really mainly Rising costs and Mr I mean um when you look at this overall total of his budget is about 2.4% which is very reasonable for um increases in services and moving things into the cloud and things of that nature Transportation same very similar fuel think fuel Parts um the hourly rates for our transportation employees go up as our pay scale goes up for those individuals as well um and then tuition I will say tuition is more keeping in line with what we're actually paying it's not really increasing it um much further than

090where we are now um the substitutes very similar um that's not even getting us to where we are actually spending but it's so it's just all over the place since Co is really just trying to figure out um where The Sweet Spot is how do you balance the school Bas sub versus the subs that we're paying um through ESS so that's kind of a moving Target we're just trying to really make sure we're keeping up there position requests I will say that um the first one bus driver quite frankly I funded that through attrition so there's Z dollars on that position that was something that we were able to do we want to have there we would love to be able to fill all of those positions um but most likely that would not you

091know we would have a vacancy at some point that would help to fund that the gifted education teachers support mainly at the elementary school level that was in the budget request for last year um Additionally the high school assistant principal Sports talked a lot about that as well and that's a carry forward Hy just timeline one just to jump in there board I'm going to bring you kind of what that role specific Piece Will look like at the work session so right now we have the placeholder of high school assistant principal but we'll show you the plan across uh what would be the three uh at the work session so that's coming an additional maintenance technician um I mean that's a very simple explanation you know we just need additional support for Mr poock and

092his team it's it's been a long time that we've been able to provide that preschool teacher this is actually funded through our Virginia preschool preschool initiative so there are um part of those State dollars that we talked about at the front end of the presentation the 1.4 million is an increase in VPI which then affords to um hire this new teacher so it kind of offsets that Revenue the elementary steam teacher this is a position for George Watkins as you know we have one in elementary school and this was something that we had to change in last year's budget to meet another need of the division so hoping that we can get that in the secondary teacher could be lots of different things what we have it slated for now is an ISS um uity

093academic advisor type of a position and kind of an all over support type position at the high school um in a minute I'll show you that there's also a request for an English teacher that would help with reducing class sizes um but this is based on the parameters that we have and the funding that we have available um these are our priorities these request total 427 through $370 um Healthcare is not in that total so that would be an additional 99,354 but we are just trying to make sure that we're getting these things in our budget some of the things that did not necessarily make the list at this time but we do feel like um definitely warrants the discussion and looking at and carrying forward for next year or with any additional funding available

094these this is just kind of a laundry list of things but it includes instructional interventionists at our elementary schools coaches at the secondary level um and then the special education coach as well teachers for growth I do think maybe that we'll need one to two Elementary School teachers for growth for next year um I think we'll know a little bit more after we have our kindergarten registration so I'll kind of keep you posted and if we need to shift something um you know maybe we'll come back and revisit that the Safety and Security positions really fall more around weapons detection and the time and effort needed to help to support that initiative throughout the day so it's not necessarily that there's you know something terrible that we need additional security support is just trying to

095Monitor and make sure we're implementing that um change in our buildings for all day there is a grant funded opportunity if we were to receive that Grant there would be a local match for that um so again just trying to then come back maybe and have that conversation again of how do we receive some additional funding for that and then one additional maintenance support position question so can you we go back to student uh support positions and you mentioned student support and intervention can you give more clarity as the type of support that has been requested and why there's a need for it sure and we can either um if you would like to at the work session we can provide a list of all of the positions that were requested really um focus on

096what those are specifically or we can just highlight a couple of them for you today right that'll be fine but so what is the need and why is there need because um I'm just really I just want to make sure that students are getting what they need as a priority for their academic success um and so I would I would like just more clarification on on that so I think for you know the student intervent mentioned one specifically Miss COA there was a request at each of our elementary schools to add a reading interventionist and a math interventionist currently we have um at each of our schools two reading Specialists um The Specialist spends time with coaching teachers and getting them better and then some with students um same on the math side they had

097one math specialist um except for n if just to um this would be somebody who all day every day intervened for students how many of those do we have currently zero so we don't in in larger School divisions you have your specialist who leads a team of intervention people in a smaller School Division you have people that do both great um so we're in that spot that we do both um helping teachers and helping students that slides depending on the need of the school and I will tell you time of year it also slides as we get to April May it is far more student focused because we're in that season we we'd like to at some point in a budget begin to have somebody who does that full-time all the time um so that's

098an example on the intervention side so we we have a system in place this would be additional support and additional layer so um we consider that a priority yeah so does that help and then we can bring more thank you okay and there were additional request above um those but these were the one there were a couple of positions where we all agreed that it wasn't the right time to bring this forward or that it wasn't appropriate or there may be a different way of meeting the need of what the request was um but these positions do total um basically 2, 35,000 gr7 and again the health care for those positions if I were to budget would be$ 44,7 um so I just want you to to also understand and even though this says 2

099million and the other says 400 overall it's more like you know three $3 million in position request that we were um working through so the support positions would be full-time positions not a part-time where they don't get yes bit that was the request yes so we do some not to make it more complicated but we do some hourly two ring now um but the qual if you get a full-time interventionist that also comes with with credentials and those pieces and um so it's a whole different Market we have some incredible pal support tutors and some fantastic people um retired teachers some teachers take a break this would have that full-time piece um we have discussed the capital Improvement plan I just wanted to include it to make sure that um our community was up to

100speed on where we are with that this is a recommendation that has gone forward um from Mr Hathaway so we are expecting um that this will come out to 4.2 million and these are the projects that hopefully will be approved as part of the adoption of the budget this year and nothing has changed on this board since we work through this with you in the fall that just collapses into the overall budget at this point so there was one request that was on there that we removed um and we only removed it because we want to do it sooner um and that's replacing the island at the transportation for the fuel pumps and the software and things that go with that so that is something that we're looking to um take to the actually to

101the county as a request um of coming in the next month or two so this is a slide we just wanted to put in and typically we don't provide this type of information but we felt like it was really important just for our constituents to know and understand kind of what we're facing when we start hearing about the county conversation around the budget and the funding and what how the regional real estate rates and the tax rate um plays into the funding that we receive from the county so this is a chart that actually was provided by the county and they'll be looking at the same chart I'm sure next week um and you can see that new in this particular list is ranked 14th at um 59 the current value estimated currently is about

102551 975 so I wanted just everyone to understand that this budget as presented this evening um most likely would not happen without some type of a tax increase at the county level um I do believe that we would have reduced funding if it were a flat budget um we would absolutely work through that and figure that out but I just wanted to make sure that the things that we're showing tonight I don't want anyone to get any type of Foss hope that that's something that's concrete this is a recommendation that we have um and I just wanted to provide a little bit of information on our side just so that folks understood as a resident when you're hearing about a tax increase some of the things that maybe that that could help to afford the

103School Division and then next steps um basically we'll see what the governor does with the budget we'll come back to you we'll have a a work session March 17th I believe um and we'll do a public hearing on that evening and then the um we actually have a retreat coming up on March 14th with the Board of Supervisors and that will be held at the rice Center and then we will approve this budget hopefully APR 14th um with any changes and recommendations that we work through between now and then and then after the county adopts their budget we will come back to you to adopt ours we are looking to get contracts out to employees late April uh we want to make sure we feel really good about our compensation package with with as it

104relates to our Revenue prior to sending those out so um that's our goal thank you m Morgan thank you m Puna any followup questions no thank moski I did have one question regarding when teachers obtain I don't know if you call it an endorsement like so that they could teach dual enrollment is there any additional salary increase for that we process and pay for the endorsement we'll pay for the testing we pay reimburse for this um we actually pay the VOE to get it on the license we do all those types of payment but it doesn't increase um their salary if it takes you to a so like any answer in organization it's not quite yes no because the endorsement could take them into the Master's level could take them Masters plus 12 it could

105take them to that next piece got um a specific endorsement likely would not be the compensation piece although we are internally looking at some of those those pieces if you're teaching in these specific areas is that um should there be a proposal for additional compensation so um I think everybody who teaches this organization would argue for their specific endorsement area none of this is easy uh but just trying to work through a way that that that makes sense great thank you Mr VA yeah just um as we move forward also we're talking about the new elementary school um it's important and I I just want to mention it so it doesn't get lost in the mix uh the importance of the maintenance support additional maintenance support because that will draw the director of Maintenance just

106just as Quinton did uh uh draw him away from his responsibilities and duties um he'll be balanced in a new construction and supporting that as well um we can see the benefit with Quinton I think he played a large part in uh the timeliness and and coming in under budget he was it was significant that he was there and he was a part of the process and we certainly don't want to miss that opportunity um with a new elementary school if that is approved and and we do move in that direction so just an honorable mention for for sure you know well and you saw the list of CIP projects it's very long and so often times our our guys are involved in a lot of those as well and not to mention we have

107a aging facility that we're getting ready to replace right which needs a lot of extra tender help and Care thank you Mr Rymer M Mor thank you thank you our next item on the agenda is citizen comments no one has signed up so unless somebody from the audience would like to be recognized now we're going to move past that all right we're on to action items board members the first action item is the approval of the textbook transfer and appropriation requests do I hear a motion moved Mr braski moved do I have a second second any discussion all right Madam cler please pull the board Mr Rymer hi Mr V hi hi Mr oski hi Mr P hi motions approved 5 Z our next action item is consideration of the approval for the vehicle remarketing

108request do I hear a motion to approve Miss COA motion second second Mr Rymer any discussion all right Madam clerk please pull the board Mr R Mr V hi M hi M Tomos hi Mr Pano hi all right motion passes 0 we are now in our comment period so Mr Rymer Mr VA um yeah I just want to thank uh everyone for their work on the budget process and it's very difficult um time um and and time intensive and a emotional as well because you there's got to be a balance in there so thank you for all the hard work I also want to um beat my colleagues to it and congratulate the men's basketball team um and um all of their efforts and um they I hope that we're able to get them here

109um they are indicative of what you can do with proper chemistry um playing together as a team and teamwork um when you see some of the teams that they have defeated um if you look just at the physical stature and what was supposed to happen here's a group of guys who play hard together good chemistry and um are amazing I I was so impressed just by their attitude and lack of getting rattled us kept their head in the game so um I just wanted to make sure that they were mentioned thank you thank you Mr D Broski yeah I I like to tell people that there might be other teams that have the height but we have the heart and I I love that I love their team I love our team and uh yes

110they're playing uh their first state game tomorrow night it's about two hours away so I challenge everyone to come you're driving you're driving yeah my husband you you obviously haven't been at false church I'm going to sacrifice the time and make it there awesome I do have several other comments I'll try and get through them really fast I would like to First recognize the passing of Dr Robert Lowry who from 2017 to 2025 served as the Director of the Maggie El Walker Governor's School he passed away on February 24th after a long battle with non Hotchkins Lymphoma I only had the opportunity to get to know him and work with him just this last year while serving on the regional board um but it was very evident in everything he did that he had a

111great love for the school and the students and I just like to publicly thank him for his many efforts and the lasting impact that I know he has made in education and at Maggie Walker so speaking of our newent High boys basketball team I know there were several other teams within newent beta uh gymnastics wrestling there's too many um swim who swimming who made their way to State uh they've already either competed or will be competing this week and just wanted to proudly congratulate them and thank them for representing New Kent their leaders their teachers and their coaches so phenomenally well we are very proud of them um just to keep the board apprised of a project I kind of started several months ago while I was speaking to a delegate Amanda baton who serves

112on the education committee at the state um asked if she would be at all interested in coming into our schools and visiting seeing what we are all about she excitedly said yes and um I've just always felt that as a Schoolboard member I can be more effective in my decisions when I see what's actually occurring in the schools and I think that holds true for our legislators especially when they're serving on the education committee that if they can see and understand what's going on that they can make better decisions as well um I spoke to Dr Nichols briefly about it and um I brought the idea forward to uh our chair and said that he um suggest that I move forward in working with Dr Nichols on that so if there's any ideas or or

113questions or concerns that you have about that please feel free to call me or or email me um and then one last thing um at last week's Schoolboard session we agreed to a set of protocols for Schoolboard member initiatives one of them specified that we had to submit our ideas at least 30 days prior to a scheduled meeting I want to take this time just to make a request um public um I know it sounds like our March 17th work session is going to be fairly full so perhaps this is something that we could do in a uh Retreat um but I I would like to suggest that it' be done sooner rather than later I was recently um signed up for a SBA webinar uh series about empowering your board for Student Success and

114the did I bore you wrong no thank you for asking um the second webinar or the second uh in that series uh really provided some tremendous ideas on how and what school boards should be doing so to be better informed and more Adept at promoting student achievement um there's an education education governance expert AG k I'm not sure if I'm saying that right he succinctly states that school boards exist for one reason and one reason only to ensure that students succeed and um that is the number one issue that has been on my mind for quite some time I I realize that new Ken is is awesome and that we're doing great and that um we have a lot to be proud of but I I don't feel that that means that we can move

115our Focus away from what I understand is is one of our primary responsibilities which is to really know how we can excel in student achievement and we're doing that by by all means but again I I think I would like to have the opportunity for us to watch this uh this series or this one session particularly and um have the opportunity to discuss that and uh find ways that we can further enhance Student Success in newent schools and as a part of that proposed Retreat sorry um file or the policy AFA evaluation of Schoolboard operational procedures which was also part of the norms and protocols um I think that would be a good opportunity after watching that uh webinar to uh go through and it's something that we're supposed to do annually and it involves

116as a school board evaluating what we do and what we can do better and developing short and long range goals and objectives to ensure that we continue uh with Proficiency in areas of excellence and to find ways to strengthen weak areas and improve the overall efficiency of the board um so that is something I would propose again perhaps as a retreat I know we've got a lot going on with budget and um everything but I really feel strongly that this is something we need to to come together on and and have a consensus as to how we can better address this and the retreat obviously would include Dr Nicholls and and his team because they're extremely important and vital in that process m co thank you uh M Don Broski a lot of what you

117said I support I think it's important always to be focused on academic achievement and although we're doing amazing work here there's always room for us to grow um and keep our focus on student and uh student achievement academic achievement and growth to get to those three e um and so I I totally support anything we could do um to continue to focus on student achievement and student progress um on a letter note I want to give a shout out to um our njc Cadets and chief McDonald his wife um they were at an event uh this past Saturday the newent uh veterans U my husband Ron and I are members of the newent veterans had a chili cook off uh at the Providence Forge Community Center and I got to tell you we volunteered uh

118not only some chili uh there were 14 entries uh quite a lot of chili was tasted um but we volun shed to show up early um to help set up for the event which started at 1:00 and I got to tell you Ron and I got there at 10:00 a.m. and the cadets and chief McDonald were already there and we had so much fun the kids were the kids they're kids the kids were so helpful and so cheerful about it and they helped us put up banners and set up the tables and and everything else and they did it with such uh enthusiasm and a spirit of cooperation they were even out in the front uh doing yard work to make it all look beautiful and um the event was successful one of the cadets

119actually was one of the three judges that uh judged the Chile uh and so he had a cool little t-shirt on and he did a great job some of the money there was a fundraiser some of the money uh was for the cadets and some uh some of it was for the veterans um group but it was a lot of fun and it was a wonderful opportunity to come together uh veterans spouses and and community members and and have a great time for a good cause so thank you thank you to them all right thank you fellow board members I'm going to keep mine brief I just want to thank the students who are recognized this evening especially the Vox anima singers and the beta beta students very very impressive and wish all the best

120to our student athletes this week Dr Nichols thank you Mr Echo some of those comments I want to thank Miss morine for her work on the budget um you get to see small doses we live it every day and it is a tremendous undertaking and that budget should move us forward as an organization and a line to our priorities and and I'm very confident in that but um part of that confidence is because I get to work with her every day and and see that come to life um we've talked about a lot of our students I I'll throw in a couple that I don't think have been mentioned um as we close out the winter season's been incredibly successful so our track team right now is at Liberty um I almost guarantee you uh

121SL guarantee you we're going to have some state champions coming back from that um and our Deca students some marketing um we had nine firsttime Deca members go to the state leadership conference in Virginia Beach and compete so team Newen is competing in every single Arena and doing incredibly well and but we could not do that without our coaches and our sponsors uh while yes they may receive a stip and I guarantee when you break it down to an hourly it is not a stip they do it because they love kids they do it because they love newat and they move us forward so thank you to our coaches and sponsors and then finally uh we talk about the threes all the threee all the time Mr Rhymer and I debate about a foure called

122entrepreneurship um I believe entrepreneurship threads across all three um somebody else believes it should Stand Alone um so we have one of our beta students came tonight uh Maddox McDonald he's actually started his own business called Little Mac and it is a 3D printing business he's got his own store um so tonight U and I love my connection with kids in school so uh he 3D printed a river otter he's a new K Elementary School river otter beta Award winner um I had a team New Kent keychain which I would put and I don't know how he got this idea that I love shoes but I have this beauti Jordan one classic uh you know he designed a 3D printed so when I say to work with amazing staff and students I can't even explain

123how fortunate and lucky I'm to live work and serve here so thank you board members it it is an honor of Lifetime thank you Dr Nichols uh and wrapping up the next meeting of the school board is our work session on Monday March 17th at 5:00 p.m here in the historic Courthouse boardroom and that meeting will also include the public hearing on the fiscal year 20126 budget our board members will also attend a joint board meeting with the Board of Supervisors on Friday March March 14th 2025 at 900 a.m. at the rice River Center in Charles City County with that our meeting is adjourned at approximately 7:50 p.m. thank you [Applause]