001Proctor, they read the motion to go into close. >> I move that the school board go into closed meeting as authorized by section 2.2-3711 A1 of the code of Virginia for the purpose of discussion or consideration of prospective candidates for employment. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Dance. All in favor? >> I motion carry. We now enter into close. You ready? You almost ready? >> You ready? >> Yes, they're ready. We're ready. Yes. Good evening, everyone. At this time, board members, we need a motion to come out of close. So move as chair second >> by Mr. Day and second by Mr. Pierce. 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
002member'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 in the 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 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 Oier, Senior. >> Yes. >> Mr. Halby Miles, Senior. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kenneth Pritchette. Yes, >> Mr. Kucker. >> Yes, >> Miss Joyce
003Proctor. >> Yes, >> Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. and Mr. Adrian T. Dan, Senior. >> Yes. >> Thank you. There is no no action from close session. Is there a motion to adjurnn from close? >> Moved by Mr. Pier, second by Mr. Miles. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Good evening once again, everyone. The time now is 5:15 p.m. and we would like to call our regular meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you will call the role once again. >> Mr. Steven Opier, senior. >> Mr. Halby M, Senior, >> Miss Mr. Carrie Tucker >> here, >> Miss Joyce Proctor >> here, >> Mr. Bernard Bundy Jr. and Mr. Adrian Tan Senior. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. Board members, we'll move to 1A, the approval of the agenda. If there are no
004changes, is there a motion to agenda? Moved by Mrs. Tucker, second by Mr. Pierce. >> All in favor? I >> oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we move to moment of silence. 1B, Miss Davis. The following are to be remembered during the moment of silence. Petersburg City Councilman, Mr. Marlo Jones and family and the passing of his mother, Miss Nancy C. Thomas on May 11th, 2026. >> Okay. At this time, we have a moment of silence. Thank you. Next, we'll move to our pledge of allegiance. We'll be led this evening by Mrs. Tucker. of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. >> Thank you. We move to one D correspondence. Miss Davis any no correspondence. Thank you. Next we move to number two. recognitions. Miss
005Bram, >> good evening. Thank you, board chair and school board members. This afternoon or this evening, we have our very first recognition which will be our traveling trophy or our chronic absenteeism award by school and this will be given to the monthly school award award winner for the month of April. So, at this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Tory Manson, our assistant superintendent of student services to tell us who our April 2026 winner is. >> Good evening, Chairman Pritchette, Vice Chair Tucker, fellow members of the board, Madam Superintendent, and all that's all that's witnessed [clears throat] this this evening. Um, tonight I'm here to um congratulate and let you know who was the April winner of our chronic absenteeism award. I do want to start with a kudos and a shout out to
006Pleasants Lane Elementary School who came in sixth with a 6% drop in their attendance. [applause] Vernon John's Middle School had a 7% drop in their chronic absenteeism. [applause] But the winner of the award this evening is the team from Petersburg High School who has worked diligently to reduce their chronic absenteeism. They reduced it by 9%. Uh they had a 9% drop. So congratulations to the team of Petersburg High School. [applause] [applause] >> Can the entire team come up because it takes a team effort to do what you all have done this school year. [applause] >> [applause] >> And also this is Petersburg High School fifth time winning the chronic absenteeism trophy award. [applause] >> Good evening Chairman Pritchard, Vice Chairman Tucker, school board members, superintendent all here. The attendance campaign started with um Miss Brown's
007vision that attendance was a part of our goal this school year. So, we work diligently and very hard at Petersburg High School, but it's not just one person. So, I'm going allow my team to come up and talk about what they do as part of our attendance team, introduce themselves and their role. >> Hi, I'm Mrs. Walker, your favorite attendance secretary. Um, and there's no I in team. And I want to thank the team because we work together to make this possible. But far as in my role, um I truly try to make sure I have I build a rapport with the students as well as the parents. I just try to keep them in the know as well as the importance of coming to school every day. I do popups at homes. I do
008popups at jobs. But with me building that rapport, it's easy for me to, you know, go to their job and have a dinner with them and speak with them. I make calls. I do the three to five day letters. Um myself and Mr. Dixon, we you know make the calls to go over and reiterate the attendance policies. So this job is not a walk in the park, but I believe it's very rewarding because as I have posted in my um office, great people come from Petersburg. >> Good evening. >> My name is Mr. Dr. Ricky Norwood and I serve as a ninth grade school counselor here at Petersburg High School. As a ninth grade high school counselor, my role in student attendance goes far beyond simply tracking who is present or absent. I work to
009understand the why behind attendance, building relationships with students, identifying barriers, and help them to see the connection between showing up and achieving their goals. For many of our freshman high school students, high school is a major transition. I support them by creating individualized academic and attendance plans that give them structure, accountability, and a clear path forward. When students feel supported and have a plan, they are much more likely to engage and attend school regularly. Thank you. >> How you doing? I'm Mr. Dixon, the um the very lucky communities and school site coordinator here at the high school. Um as most of us could do, we could talk about the many things we do, but just to sum it up, like Miss Walker said, um I assist her with the calls once the students reach five
010days to uh kind of get in contact with the parents, let them know what's going on. Um also, I assist Miss um Vincent with uh home visits as well. one of my favorite people to go out in the neighborhood and community to uh try to get eyes on the parents or the students if they're at home as well as I uh meet with students individually to try to um single out what their exact barriers that might be keeping them out of school. But u the most importantly though I work with the team to see whatever is needed to get the kids in school. Hello, my name is Wanda Vincent and I work as the graduation coach and again along with the team we work together to reduce um the absenteeism but um along with Miss
011Fields we created a a collaborative spreadsheet wherein every department can see what we're doing so that we won't overlap the interventions but we will provide additional layers of support and do it early. Thank you so much. >> Good evening. Mr. Jones, assistant principal here. Um, I I oversee the 11th grade cohort, making sure that teachers um provide us information, necessary information when our kids are absent, um, and follow up through in our attendance meeting to make sure we putting eyes um, on these students and make sure they're here. I am Pam Glenn, um, uh, assistant principal overseeing 10th grade. Um, we have an amazing team here and in Miss Reick's absence, she keeps our meetings moving. Um and I also assist with ensuring that um as those students are returning that they are participating in
012remediation, recouping time as well as ensuring that the teachers um are keeping track of their work, making sure the work is in Canvas um and also um supporting the team as they go out and meet with those parents and uh talk about um what's going on in the homes and whatever challenges they have and meet helping to meet those needs. Good evening everyone. My name is Cinnamon Terry. I am the 12th grade school counselor here at the high school. Um like everyone else has said, it's really is a team effort. Um we are non-conventional. So we are trying to find different ways of how we can reach our students. So whether we are going to their homes, whether we're going to their jobs, going out in the community, um going to their classrooms, calling parents,
013calling grandparents, however we can reach our kids, find out what their needs are and whatever barriers they may experience and just try to assist them in making sure they're coming to school every day. >> Good evening. Um I'm Dean Jones. I focus on the ninth graders and much of what everyone much of what everyone else said. It's a team effort. So outside of the team, I just try to show my joy for being at Petersburg High School. I do enjoy coming here. I want to make sure that the teachers are pleasant when they come in the building and help as much as I can any way possible to make sure the kids are here and they're doing the best every day. Thank you and congratulations to Petersburg High School. As we know, we have been
014focused this year in Petersburg on reducing the percentage of students that are chronically absent because we know that we have great students and we know that it is important that kids cannot learn all that we have for them and the expectations laid out by the state of Virginia if kids are not in school. No matter what great things are planned, students must be in school every day as much as possible. So, thank you again to the Petersburg High School team and to all of our schools for your focus, focus, focus this year on helping to make sure that we reduce the percentage of students who are chronically absent from school based based upon our board goal of reducing it by 3%. And so, thank you. That means more kids are in school at Petersburg High
015School each and every day. So, thank you. [applause] Thank you board picture and schoolboard members. We'll now move to our second recognition of this afternoon which is our RVA Shark Tank by Metropolitan Business League. And of course we have Dr. Thomas our director of CTE. And we also have Miss A, Miss Amy, Mrs. Amy Smith who is in the audience, our fabulous entrepreneur teacher here at Petersburg High School to talk about our RVA Shark Tank by Metropolitan Business League. Dr. >> Good evening, superintendent board chair Pritchette and board members. Um, so recently we had a our students that are in their entrepreneurship class and other business classes participate in the Shark Tank at um Shark Tank competition at VCU. And we just want to recognize the individuals that placed in the event. Uh, name is
016called, please come up here. Uh, so we had Tmaine Williams who's >> Zasia Graves Lewis. Woo. And Zarya Armstrong. So, Tmaine finished in third place and Zasa Graves Lewis finished in sixth place and Zarya finished in seventh place. U Tmaine's business um proposition was a lash business called Trey on the Lashes. I'm gonna give him just a few minutes to um to talk about his business if you don't mind. >> Thank you. Great. >> Um hi, my name is Tmaine Williams. Um, my I own my business, Tray on the Lashes with a Z. Um, I bring a well-rounded set of creativity and skills that allow me to transform my ideas into visuals where my clients can feel warm and connected with me, if you get what I'm saying. Very tea. Um I bring very very
017good energy, very positive energy where my clients can feel welcome to come back and speak to me as one and we could be connected. So yeah, thank you Tmaine. Um yeah, Miss Smith and also Miss Seward, they did an excellent job with the individuals and the students throughout the year. Um and definitely showed off with their hard work at the Shark Tank event. So thank you Congratulations. [applause] And we see you clocking it, Tmaine. [laughter] [gasps] >> So, we have our students come up to take a picture. I love the energy and I love the fact that we have students who are not afraid to if you've seen the the the television show Shark Tank, you have to get in front of people and try to pitch your idea. And so, we have our students
018who pitched the idea and actually won. So we are so excited. Congratulations and well done. All right. So thank you board picture school board members. We have two we have our 2C which is our next recognition of this afternoon is our PHS band achievements. And so we will bring Yes. We will bring our fantastic director of bands, Mr. Clyde Boswell to the to the mic so we can introduce and congratulate our fabulous winners of our PHS Crimson Wave Band. >> Good evening everybody. Good evening. All right, so this year our band has traveled more than we have ever traveled and we put our students out there more than ever. So we have a lot of achievements that we want to acknowledge today. So when I call your group, please come up to the front. All
019right. Up front or first I want to acknowledge this student that made it into the all district band. And what that is is that we are in district three which consists of all Chesterfield schools um Denwitti Brunswick Lunberg Nawway and the students go and audition in front of a blind judge. They have to play a prepared piece. They have to play their scales. And they have to sight read. And when I say site readad, that means looking at m music for 30 seconds and then performing it. So we had a student to make the all district band. 11th grader, please come up. Stori Willer on trumpet. [applause] And when I tell you the auditions are so intense, they have to lock the parents out the room and only the kids can be in there practicing.
020And um it is so intense, but she did it. And this is I think her second time making all district band. Am I right, Sator? [applause] All right. Up next, we have the VSU, Virginia State University Honors Band. So what that is is that the students are handpicked by VSU's directors and they come with um other schools in the district send their students as well and they have to site read music ranging in grade three all the way to grade five. And just for your knowledge, the highest level of difficulty for music is grade six. And they do this in one day and then they perform. We had seven students to make the Virginia State Honors Band on trombone. Sron Winder, please come up. Nevon Parish Jr. on trombone. 10th grade. Gage Bcraft on trumpet.
02110th grade. Jaden Glenn, 10th grade trumpet. Sere Bard, ninth grade flute. Gian Lewis, 11th grade, trumpet. And Jasmine Brutin, 10th grade flute. [applause] And Gion is our drum major this year. Head drum major. Dryion. 11th grader. [applause] All right. Up next, we have our students that participated in the Omega Sci-Fi talent hunt. And playing in a band, it's one thing, but when you have to play a solo, that's a completely different ballpark. There's nowhere to hide. So, I've been here since 2014, and I'm always pulling teeth trying to get the children to do solos. But this year, the students were knocking me down to do the solos. So, we had two students that actually placed in this contest. In second place, a ninth grader on flute, Serei Bard, [applause] she's going to get her award.
022She performed to What did you perform? Concerto and F number five by Antonio Vivaldi. In third place, we had a senior about to graduate next week on clarinet. I know that's your instrument, Superintendent Brown. >> Naomi Green, come on up. She performed Rondo from Conurso number three by Carl Stamis and she received third place. >> [applause] >> All right, our last group of students we're going to acknowledge is our drum line, our awardwinning drum line. They like to call themselves the Crimson Boom. Now, for the past two years, we have went out of state to compete. And um this year, out of all of the bands that were there, we were the only school from Virginia. The other schools were from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, down south. So, we have placed two years in
023a row. Last year, we received grand champion. Clap it up for that. The trophy is bigger than me. And this year, we received second place. Those students are, let's see who's here, Isaiah Pum, Jeremiah Pearson, Xavier Garman, Aaron Brisfor, Amoier Banks, Ava Smith. [applause] Did I leave anybody out? Who's there? I can't see. Tariq Clater. Oh, [applause] Tariq Clater. He's our homeline captain. And look at that trophy, guys. [applause] Sator Willer and Gian Lewis. They do double duty. This completes our band achievements for this year. Drumline, BSU, Honors Band, All District Band, and Omega Sci-Fi Talent Hunt. >> [applause] >> And Mr. Boswell, while you are while we're taking pictures of our amazing kids, I know that we know the the infamous the Virginia State and then of course our [laughter] I hear it. I
024just want to take an opportunity to read a little bit about the Omega Sci-Fi talent hunt 2026. And so this talent hunt program of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated is one of the several national programs designed to identify and support the youth of our nation and the world. The original idea was created by the ninth Grand Basilis of Omega Sci-Fi, Brother Jay Austin Atkins of Winston Salem, North Carolina, and Brother Dewey Ducket of Rock Hill, South Carolina. While the idea was originally conceived in 1945, the first district talent hunt program was held in the sixth district in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 19th, 1946. The need for such a program was born out of the unequal opportunity that was afforded to some of our American youth so that they could develop and give full expression to
025their talents. So, we know that our students are amazing and we are thrilled that we had our second place and third place winners at the Omega Sci-Fi talent hunt, of course, our drum wonderful drum line and our the Virginia State University inaugural band and our all district band for 2026. Congratulations students. Well done. Well done. Well done. And thank you Mr. Boswell for your tireless support of our students cuz Mr. Boswell, you are a big part of this and your team. So, we just want to say thank you to you for pouring into our students and giving them opportunities so that they can express and show their talents and remind everyone that talent is born here in Petersburg and it remains here. So, thank you. Now we have our next set of recognitions. And so
026of course we have college graduates in the house and students who are about who are graduating from our specialty programs. And so with it I will bring our director of leadership, Miss Joy Lowry, who will be at the podium and who is supporting our schools. And so tonight, Miss uh Dana Carvaro, who is our um coordinator of gifted and specialy programs and dual enrollment programs, she is out on maternity leave having her newborn. And so we are excited for her. And so we thank Miss Lowry for stepping in to recognize our 2026 graduates from college and high school at the same time. and all of our students coming out of school and our in our specialty programs, but they are still Petersburg students. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Miss Lowry. >> Good
027evening, Chair Pritchard, Miss Brown, members of the school board, colleagues, and guests. It is my honor and privilege to be able to announce and recognize our community college graduates. That is an amazing accomplishment to get the degree before the diploma. And so at that time this time I would like to ask the following graduates if they are here to come up and be recognized. First for Breit Point Community College we have Kijijah Burks in welding [applause] and please come up if you are here. And we also have Brooklyn Green Marlin and early childhood. >> All right. So these are students who are earning their college degree as well as high school. Is that correct, Miss Rowy? >> These are students that participated in Breitpoint Community College programs and received certifications and associate degree. >> Associate
028degree. Thank you so very much. Congratulations to our Breitpoint students and they were just recently about two weeks ago recognized at the Virginia State University um multi-purpose gymnasium. So we are really proud of their accomplishments. And now I will recognize the Richard Bland College graduates. These students received their associates degrees. First Jalissa Armstein, if you're here, please come up. Zarya Armstrong. >> All right. [cheering] All right. >> Aaron Bridgefor Anthony Brown Jr. [applause] Raquel Brown [applause] Tama Gilliam [applause] Clinton Harris Jr. Daniel Hoya I hope I pronounced your name correctly. [applause] Bria Nos, Kristen Peterson, [applause] Gabrielle Red, Kay Alani Steed, [applause] Aaliyah Taylor, [applause] and Ariana Williams. Again, these students received the degree before the diploma at Richard Bland College. [applause] Congratulations to you all and best wishes on your future. Next, I will
029recognize and announce our upcoming graduates from Maggie L. Walker Governor's School. If you're in the room, please come up when I call your name. Stella McCormick. [applause] And finally, I will announce our 2026 Appamatics Regional Governor School graduates as well. Graduation's just in a few days. If you're here, please come up when I call your name. Michelle Alonsus, [applause] Jadelle Brutin, [applause] Austin Collins, Jason Cruz, [applause] Torrance Goodllo Jr., Darren Jackson, [applause] Adora McCoy, [applause] Joshua Mclofflin, [applause] Rilin Perez, Romero, Gabrielle Samson Dodd, Emily Sigunza, Minya, [applause] Alejandra Spence, [applause] Trenton Towns, and Leila Wesson. [applause] Again, congratulations to you all and I wish you the best of the luck in a bright future. Let's give them another round of applause. [applause] Again, congratulations to all of our graduates. Whether you graduated from college at
030the same time as you're about to graduate from high school, if you're at one of our fabulous specialty schools, I know our last group were our creative students who are at Appamatics Regional Governor School. And so we are really excited for all of our students who are Petersburg City Public School students. And thank you parents. If the parents in the room of all of the students who have received recognition this evening, could you please stand so that we can give you a round of applause for your support? And we'd like for the parents to come up so that we could get your picture. So parents, if you could come up to the So we would like for parents to come to the front and we'd like to get a picture. if you could bring your
031student to the front and we'd like for you to take a picture so that we can put it everywhere. So, if you are a student who has been recognized this evening and your parents are here, could you please come to the front so that we can get a picture to put on our website and to send out on our socials because parents, our students could not do this without you. And so, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here and congratulations and well done. [snorts] [applause] All right, congratulations and thank you parents. Thank you board chair pat school board members. We'll now move to our next recognition this evening. And so of course this is going to be our special recognition for our for teachers. As you know that we are always um as
032a school division encouraging our teachers to continue focusing on their certification and their lensure here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We want to make sure that we continue to increase our recruitment of teachers who are fully licensed um as we put them in front of our students and so that they've had all the time and all the preparation to receive their license. And we think it's important as we continue our recruitment that we recognize our teachers who have achieved that along their journey. It in fact is a journey. It is a journey to get to certification and lensure and it takes a step at a time. And so sometimes our teachers who are working hard on it, they go unnoticed. They get the license and people forget about it. And so this is the opportunity
033this evening for them to be recognized so that we can say we see you, we thank you and we appreciate you. And so with that, I will have Dr. Shemica Long Lang to come to the podium who is our assistant superintendent of human resources to come to the podium so that we can recognize our unsung heroes for the journey that they've been on and congratulate them for getting fully licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia for this year. So with that, I'll have Dr. Lane come to the podium. Thank you. [applause] Good evening, uh, board chair, vice chair, superintendent, members of the board, uh, colleagues and community. Our teachers are getting geared up to close out for the end of the year. So at this time we're just going to call some of the names and
034after school is out we have an opportunity for them to come back after they've had just a little bit of rest and recover from an outstanding 2526 academic school year. So a few of the names that we like to recognize are Janelle Perkins, Brianna Elder Seart. >> Hey Dr. Delay, can you call the school as well please if you have the school? [snorts] >> Uh I I will call those that I can remember. Yes, ma'am. >> U Eureka Pedifer Mitchner. [applause] >> Monica Lache Taylor. >> Right. >> Destiny Mon'nique Hunt, Tanner White, Jennifer Cassandra Trimble King, Shante Mason, and Felicia Farmer. [applause] schools that those individuals are coming from are Cool Spring. >> Yep. >> Petersburg High School, Lake Elementary. >> Yes. and Vernon Johns Middle School. Again, once school is out, we'll have an
035opportunity to recognize those formally when they can come back and be presented to the public. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. We know that they're testing and doing retesting and expediting. We want them to focus, but we did want to call their name tonight so that they know and they hear it on tape that we call their name and once we're done with the year, they can come back and we can again recognize them. So congratulations and thank you to those teachers on your journey to to lensure and we are expecting so many more um for our next meeting. Thank you Dr. Lane. [applause] [snorts] >> Thank you Miss Bram and thank you everyone. Mr. I I just have to say this. Um, Coach Jackson, um, Mrs. Tucker wanted to acknowledge you as
036being her former teacher. [laughter] And Mrs. Jackson, you're down in, I believe, Sussex also. And Miss Tucker is a teacher in Sussex. [laughter] And Miss um, Coach Jackson had my daughter also. Yes. She was something, wasn't she? Yes. Yes. Yes. The baby. [laughter] >> What did she say? >> Oh, yes. [laughter] >> Thank you, sir. [laughter] Thank you for taking care of us. Okay, we're going to move on next board members. Um, we're going to move to approval of the consent agenda, which is three A, B, C, and D. Mrs. Brown. All right. Thank you, board chair Pritchette and school board members. 3A, approval of the personnel agenda. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated 520 2026 as provided for 3B vendor contracts. And so we have
037three vendor contracts. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve vendor contract number one which will be for three months. And the recommendation is the school board approve vendor contract number two for three months. And it is the superintendent's recommendation the school board approve vendor contract number three for two months as provided. Approval of the minutes. You don't have any. >> Okay. And D. We'll skip now to the donations received by PCPS. And if you will turn your attention to the screen, we have our donations for the division from May 1st to May 15, 2026 prepared by our finance. So, next slide, please. And so, we have our PCPS division donations. And so, we want to thank all of our um donors for the different gift cards and cash and items
038on this donation. We see we're so excited because it's supporting our every day in May chronic absenteeism initiative. And so, as you can see, there were so many things that have been donated over time. And so, they we have had donors to come in to help us be able to provide incentives for our students so that they when they come to school and serve as role models about being in school every day, every day in May, they get their name in a drawing to be able to receive gifts. And so we could not do this or implement any of these campaigns without our generous donors. And so these are the donations between the May 1st and May 15th. Um and so thank you. Thank you to all of our donors. And so those are up
039on the screen as provided. And so with that, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the superintendent approve items 3A um personnel agenda dated for 52026. The superintendent recommend the superintendent's recommendation the school board approve the vendor contracts as previously stated three months for for one and two and two months for month for um contract three and approval of the donations for May 1st and May 15th as provided. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Any questions? Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation for the consent agenda? >> So moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Dance. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Next we move to the superintendent and staff reports. Miss Brown 4A. Thank you board chief pitch school board members. We have our first presentation which will
040be our workforce readiness. >> The VSBA ex 206 VSBA Virginia School Board Association Excellence in Workforce Readiness Award presented by Dr. Thomas our director of CTE programming. Dr. >> thank you. Good evening again, superintendent, board chair, and square members. So, just a quick overview of the VSBA um workforce excellence readiness award. Um just some highlights for it. So, what we're submitting um we're emphasizing uh establishing and expanding workbased learning opportunities. And specifically with that, we're going um in the application discussing cross collaboration between CMA Automotive, Westview, Crater Regional Workforce Development Board, also our own transportation department of how all these things came about um and the success it has had for our students in our community. Um, so I'm going to highlight that these students um, from these these programs, they're actually paid a stipen
041and that goes back into the cross collaborations because we connected with um, Tabitha Taylor and Curling Patrick at creative regional workforce development board and discussing with them the opportunities that we were presenting for our students. They wanted to pitch in and help and they were able to utilize some of their funding to pay our students a stipen. So the individuals that were involved from the early childhood programs that go to Westview and the automotive students that go to CMA Automotive, they were paid about $1,000 for the time that they spent from February to end of April um doing those programs. Additionally, um discuss the successes of the programs with the individuals for um from automotive and Westview. Not only just the success for those entities, but also the success for our students. You've seen increased
042confidence, increased ability in their skills. Um but also what's mentioned in the application is um an ancillary benefit of attendance. Um went back and pulled data for individuals that were a part of these two specific um workbased learning experiences and the individuals that um participated in those experiences only had three and a on average only missed 3.5 days for the entire school year. So compared to the rest of the uh school body, that's a drastically improved attendance rate. So that is the kind of recap of what is going to be put in for the application for the VSBA workforce award. Any questions on >> any questions from board members? Miss Brienne wanted to know can you pull up photos? >> Pull up. Yeah. Can we pull up some of the the the attached diamond so
043we can so the public can see. >> So some of the other attachments. >> Yes. So that is the that is the letter from VSBA. if you can go to the next attachments. That's the actual application that we're presenting to the board. And so here's the information. That's a sign piece. That's a signature page. Can we go to the next one? Okay. Right there. Thank you so much. So some of the pictures and photos that we um submitting. And so you see our students in action. Next photo, please. Photo two. >> So those are the automotive students when they tooured CM Automotive before they start their internship. And the next two photos should be of our early childhood students uh helping out the students at Westview. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mitch. Any questions? Okay.
044Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you, Dr. Have a great Thank you so much. All right. >> You and Mr. Brown. I know I got on y'all nerd, but thank y'all. We going to move. We going to move to number 4B. >> 4B. >> All right. Thank you, board of school board members. Our second presentation of this afternoon is our 2026 2027 title grant allocation application. And so we want to give you an update. And so we'll have Dr. Tia Palmer um who is our interim um director of federal programs support. And so we'll have her talk about our grant allocation for this 2627 upcoming school year. >> Good afternoon, Superintendent Brown, Chair Pritchette, and school board members. It's a pleasure to be here. Um so tonight I'm going to share information about our upcoming title
045grants and the current allocation particular grants. >> So >> thank you. So we are on slide through the agenda. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, so on the agenda we have the executive summary, the funding overview for titles one, two, three, and four, timeline, next steps, and then opportunity for questions. So the priority and alignment focuses on um the priority for our grants. The focal point was measurable objectives determined by the district strategic plan which is project for 20 2031 and also the 2day comprehensive needs assessment that was conducted in February. Our priorities were focused on for priority one improving content mastery in reading and math and the overall goals of student is student achievement. Priority two was targeting retaining and developing highly qualified staff. Priority three, providing our students with opportunities and exposure to STEM
046and culturally enriching activities and monitoring and maintaining to the district goals and the strategic plan which allows us to ensure grant resources are allocated efficiently, maximize and impact across the division. >> Thank you. Thank you. So, thank you um so much. Um, so can you please go back and I just want to as you are going through the presentation, would you mind clarifying for everyone listening at home and for everyone in the audience what the difference between title one, title two, title three, and title four are. What are those four different federal buckets of money? What are they used for? And then we'll talk about the alignment to our Petersburg five-year strategic plan. So could you start there and then we'll get jump back into your just so everybody's um clear. >> Absolutely. So each
047grant actually aligns with the priorities that we >> pull it down. We can't hear you. >> So each of our >> each of our each of the grants actually aligns perfectly with the priorities that we have in place. So priority one would align well with title one covers um which addresses the academics and instruction piece and provides funding to our schools to help with instruction in math and reading. Priority two aligns with our human resources efforts to increase the to increase the retention and improve highly qualified teachers in the division. So it provides opportunities for professional development as well as opportunities to help retain our teachers and provide them opportunities to get training so that they can be highly qualified. And title four is our well-rounded and effective use of technology. but it's also mental
048health. So, it gives us the opportunity to help students with um mental health opportunities and wraparound services. >> Cute. All right. >> So, as of now, the preliminary or projected allocations for title one 4.8 8 million. And then for title two, three, and four, these are projected numbers based on last year's allocation. And we don't usually get an updated amount until around October. So as of now for title 2, 391,546 for title 3,89 and title 4, 286,932. And so to circle back to what Miss Brown was asking previously, um the title one is improving basic programs and it supports our supplemental instruction and student achievement in identified schools and our identified schools in the district are Lakemont, Cool Spring, Walner Hill, Pleasants Lane, and Vernon John's middle school. Title two, the project projected budget again
049is the 391,000 which will support initiatives centered around hiring and retaining qualified staff. Title three is projected budget of 43,000 and it supports our academic needs for our English language learners. Title 4 286,932 and this supports our mental health, STEM and arts programs and creating a safe and health healthy school environment for students. In addition to the strategic plan, the comprehensive needs assessment was a driving force for creating our measurable objectives which guides our applications and identifying areas of need and concern. It began our application process and supported the and supported our strategic plan. So utilizing the results of the comprehensive needs assessment, our timeline consists of a completion and submitting of the title applications, continuing to spin down previous award years and updating and finalizing of the applications with the release of the final
050budgets and any revision suggestions from the state. and continuing to manage our resources and monitor spending. >> Were there any questions? >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Palmer. Is it Miss Palmer or Dr. Dr. Palmer? I'm sorry. Thank you, Dr. Palmer. Any questions from board members? So this would the the only question I have this will come back to us with June 3rd for a vote. >> Yes sir. Okay. So after the applications have been completed then they come back to you for signature. >> Okay. So we are we are on. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Next we move to 4 C. So thank you uh both your pitch and school board members. We see Dr. one more time for uh individual student alternative education plans grant that we will be submitting
051for ISIS or ISAP. Um that's the individual student alternative education plan grant that we will be submitting. And so we also have our supervisor at Pitman Academy, Mr. Rhonda Morrison and so they will present the our application for our ISEP grant. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent, board chair Pritchette, board members. I'm going go over the ISAP grant with you. Now, as superintendent just mentioned is the individual student alternative education u program and next slide. So, some of the key components for the ISAP grant um we have career counseling. Uh students have the opportunity to earn their high school equivalently uh credential, the GED. Uh so it's also going to be able to meet the economics and personal finance uh requirement and also students are provided guidance on their options their career options for their
052pathways and it's also the general alternative education pathway. Miss Morrison, do you want to discuss the pictures? >> Yes. This is a student from Pitman Academy receiving their certificate after passing the GED exam this academic year. >> Next slide. So some of the program criteria. So we have initial principal parent student meeting. So really to kind of welcome and engage them into um into the program. So there is al also a pre-evaluation and preassessment. And so for that uh has to have a seventh grade or higher equivalency on the standardized reading assessments and also the score of a higher score of 125 or greater on each section of the GED on GED ready pre-assessment. Um so prior to taking any subject on the GED test, the individual has a score of 145 or higher to
053proceed with taking the official test. Miss Morrison, >> this is a student receiving a certificate. We would love to receive certificates at Pitman Academy. We have lots of award dates, but this is a student receiving his Everfi certificate um for financial literacy. >> Next slide. So for this request for proposal um for the ISP grant, so it's going to be about 16 a little over 16,000 for purchase services, which includes GED Academy, testing vouchers, and professional development. Then also internal services, which is going to be about 2,000 for transportation. Then materials and supplies a little bit over 5,000 for test prep materials and also family engagement event uh due to the beginning of the school year. This totals up to $23,680. And Miss Morrison, this is a picture of Miss Latoya Mason, the ISP GED
054coordinator working with the student on essential ed or GED plus supporting the student in the classroom. >> Any questions? >> Thank you, Dr. Mr. Morrison question Mr. Miles. >> Yes. Um how many students do we have in the GED program that uh and how many finished? >> The demographics currently nine students are currently enrolled and one has graduated. We have had 14 students enrolled during the academic year. We have three students who have met the requirements for testing and are scheduled to take test this month. We have 11 students who have completed ever the Everfi financial literacy high school um financial literacy program and certificates and we have had four students to take the CC CT assessments including workplace readiness and the NCRC and they have passed different parts so they're still testing and Miss
055Bibbons comes over and tests them directly at Pitman Academy >> and this is for either one of y'all can answer this with u the financial literacy when they finish that program, what what will they be able to do? >> They will be able to write checks, um balance their checkbooks, um understand economics, um at a level where they are able to um go out and fill out applications for jobs, understand how to fill out um your tax forms when you go to work and that type of thing. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Any other questions? >> Okay, we appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we move to 4D, Gear Up. >> So, Dr. thank you for staying up there. You're next again for our 2027 Gear Up grant application process. >>
056Thank you, Superintendent Board Chair. Uh so I have Miss Cinnamentary with me as well. She oversees and is the u workhorse behind all things Gear Up here at the high school. Go ahead and go to the agenda. We're going to go over some overview of Gear Up, the objectives, the funding requests, planned activities, and then some uh question and answers. Next slide. So gear up stands for gaining early awareness and readiness for the undergraduate programs. um as gear up. It's a discretionary grant program designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education. Gear up Virginia is u funded through the department of US department of education and is administered by Chev state council of higher education Virginia and works with school divisions across comalth to promote
057post-secondary readiness um and success. So gear Virginia operates on a seven-year cycles. Um so if followed this so what will be the graduating class of 2027 started following them in their eighth grade year. Um and so this is actually going into the last year of the grant. Um just want to kind of put that out there. So after um this next year the grant will have to go on a hiatus before we can reapply for gear up grants. Um so and these students will also receive support through their first year of college. So after the class of 2027 graduates, they'll still be following them, seeing how they're doing, and catching up on um seeing where they're at. Next slide. So the grant objectives is to increase post-secondary expectations and readiness of students, improve high school
058graduation, postsecary enrollment rates, raise the knowledge of post-secary options, preparation, and financing among students and families. Next slide. So some of the previous gear up activities. Uh so they've gone to eight different college tours at JMU, UVA, ODU, Norfick State, Longwood, and NC Central. Um some of the STEM activities they've participated in has been the Army Simulator Truck, iFly, Virginia Beach Aquarium, and the Metro Richmond Zoo. And the Skarup Grant has already um supported 315 students um throughout the last several years in the class of 2027. And one other thing I kind of want to mention before we get to the proposal. Uh so each of the students if they fill out the forms for Gear Up, they're eligible for a $2,500 um scholarship when they're in college. So it's a great program not only
059preparing them for um postsecondary success, but also helping support them financially on that journey as well. Um next slide. So they're requested proposal u for next school year for 2627 school year. Uh personnel services as little over as almost $19,000. Purchase services almost 5,000. Travel is 15,900. Materials and supplies is 5,700 with a total of 45,000. Some of the proposed activities for um next school year, which is for directly towards the class of 2027. So, tutoring, attendance, mentoring, senior breakfast, um Virginia College admissions week, uh we're going to have some admitted college visits, and there's going to be a fast spring event and the senior decision day. And that's obviously going to total up to 45,000. And any questions related to the gear grant, the activities and the funding proposal? >> Any questions from board
060members? >> Thank you all for what you do. Um, thank you, Miss Terry. Y'all be doing some great y'all be doing some great activities. >> Yeah. >> You have any chaperons? [laughter] >> I let you know about the North State. >> See, appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. admitted and Miss Terry, >> we're on E. >> Okay. Thank you. But you're pitching schoolboard members. We have our next presentation which is Dr. again who will talk about our plans for 2026 2027 new CTE courses. >> All right. So we'll go ahead and just hop into the new courses if we um next slide. So the the agenda is the proposed additions, the rationale behind them, and also give a little CTE update by the numbers. Slide. All right. So the um the new course offerings we're looking
061to add within CTE next year is electricity 1 and two, industrial robotics technology, uh hospitality, tourism and recreation one and two, and mental health assisting careers 2. So the rationale behind the new uh electricity course one and two. So that'd be electricity one, electricity 2. Obviously, next year we're looking we would be looking at starting with electricity one. Obviously the follow-up year we'll be offering electricity too. They're both year-long classes. Um but so we replace a family consumer science position but it's also gives us a additional skilled trade option. Obviously within the skilled trades um primarily we have automotive, carpentry, barb and cosology falls in that too but it gives another option within the skilled trades area and actually within the skilled trades across um the state and country. Electricity is actually the highest demand
062um area that um is out there. Um so high electrician openings in the area state nationwide 96 annual openings in the crater region are projected over the next five years and over 6,000 statewide. So adding both classes both electricity one and two allows for students to be completers. Um so one of the things with the data for the accountability for the state um a lot of things when on the employed side of things hinges upon students being a completer. So this allows for both a one and two for students to be a CT completer. also allows for more high demand certifications. Um, and additional work-based learning opportunities can also be opened up from this course. Um, so for the hospitality rationale, it's going to be able to be taught by a staff member with a
063family consumer science endorsement. It's also um tied to the increased amount of jobs opening job openings in the region. Um, so it's aiding also adding both classes allows for students to be a CT completer similar with electricity program. Um same thing as far as high demand certifications and workbased learning is something that'll be able to be a result of this. Um next slide. So for both mental health assistant careers two and industrial robotics um that rationale we already have the part one of the course. Um the part two um needs to be run through uh the school district and the state. So, we already have the part ones of them, but we need to have that part two primarily to be able to have students be a CT completer, get the certifications out of those
064um second portion of those courses. Next slide. All right. So, a little CT update by the numbers. So, these were put in um last week, so it's actually increased from there. Um and I'll touch on some of those, but 295 total, 26 of those have been from workplace readiness, 58 from NCRC. Um we actually have 22 students that have passed ASVAB or met the criteria for military entrance. Um ASC we have nine students and so the ones that have asterisk on they were testing last week and this week. Um so we've had another 20 students pass those ones uh second half of that are high demand certifications. So we get more points from VDOE on the accountability side of things because they are high demand certifications not career readiness uh certifications. So it's an increased
065um value marker on that. Um so an additional 20 have passed between early childhood and serve safe within the last week. Um and then we have our barbering and cosmetology students that are testing actually tomorrow. Um about half of them are going to test for their um the theory side of things for the state license. They've already taken their all 22 of them have already taken their hands-on practicum for barbering and cosmetology with the state license. So they've passed that first half of their license and now they just have to take the theory side um tomorrow and the week after. So workbased learning hours. So it's 4,33 total. Um about almost 300 come from automotive. Um a little over 900 from barber and cosmetology. Um almost 1300 from early childhood and 250 from nurse aid.
066Um one little caveat I'll put with that. We've have more other programs out doing uh different workbased like um experiences. However, I put those specifically on there because it meets the criteria based upon uh VTOE. VTOE changed um the criteria for workbased learning midway through the year. Uh so those are the ones that qualify for those hours based upon the new changes to VOE. But culinary students, carpenter students have also been out uh doing different workplace experiences as well. And next slide. So guest speakers this year we've had 44 guest speakers come into the different CTE classrooms. Um field trips. That's a lot of gas mileage, Miss Martinez. 118. Um so I'll pause real quick. I should have mentioned this also too with the VSBA workforce excellence award. Uh, Miss Felicia has been fantastic. Um,
067sometimes I'll call her up and I'll say, "Got a big ask. Um, we need to be able to do this, this, this, and she works it out." Um, so not being able to get the students to and from these different field trips to these workplace experiences. Uh, it's critical to have someone that's easy to work with and accommodating and figures things out. Um, so 118 field trips. Kids were going to a lot of different places. Um, so attendance, I mentioned this earlier with the workbased learning with the students that were with automotive and early childhood, they had on average 3.5 absences from the start of the school year to end of April compared to 13 for the average of the school. Um, so a lot of different numbers with that. And I mentioned the other
068night at our CT awards, well, love numbers, love data, there's people behind those numbers. There's staff members that come to work every day willing to pour into students. There's students that are engaged in classes. So while they're numbers, it's people behind the numbers. Next slide. Just questions. >> Thank you, Dr. Mr. Miles, and Mr. Dance. >> Electricity one and two. Uh, do we have have we hired a teacher for that or are we doing that off campus? >> Um, not yet. We have to go through the process as far as um getting the classes approved before we can end up going on the personnel side of things. >> Okay. So, it haven't been approved yet, >> correct? >> Okay. Um, so hospitality, is that an online course? >> In person. So we have a person
069for that or they'll be coming in. >> Yeah. So that one is one where you have to have a family and consumer science endorsement and we have a couple staff members that have that. >> Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. And robotics too. What do we need to get that? >> Uh, so we already have the the part one of it. Um, so part one is actually called electronics and industrial robotics technology. Part two is industrial robotics technology. Um it's interesting word choice um with that but um so we already have staff member that's Mr. Kevin Smith that teaches um the part one and so he'll be following up with part two. Um we already have a decent amount of equipment for that course and actually having an install for some of the robotics kits um actually what's
070called Dubot um magicians coming in. Well, those are already here. The install will be in June. >> So So the only thing we'd be waiting on is electricity one and two to get get approved. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Dance. Great presentation. Uh, could you go back to the slide on your certifications for a minute? I had a couple of questions. The WRS I think it was >> it's the third >> where the certification. >> Yeah, that WRS and NCRC. What What does that mean? >> U WRS is workplace readiness skills. >> Okay. And NC >> uh National Career Readiness Certificate. Okay, great. I'm glad to see that we're definitely in another zone for CTE. Um um I want to give you and your staff credit. You definitely have taken it to
071another level, a level that we've been trying to get to for a long time. So, we've offering a whole lot to our students. I'm glad to see that we're offering electricity and I hope that we can make that uh diversified because it's not just a man that can be an electrician. Anybody [snorts] can be an electrician. I was surprised uh to see right before I retired that we had a lot of women that had come into the factory working as electricians. So that is a job that women can do. So hopefully we can diversify that. Thank you. >> Yeah, I would definitely agree. two of the individuals I had in the manufacturing workforce development program prior to this. Uh, one was a young lady that worked at Phil Morris. Um, got hired on full-time. Another
072was a young lady that worked at Amistad Rail Brinkco Bearings. Um, time excellent young people, excellent workers and knew the craft really well. >> Thank you, Miss Tucker. >> Great presentation. Um, as stated before, I did have one question. um with the hospitality um the serve safe or any of the certifications. Do we offer them outside of the like outside of the students? So maybe like to the adult programs or anything like that. Is there outside or an extra maybe like a night program where people can come and get like a safe serve certification or electricity certification? Is that something that we can tap into to look into um for the future? because I kne I do know we have students that have graduated that that may be something um a avenue that they would
073like to you know navigate. So is that something that we can offer in the future? >> Yeah, definitely something we're looking into and have to put um more work into as far as on the adult night ed side of things. So a lot of that right now is with Southside Adult um that runs our a portion of our um adult ed side of things. So, it's mainly GED and ESL, but connecting with other entities and there's a good colleague of mine with Richmond Adult Ed finding ways that we can expand that here um to where we can then also offer those certifications in those other areas like culinary for serve safe and other other different certifications. It's an area we definitely need to you know put more work into. >> Perfect. Thank you so much.
074>> Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Thank you, Shad. >> Miss Brener, we'll move to 4F summer program. >> Thank you board chair pitch and school board members. We now have our next presentation of the evening which will be our summer 2026 which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I think we have a few short days in school. And so this is our these are our academic plans for 2026 summer in Petersburg City Public Schools. I'll turn it over to Mr. Paul Brown, our chief academic officer with his team, Miss Lowry, our our director of school leadership, and Miss Ebony Massie, director of curriculum, curriculum and instruction. So at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Brown. Thank you. >> Good evening, Board Chair Pritchard, Vice Chair Tucker, members of the
075school board, Superintendent Brown, and members of our community. This evening, the curriculum, instruction, and leadership team would like to share with youensive overview of the 2026 summer programming for Petersburg City Public Schools. To guide us through this presentation, I'm pleased to introduce um our presenting team. I'm Paul Brown, the chief academic officer. I have with me Miss Ebony Massie, who is the director of K12 curriculum and instruction, and Miss Joy Lowry, director of school leadership. Miss Koma Millner is not with us tonight. Next slide, please. Tonight, we have a robust agenda to share with you. We will begin with a brief look back at our summer 2025 highlights and reflections to h show how we improve use that data to improve this year. From there, we will dive into our summer 2026 overview where we
076will cover key dates, locations, and hours of both student programs, academic and enrichment opportunities for students. And this year, something new. We will discuss how we are investing in our educators this summer through targeted curriculum and instructional professional development for teachers, assistant principles, and principles. Next slide, please. As we look back at our 2025 summer academy highlights and reflection, we are incredibly proud of the growth we saw of our students last year within our programs. For the power scholars, overall students were well behaved and highly engaged in both lessons and enrichment activities. In f in reflecting on how we can grow this program, we focus on this year we will focus on building stronger relationship with families to further promote consistent attendance and positive school behavior. For the full steam program, this was absolute an
077absolute success. Students, teachers, staff, and leaders were deeply engaged and excited throughout the the entire program. For Camp Compass, which was one of our newer programs, we saw incredible social emotional growth with our students. Positive Per interaction resulted in about 80% of our students engaging in conflict-free group activities by the end of the program. At the secondary level, our middle school students um saw great improvements academically. We had 184 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to success successfully complete coursework. Our high school academic program celebrated an increase as well with two more students graduating compared to the previous school year. As we reflect on how to improve those two programs, our focus this year is on improving the scheduling process to optimize our remediation support for students. With these insights in mind as to what we
078learned from last year, I'd like to pass it over to Miss Lowry to discuss the framework for the up andcoming summer programs. To begin with logistics with 2026 summer academy, we will be hosting at two locations this year. Cool Spring Elementary for elementary K through 5 and Vernon John's Blandford Middle School at main campus for secondary 6 through 12. Teacher work days are scheduled for June 9th through the 11th, 2026. And our staffing model ensures that we have two teachers in the K through 8 setting in each room with a schedule of half-day academics and half-day professional learning and development and planning. Student days for grades K through 8 are a 4-week session from June 15th through July 9th. The grades 9 through 12 session will run for five weeks from June 15th through July
07916th with summer academy graduation on the same date. For staff and student hours, summer academy staff hours for K through 5 are 7 and 1/2 hours, including planning and PD time. For grades 6 through 8 and 9 through 12 staff hours are 7 and 1/2 hours and 15 minutes. Please note that our 6th through 8 teachers will include their planning and PD time in that block, while 9 through 12th grade staff will have a separately scheduled PD time. Student hours for grades K through five are five total hours, three hours for academics and two hours for enrichment with the YMCA Power Scholars. Grades 6 through eight students will have a full will participate in four hours and grades 9 through 12 will have a full seven-hour day with the opportunity to take one full credit
080new course or two credit recovery courses. We are excited to share our academic enrichment opportunities. If you look at the slide here, you will notice that for K5, we have remediation and enrichment opportunities that span K5 English language arts and mathematics as well as our social emotional learning. And then our enrichment activities are centered around YMCA where they will do enrichment activities in the afternoon and on Friday participate in field trips. We also have our full steam ahead academy as well as camp compass. In terms of 68, we will have remediation and enrichment as well. The structure this year though will be focused around project-based learning and provide opportunities for students to have hands-on integrated learning experiences in English language arts and history. And then the other pairing will be mathematics and science. We will
081also have additional summer um and extended opportunities for steam as well as camp compass. For grades 9 through 12, our students will participate in opportunities for full credit courses as well as credit recovery. Next slide. This is the flyer we use this year to um send out to families in our community for power scholars and for our full steam ahead our elementary two of our elementary programs. Next slide to go a little bit further in terms of the full steam ahead empower scholars. We are looking at the power scholars academy again. It is an opportunity for um enrichment and remediation for our students that need support in reading and mathematics for a full steam ahead. This is our extended school year grant. And this um particular academy focuses in on opportunities to re-engage students that
082have um have experienced chronic absenteeism as well as to provide opportunities for family engagement through steam hands-on experiences. They will also engage in field trips that are um aligned to the curriculum. This year the the um focus is on space. So our students should have lots of great opportunities to learn about the great beyond. Next slide. And for our SEAL summer academy opportunities, we als we are excited to share that we will have additional opportunities in for the second year in a row with our camp compass and our for K through eight students and our thrive camp for our students in grades 9 through 12. These camps not only provide support for students but the goal is also to stay engaged and connected with students families as well. Dr. Dr. Tiffany Bird, our disciplinary hearing
083review officer, is here with us this evening and she is organizing the camps this year to focus on students personal growth in a positive environment and or to support students that are transitioning back into a comprehensive school setting and have the opportunity to recover coursework. She's been working diligently on identifying the ideal student candidates for these opportunities and collaborating with families and school administrators. Next slide. Thank you. We also have secured several robust STEM, excuse me, STEAM opportunities for our middle and high school students. As you can see, these include the Virginia Tech University Imagination Drone Camp from June 14th to June 20th. The imagination computer science camp from June 21st through 27th. University of Mary Washington STEM camp July 20th through the 24th. Richard Bland College healthc care camp July 27th through the 29th
084and July 30th through August 1st. We also have a summer STEM camp that students can participate in there from July 20th through the 24th. In Petersburg High School, we have our STEM and sports camp June 26, 27th, and July 27th. and our summer STEM camp from July 29th through the 31st. A key component of our acceleration model here at Vernon John's Middle School will be our sixth grade math acceleration program. This opportunity is designed to give our rising sixth grade students exposure to sixth grade math concepts over the summer so that they will be prepared to um partake in seventh grade math once the regular school year begins. our additional or finally I should say we have several additional summer opportunities um that collaborate and support Petersburg City Public School children and that includes the
085summer academy excuse me the summer reading program and the stream academy. We also are collaborating with Petersburg City Parks and Recreation and the Petersburg Club Boys and Girls Club for youth programs. And there are other summer STEM opportunities available throughout the city. >> All right. This current school year, extensive work has been done around teacher certification. So, we still have three groups of teachers we must continue to support. Additionally, teachers are still getting used to the new curriculum and we would love to provide them additional opportunities to get used to the new curriculum and instructional strategies to improve their toolbox. We are heavily focused on summer programming for teachers just as heavily as we are for students. Therefore, in the afternoon, as Miss Lowry stated, we will have opportunities for professional development, planning, and PLC's.
086Our professional development will be centered around making learning visible for all, which incorporates John Hadtie's high leverage strategies. This training runs Monday through Thursday, 1 to 4:00 p.m. from June 15th to July 9th. The core of this PD is a cycle of instructional improvement. Teachers will engage in targeted classroom observations after they've received um highly qual um highly skilled professional development and then use evidence-based feedback and collaborative debriefing sessions to transform data into actionable insights the very next day. But wait, there's more. We also have summer programming for our leaders. We are investing significantly in our summer program for our leaders which is focused on continuous development throughout the 2627 school year and it is directly aligned with our strategic plan Petersburg forward 2031. We are building instructional leaders. In June, we will host the
087school leaders academy leadership summit for all principles, associate principles, assistant principles, and deans. The summit will support them in building instructional leadership, providing quality instructional feedback, and implementing datadriven instructional practices. In July, school principles will join the year-long VACD instructional leaders cohort to collaborate with other Virginia school leaders. Then in starting in August, select associate and assistant principles will participate in a year-long NGLA which is the next generation leadership academy in partnership with the University of Richmond to develop aspiring leaders instructional leaders that is for the principal shimp role. So before we go to questions, if you can go back to slide 13 for me, just want to share with the community and the board that for the last two years, we've been focused on implementing the instructional framework. We've brought on new curricular resource,
088high quality curricular resource this school year. And so now the focus is on how do we give our teachers instructional tools to use in the classroom when students struggle or they need to be stretched. And so this summer we the reason we have two teachers in the classroom during the summer for each classroom is we're trying to build capacity of our teachers so that when they leave the summer program they will walk away with some instructional tools they can implement in the classroom in the fall. and these uh and so these instructional strategies also will be taught to our principles during the leadership conference. And so we're trying to connect everything together so that our leaders have instructional tools that they can give feedback to teachers with and now our teachers have instructional tools they
089can use with their students. The next piece around the go to next slide for me please around our instructional leaders. We're really trying to get our principles and our assistant principal to be the leaders of learning in the building and not depend on central office but depend on central office as a way of support but the the principal is the guiding force and leadership. Research shows there are two major people who impact student learning. The teacher and the principal. And so for this leadership we are this is a year a year-long leadership. We will start with the four-day piece. Principles will participate in a session around the legal and the law of education. They will participate in a two-day um workshop around providing feedback and instructional strategy. And then the last day is around >>
090yes we have invited a um well-known national speaker to work with our principal on school leadership and he will be here with them for the full day working with the principal as well as assistant principles um that day and he will also come back in the fall and take a tour of our buildings and provide principles with feedback. And so we're really trying to build the capacity of the people who are in the building with schools with students to support them and um we are excited about this opportunity. So that's the innovative piece that we're trying this year questions. >> Thank you sir. Mrs. Proctor >> those sound like great opportunities. How do people learn about the availability? Are they dependent on a principal telling them about it or they volunteer? >> So we have
091already started the recruitment of teachers for summer school and typically for our summer school staff it is uh for those teachers who are currently certified and so we're trying to recruit our certified teachers to come in for those instructional strategies. So they will be a part of that. But in the fall we have already start rolling it out in the fall with the same for those teachers who are not certified. they will have that opportunity as well. And >> what about for the students attending these camps? How is that communicated? Is it all volunteer or again dependent upon them being selected for it? >> So some of the programs are volunteers, some of the programs are um students have been selected and there's there's an application process that information has already gone gone out to
092parents. But for any of the program, we're not denying kids for participating in any of our programs. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. M. >> Yes. The first one, can you go back to where the camps are? The camps with the stem. Go back a little bit further. Perfect. Right there. Okay. Are these camps on on on will be on our sites? No, these are camps that are actually going to be on >> those locations. >> Okay. U do we have any kids signed up for them? Because by the time we get to the end of the year, if they not signed up um and >> we Yes. Yes, sir. We already have students who have signed up for those applications. >> Yes, they providing their own transportation. >> No, we're providing their transportation as
093well. >> Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay. So, how many do do you know the numbers that we have signed up and how many can we sign up? I don't know the exact number but don't know but we do have kids sign we can get that yes >> okay >> we've already submitted names for students >> okay so um so after so when we come back after some of you could tell us who participate not the individual but how many participated in >> okay appreciate that the other thing is um um I was looking at the STEM thing that you had and I know a lot of times I work I'm real active in STEM outside of here and I know a lot of time People do STEM things but they don't do assessment to see how how
094to to to see see u where they are when they get there and where they are when they finish. So the results are very important. Would you will you be giving us results back on the achievements? >> Yes, we can because there will be a pre and post assessment. >> Okay. The other thing is um I saw the leadership thing you had staff development. What I didn't see was um um something that we really really need to address. I think we did great this year with attendance, improving attendance. Now, we got to work on school climate and safety. And the thing is is that I didn't see anything in there on that. And we need to make that not just a workshop. It need to be staff development year round because as we had situations
095come up that we need to address, we need to go back and revisit it with all the staff so they'll know how to handle these things or the proper way it should have been done because we having a lot of things going down that we can do better. Yes, sir. And so that fourth day, Mr. Miles, of the leadership conference, that is all around school culture. And that's why we're bringing our a guest speaker in to work with our principles. And it's someone that our principles wanted to hear from and they've gone to see and is directly working around school culture, making sure that our school feel like school for students. And so that is all about school culture, that fourth day of professional development. >> Okay? And and the reason why I brought this
096up because because of the challenge that we have here at Petersburg, we shouldn't be just that fourth day. We need to do something on a bimonthly thing to address things that come up. So we keep people fresh. We keep them aware. We have a lot of policies that need to be revised and make sure that we in compliance with state code, which is law, because we have to do things the right way because the law is constantly changing. If you see, if you keep up with the um um the Senate bills and the House bills right now, a lot of things are changing. Some things getting vetoed and and we're not right now. If you look at our code, I mean at our policy, they're not in line with the state code. So, we we
097need to get together as and probably form some committees and I like to be on those committees on one on the one far policies are concerned and to revisit some of the things we need to update. >> Yes, sir. So, as far as for schools and the principal, the part of the the leadership conference is actually the kickoff to this. It's not just a one-day thing. It's going through all through the school year. And so, this is something that we are really focused on next year. Next year, we're focused on building capacity of the principal to be instructional leaders, improve school culture, and then the other piece is now focused on helping teachers with instructional strategies. And so the biggest theme is around if our kids feel that they can get what they need from
098our teachers, school culture will improve. >> If our kids feel that they are safe in the building and routines, procedures are in place, students will learn. And so that's all a part of this 4-day conference. So it's something new that we're trying to kick off. Um it it will be a mind shift for some of our adults who are participating, but this is not just for the four days. It is going through the extent of all year long. >> Yeah. Because um the reason why and reason why I included safety because we have to develop a best practice and we got to address that be best practice on a weekly basis because when they safety got to start at that door got to start at that door. Everything got to start right at that front
099door because if we let them in here and and and don't address it then we got to deal with it all day long. So the thing is is that that climate, whatever we climate we want to set have to start at the front door after they get off that bus because our kids are such that if you if you don't say something to them till halfway through the day, they're going to say, "Hey, they didn't say I came in here like this." >> And >> Yes, sir. I >> And you know what I'm talking about. >> Yes, sir. Because I I don't think it's just our kids. It's just kids in general. That's right. I was a principal for 15 years and I remember >> when we talking about best practice, we're talking about all
100the staff, but it starts with security at the front door. >> But it also start with leadership setting the example. And so that's that's the reason we're doing this leadership conference because we got to start with our school leaders setting the example and modeling what's expected. As a principal, as a former principal for 18 years, I was one of those people standing at the door greeting my kids. I can tell when they got off the bus who had concerns and who needed to be sat down and like re given some re rection or just given some love because kids go through things at home that we don't know. But I do believe that the start of this leadership conference, it won't solve every issue in our division. Um, but I do believe that it's a
101start for us >> because and and like I say, the reason why I say the whole staff is because it's all our jobs. You know, I know you got a leader, got a team, but it comes down to every individual, teachers in the classroom, all the all the workers, everybody got to be visual because we are mandated reporters. >> Yes, sir. >> Something going down, everybody need to understand that that's that's state law. >> Yes, sir. >> You're working with kids, you're a mandated reporter. If something go down >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Miles. Mrs. Tucker, did you have you didn't have a question? Oh, he was first. Okay, Mr. D, >> excellent presentation. Teaching and learning. This is where the rubber meets the road. Um, this is an excellent road map
102for our summer academy and I'm so glad to see we got so many things going on for with our for our students, but our professional development um and things of that nature. So, very good presentation. Um we've got a good road map through the year, not just for the summer academy, but um excellent presentation, excellent um idea that and this is where the rubber meets the road. Teaching and learning our core business. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Tucker. >> Yes, thank you so much for the presentation. I did want to um touch a little bit on what Mr. Mal said about the um the recruitment and the number of students that we had going to the summer program. >> I did want to give a shout out to Miss Coleman Milliner because she did
103an amazing job recruiting. >> I was at work and got a call and she sat down with my son and did the application. So, and he was one of the ones that was was accepted to Virginia Tech the summer program. So, she did an amazing job with just recruiting, going to the schools, staying on the parents, but also making sure that it was something that the kids wanted to do and just being intentional with her recruitment. So, I did want to just throw that out there that she did an amazing job. Um, I had two questions. Question, but um two comments. So, um I did I do love the fact that we are doing if you could go back to the slide with the um leadership It's at the end the other way. >> Yep.
104Right there. Thank you so much. So, the school leadership, because I was one of the ones that actually asked, was it anything that we could do? Because we've had teachers um that have asked for um they've expressed that they wanted more career advancement opportunities. And this is just one example of, you know, when there is no seat at the table, we create our own table. And so, I love the opportunity um that our leadership will actually have the opportunity to do a co a cohort um throughout the year. I did want to ask one question. Is this going to be um I wrote down the new generational leadership academy. Is that something that can be open to like teachers? And the only reason why I asked is because I know we had teachers to um
105express that they were looking for more leadership roles. So is that something um that can be offered to our teachers? >> So actually um board school member Tucker, sorry, vice chair. Um that is a great question and so NGLA has been in the central Virginia area for at least 20 plus years. Um I am a proud participant of NGLA and that's next generation leadership academy and it is for folks who are aspiring to go into leadership and to your question of could teachers get into that there is the opportunity it is via application so interested parties would have to apply for that and it goes to the University of Richmond but if someone is perhaps maybe already like working on their masters in school administration um while they're still a teacher, then that would be
106an ideal candidate for someone to apply and you know be selected to go. Uh the thing about NGLA is that our division we actually um you know because it is professional development we do pay for those slots. So we do have a a limited number of slots that we are allotted. Um, and this is I'm h I'm just so excited about this because this is the first city public schools um will be participating in this academy and it's been like I said 20 plus years it's been in you know in existence and we've not had the opportunity to to be a part of it but this year you know I knocked on some doors and did a lot of things and so we are able to be a part of it and help grow our
107leaders and grow our own. Thank you so much. That's exciting to know. So we have any teachers listening. >> There's the application process. >> So for this year the focus has been on the assistant principles. >> Okay. >> So next year we will be looking for building lead or building leaders whether they're teachers are teacher leaders in the building to participate because we had a small limit amount. We really want to focus this year. We're trying to focus on the administrative team and taking back that role of being an assistant principal. taking back that role of being a principal around instruction, around owning the work that happens in the building dayto-day. Going back to something Mr. Mau says, we have to equip our leaders to be in charge of the building, doing what's right, participating
108in professional development, developing a school culture plan, all focused on instruction. All of those things happen with the building leaders. And so, we really want to focus on building up our assistant principles and our principles this year. And our goal is just like we started this this year is to work on um school teachers who build capacity of teachers who want to go into leadership ro programs. The other piece is I know that Dr. Dr. Lane and I have been discussing some other options because we do know we have teachers that want to step up and they have reached out to me and so we're working on that but for this year for next generation is really around the assistant principles that we have currently in our buildings. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >>
109Any other questions? >> Okay. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Great job. Thank you board chair pitch and schoolboard members. We have our final presentation of this afternoon which is our monthly division budget update which will focus on our head start and grants as well given by Dr. Matias Greywood our chief financial officer. Dr. Greywood. Good evening, board chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Tucker, Superintendent Brown, esteemed members of the school board, Petersburg community, and PCPS colleagues. I will provide the monthly budget update for the period ending April 30th, 2026. This update covers general fund, food service fund, grants fund, school construction fund, and the Head Start funding. Next slide, please. The the update this evening will cover the Petersburg city transfer budget and actuals, general fund budget and expenses, food service, school construction and grants, Head Start,
110federal funding, Head Start non-federal share. I will walk through each section and highlight key variances, spending trends, and remaining balances as we approach year end. Petersburg city transfer budget and actuals. As of April 30th, the city has provided 10 installments totaling 10.8 million, consistent with the expected monthly transfer of 1.08 million. Our original budget for the year is 12.97 million leaving a remaining balance of 2.16 million to be received in the final two months of the fiscal year. This continues to reflect stable and predictable cash flow from the city which is essential for maintaining divisionwide operations and we are grateful to the city. General fund budget and expense by state category fund one instruction current FY26 budget is 46 million yeartoate expenses 34.2 million remaining balance 11.86 86 million. This reflects normal timing of payroll
111and year-end instructional purchases. Administration attendance and health budget 817 million expenses 6.99 million balance 1.71 million people transportation budget 3.5 million expenses 2.82 82 million balance 687,000. This category is trending appropriately after last year's over expenditure. Operations maintenance and facilities budget 8.6 million expenses 8.9 million balance 1.68 68 million technology budget 3.3 million expenses 2.7 million balance 594,000 the total general fund budget was 72.16 million yearto-ate expenses 55.62 62 million remaining balance 16.54 million. Overall general fund spending is aligned with expectations for this point in the fiscal year. Food service, school construction and grants. Food service budget 4.18 million, expenses 3.5 million, balance 688,000. Food service continues to operate within budget and is on track for year end. Fund five, school construction. Budget 850,000, expenses 17,000, balance 833,000. This reflects timing of capital project activity.
112Major expenditures are scheduled for late spring and summer. grants budget across all grant categories. Instruction 5.06 million is remaining administration and health 395,000 remaining. Transportation essentially fully expended operations and maintenance 6,870 remaining. Debt service and transfers 83,000 remaining. Total for fund 2, five and 7. Combined budget of 20.6 million. Year-to- date expenses 13.6 million. Remaining balance 7 million. Total all funds FY26 budget 92.8 million. Year-to- date expenses 69.24 million. Remaining [snorts] balance 23.6 million. This reflects healthy spending levels and strong grant utilization. And now to Head Start. Total federal budget for Head Start is 1.4 million. Year-to- date expenses 1.07 million. Remaining balance 327,88. Combined remaining balance for u personnel salaries and fringe it's 30 37,824. Overall the federal grant is performing well and remains compliant with spending requirements for non-federal share. The total federal
113share and non-federal share is 350,000. Year-to- date expenses 274,000. Remaining requirement 75,612. We remain on track to meet the full non-federal match by year end. And we continue to monitor contributions closely to ensure compliance. Questions? Mr. D. >> Yes. Dr. Greywood, um, do you project that we may have any money left over to do some capital improvements over the summer? >> No, we we we won't have anything left at the end of the fiscal year. >> That's the quickest. >> Remember, we we got 3.5 million from the budget and it's been it's been tight. We don't anticipate anything left at the end of the fiscal year. >> Thank you. >> If we do, if we do, I'll let the board know ahead of time. >> Thank you. >> Questions? >> My only comment was that
114that's what we expected. >> Yes. >> Should be spending every time that's been in the that's been declarated to the budget. And that's what we had told the public we would do. That's what we did. and I'm satisfied. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Greywood. I was trying to anticipate I was trying to anticipate questions that the board would have and I know that the audit um Mr. Pritchette was going to ask it, I'm sure. I knew that I wanted you to address where we were with the audit for last year, which will tell us about any leftover money that would potentially be not in this year's, but in last year's, which might be different that we could then focus on what your question is around capital improvement. So, we still are waiting for the audit
115results so that we can then take a look and see if there's funds from last year that could possibly do exactly what you said. And I actually talked to our auditor last week. He was uh somewhere in Europe, I think, on vacation. He's back. Um but um the holiday on Monday is going to impact some of that. But our audit is done. We've received a draft from him and he just needs to finalize some of the uh back and forth and the commentary, but it would be done before the end of the fiscal year. and um we're just working with him to try to figure out when he can present. We'll coordinate that with the uh with the uh school board chair and the secretary, but it's almost done. It just needs to be finalized
116now. >> So, if you could please communicate because I was anticipating Mr. Pitch's thoughts when I asked you the question because I know he was waiting to ask. Can you let what's it? Um >> Mr. Foley. >> Foley. Yeah. you please let them know that we'd like to have them present on the June 17th board meeting. >> I'll communicate that. Um I gave him the school board meetings for the rest of the fiscal year uh year >> and that's the last one before the >> and if you want it for the 17th I'll try to get him to >> Yeah. because it's either going to be the third or the 17th and so we're planning the agenda now and so we have a meeting tomorrow. So if we could please tell them that at the
117latest it needs to be the 17th but that's the recommendation from the board is the 17th be that meeting so we can wrap up the fiscal year and then we can be able to answer that question to as to if there are leftover funds then we can then talk about next steps with those leftover funds. >> M um we need to talk about >> I know I always try to I know I'm okay Dr. Gwood thank you >> we already know where those funds need to go. [laughter] Thank you. >> I got it, CFO. I got you. >> Thank you, Dr. Greywood. Okay, next we move to public comment period. No one signed up. Is anyone here for public comment period? She said she did that by mistake. Okay, seeing no one, we'll move next
118to our action item 6A. Miss Brown, >> thank you. This is our exciting time for Petersburg City Public Schools. This is our first 6A action item, our Walnut Hill Elementary School prek to fifth grade new con school construction interim agreement process. And as have been working diligently with our selected construction company, which is Gilbane Construction, which is going to be, of course, the school will be designed by Moody Nolan out of Washington DC. And so this is the interim agreement. We have worked very diligently. Dr. Dr. Martinez, I want to thank you for your work with our MBP. Is it MBP? MBP who are our consultants that we have been working side by side through the entire identification process and they've been working very closely with the Gilbane attorney and of course Stacy Haney has
119been um walking arm-in- arm with us through this process. So, we finally have an interim agreement to bring to the the school board for consideration for approval um related to um the start of the design process for the new Walnut Hill Elementary School construction project. And so, I will make the recommendation that question. We'll have Dr. Martinez come up. So, um >> any questions before we move forward? Any questions? >> None on the Okay. >> Thank you. So with that, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board authorize the superintendent or designate to negotiate and execute an ag interim agreement with the selected preferred proposer design bill team Gilbane Building Company/Moody Nolan in order to initiate the design phase activities consistent with the PPEA schedule and next steps. Okay, you've heard the superintendent you've
120heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So move, Mr. Chair. >> Second. >> Okay. So giving me the authority to decide. >> So Okay. So Dr. Martinez, this is for the school board has to sign this agreement today. Is that correct? School board. Okay. So, let me read the recommendation once again. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board authoriz authorizing the superintendent or the school board. They're authorizing the superintendent or the designate to negotiate and execute an inter agreement with the selected pre preferred proposer design bill team Gilbane building company Moody Nolan in order to initiate the design phase activities consistent with the PPA schedule and next step. This is authorizing the school board school board chair to sign on behalf of the school board to enter into this
121to this agreement with Gilbane Building Company and Moody Nolan um architects as provided. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So move, Mr. Chair. >> Moved by Mr. >> Second, Mr. Chair. >> Second by Mr. Pierce. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. >> Next one for 6B. This is for the VS 2026 VSBA workforce readiness award application that you just heard about this evening. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the 2026 VSBA workforce readiness award application as provided. >> Okay, any questions? You heard the superintendent's recommendation. Any questions? Is there a motion to accept? >> Moved by Mr. Pierce. There's a second Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. >> C. Thank you board your pictures schoolboard
122members. We have now have our PHS field trips which will be for the VHL state championships outdoor track meet. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the field trip to Liberty University, Virginia for the VHSL state championship outdoor track meet on June 5th through the 6, 2026 as provided. >> You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? want to click on >> Moved by Mrs. Proctor. Is there a second? >> Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> D um 60 >> 60. Thank you board of pitch and school board members. This is our SOQ standards of quality and staff bonus. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the SOQ and staff bonus as provided. And if
123you would please click on if you could please pull this up. We talked about this at our last board meeting. So here it is. Right. This is the request for approval to fund the FY2026 SOQ position bonuses that came directly from the legislature for eligible PCPS staff. And this board meeting date is 5 2026. Please be aware that Petersburg City Public Schools requests approval for the allocation of $1.2 $2 million to distribute to the FY2026 SOQ bonuses to all eligible PCPS staff. This action first exceeds the minimum requirements of the governor's budget which per chapter 7 2026 acts of assembly provides state funded bonuses only for SOQ funded instructional and support position positions. The governor's budget does not extend bonus eligibility to all Petersburg City Public School employees. However, PCPS submitted its FY26 SOQ position
124bonus certification form to the Virginia Department of Education signed by me on May 1st, 2026. And video has confirmed receipt the same day. The state but bonus funds totaling $526,643 are expected to be received into the school division no later than June 1st, 2026. Now, to ensure equitable recognition across the school division, Petersburg City Public Schools proposes that we extend that bonus to all eligible full-time contracted employees, long-term substitutes, and permanent part-time employees working at least six hours per day or 30 hours per week. The local share of $673,357 will supplement the state's allocation coming out of our budget. Um supplement the state allocation to support this divisionwide bonus distribution. So, we're asking for approval of this funding initiative reinforces the school board's commitment to staff retention, morale, and recognition of the essential contributions made
125by all of the PCPS employees. This term is a one-time service. The proposed date is with proposed end date is 6:30 2026. We're asking for contract authority to spend 1.2 million funding source state and local. And so again, this is a one-time $1,500 bonus that we will extend not only to the SOQ positions, but we're asking the board to authorize the additional funding for us to extend to all of the employees as identified in the proposal. Again, Dr. Greywood, I know you updated the date. Is this the updated copy that you submitted? because the updated submission should say May the 1st, 2024. So I know that we spoke and you made the correction on the docu make sure that the correct document is uploaded. So for everyone listening, you must have been employed in those
126categories. Once again, you must have beenible full-time contracted employee, long-term substitute, or permanent part-time employee working at least six hours per day, 30 hours per week. and you must have been in the school division in those positions by May 1st, 2026. And so, Dr. Gwood, I know you updated the copy. It should have been to do Miss Davis so that it could be uploaded because that is the one the board is vote asking the board to vote on. Does Miss Davis have it so it can be swapped? >> No. >> You've already sent it to her? No. >> No, I have it on my computer. Can you please make sure that she has it so that we can vote on that one and then that way I can read that one specifically. So if you
127could go ahead and send it to her again that we can make sure that I can read it specifically. >> Thank you. Can we go to the next one and come back? Dr. Thank you so much. >> The proclamation. So while we have Dr. Greywood updating that so we can have that. We will have the proclamation for school lunch hero day on school lunch hero day. And so if we could bring up the proclamation really quickly. Oh, sorry. So it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the proclamation for school lunch. Right. So for May 1st, 2026, which has already passed as provided. >> Okay. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is that motion to accept? So move >> moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Dance. All in
128favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. We'll move down next policy. >> Second read. >> Policies for second read. So, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the policies for second read for second read dated May 20, 2026 as provided. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? >> So, move. >> Moved by Mrs. Tucker. Is there a second? Mr. Pierce, all in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. >> Come back. >> Yeah, we we'll come back to the last action item. Give Dr. Br. Let's move down to our information item, superintendent report 7A. Are you able to click on it? You all refresh. Thank you so much team. Okay, so our school superintendent report for May 20th. So we'll next slide please. Thank you. Next
129slide. All right. So, we want to congratulate our VJMS Vernon John's Middle School Athletic Awards Ceremony. So, last night we celebrated our talented student athletes at Vernon John's Middle School athletics awards ceremony. Students receive recognition and awards for their participation in middle school sports this school year, including the girls basketball, football, cheerleading, boys basketball, wrestling, baseball, and track and field. Congratulations to our VJMS students. I see that they are so proud and we're always so glad to celebrate our students in in middle school and their accomplishments in athletics. Next slide, please. So, of course, we also had our career technical education CTE awards ceremony. We celebrated the achievements of our CTE students and our at our CTE awards ceremony held right here at Petersburg High School. We recognized our students in the areas of entrepreneurship,
130economics and personal finance, nutrition and wellness, mental health assisting careers, nursing, barbering, cosmetology, child development, early childhood, and carpentry. So, congratulations to our wonderful students. Again, we also had our PHS senior awards ceremony. Last week, we celebrated our Petersburg High School seniors who received college scholarships, honor society accolades, and division awards for their academic and athletic achievements. Congratulations to the PH class of 2026. We can't wait to see you again next Friday. We also had our JROTC awards program. We also recognized and celebrated our middle and high school students for their participation in the junior reserve officers training corps. They were able to showcase their talents during the program and I got a chance to attend and our students are absolutely amazing. They are very disciplined and they had their routines down pad and so
131I just appreciate the work that we're doing at JOTC. We are building leaders. They are training each other and when I talk to them I asked them what are some of the most difficult things in routines they can explain them so well but even though they're difficult they work and they have such tenacity and when they were performing they did a fabulous job so congratulations to the JROTC and I just want to clock it for the 100 score perfect score that we got again on our JOTC review recently. So, congratulations to Junior and all of our JROTC students and staff. Next slide, please. There they are. Right there. Excellent. Thank you. Next slide, please. College commitment announcement. All right, let's give it up for Learius. Learius Javon. Gi given given Gavon. Okay, thank you. Larius
132Gavine, known aka the student that had the snake at our community event that had the superintendent screaming and running away as he was holding that snake in his hands. So, we are so excited that he got the opportunity, our star basketball player. He officially committed to the University of Central Florida in none other than Orlando, Florida. And so we are excited that he is going on to college for the next steps and he is going on a full ride. And so we love that for our students. So we will continue to cheer him on as he takes this exciting step forward representing himself, his family, and the Petersburg High School Crimson Wave basketball team. So congratulations, Learius. We wish you luck and we are forever proud. Next slide, please. And so before we get to
133questions, I'd like to bring up Dr. quickly, Dr. Shemica Long Lane, who is our assistant superintendent of board chair. If I may, I'd like to take an opportunity to update the board on the contracts process because we've gotten lots of questions about contracts in Petersburg and why they have not been issued. So, if everyone's watching, I just want you all to be updated on the information that of course we received briefly last night at the U city council meeting, but we also had to work with Stacy Haney, our our um attorney, so that we could figure out what next steps so we could begin to secure people in contracts as best we can. So, Dr. Lane, if you could give an update to the board and to the community on what we're going to be
134working on, that process, and what's going to be next. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. U Miss Brown. Good evening again, board chair, vice chair, community members, superintendent, and board members. Uh, as Miss Brown stated, we have been in conjunction with the finance department as well as with our board attorney to find out what our next steps are as we eagerly await the passing of the budget from the city council and subsequently the school board. So next week we will be partnering with finance so that we can roll out phase one of our contracts that will encompass individuals who are eligible for a contract for 2026 2027 to receive a contract with the salary increase of 3%. That is again why we wait on the approved budget at both the city and the schoolboard
135level. Individuals who are eligible for additional increases based on the classification and compensation study results will receive a secondary contract that encompasses that information and outlines what the true new salary will be. We will have a communication that will be sent out to employees to help explain that process and will of course be available to answer any questions. Additionally, we will have a link available that employees can click and give us some information if they have questions about their contracts, and we'll be able to assist them individually to help expedite this process for phase one. Again, we anticipate beginning contract distributions when we return from the Memorial Day holiday next week. All contracts for individuals who are eligible will be at a 3% increase until we have an approved budget. And if there's an employee
136who is scheduled to receive additional compensation above the 3%, we will be in contact with those employees and they will receive a subsequent contract that has the updated salary amount. So Dr. Lane, I just want to make sure that we're clear that we're at this point. So just one more time, we're going to start with contracts for the groups, right? We're on a very tight crunch. So HR will be hunkered down focused on primarily contracts. If you have a question for H, you have something that's pressing, you must make sure you're using HR because all hands will be on deck to try to focus primarily on contracts. So contracts that are coming out, you're starting in different batches. Is that correct? >> Yes, ma'am. >> So you're starting with a certain group of employees. You
137all the team is working on the contracts because that's our priority. And what's going to be on the contracts? It will be the position classification that you are in for the next year as well as the salary with the 3% increase. >> So basically what you're in right now because we have not gotten a final budget for the comp and class yet. So whatever your title is this year, that's the title that'll be on the contract. Is that correct? >> Yes. That's what's going to be on the contract and the salary will be based upon the minimum that we said that everybody would get on the compent class or the bonus. So in the compent class if everybody remembers we said that the minimum that you would get for all employees would be a minimum
138of 3% but many people will get more than that because the comp class is going to change their pay. That's the whole purpose. So everybody I just want to make sure everybody hears clearly. Contracts will start coming out in batches. Everybody will not get their contract at the same time. Everybody in HR will be all hands on deck focusing on that. Y'all will be double-checking, making sure we have all the correct information. Nothing new for next year will be on contracts. You will get your same, of course, your name, your same job you have this year if the title hasn't changed. The only way it's going to change is if we get the final budget which includes the comp and class where we will start changing classifications and that would have been on there. But
139because we're not there yet, you will get exactly what your role is now and then you will have a 3% increase on that salary. I will put on the personal agenda the new salary based on that. But that is the minimum. Once we get once we get final um word from the from the city council and the budget, the school board will come back and they will then vote to approve the final budget. And if in fact we're hopeful that we're going to get the full amount of funding to be able to implement the the compent class, anyone who is who is slated to get more money based on the reclassification in the compent class, they will be getting a different they will get another contract with the corrected amount. Is that correct? And the
140corrected title. >> Yes. >> So I just want to make sure that um I just think out loud. I want to make sure that everybody understands that right now that's all we're getting and it'll be in batches. So if you're not in the group to get the first set, you'll be in the second group, but we're trying to take it take it in phases so we can get start the process and that process will start when Dr. Dr. Lane >> Tuesday. So next Tuesday we will start that and so that will be your base salary based on the 3% which is all we're going to do for right now until we get final approval from city council and the board accepts the final budget and we move forward. Again, we are very hopeful and prayerful
141that we're going to get the full funding by city council for us to implement our revamped robust compensation package. >> Any questions? Any questions? >> Okay. >> Dr. Greywood, if you could please make one adjustment to I'm going to go back now um and read it. If you can make an adjustment and just include employed by May 1st, if you could change that wording and resend, then that way I can read the proposal and make the recommendation to the school board for for um review for approval. So, Dr. Greywood, it says employees must be members of the staff. Can we put must be employed by May 1st? All right. Thank you. Thank you so much board members for your patient and audience members and thank you team for helping us to get this taken care
142of. So for approval to fund the FY2026 SOQ B position bonuses for eligible PCPS staff and it's also for to to fund bonuses for all the remaining identified staff members in Petersburg City Public Schools. So again, the Petersburg City Public Schools request approval for the allocation of $1.2 $2 million to distribute to the FY to distribute the FY2026 SOQ position bonuses to all eligible PCPS staff. This action exceeds the minimum requirements of the governor's budget which per chapter 7206 acts of assembly provides state funded bonuses only for those SOQ funded instructional and support positions. The governor's budget does not extend the bonus eligibility to all PCPS employees. However, PCPS submitted its FY2026 SOQ position bonus certification form to the Virginia Department of Education VDOE on May 1st, 2026. And Virginia Department of Education or VDOE,
143confirmed receipt the same day. State bonus funds totaling $526,643 are expected in the school division no later than June 1st, 2026. Now, to ensure equitable recognition across our division, Petersburg City Public Schools is proposing extending the bonus to all eligible full-time contracted employees, long-term substitutes, and per permanent part-time employees working at least six hours per day, 30 hours per week. Employees must be employed by May 1st, 2026 to be eligible for the one-time $1,500 bonus. The local share of the $673,357 will supplement the state's allocation to support the divisionwide bonus distribution. Approval of this funding initiative reinforces the school board's commitment to staff retention, morale, and recognition of the essential contributions made by all PCPS employees. So again, this is a one-time. The proposed end date is 6:30. The contract spending authority is 1.2 million
144and the funding source is coming from the state and our local funds and it's not to exceed $1.2 million. Dr. Greywood, before I make the final recommendation, if we receive it by June 1st from the state, when should our employees expect it in their paychecks? >> June 15th. >> So, if we receive the funding, the sh the state's funding share, it it will show up in the June 15th payroll check for employees that have been identified. [snorts] So with that, we'll go back to the recommendation. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the SOQ and the local staff bonus as bonuses $1,500 as provided. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Board members, you heard the recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So moved by Mrs. Tucker. Is there a second? >>
145Second, >> Mr. Dance. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Appreciate it. Board member 7B and committee reports. I don't believe we have any reports in there. Okay. Number eight, new business from board members. Any new business from board members? Next meeting is June 3rd under the FYI section. [clears throat] Tomorrow is the education for employment lunchon from 11:30 at 11:30 a.m. And that's going to be at the celebration of life right beside Johnson's funeral home. And I know Mrs. Proctor is attending. I know she'll be attending. Are you attending? What's happening at the library? That's >> Oh, you're Oh, that's right. You're feel you're representing the board tomorrow for Miss Crawford's program with the senior celebration. >> Senior citizen. >> Yeah, you are. >> 10. So >> 10 o'clock tomorrow.
146>> Okay. Also on May 21st, tomorrow also is a celebration of excellence for teacher of the year and the retirement banquet at Gateway at 5:00 p.m. And you all should have responded to Mrs. to Miss Davis. Also on June June 3rd is our next board meeting, but on June 5th, there is a conference, a VSBA hybrid school law conference. It's at the Marriott. You can either attend in person at the Marriott or you can actually also attend online. Let Miss Davis know if you're interested in the workshop. Any other announcements? Okay. No other announcements. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> Moved by Miss Tucker. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Dans. All in favor? I >> I >> oppose. Motion carries. This meeting is now adjourned. Everyone have a great evening.