Petersburg City Public Schools Board Meeting - December 3, 2025

001Mr. Steven Mr. Senior Mr. >> here Mr. Bernard Jr. >> here >> Mr. Adrian senior >> here we need a motion to go I move that the school board go into closed meeting to consider the superintendent's recommendations for employment of division staff as authorized by section 2.2-3711 81 of the code of Virginia for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates for employment. >> Thank you. M second >> Mr. Lot is close. close. So move by Mr. D as required by section 2.2-3712D 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 the open meeting requirements under the act. And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion

002by which the close session were convened or heard, discussed, or considered in the close 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 shall so state the same indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment has taken place. Does any board member wish to respond? Hearing no response, I will now take the freedom of information act roll call. Mr. Steven Pier senior Mr. Halby Mau senior Mr. Kenneth Pritchette >> yes >> Mr. Car Tucker Miss Joyce Proctor >> yes >> Mr. Ly Jr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Adrian T senior. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> We do not have any action items from close session. Board members have a motion to

003adjourn for close. So move by Miss Proctor second by Mr. D. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Good evening once again everyone. The time now is 5:09 p.m. and we would like to call our regular board meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you call the role once again. >> Mr. Steven Pier, Senior, Mr. Hal Mile, Senior, Mr. Kenneth Pritchette, >> here. >> Mr. Curry Tucker, >> Miss Joyce Proctor >> here, >> Mr. Bernard J. Wy Jr. >> here, >> Mr. Adrien T. Dance, Senior >> here. >> Thank you. Okay, board members, we move to 1A, approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Miss Proctor. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. 1B. Moment of silence. Miss

004Davis. The following are to be remembered during the moment of silence. The family of Reverend Carrie A. Morgan, retired Peasburg City public school educator in her passing on Friday, October 31st, 2025. The family of Miss Charlotte Lewis, former Peasburg City public school educator in her passing on Thursday, November 6th, 2025. The family of Miss Daisy A. Hill, retired Peasburg City public school educator in her passing on Friday, November 7th, 2025. the family of Miss Valeria Anita Johnson, retired Peasburg City Public School educator in her passing on November 10th, 2025 and Peasburg City Public School employees, Miss Janice Hollowman and Miss Charie Ganway and family in the passing of their uncle, Mr. Ralph E. Fitzgerald on Saturday, November 22nd, 2025. >> Thank you. At this time, we have a moment Thank you. Next we move to

005pledge of allegiance. Ask that you stand if you if you are able to and we be led by Mr. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next, we move to one D correspondence. Miss Davis. The board received two correspondence letters or notes. The first one says, "Thank you. There are not enough words to fully express our heartfelt gratitude for the sympathy, love, and support you have extended to our family during this time of loss. Thank you from Robert Bates and family. And the next one says, "Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your expressions of comfort during our time of sorrow as we mourn the loss of our loved one, Mary

006Lamb Lewis. Your words lifted us up in our darkest hour and gave us inspiration and hope that one day our grieving will be replaced by joy, peace, and remembering. God bless you, V. El Lewis, the daughter and Mr. Ralph Lewis spouse. >> Thank you. Next, we move to number two, our recognitions to a Mrs. Miss Brown. >> Good evening. Thank you, board school board members. I'm excited tonight that our very first um recognition this evening is a part of our focus in Petersburg City Public Schools around reducing the percentage of students who are chronically absent. As everyone will remember, the board has set a goal this year for us to reduce our chronic absenteeism rate by 3%. And so what we've done in Petersburg City Public Schools is we've taken time to recognize those schools

007by looking very closely at our student data. So we have been monitoring the data. We've been making sure that we've been implementing a lot of the strategies around the work within our schools. And so we want to thank our principles and our assistant principles and our teachers for their work around focusing on making sure that we reduce the number of kids who are chronically absent. And again um tonight you'll hear more about um our work. But we want to take a moment. So we have our competition each month. So that the school that reduces the um the percentage of kids who are chronically absent as compared to um their rate that they had at the end of the school year last year, which is what the state the Virginia Department of Education calculates. We want

008to make sure that our schools are focused. And so tonight, I don't know if everyone has seen our our uh commercial that was highlighted um on I think WRC, is that correct? Um channel 6 or channel 8 that shows the video of the wonderful trophy that we uh have here in Petersburg, the traveling trophy. And so tonight, I want to again congratulate for the second month in a row, I want to congratulate Miss None other than Miss Alicia Fields and the entire team at Petersburg High School because again, for the second month in a row, you have had the highest reduction in student chronic absenteeism since where we ended at the end of last year. So, let's all stand and give Miss Fields and her entire team. If you all could refresh, we could pull

009it up. So, you all got to keep the trophy, so we didn't have to bring it back, Miss Field. So, congratulations. Job well done. Thank you so much. And we'll turn it over to you. Good evening, um, school board chairman, vice chair, school board members, superintendent, all in attendance, and those that are listening, you know, I said at the last meeting that this trophy will stay at Petersburg High School. So, it shows the efforts of the team, and I just want to commend the team. But the goal is not just to reduce chronic absent chronic absenteeism, but for every parent and child to understand it's important to be in school every day that instruction is given. And we're on well on our way. We'll continue our efforts. And just remember all the other schools out

010there, the trophy will remain at Peace High School. Congratulations again, Petersburg High School. Thank you very much. And so you got to keep that very beautiful trophy that's traveling around. So we'll see what happens um next month. But I do know that Vernon John's Middle School was they were nipping at your heels, but you all came through in the end. So congratulations and job well done. So now for chair if I may >> move to recognitions for 2B. >> Yes. >> Um tonight we also like to take an opportunity because we know that no one does this work alone. Petersburg City Public Schools when we looked at our chronic absentism rate which is about 38 to 39% last year that is a very high number of students who are chronically absent. And so as a

011part of the strategy our team came together Mr. Brown, Dr. Gay, Dr. Manson who is um now on board. They all worked to put in place a strategy for us to attack chronic absenteeism. As a part of that work, what we did was we convened a Petersburg City Public Schools attendance/chronic absenteeism task force. And this task force was crossfunctional. There were people who from all all corners of our school division. And so Dr. Dr. Gay will talk about the task force and the important work. And so a lot of the strategies that we are putting in place in Petersburg, including this recognition that you're seeing with the traveling trophy, came out of the brainchild of our attendance task force because we know one voice, one mind cannot do it alone. It must be a concerted

012effort. And so I'm excited to recognize tonight those task force members who took on the charge and who believed in the fact that we could absolutely make improvements around kids coming to school as um as principal Field said. So with that I will turn it over to our chief of staff Dr. Yasmin Gay to talk about the work of the attendance task force and recognize them for their outstanding work. >> Thank you Superintendent Brown. Uh good evening uh to our uh wonderful board members, our board chair, Kenneth Pritchard, um our staff, and also our community. Uh thank you so much, Miss Brown. Um we always say that the greatest solutions to our problems are the people that are closest to it. And so when Miss Brown said that we appointed people in all corners of

013the district, it also meant our community. So I am really excited just to name uh really important people who come together every two weeks uh to help us problem solve um around our challenge with chronic absenteeism and a lot of the work that we are facilitating uh today um is again as the superintendent said the brainchild of our task force. So uh I would like to name uh those people that have been a part of our great work. uh when I call your name, if you are here, if you can come up and be celebrated by our superintendent and our board. So, first I would like to thank uh uh Janesca Jefferson and the certificate says um this certificate is awarded to Janesca Jefferson. We extend our deepest gratitude for your exceptional hard work, dedication,

014and invaluable contributions. As a member of the attendance chronic absenteeism task force, your collective commitment and unwavering effort has been instrumental in decreasing chronic absenteeism in Petersburg City Public Schools. And if you've been tracking our data, our chronic absenteeism is down by almost 9%. We're already exceeding the goal of our board and it's going to continue to go down and this is because of the contributions of everyone. Sorry. The next person I will name uh who has just been so uh as a community member just brilliant um in the ideas that he brings um every two weeks. I would like to bring David Chase up. Mr. Chase, if I can say a couple words about you, you can stand right here. Um, what I really love about the task force is that we don't always

015agree and that is a good thing, right? We always bring different perspectives and Mr. Chase does a really good job in listening and will always bring a perspective. He has great questions um that we dig into and we apply to our work. Mr. Chase, thank you so much for your work and so glad that you're here with us. >> Oh, stand as you call. We'll ask everyone stand right here so everybody can see. >> Yes, ma'am. The cameras are right here. So, you can come right here in the front so that we can give you your just do and everybody out there can see you so you can stand right there for us. Perfect. >> Thank you so much. And excuse I'm a little bit under the weather. So um he may or may not

016be here but Jamal Ellison uh was a part of communities and schools. Um he has transitioned to the Cameron Foundation. Um but just want to thank Jamal Ellison for his support and contribution to the next I would like to thank Vera Lewis. Um she's not here tonight. Um but Vera Lewis is such a brilliant mind around data. Um and so we want to thank her for her support. Next, I did not see her here in the crowd, but just want to thank Wanda Stewart. She is the CEO of uh Communities and Schools Petersburg Tri Cities. Um Wanda is always available to support our work. So, Wanda Stewart, thank you so much for your support here. All right. Now, our winner was just here. Alicia Fields. Can you come back up again? Miss Fields has been

017a a a rock for our task force. Um she has done this work for a long time in supporting schools and it's evident in the work that she's doing right now because Petersburg High School is leading the way with chronic absenteeism. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your pushing uh on us. We appreciate you. So there you go. >> Uh Dr. Lee is not here. Dr. Brandy Lee um who is our coordinator of community engagement. Uh if you know Dr. Lee, she always had wonderful perspectives about community engagement. Um, so we want to thank Dr. Lee for her support with the task force. Uh, Dr. Jackson, uh, she could not be here tonight. Um, but want to thank Dr. Jackson who is our director of data assessment and accountability. Um, one of the

018major things that we did this year is make sure that data is the center of our work. So we have implemented a lot of complex analytics uh to include not only academic data but also community data um into our work to help us understand chronic absenteeism just a little bit more. So just want to thank Dr. Jackson for supporting us in this process and I'll be quick as possible. Uh Joy Lowry is may or may not be here tonight um who is our director of uh school leadership. I just want to thank her for her perspective and supporting our school leaders and our schools. Thank you Joy Lies for your support. Next, uh Mr. Lamont Hobbs. Not sure if he's in the crowd, but um another great community member who has supported us with the

019chronic absenteeism work. So, thank you, Mr. Hobs, for your work. We're almost there. Let's see. Nicole Brown is not here tonight. Uh Nicole Brown is another community member that has supported us in the task force. Um Nicole is actually a parent. Um so we wanted to make sure that we had parent participation because their perspective is so important, right? Um in understanding our students and the challenges that we face, not only challenges but also the great things that our students are experiencing. So, thank you, Miss Brown, uh, for your support. We have a few more here. Um, Mr. Paul Brown. Mr. Paul Brown, just an awesome colleague of mine who's always strategic in his work. I'm going to hurry it up because I know he doesn't like this. So, thank you, Mr. Brown, for your

020perspective and your work. Mr. Brown is our chief academic office. >> Yes. Uh Miss Hines is not here tonight, but she's also a part of our data assessment and accountability um support. She helps us with our analytics for us to review at the task force. So, thank you, Miss Hines, for your work and support with us. Stacy Parham, Dr. Parham is not here tonight. Um but we wanted to make sure that we had the early learning perspective um in our chronic absenteeism work. She always brings great perspective. So Dr. Parham, thank you so much for um your support. Dr. Tori Manson Dr. Manson um who we know is just such a great asset um is a great mind around student support. always gives great perspective and knowledge. Thank you Dr. Manson for not only being

021a partner in the work but just being an awesome person. So thank you our board member Takari Tucker. Miss Tucker um is just so brilliant in her passion um around student support is unmatched. Um so not only just helping us and supporting us around the governance of this division, but you get down with us, you roll your sleeves up to support us and we honor that and thank you so much for your work. She even helps to lead meetings. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your work. And finally, uh, Naziah White, um, is not here with us. Um, but another parent, again, uh, parent perspective is so very important, um, with our work. So, um, again, I just want to thank everyone for your continuous effort, coming every two weeks. We're going to

022continue to convene because we're going to do this thing to the end of the year. things change throughout the year. So, we're always incorporating this work. So, thank you again uh Miss Brown. This was her mission um this year to make sure that we got to the root cause of chronic absenteeism and you can see the work happening and progress being made. So, and you're a big part of that. Thank you so much. Good job. in the frame. >> Mr. Lundy. >> Oh, yeah. A little closer. >> Okay. All right. Smile. Chelsea. One, two, three. Thank you. Come on. And so although although the trophy was the trophy remained the trophy remained at Petersburg High School, we we definitely do not want the opportunity to award you. I want to make sure that everyone sees

023this beautiful trophy that says the highest decrease in chronic. Thank you very much. And so we didn't want to miss the opportunity to again award the chronic absenteeism trophy. Isn't that beautiful? To Miss Alicia Fields, the principal of Petersburg High School, and her wonderful team for having the highest decrease in chronic absenteeism for this month. Thank you again, Miss Fields, to you and your team and this work. We want to make sure that we award you this award. Even though you keep it, but it is a traveling trophy. It just traveled around the the hallway back into your hands. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's get pictures. >> All right. Smile, Chelsea. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. >> Thanks to Cat. >> Thank you school board

024members. will now we will now bring up Miss >> Janna Basquez Janna Vasquez and she would come to the podium. We're really excited. We're going to talk about our 2025 high school student video contest submission. Thank you to Miss Vasquez who does everything for our students and so she's been working with our students around this um video submission. We want to make sure we have an opportunity to to recognize our wonderful student. Thank you, Miss Espress. >> Good evening. Good evening everyone. >> This year, once again, I think for the 13th year in a row, this uh video contest has been running for 14 years, the BSBA, Virginia School Board Association high school video contest. And the contest asked that students or districts submit a student created video 30 seconds only. And some of the

025criteria are that students cannot have any professional help. They must create this on their own. So they can have guidance and that kind of thing, but they cannot have any professional help. And this year um of course you know the BSBA theme is champions of impact. And so this we got to choose from three topics. Champions of our school, our champion stories, and communities of champions. And so this year we submitted once again as you know last year we won honorable mention. This year we did not win. We did not place. However we had an awesome awesome contribution. Are you going to show it? >> Yes. >> And I would also like to call the student up but you can see our 30 second video. Thank you all so much. Can you give her another

026round of applause? Like to call forth the student who totally created this, Taylor Thomas. and it says Taylor Thomas for participation in the VSBA 2025 high school video contest and it's signed by the board chair and I would like to say a little bit about Taylor if you don't mind. Taylor is a senior. Um, her Facebook, if you go to the airport and take a trip, see her there. If you look on any of our hiring promotion flyers, you may see her there. If you look on any of our social media, you may see her there. Additionally, she has really pushed herself this year and she um had you can follow her on social media at PHS Media Girls. You may have noticed during our sports season, she has been doing quite a few interviews

027and she posted content, you know, as we're moving forward. And she is a 2025 Debbie Taunt in our community. She also is an honor student and she's on our she's on our speech team. And just last week, she came in second in in her round for competition. It is a mover and a shaker city public schools and we want to thank her for everything that she does for us. >> Can I say one more thing? We have some guests here that we're going to recognize. She's planning to major in mass communication. >> Yes. >> And also She has parents who have and these these parents here, they stick with us. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, they follow us. They come to our competition. They support her. Anything that we any condition that we need signed, it's

028automatically done. So, they are amazing people. Thank you so much for all you're doing. Also, thank you for Miss Field for giving us the opportunity again to participate and to submit on behalf of not just Petersburg High School, but also Petersburg City Public Schools. Thank you. >> Smile. One, two, three. >> Thank you. Okay, this next one is Okay, the next one. is the school boards. Each year, PSBA allows each school division to recognize individuals for the media honor role. And this year, we have chosen three individuals that we are recognizing for the 2025 ESBA media honor role. And tonight, we want to honor Joy Folks from CBS 6 WTVR TV. The Petersburg City Puffy School Board recognizes your fair and balanced reporting on school division and education related topics signed by Dr. Joanna Rollins

029Falls and Gina Patterson, VSBA executive director. Um Dr. Joanna Rollins was the VSBA president and also Mr. Miles is here. He serves as our southside chair for VSBA. At this time we delight for Miss Joy Fox to come forward. >> And I think this fast. Yeah, you did. >> I know. You did an awesome story on this fast. What was the name of it? >> That's my girl. Uh, well, it was a CBS6 gift, but we like introed it with her incredible work that she does here. And so that was awesome. >> Thank you for >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Our next honore of the 2025 BSB media ensemble goes to Brendan Kaine who is also with CBS6 WT. just to share that that Brenda came on our first day of school and

030did a story on Pittsburgh City Public Schools. Thank you for the positive story. >> This way. One, two, three. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. And our last individual that we're going to recognize and you all know him very well. He's been in the radio business for a long time. And every year in the Blandford parade, he always always calls out Petersburg City Public School and the school board. This media award goes to none other than Mr. or Reverend or either Pastor Coll Phillips radio. CONGRATULATIONS. >> YEP. He's this way. >> I like the tie. It matches with our branding. That's what it is. And it's it's because of Sheriff Crawford >> that you're here every year recognizing the school board. We walk through. >> I'm going to have you smile this

031way for me. One, two, three. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you everyone and congratulations once again. Next board members we move to the approval of the consent agenda. M A B and C. Thank you for ch school board members. Our approval of the personnel agenda. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated 123 2025 as provided. 3B. Approval of minutes. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the minutes of the 9:23 2025 division 5-year strategic plan work session meeting. Then our 10:15 2025 work session meeting and 1110 2025 student disciplinary hearings meeting as provided. And then our 3C donations received by PCPS. please click on the next slide, please. Thank you. So, just want to so make you aware that there are

032no donations during this period, but we do include it in our agenda. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation the school board approved 3A 3B and of course 3 C thereations at this time as provided. >> Thank you Mr. Brown. You heard superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> Moved by Mr. Miles. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Dance. All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. Next we'll move to number four. Superintendent staff and guest reports 4 a >> Thank you again for your pre and school board members. Our first presentation of this evening is our attendance and chronic absenteeism monthly board update. And then we also have a policy recommendation this evening. And so I'll bring up um I'll bring up Dr. Gay who is in place for Dr.

033Darter Jackson who couldn't be here this evening and then I will swing in once we begin to talk about the policy work and the recommendations around a first read policy for attendance. Dr. today. >> Thank you again, Superintendent, uh our awesome board, uh board chair, uh staff, and our community. Um as superintendent said, I'm standing in for Dr. Dartra Jackson, our director of data assessment and accountability, and I will be sharing our attendance and chronic absenteeism monthly update. So the that we will go um again key definitions. We always want to do some level setting on the meaning of chronic absenteeism and average daily attendance because they are different. Uh we will talk about our schoolboard goals. We always try to make sure that's the forefront of our work. Um division level data. Um again

034we as the superintendent mentioned we will also share um our attendance policy board recommendations. Um again and this is the work uh from our attendance and chronic absenteeism task force. So, one of the uh uh things that we were tasked to do is to reook at our current attendance policy uh to see how we can improve it uh to bring accountability around attendance and chronic absenteeism and also support. We will also talk about uh the superintendent uh presentation of the monthly attendance award, but we already did that earlier. Next, thank you so much. Just key definitions. Uh we always always want to make sure we level set for our community. Chronic absenteeism is missing 10% or more school days for any reason. That is excused um or unexcused. Right? Just want to make that clear.

035Our average daily attendance is the percentage of students present each day across the division. Okay? So there's a difference here. So just looking back and looking forward here, uh, school year 2526, our school board goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 3%. Last year, school year 2425, our end ofear divisionwide chronic absenteeism rate was at 37.8%. And that is a little above the national average. Currently, as of November 20th, we are at 28.28% that should be celebrated and we will continue to go down um uh especially with the work that's happening uh with uh Dr. Tory Manson and Mr. Brown who's working doing targeted support with schools also. Um and also our communications work has also contributed that to that as well. So just want to mention that we have an internal goal. So the

036state of Virginia doesn't have like a a a target goal for average daily attendance. However, the superintendent has charged us to establish an internal goal for average daily attendance. And so our goal for every school every day is to be at 95%. 95%. Thank you so much. So chronic absenteeism uh year overyear meaning um from if you look at from November 2024 to 2000 November 2025 you can see the comparison between uh the two school years in each school. So, as you can see here, Cool Spring Elementary School increased by 2%. Again, this is year-over-year from November 2024 to November 2025. Walnut Hill decreased chronic absenteeism by 9%. Lake Month Elementary School decreased chronic absenteeism by 8%. Pleasant Lane Elementary School decreased by 13%. Bamford 6 Academy has decreased their chronic absenteeism by 13%. Vernon

037John's Middle School decreased by 15%. And we also want to acknowledge again Petersburg City uh Petersburg High School won the attendance award. Vern and John's was on their back only two points away. So, we are really our school leaders are so competitive. They're asking questions on how we can uh improve. I know Mr. Brown is getting a lot of questions uh from our school leaders on how to make this work. But our school leaders and our teams are working really hard. Petersburg High School decreased by 16%. Pitman Academy decreased by 6% and Westview um early learning center decreased by 4%. Next slide please. Thank you. Now this is a comparison of chronic absenteeism for end of the year 2024 2025 and the year to date. So, we're comparing uh what we ended with at 2020

038uh 2425 in May to where we are now. And you can see those numbers here. Cool spring um in the blue 2024 2025 was at 25.36% chronic absenteeism. That's where they ended uh in May. They're currently at 24%. Walnut Hill 24.58%. Currently they're 18%. Lake Mont 29.09%. That's end of year again. They're currently at 25%. Pleasant Lane 44.62% currently at 34%. Blandford 6 41.08% end of year. They're currently at 30%. Vernon John's ended at 41.62%. They are currently at 31%. Chronic absenteeism. Petersburg High School ended at 44.37% currently at 32%. Pitman Academy was at 94.45%. They're currently at 61%. And Westview ended at 26.82% and currently at 23%. And again, that is endofear chronic absenteeism in comparison to where we are currently. So now, uh, we're going to talk about average daily attendance. That's how

039many students are in school every day. Um, and this is uh November 2024. And again, the marker uh was November 20th, right before we left for the break, for the Thanksgiving break. As you can see here with average daily attendance what some schools are not too far from the 95%. We have Pitman Academy uh which is at 77.4%. Cool spring almost again making that 95% they're at 94.3% again that's as of November 20th of last week. West View has exceeded the 95% threshold at 95.59%. Yes, 59%. >> Last year, last year was last sorry, last year. I apologize. And currently at 93.1%. Is the goal is to have 95% every day is our goal internally to have 95% of the kids in attendance. And so in the red is the percentage of kids that are

040attending, the percentage of students of that population that are attending school each day. Yes, and I misspoke. I apologize. The blue is 2024, red is November 2025. All righty. So I will hand it over to our superintendent for our policy recommendations. >> All right. So thank you Dr. Gay and thank you board members. I wanted to bring as a part of again as Dr. Gay talked about the work of our attendance and chronic absenteeism task force. Um, as you'll recall, we had our board member Tucker who was a big part of this work. And so, we had a chance to actually take a look and I want to thank the team for taking a deep look at our policy because policy impacts our ability to make changes um to things that we need to do

041in order to make the work that we're doing go even further and impact even more kids. And so tonight I'm bringing as a first read and recommendation as first read recommendation to the board around um what we should do with our policy Jed-R student absences excuses slashdismissals. And so I want to just take your attention to the current PCPS regulation or guidelines. The first one says, "Students who are absent must bring a parental note within 24 hours after the absence or two days of the students return to this within two days of the students return to school stating the reasons for absence." That's what our current regulation says. It also says work missed shall be made up and all makeup work is is is the student's responsibility. It also says number three, students who are

042tardy to school must bring a parental note stating the reason for the tardiness. This note must be received no later than the day following the tardiness. Tardiness is defined as arriving after the published start time for the school and or class. That's our current regulation. We are recommending as first read tonight to add students that are absent five consecutive or non-consecutive days must be added to the school attendance team case load to address attendance concerns, establish attendance goals and strategies and provide relevant supports. We're also recommending in relation to number two, the work missed. Work missed that shall be made up and all makeup work is the students responsibility. The task force and the superintendent we are recommending to add the recovery of time. Schools must implement an attendance recovery strategy to improve student attendance

043and maintain academic achievement. We've outlined this as elementary schools to say that three hours of recovery would recoup one day of absence. We also recommend adding for the middle school and high school level that we add 3 hours of recovery would recoup one day of absence. Schools must calculate recruitment of time throughout the school year. Then we want to also add that suspension days can be recouped. We also want to add that students must be in school or at an approved partner location to recoup the days absent. Then for our current regulation number three that again says students who are charting a school must bring a parental note stating the reason for the tardiness. This note must be received no later than the day following the tardiness. Tardiness again is defined as arriving after the

044public start time for school and or class. Our recommendation for change is to add students who are tardy and or leave early from school must bring a parental note stating the reason for the tardiness or early release. This note must be received no later than the day following the tardiness or early release. Tardiness is defined as arriving after the public start time for school and/or class. We also want to add early release is defined as leaving school 2 hours before the published dismissal time. We also like to add if a student is tardy or leaves early 5 days within a month then they must be added to the school attendance team case load to address attendance concerns establish attendance goals and strategies and provide relevant supports. That is the first read of recommendations that we

045want to change and add to our current policy regulations for our attendance/attendance policy for PCPS JED-R student absences, excuses, and dismisses. Now, for our general attendance policy recommendations, we have additional pieces. So, we don't have any changes, but I do want to make sure that everyone knows our current general provisions. A student out of school for the observance of a religious holiday on a field trip or representing the school at a special activity shall not be charged with an absence. The teacher's record must show that the student was not present, but that will not count as an absence and shall not appear in the student's record. Nor shall the student be deprived of any award or eligibility or opportunity to compete for any award or at the right or the right to take the alternate

046test or examination and makeup work is required. There are no changes. That is a provision we still want to provide to our students. This next one too, regular student attendance is important. This is what we currently have in our provisions. Parents are encouraged to provide the appropriate documentation for student absences. Students are expected to attend each class meeting. Regular class attendance affords the student the opportunity to complete requirements of the course satisfactory. Excessive absenteeism, including the lack of the proper documentation, may result in poor or unsatisfactory grades due to the students inability to compensate fully for the class assignments which were missed. It also has in the provision, a student absent 15 consecutive days will be withdrawn from enrollment in Petersburg City Public Schools. This provision does not apply to students approved and assigned to

047homebound instruction and students with illnesses substantiated by appropriate documentation. Any absence or disciplinary reasons such as suspension will be counted under this regulation. We are recommending the change to say parents are responsible for providing the appropriate documentation and adhere to the school's recovery structure for the student absences. Students are expected to attend each class meeting. Regular class attendance is required in order for students to achieve satisfactory course completion. Excessive absenteeism, especially without proper proper documentation, can lead to poor or unsatisfactory grades because the student may be unable to make up missed class assignments and coursework effectively. Next slide. Thank you. That concludes my recommendation. Um, board chair Richard, Vice Chair Pierce, and the entire board for policy, attendance, and chronic absenteeism. Recommendation for first read. >> Thank you, Miss Maria. Any questions from board members?

048Miss Proctor, >> uh, what does, uh, recovery look like? >> Thank you, Proctor, for that question. So, this is the part I'll have Dr. Manson come to the podium. But as we know, the Virginia Department of Education um has historically from what I've learned and also this year what I know is they are providing opportunities for school divisions to recoup time for students who are absent. And so if a student is absent and this is let's just say 20 days, what the Virginia Department of Education has done is provided a mechanism for kids to be able to come on Saturday after school and at other times in order for them to make up some of the time that they've missed when they've been absent. And so that is something that's been in place. And what

049I understand this year they've added more time to it. Is that correct? I think it used to be two hours and now it's three hours. But it is a recruitment of time so that you get an opportunity for kids to make up some of the time that they miss. But there are specific things that they must do. And I think in the policy it talked about that you must be in school in one of our approved programs or you have to be with an approved partner. And so I'll ask Dr. Manson to further get into that around what recouping time is from the BDOE, but it allows students in Virginia to be able to make up some of the time so that we don't have to count it as a full absence. Is that correct?

050>> That's correct. Good evening, Chairman Pritchard, Vice Chairman Pierce, fellow members of the board and all. That's a similar. Yes, that is correct. How recruitment time works and what the entry schools are doing this year that's a little bit different from last year. They are doing some things. They're doing you can do it before school. So, previously they weren't doing a lot before school. This year they're going to be doing it before school and so they're going to start most elementary schools going to start from 7:15. They're going to do it three days a week. They're going to start at 7:15 to that 8:15 hour. They're doing some other things to encourage the parents to come. And so at that time it's meaningful education which means you have to receive meaningful instruction and it has

051to be by a licensed teacher by the Virginia Department of Education. And then I can also offer three afterchool events for those students on elementary level. the middle school and that high school are doing their events on an after school basis and then they're going to incorporate some sanity schools in order to recoup that time. But as Miss Brown said, it's three hours for all levels, elementary, middle, and high school that you have to do. Three hours equals one day. So that's why they're doing three days a week on elementary and middle school and at the high school they're doing those days so they can recoup that time. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. M. Any other questions? >> I just had a question on the on the first one. Go

052back to the the very first one that you were changing. I just I guess we're falling in line with with the rest of them. I think my head I cannot see. Let me see if I can pull it up. I can see it also. >> Okay. For instance, where you have recommendation where you said the students the students that are absent back by consecutive or non-consecutive days must be added to the school attendance team case level to address attendance concerns, establish attendance goals and strate and strategies and provide relevant support. My my question is we were not doing this. So I will say that maybe some pockets but it wasn't consistent but we wanted to make sure that it's part of our policy that it's it's like a preventive me measure before students become truent.

053Um I'm taking this field's words we wanted to add more teeth to the policy right. Um so five days um uh is too much really. Um students lose a lot of instruction. So five was a day that the task force um agreed upon. Um but we also wanted to make sure that every school was facilitating a attendance team. That's a part of our policy regulation as well as it helps to support uh this policy will help to support and provide accountability around our work. >> Okay. And Dr. Mason, I know tonight we we did vote on your new truency supervisor. Can you tell us a little bit about how this position will play a role in the chain? >> What this position will do is she will be responsible for overseeing all troops. She will

054also be responsible for ensuring and leading our transport task force. She comes with um several years of experience. She knows Petersburg in depth. But also what the position will be doing is she will be attending as Dr. uh Gabe was just stating about those attendance meetings. She will ensure that those attendance meetings are done with fidelity. They're consistent and they're across the board in what we put in place in regards to your your two-day, your three-day, your five day, 7-day and ensuring that all schools are doing this. And the biggest thing she's going to be doing is I'm just going to be perfectly honest with everyone. She's going to ensure that we ramp up our legal actions which is required under the law. That is her focus. We're going to hold parents, students, and schools

055responsible and accountable for truency and for chronic absenteeism. That is her focus. I've already that is her will be her focus. That's going to be her mission. That's the whole design of the supervisor of truency to ensure that the truency officers we're going to eliminate excuses. If you need a packet, she's going to ensure that packet is correct, that that packet is there, that packet is turned in on time. So her first job when she comes in is to look at all our students as truency that's truent and ensure we start the legal reme the legal process for those students to ensure that we can increase our attendance on a daily basis. So that's her focus. That'll be that person's focus. >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. >> Mr. D, >> Good evening. Do

056we have a strategy for our students and our parents to whereas they can get this right the first time by come to school on time and stay in school rather than have to u make it up before and after. Can we kind of drive that point? It's easier to get it right the first time than have to go back and make it up. >> And we can uh Mr. Dance this will be a progress. It's a progress in place. One of the things that we did see from the interview with the individual that was chosen for this position, she came in with a community-based program where she wants to go to the communities including in January. She wants to go to the communities, go to those communities, have community forums to start explaining in detail

057how missing school impacts you, how those she wants to go to them. We don't want to come here. Sometimes families may not want to come to the school. We already we already having them having issues with them being chewing and coming to the schools. She wants to go to those communities. So, she's going to be reaching out to the community, those community agencies. I mean those community groups and everything in our housing projects reaching out to them talking about housing developments reaching out to them discussing how we can come and hold community forums where going to be truency based chronic absentism based but they can understand the difference between being truent and chronically absent and the importance of coming to school every day and how that impacts your child not just on the high school

058and not the middle school level but from preschool through 12. >> Thank you very much. Can I also add to um great question uh board member dance. When we think about chronic absenteeism, it's much more than students coming to school and not coming to school. The reason why we have a task force is to dig into the root cause of why some of our students are not coming to school on time and every day. We call them social determinants. Whereas there are challenges in the community, there are challenges with families that hinder students from coming to school. When we uh uh looked over our analytics, we spent a lot of time looking at data, academic data, student support data, community data. We found uh uh some insights that there were some things that were hindering

059our families from coming to school such as transportation, chronic illnesses, right? So, it's just that our our parents are not coming to school. There are major challenges and this helps us and informs us to fix the system that we have to create opportunities for our students to come to school, create a a a safe landing for our students, whether it is I know we're putting a lot of investments, Dr. Manson, Mr. Brown, Miss Brown putting a lot of efforts into transportation. um looking at our partner medical systems whereas our students that are out that are chronically ill are not missing school but that they are um engaging in instruction whether they are in the hospital or at home and we don't uh uh uh mark them down as absent. So those are the things that

060we're looking at as a task force again just to help fix the system which would provide better supports for our families and our students and coming to school every day. Yes. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Uh and I apologize for my time. Uh just one quick question and and it's good that you have a lot of work wrapped around uh the the attendance structure but the recovery part how is that going to be tracked? I know we, you know, we talk data data all the time and uh with those students with the recovery process, uh you may not have it now, but my curious question is how are we going to track that data? >> Great question, board member Pierce. Um and we just had this discussion in our task force meeting. Uh uh board

061member Tucker has been very intentional around recovery time. So when we look at our attendance teams, our attendance teams will be responsible for capturing that data consistently. We have to strengthen our teams. Our our teams as Dr. Manson said weren't happening with fidelity. So data will be a big part of the work of the attendance team. We are growing protocols. I know Dr. Manson has already implemented uh instituted protocols um around data around uh looking at student support within our attendance team. So it's really around strengthening our attendance teams to capture that data. But I believe that a protocol is already in place to capture that data to funnel to our administrators and our principles uh to make sure that they are fully aware of the recovery time. Um but again it's it will be

062in our attendance teams. >> Okay. Okay. >> And what we've done is um we've already created the recruitment template for the for the um administrators and for those who's going to be in charge of it. And that's another um responsibility of the truency of the of the lead truency supervisor. They she will meet um monthly with each recruitment program at each individual schools and ensure that we're collect that we're collecting that data, processing that data. Then she will submit that data to me and I will bring that data back to our tennis task force to show how it's working. Are the kids coming back for recruitment where we at? How much time are we recovering? And those are the things we can bring it back to the task force have a discussion on and all

063to let everyone know where we are and how we're monitoring. So that is that person's one of the person's responsibilities also to ensure that they're meeting monthly with the recruitment person who's over top of the recruitment to ensure that we we're doing what we're supposed to be doing on a on a monthly basis. Okay. Thank you. Any any break in that chain will affect that child care. And the only reason I'm asking is because of because if all of those links are together then whatever might happen and you'll be able to see that child's grades right along. >> Yes. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you team. Um I just wanted to respond to um board member Dan when he asked about you know how do we communicate and what can we do so

064that kids understand that coming the first time is what's important. I also want to bring up the teaching and learning process because that is our core business and what I say is that I know Mr. Brown has talked about it, the team talked about it. We've got to make school engaging for kids. Let's not forget that that's a part of it. So our classrooms, kids, you know, opportunities that we provide for kids so that they want to come to school. We know it doesn't fix everything, but it's a part of a bigger plan that we want to make sure that when kids come to school, they feel welcome, that when they go in classrooms that they are getting instruction that's engaging and it's not just the same old same old, right? So that when it's

065hard to come to school, you know, there's still some motivation there. So, I just want to call out the fact that we're doing all the things, but the first thing kids experience is when they walk in the door of a school and then when they walk in their classroom. And so, how do we work with our teachers who are doing a great job to help engage kids? But we're always trying to make that better and better so that they have resources, they have opportunities to go do other things like field trips and other things that help them be excited about coming to school. We're also working on that so that that motivates them to come even when they don't want to. I wanted to add that piece. >> Great. Um I think you have a

066good plan on the validity the validity of this data is going to be very important. So I'm going to suggest that don't wait a month to do it. you need to do that recruitment um for those those um on a weekly basis and because you wait till the end of the month it's going no telling what how much you will have to do. Uh the other thing is is there a limitation on how many days they can recoup? >> Yes 15 >> 15 they can recoup 15 recruit 15. >> Yeah that's very important because um that wasn't the limitation wasn't in there. Maybe we can add that to it. Um, but the other thing like like I was saying earlier to keep it valid, to keep it on point, we might want to do this

067on a weekly basis and make sure it's documented because the people that we have in truency. It's going to be up to them to make sure that they keep up with this and month by month. It's not going to be as you know, you might miss something. >> We could do that. >> It's time Good evening. I just wanted to ask one thing to piggyback off of what Miss Brown stated. Um, do our schools have individualized school attendance plans whereas the principles customizes a individual plan for their building around tailor made for their students. We we gave them a template that they can customize around that student, that individual student with the assistance of your family engagement person, your CIS and that attendance need that meets the need of that in that particular student. We

068gave them an attendance plan based off the action plan attendance plan based off some of the recommendations from the principles when we met with the principles for that attendance plan, but they can customize that plan because it's it's in a word document around school on a daily basis. >> So, I'm thinking more of like the school needs. So, um I know PTA does a lot of things, but a lot of things are done after school. So, to Miss Brown's point, when the kids first come in school and you know, it has to be a welcoming environment and there needs to be things that are done like award ceremonies. I know um Cool Spring just did an award ceremony before we left for the break and it was amazing. we were going to the conference, but

069I got a lot of videos and it was amazing. And you know, I got feedback from parents that were excited to just be in the building to be able to see their kids, you know, receive these awards. So, I if I could make a suggestion that all schools, you know, create a plan where they have a calendar built around what they're doing for attendance so that it's not all strictly academic so the kids don't get lost. We're doing we're trying to, you know, keep them there. So, just something to, you know, make it more a little more engaging outside of the classroom. >> Appreciate you. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Mson. I know that I asked earlier um I texted you all because I know that there was a question about the numbers of chronic

070absenteeism, the truent students at this moment. I know that we're going to be bringing our truent person on. I know that you all I don't know if you have the information electronically. We can shoot it over. They can pull it up if you have the numbers by school. >> I have it actually right here. We made copies for each board member. >> Okay. Each board member. We want to make we want is there a way for us to show so that the community can see the numbers? Do we have it electronically that we can just shoot it to? Well, we can if there's a way for us to get it to you that we can pull it up, but we have the data that um um was requested around how many truent students do we

071have currently school by school and so Dr. Gay if we could send that um and then we'll pull it up on the screen if that works. >> Okay. So, if you could go ahead and give the information. >> Okay. >> And then we will add that to >> currently. Okay. Currently the number Trent student at Cool Springs is 74. At Lake Bun is 45. Warner Hill is 42. Pleasant slain is 110. Blandford Academy is I mean Blandford Middle School 6th grade academy 58. Vernon John's 120. Petersburg High School 226. Pitman Academy 34. West View 5 for a division total of 714. >> Yes, >> we have a lot of work to do. Yes, we did a lot of work to do. >> So, can you all um because I'm not I'm not seeing it here

072and and maybe maybe we moved away from it, but I thought we brought it back. >> I don't see anything in here where student engagement is attached to this. Are they a part of this? >> Yes. >> When you say student engagement, Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Family engagement. I'm sorry. I call them student engagement. >> Family engagement. So, how would they play a part? I'm not seeing, you know, Well, we didn't we didn't hear anything about them. We heard about truency, but how is family engagement playing a part in all of this with the truency and stuff? >> Well, they family engagement actually sits on the u they actually sits on the attendance team. They get a case load also to make home visits and they talk to those families and try to get

073those families to come to school and everything. And then we're working with Dr. Lee in regards to creating some eventism and students and parents and truences and having those discussions. her first meeting I believe it was in it was in regards to Dr. U K spoke that day about attendance how attendance matter one every day counts and so they're actually on the attendance team and they could also attend this case load to work with them also and I think she's just become fully staffed so so we had to work on some of those things too but now she's fully staffed Miss Fields I know currently have one that's currently fully staffed up here but they sit on those teams also with us >> all right sir I'm sorry. Go ahead, J. >> And you know,

074I know those numbers sound pretty high, but just for example, um that 200 that's up there at the high school, we're only looking at 20% of the kids that's really doing not doing what they supposed to do for us coming to school. And that give us a good focus and they identify. So the great thing about that is they won the attendance award two months in a row. So you see how that falls into play when you identify the things you need to address, the people you need to address. So that number is not as great as it sounds, but it's being addressed in a way where they are still ahead of the game. So that so I know I heard a whole lot of oo's and a's when so I just want to let

075you know the progress that's being made because a lot of times in in uh when when people look at Petersburg they always have something negative to say when they look at Petersburg public school but we could take less and do more with most school than any other school district in this state and I know we can can continue to achieve that. So that that's not a a number that we can't overcome. And these are numbers, not percentages. And so looking at the percentages might look very different >> because of the number of kids that are enrolled. >> That's right. And and I like to add while these numbers do look a little you know the recruit the recruit time will go in toward at the end of the school year. >> So it the recruit

076time will be reflective at the end of the year. So even though these are the numbers now, it does not mean that these kids haven't started recouping times or it doesn't mean that they won't recoup times. So please keep that in mind. >> That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Yeah, we can't we don't submit that time until the end of the school year. >> And so that's why it will still look like this. Although they recouping the time, you can't submit it as Mr. Tucker said until the end of the school year. >> Yeah. >> Hold my mic off. Even though you can't submit it, when you do attendance, can you report how much time we get recovered? >> Yes, >> we just mentioned that policy. >> We're going to be very specific about

077schools traffic, >> right? >> Thank you all. We're We appreciate it. You put your hand up. >> We appreciate it. Dr. Manson and Dr. G. And Dr. Manson's next. You can go ahead. >> Thank you. All right. And we'll bring the percentages. Dr. Thank you. I know I asked you the last minute to look at the facilities so that they can see the comparison data. So, thank you all very much. >> And I just want to make a statement. Can you all give those numbers to Mr. Miles and make sure he checked those numbers at high school? >> You know there's a saying if you don't start nothing. You see she You see she going on out the door. >> Don't listen to it. >> All right. Thank you boarding and schoolboard members. We have

0784B. Our next presentation will be Dr. given by Dr. Tori Manson, our assistant superintendent of um student services. And this is our therapeutic day treatment selection process that we embarked upon so that we can bring therapeutic day treatment to Petersburg City Public Schools. And so we're excited that we have now made the selection. So we're asking Dr. Manson to come to talk the board through that selection process. And then of course we will I will make a recommendation for action during the action portion of the meeting. Dr. Manson. >> Again, good evening, Chairman Pritchard, Vice Chairman Pierce, fellow members of the board, Madam Superintendent, and all those who assemble. Um this evening I'm just going to go briefly through the therapeutic treatment date provider um selection process and why we chose the uh the importance

079of TDT and why these two providers were selected. Next slide please. And so we took the following process when we went through this um when we went through the TDT process. So the one of the requests was for proposals which is a RFP um and submission. We had a had to create a team composition, review submission package with ratings, TDT companies were selected, students selected for TDT service providers, then the positive impact of TDT services and timeline for implementation. Next slide, please. And so the timeline was on August 28, 2025, an RFP was issued for TDT services. That timeline had to stay out for for 30 days. And so on September the 29th, 2025, we received three proposals. They were submitted to our procurement person at the time, which was Miss Lori Newton. On October

080the 1st, 2025, an RFP um we received the RFP instructions for evaluation and confidentiality statement for review and the signatures were given by the team members in the team composition which is required by law. And then on November the 4th, 2025, the evaluation team met with all three providers for the selection. Next slide, please. And so some members of the team composition included Mr. Paul Graham, uh myself, Mr. Danny Custo, the director of special education, and Mr. Alicia Fields, principal of Petersburg High School. We also um we also spoke with and got recommendations from all of our elementary principles, assistant principles, and the middle school principles in what they wanted to see from a TDT provider. It was just that because at the time we only had three submissions, it was a recommendation that we

081that we uh that we trim down the number of people on that commission, but we did speak with all of them, got some guidance and got some recommendations from our elementary principles, middle school and um high school. Next slide, please. And so some of the things that in regards to approved providers that we selected was family services and infinite counseling and wellness. And one of the reasons why we select family services some of those reasons I'm not going to go through the whole thing but I'm going give you a couple of reasons um family services when they when they presented to us one of the things that we like about them they enhanced access to licensed clinicians which on their staff many of their clinicians are LCSWS and LPC's qualified mental health professionals that will

082be assisting our students they have a a a certified expertise in certain areas of mental health and behavior related um study I mean behavior related um behaviors we had collabor collaborative with school teams. So they have experience collaborating with school teams to address the needs of our students and families and enhancing attendance, engaging families and students proactively addressing those attendance issues in regards to families. And one of the things that they did which both providers stated to us that one of the things that they believe in doing is assisting our attendance teams if anyone is on their case load and if they're on their case load and they're having attendance issues, they make home visits themselves. They call the parents. They said they would even go to the home and pick up those students and

083ensure those students are in school on a daily basis. That was from both the providers that they they informed us that they would be doing. Some of the other ones for Infinite, they they facilitated social emotional learning. They actually do have a curriculum and they were very familiar with our character strong curriculum that we're using for SEAL because they're also using that same curriculum where they work with their students. Um improving discipline, they uses datadriven targeted interventions. They came in with those data targeted interventions in regards to how they look at the data. They summized where we having some issues from in regards to our data and that's what they pinpoint to work with those students. And then another one was enhancing attendance again for them. They knew that they understood that when they came

084in they understood what Petersburg was looking at as far as attendance and as they stated to us they would be making those home visits. They would work with families. They would ensure that the families needs are met at the same time as the student needs. And so they understood those processes and would be willing to work with us. They also had informed us that they will assist us. Both companies have experience with the family assessment planning team through our DSS and they both said they will assist us with uh with actually doing wraparound services and they're attending those flap meetings to ensure that our students meet those wraparound services that are necessarily needed for those students. And they both are very familiar with Petersburg. So they're both very familiar with Petersburg. They're currently doing inhome

085counseling services. some of our students and they're also doing TDT services with some of our students. They're just not doing it within the school environment. So, they both are very familiar with Petersburg um Petersburg community and the resources and things that's necessary for our students to be successful. Next slide please. And so the four schools that was selected was the four elementary school springs, Lake Pleasants Lane and Waln. And one of the reason and the reason why this selection was what we did as a team, we looked at the resources that we already have in our schools. And one of the things that we recognized is that um on the middle school and high school level, they have a few more resources than we do in our elementary. We also looked at our trends in

086data for those who serve on the schoolboard disciplinary committee. Um we saw the trends over the three years. We're seeing more of our students in elementary being referred for long-term suspensions um and expulsions. And we knew that we had to make sure that we provide this early intervening services that we had to get in early to work with those students to understand to build those students self-confidence to build those students decision- making and anger management skills. And so one of the things we did was when we looked at everything holistically and where we needed to go with we chose those four elementary schools because we needed to make sure that we meet those needs for our K through5 students. Next slide please. And so the value of TDT service, some of the values of TDT

087services that we expect that we will see an increase in and that'll be an increase in our academic success because both providers came in focused in on how they're going to assist us with increasing our academic success, increase school attendance, increase positive relationships in the school environment, increase students ability to handle stressful situations, improve communication between parents, students and schools, and increase appropriate student self- advocacy at agency. And so we came in with a idea that this is what we wanted to see from our from these these two agencies from the three agencies but the two agencies we chose they came in with the focus with the plan that they were going to put in place on day one. Next slide please. And so the monitoring of services, one of the things in order for

088us to ensure that the TD is meeting the needs of our students and the school, one of the some of the things we're going to be doing on beginning on January 2026, TD providers will begin supporting students and the agreed upon students. One of the things in regards to the reason why we're starting it in January, you have to have a license, an individual license. So the TDT company after tonight, uh they will be I will call them first thing in the morning. They were informed that they if if you all choose and vote for them, they have to apply for a license for each individ individual building they will be in. So if you're going to be assigned to Cool Springs, they have to have a license for Cool Springs. If you're going to

089be assigned to Pleasants Lane, you have to have a license for Pleasants Lane. And it takes roughly 30 days, not business days, but 30 days. And so that would give them time to get those 30 days in so they could hit the ground running after the Christmas break or after the winter break. um ongoing throughout the school year. The TD providers and the building administrators and disciplinary hearing officers which will lead this effort in monitoring the TD providers will meet monthly with monthly reports of students being served and then those monthly reports with daily review meetings. The four selected school principles will discuss and revise data for students receiving TD services. ongoing progress. If we see that the students are not making some progress and not making gains, then we're going to have to go

090back through and see what we need to do differently through this would be through weekly meetings with the TD provider and the principal administrators of each building along with the hearing officer. And then the principal and the hearing officer will meet monthly with the TD executive director. So, we're not going to just meet with the TD providers in the building. We're going to meet with the direct executive directors who oversee those TDT agencies on a monthly basis. And that was one of the agreements why we went with these two providers. agreed to these conditions that we would be doing moving forth. Um then the third nine weeks we want to take up the hearing officer will conduct a survey with the four building administrators, teachers and all to see the effectiveness of what the TDT

091providers are doing for those students so we can gain are they being effective or not. And then at the end of the year PCPS and the TDT agency will meet to discuss the end of the year data. They have to produce the end of the year datas for those students that we're working with. We're going to look at attendance data, discipline data, academic data, and see how those students are progressing and see what the challenges are and what we need to do differently. Next slide, please. And so, so the next step in this process upon board approval, I will contact those student service providers to let them know that they were chosen for to provide TD service within Petersburg City Public Schools. The procurement office, the procurement uh person, Miss Lori Newton, will prepare contracts

092for each provider for one year with the option of fouryear determined by Petersburg City Public Schools and the effectiveness of the TVT providers. And then as you can see on December 5th, we introduce the new TV referral process to principles. Um we've already got that meeting scheduled upon your approval. December 8th, schoolbased um mental health will meet with the TDT providers to ensure that they understand how students will be referred for TDT services. Then on December the 8th through the 12th, TDT providers will meet with the principles and select the central office team. And at that time we're going to start collecting and having names that we're going to start doing that process because one of the things we want the TDT providers to do while we I want to run a break is to

093go through because what happen is they have to do a clinical on those students and meet with the parents and go through that and do an assessment. We don't want to waste any time because we want to hit the ground running on December on January 6 when our students return. So during that time frame while we are out of school mean while schools are closing all they're going to be working with those parents doing those clinicals so that they can already have those assessments and everything in for those students to start on on the 6th. Uh and then on January 5th, 2D2 providers will meet with the principles and and myself to confirm the start date that they're ready for to hit the ground running and that we do have that the principles have ensured

094to us that they have the list of those case managers. They have the list who they'll be working with on January 6 of those students to provide those services to and one of the other things the last thing regards to why we chose this agency. ever agree. We do know that sometimes their parents the medic some of the parents Medicaid can lapse. They will work with those students with those students until that Medicaid come in. So they will also provide services to some students who have Medicaid they agree with and even those students who may not have Medicaid but they are willing to work with some of those students also that that's not receiving those Medicaid funds. So those one of the two things one of the things reason why we chose these agencies to

095work with. Next slide please. And that concludes our opportunity process. >> Thank you, Dr. Mason. Any questions? >> M. Um, is this going to work the same way that they get paid through the Medicaid program? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, >> yes, Austin program. >> Yes. So I'm excited of course you know that we are starting this and I'm glad to see that evaluation piece because you remember Dr. Ken Lewis. >> Yes. >> He would always say you all have you are providing services with the TD providers but we never get to see an evaluation. Yes. >> At the end of the year. So I'm glad that you put that piece in there. Also um I'm believing myself Mr. Miles and Mr. Pierce we should start seeing less elementary students coming to us next

096year before the disciplinary board because they should be handling this within the schools and with the TD providers. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> That is my expectation and Mr. Brown's expectation that you will see less K through five students coming through the district board. Yes. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> They are they are under action. >> You have another question? I'm sorry. >> No. to see. >> All right. Thank you, Ver School Board members. We'll now have our next presentation of this evening. It is going to be our division work order system update given by Mr. Daryl Gdet, our coordinator of facilities, and Mr. J. Martinez, our assistant superintendent of operations. Good evening, board chair Pritchette, vice chair Pierce on the board. Madam superintendent

097and community members, uh I'm the assistant superintendent of operations. Uh Jay Martinez, been here about five months. Um I will be here uh presenting PCPS facilities work order update uh with uh coordinator facilities Mr. Daryl Badet. Next slide. All righty. So this is just a brief update of our uh facilities work orders. Right. So um our agenda will cover work orders, our current maintenance staff um maintenance submission process standardization and compliance. Then we'll end with questions. So I'll go through this presentation and and all the questions will be answered by it. Next slide. All right. Thank you. So right here, this slide right here, um, illustrates our work orders from July 1st to November 20th, 2025. If we focus on the chart to the right here, um, in that first column, we have our school

098sites. Uh, the next column, we have our computer completed work orders. Next column, we have our open work orders. And the last column we have our total total work orders. So quick um takeaways here are 10 completed 469 work orders as of November 20th, 2025. The system shows 424 new work requests. This shows a high efficiency in managing the existing log. Um um so that right there shows you we had a total of 893 total work orders. Right. So we completed 469 with 424 new requests as of November 20th. Lakefont Elementary School and Cool Spring Elementary School counts for the highest volume of new requests 192 suggesting that may require more dedicated or complex maintenance resources. PHS and Walnut Hill showed the highest completion rates which indicates a focus on eliminating existing backlog items at

099those locations and Blamford and Pitman Academy has the highest net increases in their backlog. These sites need attention to prevent service delays. Next, so I want to pay close attention to our current maintenance staff. Okay, so we understand what the numbers are. All right, so just real quick, let me reiterate. Between July 1st and November 20th, we had 893 maintenance work orders. So currently we have a coordinator of facilities whose specific focus is oversight, planning, budget and reporting. Um our skilled trades as of right now we have one electrician, we have one plumber and we have two carpenters. Our general maintenance includes three and they um specialize in general repairs, painting, minor fixes and utility support. Okay. We also have two supporting folks which is an auto mechanic and um a male carrier. So what

100are the key challenges here that I want the board to um play close attention to? The ratio of staff to facilities is stretched thin. When an emergency arises such as a burst pipe, uh flooding the bathroom, uh somebody lost their keys. Um our uh electrician, plumber, carpenter, general maintenance staff must immediately stop doing what they doing uh to respond. We estimate that up to 50% of our skilled technicians time is dedicated to these unlocked high priority emergency and expanded scope tasks. So the key word is unlogged, right? So I originally told you that we have 893 logged total work orders. So I want to pay close attention when I say unlock. All right. This work that must be completed but it's lack of documentation means the board and the district do not have accurate measure

101of our team's um occupational output. Operational output. Next slide. So what are the critical consequences of unlocked work? Underounted productivity. The team's productivity is significantly undervalued by the raw work order metrics. No preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance is key especially in older buildings. Um the con the constant interruption from emergencies prevents us from scheduling and completing necessary preventive maintenance. The work and what does PM means? It means the work that reduces future emergencies, right? Upkeep and also safety and compliance risk. When skilled staff such as our electrician or plum are tied up with emergencies, routine inspections and necessary compliance checks are delayed, increasing long-term risk. Next slide. So, currently, this is what our submission process looks like. Currently work requests enter into the facilities department through too many unlocked channels resulting in understated productivity and poor

102resource planning. One example so our current work order system right that is our desired channel for all routine work desired. Okay. So what is going on now? We'll get emails right that's unlocked. We get a phone phone call. Got to probably get a phone call 5:00 in the morning, 6 o'clock in the morning. Um, that's unlocked. And text messages after hour calls unlock. Next slide. So, what does good look like? Good looks like level one, all non-emergency requests must be submitted via a work order system, right? and we'll address those chronologically and we'll use a priority order. Right? So, what is an example? Um, an example would be um Miss Fields walking down the hallway, she sees some lights missing or um a custodian walks down night crew, he sees um um uh the toilets

103not working correctly. He will log in the work order system and they'll get in the morning and they'll fix it. All right. Level two will be urgent, same day. you need to fix ASAP. We use the work order system and a quick call to the facilities department will alert for urgency. And level three, emergencies, immediate phone call to the facilities department, they'll take care of the work, but what good looks like is mandatory back entry into that work order system by the facilities team. Right? Remember, if we go back to the resources that we do have, it's it's it's a lot of bottlenecking going on. Right? Next slide. All righty. So, any questions? Um, I bring God up, but I just want to when we talk about our work order system, we use a a

104system called school duty, right? Um, and by me coming here, um, I evaluated that system. Um, I'm looking at it. Um, and we're looking at other work order systems that's a little more modern. Um, our technology department is using a work order system that um, seems to be working really nice for the technology side. I'm going to be working with Miss Yates to see if we can pilot that system to include um, maintenance and um, uh, facility side of things. If not, then we'll be using a um, separate work order system that I'll be bringing back um, to our operation advisory council and we'll discuss more about that. Questions? >> Yes. disappear. >> I do have one or two. Um, >> go back to your current man staff. >> Just a couple of things. The

105reason why I ask for this every year the same time simply because as we start to go into the holiday season, if you were staffed up, it would give you plenty of time to take care of a lot of work orders that were outstanding. I get that. So, I'mma ask again this year, same question I answered last year. What do you need from us staffingwise that will allow you and not saying that you're not doing well with the staff that you have to keep up your work orders as you have because you've been doing very good I would say of the minimum staff that you have and Mr. Godad had alluded to this last year. Uh, I made a note from last year because you're going to need tell us what you need so that

106we can get these work orders not under control but maintain them at a level so that your skill workst is not stopping on an electrical problem to go and help the general maintenance people with something else somewhere else. So, we want to make sure that we have a clear understanding of that. tell us what you need staffingwise so that we can take care of it now because if you do that then going forward next year is going to be different because um I see in the reports where there's going to be some additional u stuff happening that these people are going to be cast everywhere and without that staffing you going to be so swamped it's going going to be ridiculous. So, we need to know, I don't mean right now, but you need to

107be mindful of this so that we can make sure that uh the staff that you need will take care of the necessity that we see coming because it's coming and it's going to, believe it or not, it's going to swarm. >> Absolutely, Vice Chair and I appreciate you for bringing that point up. Um it it's it's is it's very positive to hear that we had the support of the board and madam superintendent um right um and not necessarily um cuz it was built a long time ago right >> that's understood >> right it was built a long time ago so we're looking at it to where how we can modernize that locker room up to standard if you will and um u we we have some good ideas that we're going to move forward with

108um and we plan on uh bringing being an outstanding gym. >> I agree with I agree with you. No, don't practice. >> Absolutely. They're not dragging their feet. We can get this done expeditiously. >> Expeditious. So the debt monies used um we want to be good stewards of the money of our taxpayers dollars. That's what I'm saying. >> Absolutely. We do want to make sure that the contractors we get move in an ex expeditious manner and give us that high quality standard because not only will our children be using our guests will be using >> 100% right 100%. >> Thank you Mr. Pierce Mrs. Tucker. >> So my question is um I'm on the opposite spectrum of Mr. Pierce. So my question is who exactly is benefiting from these trailers being outside? Because I'm I'm

109going to stop there. Who is benefiting from these trailers going outside? >> Those trailers will be supporting the PE during the day and after school activities. They'll be supporting um uh the after school activity um sports such as JB basketball, boys, girls, varsity basketball, boys, girls, and also the visiting teams that will be coming here. But during the day, they'll be supporting the um the PE classes. >> Can you tell me the last time a PE class dressed out where they needed a locker room? >> I'm I'm curious to know. >> I I I can't answer that one >> because from my knowledge, they we don't dress out here and we don't dress out at the middle school. Not yet. I don't know, Mr. Brown. Not sure. >> Dress out as in like the last

110time I check And I think my kids dressed up when he was here. That's I can say. I don't know. >> I had to purchase uniform. >> So I dressed out when I was here and those locker rooms are in the same condition that they were when I was here. So I'm a little hesitant and I'm curious to know where this is coming from now because these locker rooms have been in the same condition for over 16 years. >> Absolutely. So to be 100% honest with you uh board members outside looking in me coming here it is my job to um report back to the superintendent what my perspective is right and if it's my job to come here to raise the standard not only of the gym but the auditorium all these other school

111buildings um that that's my job to report back and it's unsafe. Um it's It's uh um there's there's work that needs to be done and and we need to get this work done. Um and um I believe that um um we have the opportunity um to get it done and um we should get it done. >> So I I agree our kids deserve the best. I think you know we say that often that our kids deserve what we know our kids deserve the best and I agree that you know the work definitely needs to be done. I just I'm on the fence because that's a lot of money for one and there were higher priorities and so now this priority comes in and I'm just going to be completely honest with you and I've already

112shared it with Mr. Bridgetie. I feel I'm I'm stuck in the middle because I'm looking at where our kids can benefit academically and once again here we go with something else athletic. And so when I hear the naysayers and I hear the people in the community and the parents, our kids aren't going to benefit the one the students, they're not going to benefit from those trailers. Athletic is going to benefit from those trailers. So while I know it is going to be passed, I want it to go on record that this is how I feel. I feel like the this money could be used on the academic side versus the athletic side. Um I don't think that it's going to benefit the mass majority of our kids. Some of our kids may not even ever

113receive the inside out of their locker room because they don't change their clothes. They don't take showers here. They never had, you know, I want to be I want to be clear with that. I mean, I don't know how else to say it. Um, I just think our kids deserve on both sides. >> I understand board member. Um, so one thing, these are CIP funds. So the CIP funds can't be used on the academic side. These CIP dollars have to be used on capital improvement projects. That's number one. And number two, um um when you say benefit, I need to figure out a way to where I can use funds and get my return of investment as fast as possible in a sense, right? So, for an example, um I need to fix this auditorium.

114I need to fix this cafeteria. I need to fix some of these schools and HVAC units, but it's going to take a lot of planning. It's going to take a lot of uh things that that we're going to be planning out. So, I'm going to be shortly bringing to the operation advisory council my five-year master plan, how I want to fix everything. So, we're going to know in the next five years our priority of what of what we're going to be doing. So, we so for hypothetically speaking, I say in year two, um I'm going to take care of all the HVAC units over at Vernon Johns, per se, or we're going to redo their gym and their locker room or Lakemon or um uh Blandford or whatnot, right? So, we're we're we're master planning,

115but um in a sense of when you say um you believe that only the athletes are going to benefit from that. Um Peace High outside looking at Peace High School is the flagship of the city, right? We're the only high school here. So, when you say to athletes, um I heard the the the phrase earlier when visitors come to your home, right? So, we're going to have a lot of visitors in a sense coming to our home. And as of right now, that gym is our home, right? That's where the outside folks are going to look in. So, what I want to do is when I know I'm having visitors, I want to make sure my living room is clean, if you will. Right? So, I understand the bedroom in the backyard is a mess,

116but let me make sure that kitchen and that living room is is presentable. In the meantime, my team and I will be working on uh making sure that we have five-year master plan to take care of all of this. And I'm also working with the state as of right now. And I don't want to uh bring that up now, but I do have a plan. It's just not the gym. It's going to be a bigger project and and I think we're going to make Petersburg proud. Um and and um we're going to show and prove exactly what we can do. And um I I believe um what we're going to do in these locker rooms is is is it's is going to give these kids what they need to get. And as you said, are

117they um changing into gear? Are they taking showers? If we give them an opportunity to have modernized facilities, I guarantee you they will be able to want to um perform in their PE clothes and take showers and whatnot. But as of now, they they don't have that opportunity. >> I definitely appreciate you for clarifying that and clarifying in the sense of where CIP >> Yes, ma'am. >> funds could be allocated to. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, um and and you did make the statement about the auditorium. Yes, ma'am. >> I just want to throw this out there. >> Have we looked into getting those teeth fixed yet? >> Absolutely. >> All right. >> I got a brother over there ain't got that fold and show you. >> Okay, with that you made it out. All

118right. Let me set it in right. >> I just I just want to ask but thank you so much for that clarity. Um yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Miss Proctor. >> Yes. What is there emergency around this? The emergency is is that if a child needs to go take a shower right now,