001tested. Good evening. Once again, at this time, board members, we're going to need a motion to come out of close. >> So, moved by M. >> Second, Mr. Miles, >> as required by section 2.2-3712D of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a roll call vote will be taken to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. One, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the act. And two, only such public business matters as were identified motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed session by the board. Prior to the vote, any member of the board who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of one and two as read so state the same, indicating the substance of the departure that
002in his or her judgment has taken place. Does any board member wish to respond? Hearing no response, I want to now take the freedom of information roll call. Mr. Steven Pier, Senior. Mr. Hal B. Mile, Senior. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Kenneth Pritchette. >> Yes. >> Mr. Car Tucker. >> Yes. >> Miss Joyce Proctor. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. >> And Mr. Adrian Ten, Senior. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. We do have a recommendation from the superintendent. Yes. personal agenda. >> Thank you, Bo Chief Pritchette and school board members. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the personnel agenda with the removal of item number 22 for the personnel agenda dated for May 6th, 2026 as provided. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. Is there a motion to accept the recommendation?
003>> So moved by Mr. Miles. Is there a second? Second, >> Miss Proctor. All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Is there a motion to adjourn from close? >> So move. >> Moved by Mr. Miles. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Miss Tucker. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Good evening once again, everyone. The time now it's 5:13 p.m. and we would like to call our regular board meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you will call the role once again. >> Mr. Steven Pier, senior, Mr. Hal B. Mouse >> here, >> Mr. Kenneth Pritchette >> here, >> Mr. Tari Tucker >> here, >> M. Joyce Proctor here, >> Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. and Mr. Agent Ten Senior. >> Thank you. Board members will
004move to 1A. Approval of the agenda. >> If there are no changes, I accept a motion. >> So move. >> Moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? >> Second, Mr. Miles. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we move to 1B. Moment of silence, Miss Davis. The following are to be remembered during the moment of silence. The family of Mr. Todd A. Banks, former PCPS employee in his passing on Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. Mr. Gerald E. Robertson, former PCPS employee and family in the passing of his mother, Miss Lucille C. Brown on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Miss Willa Hopson Richardson and family in the passing of her mother. Miss Star L Gilliam on Friday, April 17, 2026. Miss Audrey Ribbon Stokes, Miss Barbara Patterson and family in the passing of
005their mother, Miss Alvester Johnson Ribbon on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026. And nurse Kimbley Mason and family in the passing of her father-in-law, Mr. Raymond. Hayes, on Sunday, April 26, 2026. >> Thank you. At this time, we have a moment of silence. Thank you. Next, we move to the pledge of allegiance and we be led by Mr. Miles. Ask everyone to stand. Thank you. Next we'll move to one D correspondence in his correspondence. Davis. >> There was a correspondence from Miss Janette Bereos and family thanking the board for their condolences in the passing of her sister. And that was all. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. Okay, we'll move to number two recognitions. Mrs. Miss Brown. Thank you, board chair and school board members. I'm excited this afternoon to recognize um we're excited this afternoon as a
006board to recognize the Virginia School Boards Association Business Honor Role. And so I have a couple of resolutions here and we're going to start with one of our fabulous partners who works so closely with Petersburg City Public Schools related to their work around workforce readiness. And so this afternoon I am excited to congratulate Dr. Bill Figgy from Breitpoint Community College. And so we have a resolution. Yes, we have Dr. Dr. Figgy right here in the back. So, we'll ask Dr. Figgy to please come up so that we can recognize you and the wonderful Breitpoint Community College family. And so, if you could come right here, I'm going to read the resolution. And so whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral part of this community and whereas ma many local businesses play a crucial
007role in supporting our schools. And whereas the economic health of our community, state and nation depends on a strong public school system. And whereas collaboration between local public schools and local businesses strengthens schools and the business community alike by providing a well-trained and highly educated workforce. And whereas an excellent public school system is vital to the quality of life in this community and fundamental to preserving a strong democratic society now and in the future. Therefore, be it resolved that the Petersburg City Public School Board names Breitpoint Community College to the 2026 Virginia School Board's Association Business Honor Role, showing appreciation for the ongoing Breitpoint Community Collegeges support of this community's public schools. Your work has aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child who
008attends them. This is adopted proudly by the school board of the city of Petersburg this 18th day of March 2026 but we are celebrating it in May of 2026. So thank you Dr. Figgy. We have your 2026 VSBA business honor roll. Oh, okay. All right. So again, congratulations to Breitpoint Community College and Dr. Figgy, the president. Um, so we also have our next group this evening for the Virginia School Boards Association business honor role is none other than the concerned black men of Petersburg. Absolutely. And so we ask them to please come to the front and I'll read the resolution. Give the direction board members. M miles we got. All right. >> Okay. So, resolution 2026, Virginia School Boards Association Business Honor Role. Whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral part of this
009community and whereas many local businesses play a crucial role in supporting our schools and whereas the economic health of our community, state and nation, depends on a strong public school system. And whereas collaboration between local public schools and local businesses strengthens schools and the business community alike by providing a well-trained and highly educated workforce. Whereas an excellent public school system is vital to the quality of life in this community and fundamental to preserving a strong democratic society now and in the future. So therefore, be it resolved that the Petersburg City Public School Board proudly names Concerned Black Men of Petersburg to the 2026 Virginia School Boards Association business honor role, showing appreciation for your ongoing of the ongoing support from concerned Black Men of Petersburg support of this community and its public schools. Your work
010has aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the very best public schools we can for every child who attends them. So adopted by the school board the of the city of Petersburg this 18th the 18th day of March 20 26 and confirmed on May 6, 2026 the Petersburg City Public School Board congratulates the concerned black men the concerned black men of Petersburg. So, congratulations and welcome to the 2026 VSBA business honor roll. >> Thank you. Once again, congratulations and thank you for your support. All right. So, our third and final honore tonight, this afternoon for the Virginia School Boards Association business honor role is none other than our fabulous Crimson Clinic. And so, we'll ask Hello. Yeah, absolutely. It's right here in Petersburg High School right around the way. And so, we
011will read the resolution as well. So again, whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral part of this community, and whereas many local businesses play a crucial role in supporting our schools. And whereas the economic health of our community, state and nation, depends on a to get the food. And we know they're school-aged children. And I'm going to go to the next slide. There's another slide. This one, this is another popular one where school age children are residing. The next thing we want to do is um let me make sure I'm following. Yes. Okay. So, here is a video testimonial from Mr. Andre Jones who has a school age child enrolled in the Petersburg public school system. >> Uh good morning. My name is Andre Jones and I just wanted to say I want
012to thank People Advantage for the opportunity to help me out at a time of need. Um, I was really going through a lot at the moment and I ain't know who to turn to and some odd reason I found out about them and I must say they are truly a blessing to me and my family and I encourage anyone that gets involved this program take full advantage of it and just do right because these people are sent by God to help people. So, thank you. >> And we have one more Maybe not. >> Okay. So, that's the only video testimonial that we have. And next, Councilman Meyers will uh close out. Thanks, Anica. Once again, we want to say thank you for allowing us to be here to present tonight. Um, I do want to
013say that our missions align with yours to empower families of students through innovation and collaboration. So they demonstrate virtue, good character, and make meaningful contributions to society. We stand before you here tonight because we're are very concerned with respect to the numbers that we've received and the outpouring outreach um of all of these families with school age children and we'd like for you all to support us in our endeavors to get them out of these harmful situations. So thank you all very much for having us here tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, M. Now, Councilman Myers, if you all could come back. Yeah, we may have questions. Questions from board members. Mr. Miles. >> Well, my question was more to um Dr. Manson um if you're available. Um because I know we have u McKenna
014Vento funds, but our funds, they're from grants, auntie. So they all it's all federal money. We we we can't change that. >> See that's that's all that's what I wanted to know that that that everything that we do for the homeless. And Dr. Manson is real good at letting us know when situation occur because sometime we got to go in our pocket and do things for kids that uh and you know and pay for stays and stuff like that. And he always kept me up keep me up with everything. But uh I was just I just wanted to know that it's federal dollars. So really with no federal dollars, we we can't redirect to to give it to but it's going to the same cost. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Thank you. It's >> Thank
015you so much for that presentation. I just had one question. I know you said that the loans are high risk. What do you mean by they're high risk? Can you kind of elaborate on that just a little bit? because I love what you said about the um almost 50% has seen an increase in their credit scores and I think that is so important um for especially the younger generation that's trying to you know work on or recover or fix credit. Um so if you could just explain a little bit about what um that low um or the loans are at a high risk what that means. >> I'm going to let Shenica respond. >> Thank you. in business on that. >> So what we see is that these are folks that would typically be unbankable.
016They couldn't go to a traditional lending institution for credit. So, these loans are no credit based and the goal is for they have to um agree to the monthly coaching and sometimes those coaching sessions are more than monthly just depending on the situation and we work with them to stay on track with their budget and making sure they can afford to live within you know to take care of their necessary requirements. So, they are considered unbankable. I mean, they are considered high-risisk loans because they couldn't go to a traditional lending institution for credit. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> And maybe maybe I missed it. Um, Councilman Mayers, how many families in the school division have you all assisted thus far? Did you give that number? We've over 50. >> Over 50. Yes. And
017with the assistance, are they in homes or apartments? Where where are they? >> They've moved from from uh homelessness into apartment to stable housing. >> Okay. Okay. So, we still have a ways to go. >> Yeah. And we still have what we called um eviction diversion. So, some who still have school age children, they're living in an apartment, but the eviction uh diversion maintains their livelihood in that safe home. So, we may lend up to about 4,000 $4,000, which is a high risk for someone who has no credit um or very low credit score, let's put it this way, and who have been marginalized for over the years. And a lot of times what we're finding that a lot of folks have not been educated on the financial wherewithal of how to budget your money
018or or to to practice what I would say my grandfather used to tell me because I never practiced saving so I know the feeling. So, so but you know um uh being precautious about how you throw away your money. And so at this particular point, a lot of folks, not just me and anybody around this table here, we can all say this truthfully, is that at some point we need to start even educating our children how to manage a checkbook, how to budget your accounts, and how to take care of yourself so that you can take care of your family. That's what this is about. It's about changing the culture and helping folks to get to where they can stabilize their lives and their famil family's lives. That's what this is really all about. >>
019Okay. Thank you. >> Meers always says that we're teaching people how to fish. If you teach them how to fish, they'll never go hungry. So that's the concept that we use. And the reason the methodology behind it being alone is to help improve their credit scores to move into more quality level neighborhoods because their will allow them to do so. It's very easy to give the money, but then what happens after you give the money? They find themselves back in that situation. So, this is a way where we can actually help them to help themselves. >> Yeah. And and and I want to add and sometimes I get kicked in the teeth for it, but it really is about establishing yourself so that at some point you'll be financially have the financial wherewithal to take
020care of you and your family. And such as when we're talking about first-time home buyers and what folks don't understand that you may can live in an apartment, but you can't live there forever. But if you want to financially stabilize your life and build equity in your life, it's about purchasing a home. And so that a home and real estate does increase in value regardless of where you live. All right. So, thank you very much, >> Mr. Lindy. >> I was um coming down 46 one time and I was looking for Mr. Manson and but a lot was going on at that particular time. There were a lot of individuals that were actually jumping out of that hotel room and I called I think I called you too and I think I called you Mr.
021Mans and it was something to actually see what was really taking place. It was ab absolutely unbelievable. They were jumping out of all different kinds of sides all over the balconies and it was just it was just out of this world. We don't we don't get those kind of things. We don't see those things. But people were coming down the road and all that was but we were still trying to get them out of there. It was it was very hard. Another thing, the last we're going to have to start thinking about finance because there are so many bankers that want us to be more interested in it. We need our we need to have that here in our schools so that we can work on finance and that's something I think we can move
022on that will be a easy part because there are a number of people Mr. preacher knows one person that we know a lot about and I think we can gain a big a great deal of it because you can create a club for that and that club can wean out to be a many of things and so that's something I hope that we can actually take advantage of >> and pe people's advantage has been very helpful with respect to that and as as Shenica has shared um 50 folks that we've helped, I think 50% 50% of them, their credit scores have shot up so far. And and I have to tell you, when we talk about high-risk loans, and you got individuals who have fallen into harm's way, we're now paying back into the system.
023It helps the generation that follows or the next individual um that has fallen into harm's way. So, it's a help help yourself situation where and these are 0% uh loans that we provide up to $4,000 and with this financial coaching at no additional cost to help you change your life and help you to stabilize your family. >> Thank you. So, one more question. When the individuals call, we still give them to Dr. Manson and Dr. Manson will come contact you all. Yes, that that team has been very very proficient in in working with us to get this done. Yes. >> Okay. >> Every two weeks. We meet every two weeks. Yes, we do. >> Yes. So, we're part of your team, too. >> Okay. We appreciate it. >> Yes. >> I need my 100,000. >>
024Pastor Pastor Davis is is a pastor here in Petersburg. Did Did you have a question? Because you were you were saying if you could Can you come up to the mic? They did answer. Okay. >> Come up. Come up to the mic. >> I just had a question about what was the maximum amount of money that the program was providing for people being served. I got that answer. >> Okay. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Can Can we have the answer? I think it was four. Was is Was was it 4,000? >> Yes. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure if somebody online was wondering the same thing, they could have that answer as well. >> That will support um deposit and first month. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Um I also want
025to say that this this revolving loan >> Yes. >> Anyway, I'm sorry. So this revolving the reason it's a revolving loan is that when every and I think I said it earlier but each time everybody pays back into this denomination money um it services as I said someone who is going through the entire same situation but what it does it helps the municipal government as well as the school board once we build a fund at a certain plateau then you're only borrowing from yourself now and the persons that you're helping we don't have to keep coming back and asking you to assist or the municipal government to assist. What it does, it sustains itself. And that's what we're building a platform to sustain itself. >> Those payments, those monthly installment payments that are made from
026those that are enrolled in the program, they go right back into the program to continue to help other people. So, it's revolved. And I will tell you there are some folks who uh with this recent tax they paid it off. So we were able to have that much money to give to someone else another family to move into stable housing. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. I just want to make sure that I'm clear. So you're asking for the dollar amount of a h 100,000 to go into the program. Is that correct? >> That would match the city's 100,000 for the >> Oh, you're asking for a match. So, the city is already committed to the 100,000. So, you're asking the school system to to match the 100,000 for the program so that
027it allows each individual family or participants to be able to um >> you know get do what they need to do and once they pay that so they'll get that once they pay that back then that goes back into the pot and applied to the next person that needs to be a part of. Is that correct? Absolutely. Absolutely. It's all of us helping each other. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> Those families with school age children only. >> Okay. Is it a one time? Is this $100,000 one time? >> Well, we're trying to do that. >> Okay. So, it's not a >> fill the pot to a level where when as it re as as it >> Yeah. as it spins around and they pay into once we get let's if we get to a level of
028$500,000 where have a cushion >> then we would >> so that's so but right now seed >> money ass it's a one time for seed money for you to build up your um fund to be able to do the kind of things and so that's a one time expenditure not every year you're giving 100,000 okay >> right >> gotcha okay >> it's like it's like a recycling >> recog Yeah. So, we recycle that money all the time. >> M Miss Tucker and then Mr. Miles. >> So, um one one additional question. So, um I do love the fact that we are already partners with this. I do have a question with this program specifically um and especially with um that money being matched if the school board decides, you know, to match that amount. Is
029there a stipulation in there that has a clause in regards to students and their attendance at school that parents have to sign to say, you know, when receiving this, you know, this the loan? Because I do understand that it is a McKenna Vento thing and that's how they're being funneled in through this program. Is there some type of stipulation in there that says something is tied to the the students attendance or something with the division? And if not, is there a way that we can implement something to that magnitude? >> Um, well, this is a pilot program, but I I like where you're going with that. I do. Um, give us time to consider it if you don't mind. >> Absolutely. >> And and so, and I promise you we will consider it. I think
030it's very important. Um, I was a bad kid at one time. I didn't go to school. So, but but you know, at some point you learn and you move on. And so I think that it is appropriate sometimes to have some form of uh you know discipline with respect to how do we how we uh deliver these funds and say listen your child needs to attend school um you're getting these funds be on the basis of your attendance at the school and I think that is appropriate at some point >> I defined the importance of stable housing for >> absolutely >> because it helps to increase their performance as well as their attendance because they're not worried about you know where they're going to lay their heads or eating nonutritious foods it's you know microwave
031only type thing. So it has more implications um when it has more impact when they have more stable housing that can help improve their performance. >> Absolutely. I definitely appreciate it. I I I just love when you said when you talked about financial stability and how, you know, it how the program teaches them how to be, you know, financially stable. Um and I I just want a piece of that accountability when it comes to school because we do know that we have a high um chronic absenteeism number when it comes to our McKini Vento and that is due to you know the the constant transition here there and everywhere. So I just want to make sure when we're providing stability on one end we also provide accountability on another. So I I appreciate that. Thank
032you so much Miss Flowers. >> She has to come up. No, you have to come. >> Yeah, you have to come up because we're recording. >> Miss Mullen, do you mind sharing with our school board what the criteria is for our parents to be eligible for the loan just so that they have a full picture before we make this decision? >> Sure. So, they have to have a child enrolled in the Petersburg public school system. They have to be employed. We want them to be employed. they can only they um they have to have they have to work at least 25 hours a week part-time. Um what we the reason why we have stipulations like that is because we want to put them in a position where when they do move into stable housing, they
033can afford the utility costs that they didn't have before. You know, things like that. But we also it's important for us to work with social services so we can see what benefits they may qualify for. And I can share with you at the housing resource fair that we had in April, several um um employers were there as well as DSS and they were signing people up on the spot. They we have a young lady who um is in has interviewed for a for um to work with the program that DSS is starting in June. and that is a result of her coming to that housing stability fair and introducing herself and talking about her skills and they interviewed her for the position. So, we recognize it takes a collective effort in doing this. So, while
034let's say they're not employed but yet they're having housing instability, that's where we work with DSS and other community organizations to help stabilize this family. I hope I answered I hope I provided information. >> Mr. Miles, >> um I commend everything you're doing. And uh Councilman Meyers, I know you've been doing working with the homeless for a long time. >> I had a I had a friend that you helped years ago. He passed away, but he was a a veteran and he couldn't fill out the application. Well, he could start it, but he couldn't complete it. So, and you helped him to get housing. on what I would like to suggest to everyone and this including the audience that um to remind you that PE uh public school system is not a revenue producing uh
035entity. But what we can do just like you do for relay for life, we could spearhead something to raise money to put into that account and get and get sponsors and donors and different things like that and set a goal of a couple hundred,000 to go into your account so you can help more more families. But far as our budget is concerned, um we won't wouldn't be able to do it that way. But we could spearhead something just like Relay for Life or something like that. Do it for the homeless to to to raise funds to to build up this account to get it to the point where you can help as many families as possible. And if and if you're willing to work with us that way, I'm quite I would like to recommend
036to the board that we do spirit uh I I yield to you. You had something you had to say what looked like it was on your mind right away. No, I guess I guess after listening to you um I was thinking about how how to detract >> right >> the usage of that >> is not just happening for Petersburg >> right >> it's happening for Prince George it's happening from others that we can bring a lot more to it because if you looked out there the other day it was jam-packed today >> and we could have we could have >> I think we could raise a lot more than $100,000 for you if we do if we work together and get a um some type of fundraiser going some type of um walk or some
037type of event and get sponsors and I because when I do just golf tournaments I get people to donate 5,000 you know different companies donate 5,000 here 5,000 there but you'd be surprised this is a more worthy cause and we I would love to work with you 100% and u because we have to address this this affect those kids affect um a It it'll affect a lot of families in Petersburg. I mean, it's affect the whole city. If you can help one, that better the whole city. So, I know what you're doing is more than worthy. >> Thank you um everyone for your questions and um thank you Mr. Miles. And say your name again. What's the young lady behind you? >> Shenica Mlen. >> What's her last name? >> Mlen. Okay. Okay. I'm going
038to ask this question only because Pastor Davis is sitting in the room. Do you have any pastors on your committee? Because they are influenced to in our community. >> No. >> And they actually have many churches have members in there that of course you would you would not know because some people are not going to tell you but there are members in churches who are homeless because they're staying and you're considered homeless. Even if I'm if if I go and stay with my brother, I'm homeless because I don't have anywhere. I don't have mouth. >> That's that's also part of our program. And we're talking about couch >> surfing. >> So, would y'all consider adding a pastor to your committee? >> We don't mind doing that. Not at all. >> Pastor Davis, >> we can
039add we can add >> Davis, do you have time to serve? >> Pastor Davis, can you recommend a pastor to them? You can get with your pastor friends and recommend someone to serve for pastors. >> Okay. >> Tell you just gave us a good recommendation and that is >> Yeah. Contribute to the work. done by this program. >> Just the contacts. >> Oh, she has it. Okay. >> Take Pastor Davis the mic because people are online listening. Yeah, thank you. And um and and what we're really talking about is what we have at hand to put into this part where the money is now working for it for itself and then we can reproduce. But money is not an issue given is you know and we have we have to settle that issue among ourselves.
040And when you talk about the faith-based community, it has to be a village being built here. >> We have to do that, you know, and so I don't have a magic answer, but I do have a yes. And that's all we need is a bunch of yeses that will give what they give to this part to make this happen. And so, uh, thank you for this mic. Thank you, Mr. Pritchette. And we're gonna talk later. Uh, Mr. Pitchen, I'm going to give you my number because um I might have a organization might give you $100,000. So, I'm going to give you my number before you leave. >> What's wrong with what's going on? Yeah, I said uh tonight was just a request um to ask if you would um support um matching the uh funds
041for this year. As I said, the city of Peasburg has spent over $233,000 assisting um and so we'd like to collectively do so at this particular point so that we can continue the program. Um at this particular point, yeah, we we've spent a tremendous amount of money and as it starts to recycle, we still have to have a level of of funding in our budget in order for us to uh meet the goals of of other folks who need services immediately. And as as she's also stated that we have found several families in the last month, two months living in their cars with their children. And social services does not want to take the children away from these families, but they can. And so what we're doing right now is trying to focus on maintaining
042them in school, getting the family into stable housing. And I have to say, the city of Petersburg cannot do it alone. We cannot. And we've got to do this in some form of partnership. And it would be greatly appreciated. And you just don't know how much the appreciation will be if you all were supporting us in this endeavor. >> Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilman Myers. Um, thank you, Miss Mlen. Thank you so much for the presentation. It was very enlightening and information we definitely needed to know. We already know that our families are facing homelessness because they're our kids and our families. So, this just brought home the work that you all are doing. And of course, I had a chance to stop by the um fair um and it was just amazing
043and I could see that the participants that came and everybody who was participating was so excited about the resource that you all were bringing to them. So, um I can attest to that. Um please know that this is the first step as you know the process is first it comes to the school board for presentation and then the school board talk we talk through the presentation go back to all the notes and then we determine next steps um if there is an action item that needs to come to the board and then that's when they make a decision but right now we got a chance to collect information. Is there some timeline or anything that you want to share with us before we close out? >> No. Well we haven't adopted our budget yet. >>
044Okay. Gotcha. So, and >> I promise you my hundred,000, but I I do know that. >> Yeah. And our budget is is within yours. >> Promise yours tonight. >> Okay. Perfect. So, you've given us great information. We have the presentation and it gives us next steps. Um, again, our budget is part of your budget. So, we are all in the same thing. So, thank you so much. Thank you. We have our next steps. This is wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. >> So much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next we'll move to 4B. >> All right, thank you again and thank you Boyce Pritchard and schoolboard members. We have our presentation this evening as a part of our just update on chronic absenteeism and the monthly monthly chronic absenteeism update for
045the school board and the work that we're going to be doing coming up for the last few weeks of the school year because this is a very important time for our students. As you know, we have focused on chronic absenteeism for the last for the entire school year with our initiatives and the work um that the team has been doing. And so, we want to just give you a quick update on where we are and our plans for the closing days of the school year and our focus around testing and SOS because chronic absenteeism matters from day one to the last day of school. And so, just wanted to bring you an update and what we're doing. I'll turn it over to Dr. Yasmin Gay, our chief um chief of staff, and then who will
046also turn it over who is in conjunction with our assistant superintendent of student services, Dr. Tori Manson. Dr. Dr. Dr. Gay. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Uh good evening, uh Chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Tucker, and the rest of our honorable board members. Um thank you so much for allowing us to share um our work around chronic absenteeism. as you know, it's been a great focus of us um for this year. Um and you'll be able to see some progress which we're really proud of um in some areas where we may need more um uh more of a push. So, uh next slide and uh Dr. Dartra Jackson who is our director of data assessment and accountability is not here tonight. Um so I am presenting on her behalf. Um so for tonight we'll talk about again
047key attendance related definitions specifically for our community uh so our community can understand um uh what it means to be chronically absent versus uh what average daily attendance is as well. Um we will talk about our schoolboard goal um division level data. Um I'll have uh provide an opportunity to provide a summary of where we are in the month of April and uh our analysis and next steps um which is around our incentives for the month of May which is very exciting. Next slide. So again I'll go over the key definitions. um chronic absenteeism uh per uh the state of Virginia um missing 10% or more school days for any reason excused or unexcused. Okay, so that's uh missing 10% of uh uh the total days for the year. Average daily attendance is the percentage
048of students present each day across the division. Sorry that again. We're trying to get our power to our um tools so we can see the presentation on our screens as well. Sorry, keep going. >> No, no problems. That's why I wanted to pause. Um, is there anything that you wanted me to go over again or >> I think I think everybody knows the definitions. We're good. Yep. We just want to talk about the work. Absolutely. >> Yes, I understand. All right. Next slide. All righty. Uh, just briefly, um, as everyone knows in the division, our superintendent reminds us all the time around our board goals. And so specifically around chronic absenteeism, our goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 3% of last year's percentage. So in school year 2425 end of the year divisionwide chronic
049absenteeism was at the rate of 37.87%. And just looking at the rate nationally, this was above the national average um across the nation specifically for urban schools. Um and also it kind of sat around where um where COVID was as well. Currently um our average as of April 28th is 31.5%. So we've made a dip in chronic absenteeism. Um which is good because we want to go down, not up, right? Um so we went down um a few notches. Um however we want to get below 30%. Right now again just talking about the national average is around 32 uh 33%. Um we are a little bit below that. Our internal division goal um is 95% average daily student attendance. Now this is our internal goal. Um the state of Virginia has not set a a
050benchmark for average daily attendance. Again, this is just our internal goal um for our schools every day is for for every school to have 95% um average daily attendance daily. Currently, as of April 28th, um we were at 91%. All right, next slide. Um, and the next slide is I believe around uh recruitment time. Can you go to the next slide, please? Oh, okay. There it is. And um our assistant superintendent of student services, Dr. uh Manson will go over recruitment time. >> Good evening, Chairman Pritchard, Vice Chair Tucker, um fellow members of the board, and Madam Superintendent. I'm going to cover real quick with you the recruitment time and how recruitment time works. Currently, it's three hours for students in K12 and it's in-person learning and it has to be done by a licensed
051teacher. And so, we have to have a licensed teacher that would do those that would do the instruction. It's actual instruction for those students, but it's in person. It has to be outside of the normal school hours. So, it's without in outside of the the grounds of outside of the normal school hours. We've also added this year suspensions. And so, we add in person for suspensions. And so what we do is um each day daily we have members of um we have a licensed um certified administrator who's at the schoolboard office also with licensed teachers working with those students. If you receive a suspension we're making up those by offering you the three hours a day so that we can because remember when it comes to chronic absentism suspensions and all are still counted against
052us. And so that recruitment hours are that in-person learning is what we call recruitment time. in the data that you're going to see following and and I just want to make one uh caveat what Dr. Gay gave you previously when she said the 37.87 for that chronic absenteeism that wasn't that was at the end of the school year and that's what the state received and stated we were at but that was adding the recruitment time the 31.85 85 that the 31 that you see now that we're at. It's not with the recruitment time added that will come when we do our final submission in June. So what you're seeing with the 37 is with the recruitment time that they did all last year comparable to what you're going to to what we're at now. So
053we will have to add the recruitment time in once we finish. But we're taking that all the way up to basically May 28th where we're going to still try to recoup time for students all the way up until that end of our time. Yeah. which means that that we can see that we could be lower at that time once we put that recoupment time in. So in the next few slides um we'll just walk through some data um for the month of April here. Um so for this slide this is the chronic absenteeism comparable yearoveryear. So it's comparing April last year uh 2425 against April 26 I'm sorry 2526. So as you can see this comparison here um we have all of our uh schools and programs mentioned here. So at Cool Spring uh you
054can see that there was a little bit of an increase in chronic absenteeism from last April to now. Walnut Hill, there was a little bit of a dip. Um, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. A decrease in chronic absenteeism. I'm sorry, I misspoke. Cool Spring was an increase in chronic absenteeism. Uh, Lake Mont here, there was a little bit of an increase uh in chronic absenteeism from last April. Pleasant Lane, uh, there was a decrease um in chronic absenteeism from last April. Blandford, uh, there was, uh, a decrease. Vernon John's, a decrease. Petersburg High School, a decrease. Pitman Academy, uh, which was about 51 students, there was a decrease in chronic absenteeism. And Westview, there was a decrease in chronic absenteeism. So, with the exception of two schools, we overall there was pretty much a uh
055decrease in chronic absenteeism. Next slide please. Okay. Um before I mention this slide, um this year we started talking about how do we want to be able to analyze data and um the data assessment accountability team um in partnership with the academic team as well. We wanted to be able to analyze data in different ways um for the purpose of data validity right and reliability. So if we analyze data in different ways, there's more of a guarantee that this is the true data um that we have around chronic absenteeism. So here um this is analyzing um or comparing chronic absenteeism from the end of the year which Dr. Manson had mentioned um which the state had recognized and comparable to where we are timestamp as of April 27th. So, cool spring here. Again, there was
056a little bit of an increase in chronic absenteeism. Uh, there was a decrease with Walnut Hill. Lake Mont was an increase in chronic absenteeism. Pleasant Lane decrease. Blandford decrease. Vernon John's decrease. Petersburg High School decrease. Pitman Academy was a significant decrease in chronic absenteeism. Westview uh decrease in chronic absenteeism. Next slide. Yep. And so again, um what's different between the last slides and this slide? We want to see the numbers go up, right? Um for average daily attendance, again, our internal goal was 95% attendance every day of students being in school. So here as you can see uh with cool spring um there was a little bit of a decrease in average daily attendance of last a last April. Um Walnut Hill there was a decrease but it's small. Lake Mont there was a um
057decrease. Pleasant Lane decrease. Blandford decrease. Vernon John's made a slight increase in average daily attendance. So their average in April was 90.5%. Petersburg High School there was an increase in average daily attendance for April. Pitman Academy there was a decrease in average daily attendance and Westview increase in average daily attendance. So, I'll hand it off uh hand it back off to Dr. Manson, our assistant superintendent of student services. And so, I am uh this part of about the the presentation. I'm really excited about what we have going on for the month of May. And I'm really excited, but I do have to give a special shout out to the people who put this together. I cannot take the credit for putting this together. It was a collaboration with family engagement, uh, student services and with
058communications. I do want to say that B, Dr. Brandy Lee and Ms. Flowers, they really added this and put this together, working very close together with each other to put this this um, these rewards together. So, I'm very excited in regards and what we want to try to do is we want to try to start establishing this year for our students about the importance of attendance. And so, we want to try to establish that. So that's why we put some things in place here to try to re-engage our students to launch for next school year the importance of coming to school every day. And so what you can see is our street starter and that's the students who are enrolled participating in schools has more than 18 days which means they're they you know they
059have some issues with attendance but for the month of May they don't miss any more than one day of school. We have to work with them to make sure that we understand because they're chronic but they only miss one day of school. And you can see if they win that, they got a bundle for a $100 gift card. It's a $100 gift card bundle. And then our uh our Globe Up Guru, you can see with that, that's the one basically the same seven participating schools have no absence for the month of May. And they come to with perfect attendance for the month of May through that May 1st through May 29th. So we are including that last day of school because you can become chronic if you don't come that last day of school. So,
060we are including that. And then that way that person will receive a $250 gift card um in regards to that. And then we have our students who are already they're not they're not chronic. They have um daily attendance appropriate daily attendance, but we want to make sure that we encourage them to come every day because remember we are connecting this with our SOS and those students will receive a PS5 that was donated. So all of these gifts has been donated to us um by our partners. >> Thank you Dr. Manson. If I could just add if I would can board me um Bridgetger Pitchard, this is our campaign. Thank you to Dr. Manson. Thank you to Dr. Brandy Lee. Thank you to the entire um team um the communications team, Chelsea, student services team. This
061is our campaign for the last three weeks of school called Every Day in May. So when you hear the every day in May, level up your attendance, that's exactly what this is because we know that during testing, we have our we need our students here every day for testing and we need them here after testing is over because there's still instruction activities and things that we're doing that they need. And so I want to thank Dr. Manson for this big campaign and their work um with the entire team, Dr. Gay and the entire team to have our level up attendance challenge with every day in May. And so we are excited about our donors who donated these items that our students are going to be able to receive if they come to school as Dr.
062Manson has outlined for this program. >> Next slide, please. >> And we do know that we that our students, we need our parents encouragement every day for our students. So, we're going to also reward our parents. And basically, it's the same guidelines for those parents um for those students who have 18 plus more days, but one day absent for that same time time frame. That parent name will go on a raffle and they can win a $50 restaurant card. For the student who has 18 or more, but perfect attendance for the month of May, the parent can win a $100 uh a gas card because we know right now gas is very expensive. Take a $100 gas card. And then for the month, if you're not chronically absent, you have perfect attendance, that parent can
063win can be a uh win a reward of $200 for a Walmart um grocery store card. And so, as I stated to you, we have some great partners and donors who donated this for um for donated these gifts to us. But I also want to make sure that you understand that West View, we are doing something for Westview. Also, the prizes are a little bit different in regards to Westview, but the criteria is going to be still be the same for them, just the prize amount for them. But the parents will be um three parents will be or um rewarded with a gift and so will um three of their students that's identified. Um one other caveat I wanted to make sure as we go through this that you all understand if you go back
064to the slide the daily attendance slide with that data in it. One of the things I do want to make sure that that I do make a caveat in regards to that um in regards to that slide there. When you look at the daily attendance for the previous year for the 24 25 school year, that was for the whole month. For this one here, um that's up until April the 27th. So, it's not every day in April that we have with that. So, I do want to make that one caveat in regards to that. So, it's three days that we're kind of missing in there. So, thank you. >> So, Dr. So, Dr. Manson, I think the question of the hour per Thank you. If you could go back to our everyday MMA level up
065attendance challenge, if you could go back to those the slides, I think the slide that talked about the prizes and what we've done for for students first and then parents. If you could go back one slide before that, if you could talk about how many, Dr. Manson, how many of these do we have? I know we're still working on getting more, but if you could talk about how many are we giving out at each level once you're in the raffle? Is it one? Is it several? Or are we still gathering more? I guess is >> still gathering more cuz we just got another donation from someone. So, we're still gathering more to see how much more we can get. Right now, it is one. Okay. >> We are still gathering more where we can have
066little things. We have what we call I'm sorry I didn't go to Can you go to the last slide? We have what we call popup Fridays. And so those pop-up Fridays is where a team of us will be going into the schools on you see uh we went last Friday on May 8th, May on May 1st and we're going to be also be going on May 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. And so with additional um with additional cards and things that we're getting, we're going to be able to do a little few raffles at those schools with a do additional gifts so those students can understand come every day then you may be able to win something in a popup if we have it. >> So we'll go out to schools for the weekly Friday
067attendance popup surprises. The team will go out to schools. Kids won't know that we're coming. Staff won't know that we're coming. and we will then surprise kids and give them different prizes that we have collected so that you know you got to be in the place to get these things. And so we're building a whole communications piece around it. So that's our attendance popup surprise. And as you can see, it's every Friday in May because we want kids here every day in May so they can level up their attendance so that we don't lose ground because we have worked hard this year being very focused on attendance and chronic absenteeism. And it is a it's heartbreaking when at the final week kids don't come to school when we've done all the things from day one
068up until that point people decide not to come to school. And that's what we're trying to prevent by giving them incentives and awarding not just kids but also parents. And so we have been collecting even more. We have some more gift cards. We have some other things that we already had in the school division. And we're still getting donations of things we know parents want and kids want. So we want them in school. And so I just want to just double tap on all that both of you all have said. But this is our big push. And so I asked the board if you all could help us get the word out that every day in May matters. >> Yes. >> Every single day. Testing is coming up for the over the next two weeks
069and then after that we have what? One week left in May and we need kids in seats um for the last week in May. We have three more weeks left. Absolutely. So we have two after the eth. I'm sorry. After the eth. We have the week of the eth I mean the week of the eth we have testing the next day we have the next week we have testing right and then after that what is it one more week let's see yeah because it's the week of the 20 I guess that's the week of the 22nd and then the last week of school so we have three weeks but we started this week May this week and so we have three weeks left 22 days I think it's about 22 days >> actually started last
070week >> that's what so May so we started okay so we started last week which was May 1st right but after testing. Testing starts next week and so we have two weeks of so and we need every student in place for for so testing because that is important. It goes into kids not having to rush and figure out when they're going to take the test is already laid out. And so we want to make sure that kids are in school. So parents that are listening, community members that are watching, please help us encourage kids to be in school during so testing and every day until the last day of school. We got three more weeks left. We've been making great strides and we don't want to let up on the expectation for kids to be
071in school and we want to reward kids and parents for staying with us and coming to school because you don't want to miss out on anything that's happening especially um so because we have to have a certain number of kids that take the assessment per the Virginia Department of Education we must have almost every child to take the assessment or it will count against us and we don't want that. And so attendance will count against us if students are not here for testing and if they're not here until the last day of school. So every day in May, every Friday popups, we want everybody to level up their attendance and parents, we want to thank you and reward you as well for your efforts. Dr. Manson to just have a question. If if we want
072to ask individuals to donate gift cards, what's the amount that they can donate? You know, if we want them to donate like several gift cards, >> uh probably $25 each gift card. >> $25 gift card. >> Yes. >> Okay. At least $25 >> at least. Yes. >> Okay. I just needed to know. >> Okay. You know, I'm bad. >> Miss Tucker, >> thank you all so much for the presentation. Y'all know I always throw some extra in there. So, I just want to say I love love love the idea of every day in May. I think that is amazing because we have reached our peak season. The weather has broke, so we need to prepare ourselves. But I do want to challenge I I want to challenge y'all because while I know Fridays are super
073important, Mondays are as well. So I would love to challenge you all to do something whether it be like every other Monday but sporadic something sporadic on Mondays because our kids, this is from a teachers perspective. From a teacher's perspective, my kids not coming to school on Monday, but they'll be there on Friday because it's the last day of the week and be excited like they done been there every day. So, I would say like if you could take that back to the team and just see and maybe that's something that we do with our incoming donations that we're going to get from our citizens in the community. Thank you so very much. So, I think that may be something um and I would like to help too. So, however I can help, y'all let
074me know. I would love to, you know, >> and and that's a great idea because you're right that Monday we do see a significant dip and so and so we are doing some things with that Monday and everything. Um because we already planning for the Tuesday after Memorial Day with the help of our city um absolutely >> with the help of our city representatives and city council and some of the promises they had made. So we're already focusing in on that also. So we can look at doing some things on that Monday. So that's a great idea. >> Perfect. Thank you so much, >> Mr. Lundy. Miss Parker. I was just I was just thinking about as we talk about attendance, I think about when we talk about closing in school in the ending where
075we used to have that parent would bring that chair next to you and you would have that conversation with that student and that parent and how they get an opportunity to learn how to talk with their kids to get the understandings to get the parents to have the understandings that we'll be going into another era itself. And you used to pull that kid up and you pull that parent up and they got it all together and put the information together and the kid gets to understand what it's all about along with the parent knowing that you're getting ready to enter into another year. And that's some of the things that we need to look at. Attendance, that's great. I'm not knocking that. But to know that you're going to pull that child up and try
076to get that educational understanding means a great deal. >> Thank you, Mr. Lundy. >> Thank you, Dr. Mason. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Gay. Appreciate it. >> We move now to 4C policies. Thank you board chair pitch. School board members, our policies for first read. Okay, thank you. If you make it just a little bit larger for me. present. Thank you. A little larger for me. Okay. Thank you so much. So our first policy for first read this this evening is PCPS policy ah and this is a new policy. This policy title is called digital accessibility. This is a VSBA policy that's new as well and the purpose of this policy review. It was to was policy was developed to meet the legal requirements to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to information and
077communication technology in accordance with 2.2-35000 2-35000 through 2.2-3505 in accordance with VSBA426 PCPS policy number two which is KBC that policy title is media relations VSBA policy alignment KBC and the purpose of this policy review is that this policy language has been updated by the PCPS staff to meet the division expectations that media relations be managed at the division level. This policy will retain the VSBA file name and title. PCPS policy number three, KBE. This policy title name is internet privacy. That is in alignment with our VSBA policy KBE. And this policy language has been updated to say that public bodies, including school boards, are required to make their internet privacy policy available on the website in a conspicuous manner in alignment with VSBA 524. Policy number four, policy PCPS policy KC. PCPS title policy
078is community involvement in decisionmaking. This is VSBA's policy alignment to KC and this policy language has been updated. Administrative changes have been made by VSBA. So, we're in alignment with VSBA 226. Policy number five, policy number policy KGB. The title of this policy is public conduct on school property. This is in alignment with VSBA policy KGB and this policy language has been updated and this policy has been revised to closely mirror statutory language. References policy KGC tobacco products and nicotine vap and vapor products. This is VSBA 226. Thank you. Policy number six KK school visitors. That is policy VSBA KK alignment. This policy language has been updated and it's been revised for clarity. Legal references and cross references have been added in alignment with VSBA 226. Policy number seven for first read is PSP PCPS
079policy KN. That title of that policy is sex offender and crimes against minors registry information. That policy number for VSBA is KN. And this policy language has been updated and revised for clarity. and it cross references added for VSBA 226 policy number eight. The policy is KP. The title of this policy is parental rights and responsibilities that is in alignment with VSBA policy KP and the policy language has been revised. Policy includes but is not limited to specific notification requirements as requirement that parents must ensure their child attends school in compliance with compuls compulsory attendance law and cross references have been added. VSBA26. Policy number nine is LB for PCPS and the title of this policy is relations with private schools. This policy is in alignment with VSBA LB and the policy has been language
080has been updated and administrative changes have been made by VSBA. So we are now in alignment with VSBA 226. that concludes the policies for first read and so it is the superintendent's recommendation. Oh, excuse me. That is the policies for first read and we'll come back to action items. Thank you. Sorry, forgot. >> Thank you, Miss Bren. Any questions? Okay. Next, we will move to our public comment period. Public comments and public and staff comments are encouraged during the public comment period. No person may speak on an issue for more than three minutes. Please give your name, address, or ward number. Amy is gone. Brandon Tucker, I believe it was a student. And Miss Nicole Benjamin. Hello. Um, hold on. My name is Nicole Benjamin. Um, and I am the parent of a sixth grader
081at Blandford Academy. I want to thank Petersburg School District and the family engagement team for the opportunity to attend the April 2026 Innovations Family Engagement Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was refreshing to hear leaders from districts in over 15 states share how they make family engagement a continuous priority, ensuring families feel seen, heard, and valued by including families in the decision-making process, which is key to building connections. something as simple as seeking families um on how that how a school can improve their dismissal pickup line and then using some of those suggestions um as they make the adjustments. Our family engagement team did a phenomenal job representing Petersburg as they presented on Family Engagement University. As a sophomore at FEU, I've had the opportunity to intentionally step out of my teacher role and be
082a parent and learn how to support my student. They've remove they've removed the barriers families might have have in attending the monthly events. Transportation is available and a different meal is provided each month. I also enjoy how they invite the schools and community organizations to perform and set up information tables at each event. So, not only are we learning how to support our students academically and emotionally, we are given resources to help us grow financially, academically, and emotionally, too. This spring, my family attended strengthening healthy families for the first time. I facilitated the program years ago, but never attended as a parent. It allowed my family to come together with other families with no electronics and share. It gave the kids the chance to share with us something they didn't like about our parenting and
083a chance to talk about it in a safe place. It helped us to learn from other families and to know that we're not alone in some of the challenges we face in our family. I've seen my son and goddaughter use the active listening strategies when we're talking. So that so that let me know they were listening and low-key enjoyed the experience. If you haven't attended family engagement university or strengthening healthy families, I encourage you to make it a priority. Bring your family tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at the school board office or in September when family engagement university starts again. We often talk about wanting better for ourselves. A village to help support us, resources to help us understand school because of this new learning. Petersburg Family Engagement Team is doing just that. We'd love to
084see where we love to see our um our district I'm sorry. We'd love to build relationships with our district employees and their families, too. You might also leave with a prize to help your family continue to connect. So, I I just want to um again shout out our Petersburg family engagement team. Oh, shooks. Petersburg families, the table is being prepared for success. It's time to come to the table and eat. >> Yes, I heard y'all have some great food. I actually attended one. What was that? I attended the I attended two of the PTA once I attended I attended Walnut Hill and I actually Mr. Miles and I we actually joined Petersburg High School's PTA so and Dr. Lee she was there and her team was there at the Walner Hill one and she came
085over to Petersburg she came here to Petersburg High also so I know they're doing a fabulous job and the food was the food was delicious. Miss Fields served tacos so it was delicious. And Warner Warner Hill had lo spaghetti. Spaghetti and toss salad and French bread. I remember that. It was good. >> And it accommodates everyone. >> Yes, >> it accommodates everyone. Everyone can get a plate >> and takes home home with. >> That is true. I was able to take my mom's spaghetti home for dinner. >> Yeah. So, really do appreciate it. And and and I even signed my mama for PTA. Yes. Numbers count. >> Yes, they do. >> Miss Benjamin, if you could give us a copy of if you can or if you can leave a copy, you can email us
086a copy for the record of your speech. Say it again. Thank you. Okay. Next, we move board members to six 6A. Miss Bren, we on our action items. >> Thank you, Bert Pitch and school board members. Our first action item is our school nutrition and food service management annual contract renewal. As you can, this is our second year um with our um school nutrition partnership with Tar Foods. And so if you take a look, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the school nutrition food service management annual contract renewal as provided. And you see all of the various um documents that are required. And this is uh this is the second year. So last year we approved it. And of course, we're continuing to utilize our federal dollars, our federal funds related
087to nutrition that comes from the federal government that our students earn in order to um pay for and fund this partnership. And so with that is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the school nutrition food service management annual contract as provided. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Any questions, Miss Tucker? >> So this this is our second year using this program. Okay. So, >> next year be our second year. >> Next year will be our second year. So, I know um before we actually started using them when they're on like a little trial period. We um you did a tour where you talked to the parents. Is there a way that we can kind of get an update as to what we're looking at going into year two so that the parents would know
088um as far as like if there's anything that's been added compared to what we're doing now. Is there any way we can get an update on that? What year two looks like versus year one? cuz I do know that we were rotating some people and or something when it came to I think they were doing certain meals at certain schools a day then going to the next school doing next or something. Can we just have an update on what that would look like for year two? >> Yeah. And so Dr. Dr. Martinez can give you a highlight, but I know at the end of the year as we're planning because we haven't we're in the planning stages, we're going to give the board an update on all the things new for um like we did
089last year all things new in every department that we can ex anticipate. And so um Dr. Martinez, I don't know what you can share at this moment. I know we are still in the fa in the planning phases, but the things that I want to highlight that'll remain the same is that we will still have three shifts on the ground, elementary, middle, and high school. Um, and so I know that we have some um we're still keeping our we still working in tandem. If Dr. Martinez, if you want to share some things that are on the mind that we're in the pro process of um sharing that we can share right now and I know we'll have some more to share this summer with the board after we kind of get so you can go
090ahead. So before you go in detail with that, so I know that you are in planning, so I don't want to put you on the spot with that. Um, and I know you said that y'all are coming. So he doesn't even have to be put on the spot about that. I just know that it's coming. So I just want the community to know and some of our parents to know that it is coming. >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we will. Yeah, >> I don't want you going on the spot with that one. We good. >> We good. >> Yeah, we good. Thank you. >> Okay. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. All right. Sorry. Okay, you heard the superintendent's recommendation for 6A. Is there a motion to accept? So move. >> Moved by Mr. Lundy. Second. >> Second.
091>> Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. 6B. >> Thank you. BJ P school board members, we now have our 2027 special education annual plan for pre for federal IDA 611 and federal preschool handicap allocations. If you recall, we had this presentation given by Dr. made by Mr. Danny Costello. And so this is the action item that goes along with the presentation that was done at the last board meeting. So with that is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the 2027 special education annual plan federal IDA 611 and federal preschool handicap allocations as provided. >> Any questions? Okay, you've heard the recommendation. Is there a motion to extend? >> So moved. >> Moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? >> I
092oppose. Motion carries. 6C. >> Thank you. Our next will be our 2027 Federal Perkins vctte secondary programs. And this it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the 2027 federal Perkins 5 CTE secondary programs application as provided. >> Any questions? >> And this was also presented at the last board meeting. So it's a followup to the action item in relation to the actual application. Okay, you've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So move. >> Moved by Mrs. Tucker. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. 6D. >> Thank you. school board members. We are so excited. The proclamation for National Teacher Appreciation Week, which is May 4th through May 8th, which is this week. And so our proclamation um is
093is posted for teacher appreciation. if you'll click on the proclamation so that everyone in the community can see. Okay. And so for our proclamation, so we are excited about our teacher appreciation week. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the proclamation for National Teacher Appreciation Week May 4th through May 8th, 2026 as provided. >> Is there a motion to accept? Move >> moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Proctor. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. >> 6E. Mental health awareness. >> Thank you for our mental health awareness month for our proclamation. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the proclamation for mental health awareness month for May 2026 as provided. And the theme is more good days together. Okay, you've
094heard the proclamation and recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So moved. >> Moved by Mrs. Proctor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? I >> oppose. Motion carries. Our last proclamation is 6F. >> Oh no, it's not next. >> So our next proclamation is month of the military child May 2026. So we are excited to celebrate this month and so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the proclamation of for month of the military child as provided the recommendation. Is there a motion? >> So moved by Mrs. Tucker. Is there a second? >> Mrs. Proctor. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Our last proclamation 6G. >> Thank you BJ PJ. School board members, our final proclamation of this afternoon is our National Nurses Appreciation
095Week, which is May 6 through May 12th, 2026. So, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the proclamation for Nurses Appreciation Week, May 6 through May 12th, 2026, as provided. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? Second, >> Mrs. Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. We move to number seven. Information item. Superintendent report 78. >> Thank you, board chair. You all can bring that up. >> A superintendent report for schoolboard meeting for May 6, 2026. Thank you. Next slide, please. Oh, sorry. Jesus. >> Okay, so these are quick updates related to events that happened after our um board meeting in April. And so just want to recognize the Steam Expo event for
096April 17th. Recently, our PCPS academics team held a steam expo at Vernon John's Middle School. The student showcase was vibrant celebration of learning with interactive gaming, impressive robotics displays, delicious food, and valuable insights from STEM professionals. There are our students there. They look great. And thank you to the academics team. Of course, on April 22nd, our PH PHS varsity boys, next slide, please. basketball team was recognized at the state level by led by our basketball team led by coach Titriel White was honored by Governor Abigail Spanberger, Senator Lashar Reed Erd, and delegate Kimberly Pope Adams for their Virginia Class 3 state championship win. And there's the picture with Governor Spanberger. Thank you. Next slide. Our PCPS special Olympics little feet meet event was held last week, April 30th, and it was sponsored by the PCPS
097special education department who proudly hosted it and it was held this year at our Petersburg High School. This showcase students the students showcased their incredible talents and exciting track and field events. In addition, we had special guests from our school board, the governor's office, Petersburg city council, and the Petersburg Bureau of Police. And those are our wonderful athletes for our little feet meet event. Next slide. I want to update the board and the community to let you all know that there has been new school safety fencing that has been installed on some of our campuses. We have now installed new perimeter fencing was installed at Vernon John's Middle School and Cool Spring Elementary on in April of 2026. In addition, new fencing is pending completion at Pleasants Lane Elementary School. This safety and security project
098was funded through our security equipment grant and administered by the Virginia Department of Education. There are pictures there. You see the picture above is Vernon John's Middle School back perimeter fencing. We have provided fencing so that we can better secure our property. Thank you. Next slide, please. Can we please can we Yes. Can we please make sure that um we have the the um cameras are facing us so that the community can see us because all they see is the microphone. I don't think they're able to see the board meeting itself. So, if you all could make that adjustment in the cameras so that our community can see that because they need to be able to look at the presentation and see the board and hear their comments and engagement. We're good. Thank you. All
099right. So, I want to provide a 25 20. We have two zeros there. I don't know how that happened, Chelsea. We 25 2025 2026 SQ bonuses update. So, I want to Can you all make that a little bit larger? Thank you. So I want to provide an update that should say 2026 and not 20 um 226 but I want to just provide a quick update. So, as you know, the state legislature has authorized funding for Virginia school divisions to provide all standards of quality or SOQ instructional and support positions only with a onetime $1,500 bonus. Even though this funding is only for the SOQ positions, I will bring an action item to extend the one-time $1,500 bonus to all eligible employees to the school board during our next May 20th school board meeting. Also want
100you to know that if that is approved on May 20th, bonuses will be paid to full-time contracted employees, long-term substitute teachers, and permanent part-time employees who were hired on or before May 1st, 2026 for the 2526 school year. We anticipate paying the one-time bonus on June 15, 2026 if approved on the 20 June 15, 2026 paycheck, but it is contingent upon receiving the state share of the bonus for the SOQ positions. Lastly, if approved, PCPS employees will receive communication following the May 20th, 2026 board meeting. Thank you. Next slide. And that concludes the superintendent's report for this evening. Any questions? I do I do have a guess Dr. No, I do have a question which we know we do not have a budget yet. So if we vote on it on the 20th, we vote
101on it. You want to do it on the 15th? What if what if they do not give us the money by the 15th? Do we have the money to cover it? >> I'll have to I'll have to bring an answer back to you on that. But if we do get it, uh we need to match and the match portion is what we are going to be working on trying to fund. um when we bring it on the 20th, the next board meeting will provide all that detail about how much we're going to receive from the state, how much we need to match in order to extend it to all eligible employees, and that would be what you would be voting on. When we bring it, we would also let you know whether we actually have
102the funding and all that figured out. >> Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And just a special note, we also s we just signed the paperwork for the state on May 1st. Is that correct? >> Yes, we've already um done part to get the funding from the state. We've already certified and emailed it out to them and they've uh >> they've acknowledged received of it and um based on what we know, we're either going to get it sometime in June, but we anticipate we will receive it before the 15th. But again to Mr. Pritch's I want to make sure. Thank you Dr. Greywood. If we don't get the funding from the state by because we talked about this earlier, did we not Dr. Greywood? Because I knew it was going to ask you a
103question. If we don't get the money by the 15th day, the 20th is for the board to go ahead and vote and say we can absolutely use the funding when it comes to fund the bonuses. That's what the 20th is about, right? All we're trying to do is get ahead and have authorization so our employees don't have to wait. So, we're bringing that on the 20th. If we don't get it, then we'll have to move the date back and notify our employees of when they'll get it. Which is why after the 20th vote, we'll let them know what we know because we should know before the 20th when they kind of anticipate because this money has already been approved by our legislature and it's not contingent upon a budget. Is that correct? Miss Brown, they've
104already approved this and um it'll be dispersed. We just don't know when exactly we'll get it. >> But it's not contingent upon a budget though. It's not contingent upon the budget that we're waiting to get approved by or waiting for the budget that the governor and the two bodies are trying to It doesn't have anything to do with that. That money's already been allocated. Is that correct? >> Yes, >> that's what it is. So, it doesn't matter. We're going to get this money. We just don't know when and it's not contingent upon a budget for FY27 being approved. Is that right? >> We're told we will get it in June. >> And so that's right. >> Um >> but I just want to make sure that they don't think we're waiting on the FY27 budget.
105The FY27 budget doesn't have anything which is why which is I was trying to answer Mr. Rich's question, right? FY27 and Dr. Greywood always keeps it close to the vest as the CFO because we talked about this earlier and he kept pushing back, right? So, he knows why I'm pushing the FY27 budget money. This has nothing to do with this money at all. The FY27 is next year's budget. We are having to look that Mr. Pritchette and I'll just be clear with the entire board. We have had to dig deep into the monies from this FY26. Am I right, Dr. Greywood? >> Yes. And >> hold on a second. Hold on a second. FY26, we've had to look deep into our coffers to try to find funding to be able to extend it to everybody
106else who's eligible because the money from the state that's already been approved in this year only covers SOQ positions. So, the determination when I met with the team is that I want to recommend giving it to everybody who is eligible, the full $1,500. That money is coming out of our money. So, we've had to look deep and scrape every coin that we can to try to get together the money to be able to do it for the remaining employees that are eligible because the only part we're getting is for SOQ. So we have to pay for everybody else. And so that's coming out of what's in our budget left now, right, Dr. Greywood? In order to do that, but we can't do it fully for everybody until we get the state's money. >> Yes. >>
107That's what Okay. That's I just want to make sure that's not coming out of next year's money. FY27. is coming out of what we have found and reallocated and decided not to spend on in order to prioritize extending this to everybody who is eligible based on that criteria. So our FY27 budget approval, all of that is for next year. This is coming out of this year. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. No problem. Okay. Next, we move to 7B, our committee reports. Board members, your reports, the reports are in in under um 7B. When you have an opportunity, please read the reports from the committees number 8A. Any new business from board members? Our next board meeting is May 20th. And I know we have some special paper m we have some special meetings on
108there also some I'm sorry. Under announcements, our next board Oh, no. This Monday night coming up, May 11th, here at Petersburg High School, will be the class of 2026 scholarship and awards ceremony in our auditorium. On May 20th is our next board meeting. May 21st will be the 2026 education for employment by our spade department. There will be a lunchon here at 11:30 a.m. And I believe that they wanted board members to actually RSVP. Is that true? They don't need to know who's coming. Okay. On May the 20th, I'll skip that. On June the 5th, VSBA law conference, our joint work session with city council will be July the 13th at 4:00 p.m. It'll be here at Petersburg High School. And July the 16th is our education conference this year for the first time. It'll
109be in Virginia Beach. Okay. Any other announcements? If there no other announcement, I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved >> by Miss Tucker. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Miss Proctor. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. This meeting is now adjourned. You all have a great evening.