001Call our special meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you call the role, please. >> Mr. Steven El Pier, senior >> here. >> Mr. Hal B Miles. >> Mr. Kenneth El Pritchette >> here. >> Mr. Carrie Tucker >> here. >> Miss Joyce Proctor >> here. >> Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. and Mr. Adrien T. Dance Senior >> here. >> Okay. Will be read into close by Ms. Tucker. I move that the school board go into close meeting as authorized by section 2-2 2.2-3711 A1 of the code of Virginia for the purpose of discussing or consideration of prospective candidates for employment. >> You've heard the motion. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Pierce. All in favor? >> I motion carried. We now enter into close. The time now is 5:04 p.m. We need a motion
002to come out of close. Board members. >> So move, Mr. Chair. >> Moved by Mr. Dance. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Pierce. As required by section 2.2-3712D of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a roll call vote will be taken to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, one only public business matters lawfully exempted As required by section 2.2-371D of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a roll call vote will be taken to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. One, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the act. and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the close session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the close session by the board. Prior to the vote, any
003member of the board who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of one and two as read shall also 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 a freedom of information act. Roll call vote. Mr. Steven Pierce, senior, >> yes. >> Mr. Hal J. Miles, Senior, >> Mr. Kenneth Pritchette. >> Yes. >> Mr. Krie Tucker. >> Yes. >> Miss Joyce Proctor. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. and Mr. Adrian T. Dance Senior. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. We do not have any um action items from the closed session. At this time, we need a motion board members to adjourn. So move. >> Moved by Mr.
004Pierce. A second. Second, Mr. Dance. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Good evening once again, everyone. The time now is 5:06 p.m. and would like to call our regular board meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you'll call the role once again, >> Mr. Steven Elpier, Senior >> here, >> Mr. Mr. Halby M s >> here >> Mr. Kenneth El Pritchette >> here >> Mr. Curry Tucker >> here >> Miss Joyce Proctor >> yes >> Mr. Bernard Lundy Jr. and Mr. AJT Den senior >> here >> thank you Miss Davis board members we will move next to approval of the agenda 1A is there a motion to approve the agenda are there any change if no changes is there a motion >> so moved Mr. Chair second >> by Mr. today and
005second by Mr. Pierce. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Next move to 1B moment of silence. Miss Davis. >> The following are to be remembered during the moment of silence. Miss Latoya Harrison and family and the passing of her aunt, MissWanda L. Eves on Friday, March 6, 2026. The family of Master Sergeant William T. Goodwin Jr., US Army retired and former PCPS educator in his passing on Friday, April 3rd, 2026. and Miss Janette Bereios and family in the passing of her sister, Miss Margarite Leverne Ash on Thursday, April 9th, 2026. We have a moment of silence. Thank you. Next, we will move to 1 C. Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Mr. Miles. I pledge algiance to the flag. >> Next we move to 1D correspondence. Any correspondence? No correspondence. We move to
006number two. Miss Brown recognitions. >> Good evening. Thank you board chair Pritchette and school board members. We are excited this bring our monthly traveling trophy for our chronic absenteeism and a student attendance monthly award for the school that reduces has the highest reduction in student chronic absenteeism for the month for each month. Of course this afternoon we are going to recognize the school for the month of March. And so our wonderful assistant superintendent of student services Dr. Tory Manson who will tell us who our winner is for the month of March 2026. >> Good evening, Chairman Pritchette, Vice Chairman Tucker, fellow members of the board, Madam Superintendent, and all that's present. Tonight, I'll Tonight I want to first start off by stating that we had tremendous gains by several schools. Pleasant Lane for the first
007time is in third place. They had a reduction of 6% in their chronic absenteeism. Vernon John's again is second place with 6.8. But the winner of the trophy tonight, I want to give credit to their awesome team. Um, the awesome team, attendance team led by Corey Reic and Mrs. Fields along with it's a collaborative effort from them. They utilize and with sufficiency and efficiency, their CIS, family engagement, school social worker, um, their school counselor, their wonderful attendance clerk. So, they utilize all their resources in order to reduce chronic absenteeism by 10.6%. So again, the winner of the chronogism trophy is Petersburg High School. >> And I just want to say one thing. They've only since we've started this, Petersburg High School has won every month with the exception of one. So, this team is working
008hard every day to reduce the chronic absenteeism. >> Good afternoon. Um, school board chairman, vice chairman, school board members, superintendent, and guests here. Um, like you said, this is our fourth time we winning the trophy, but it's really not about the trophy. The trophy is just symbolic of the hard work. It's really about students coming to school every day. Our motto is every student every day, whatever it takes and everybody plays a hand in that. So, we will continue to share the message that when school students miss out, they miss out a whole lot. They need to be in school. We'll continue to share the me message and we'll continue to come back and accept the trophy. Thank you so much. And my team, >> my team is here. Mr. Johnny Jones, assistant principal. Mr.
009Katrina Walk, our attendant secretary. Uh Mr. Jones, dean of students, Miss Glenn, assistant principal. And so Miss Rick is not here, but they all pitch in and they know how important it is that students need to come to school. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations again, Petersburg High School. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. Congratulations, Miss Fields. Okay, we'll move to number three, approval of the consent agenda, Miss Brown, A, B, and C. >> Thank you, Bo Chief Pritchard, the school board members. 43A, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated 4:15 2026 provided. 43B, approval of minutes. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the minutes of the work session. 322026 public hearing New Walnut Hill Elementary School construction project. regular regular board meeting. 311
01020226 work session superintendent's proposed FY27 budget. 318 20226 public hearing superintendent's proposed FY27 budget and regular board meeting and 320252026 special called meeting as provided for 3C donations received by PCPS and you can bring it up on the screen for PCPS for March 16th through through March 31st 2026 we have our donations And if you could bring it to the next slide. And so thank you to all of our donations that were received during this time period. So thank you for all of your donations and support of our students from athletics to academics to CTE um and to our um students at Cool Spring Elementary School. And so with that again, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the final personnel agenda. The school board approved the approval of the minutes that
011were outlined. And it is the superintendent's recommendation that schoolboard approve the donations received as provided. Vchair, if I may, if there is another donation that we received today that we will be adding at the May meeting. Um, but I wanted to know if I could also just share with the board today as a part of that. We will add it to the meeting. But today, I just want to thank a donation from Compassionate Health Services. They donated to the athletic department for spring sports and activities. This will help the baseball, the softball, the soccer, the tennis, the track and football conditioning, basketball workouts, wrestling workouts, and any other athletes um at PHS. A special thank you to Aaron Kes, Michael Troder, and Kendall Langford. It's great to have the former athletes who graduated from our
012very own Petersburg High School. They spent about $5,000 and they filled up a truck filled with water, Gatorade, and snacks to serve our students again in baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, and all of our spring sports. And so, I just want to thank the team, um, Coach Ty Ty White, um, Dr. Martinez, and of course, um, Coach Lawson for everyone working together. And so we have pictures that Chelsea will post of the truck that they filled with those things that we're going to put in a room. And so our coaches will be able to go and get those snacks and get the Gatorade and get all of those things for our students so that they have them on hand. Say thank you. I know that that will be added to next week, next month's, but I
013just wanted to call that because we got that this afternoon. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. You've heard the recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So moved, Mr. Chair. >> Moved by Mr. Dance. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mrs. um Tucker. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Going to move next to our superintendent report for A. >> Thank you, Bo Chair Pitch and Schoolboard members. Our first presentation for this afternoon is our 2026 2027 dual enrollment student handbook for Petersburg City Public Schools. And we will have Mrs. Dana Curraro who is our coordinator of gifted services here in Petersburg to provide us with a overview of our new student handbook. Thank you so much. Can you guys hear me? Okay, perfect. Um, good afternoon, Board Chair Bridgetette,
014Vice Chair T, board members, and Superintendent Brown. Um, like Miss Brown said, u my name is Dana Coro. I think I've had the pleasure of meeting each of you individually. Um, but just a reminder, um, part of what I do here is supporting dual enrollment programs. Um, and I also wanted to take a moment before I get started to say a special thank you, um, for the input of Mr. Paul Brown, um, Dr. Thomas and the fantastic, phenomenal, um, counseling department here at the high school. Um, I could not have done any of this, put any of this together without um the special input from each of the counselors and then also the special um efforts of Miss Cinnamon Terry and Miss Devanni Parker. Um, they've been instrumental in making sure um this is well
015done, well thought out. Um, so I just wanted to express my thank you to them. So today I some handbook updates um for dual enrollment. Um, this has been a long time coming. We've been working to revise and edit and clarify some things for our families. Next slide, please. Thank you. So, for our agenda, I'll keep it very brief. Uh we'll talk about the purpose. Um we'll go over some of the key changes to the handbook and then of course some time for questions. So the purpose um of this presentation today um is to address dual enrollment programs. With the growth of these efforts, we want to ensure that all students and families are appropriately informed about the expectations, requirements, and benefits of participating in these opportunities. This updated handbook will include all of our
016current early college partnerships um to include but not limited to Richard Bland, Breitpoint, and Longwood University. and it clarifies responsibilities for students, parents and guardians and of course PCPS. I know that is painfully small. So if you need help with something, let me know. Um so we have kind of categorized many of these updates into three different sections. I know it is a fairly lengthy document. Um so I have categorized them into three sections to make it a little easier to follow. Um the first section is going to come under general information. Um that's where we've included updates to cover things like program benefits, um course modalities, uh student supports and tips for success for our students as well as an emphasis on online learning. The reason we decided to look at these updates um
017is because the team has provided um organized bulleted lists to include information pertaining to the benefits of early college programs um and the various formats in which courses are offered um to include things like asynchronous learning, hybrid, in person. Um also to go over an overview of resources to support students. Um students are typically aware of things like tutoring, learner mentors, uh writing centers. They have the support of me. They've got the support of our um our counseling team here. Uh we meet bi-weekly to discuss dual enrollment students, but just so that way they're aware of all the resources that they have. Um and then finally, an emphasis on online learning practices. We have seen a significant uptick in online and asynchronous learning. And so we want to make sure that students are pre prepared
018for that style um of instruction. We believe as a team that these updates will better equip our students to be successful in whichever program they pursue. Next is program requirements, which covers topics such as clarity on eligibility, academic requirements for Petersburg High School and Richard Bland College, the advanced diploma breakdown, and then requirements by each program. The revisions in this handbook add clarity um kind of surrounding what makes students eligible to apply. Uh we want to make sure that students understand what they need to do ahead of time in order to be eligible for this opportunity. It also details the difference between Petersburg high school requirements to graduate as well as Richard Bland. There are some crossover for courses, but we want to make sure they understand what each requires. All students, especially at Richard
019Bland, um should be on an advanced diploma track. We want to make sure we emphasize that. And then um finally, the program requirements are organized by school. So that way if you're a Breitpoint student, you can flip right to the Breitpoint side, look at what is relevant for you. You don't have to go through all of the handbook. Just look for what's um appropriate for you. And then finally, um student and parent expectations is our heavy hitter. Uh we want to make sure that families are clear on the fiscal responsibility, who pays for what. We want to make sure students are aware of the behavior and code of conduct expectations um not just for Petersburg High School but also for each respective campus. And finally updating um student and parent agreements. The responsibility of cost
020is included in the general information at the beginning just for transparency. Um but the team also agreed to emphasize um behavior and code of conduct just to make families aware um that it is imperative for students to abide by these code of conducts for continued enrollment in these programs. Uh and lastly, all students and parents must sign to acknowledge and agree to their respective programs requirements to ensure alignment in this partnership. Uh we want students to go to these programs and be successful. um the only way they can do that is by being uh informed and making sure that they know what supports they have in place. Um so that's um the the biggest justification for why we wanted to update this handbook. Um in the past I think the handbook has only been for
021Richard Bland. So we want to make sure that all of our partners are represented moving forward. And that's all I've got. If you guys have any questions, I'm ready for them. >> Excuse me. I'm sorry. Any questions from board members? I only only have one question. Are we going to leave the copies like this or will we have the copies made like the student handbook? You are. Okay. Like the student handbook. Okay. >> Yeah. And our goal is to add like a little welcome letter. We're having a um a parent information night next Monday and our goal is to add a welcome letter for families at the cover. >> Okay. >> That's all. Go ahead. That's Beautiful. Thank you. >> Next, Miss Brown. 4 D. >> Thank you for 4B. Thank you, Ba Pitch and
022schoolboard members. We will now have our next update by Dana Corvaro, our gifted coordinator, and she will bring to us this afternoon an update on our dual enrollment and special programs board policy recommendation for changes. Doc, Miss Carvaro. >> Thank you. I try to be efficient in this meeting. Um, all right. so you know who I am. Today I'll also be discussing um a regulation policy um update um as it pertains to special programs um specifically um in in areas like course retakes. Um so again I'll be going over the purpose. I'll touch on the board goals um we'll go over a few of those recommendations and then of course I'll take some questions from you all. Um next slide please and then the one after that. Thank you. So like I said um students
023have been allowed to re retake courses in the middle college program without much limitation. Um so for example a stu if a student underperforms in say bio 101 they can register to retake the course and PCPS will fund both attempts. The next semester if they underperform in say English 102 um they can also retake that course as well. These retakes add up and end up in costing division hundreds even thousands of dollars. Um and we want to make sure that we are paying attention to things like that. Um this policy revision proposes that PCPS will only fund one course retake per academic year. Uh for example, if a student retakes a class in the fall, they could not retake a class in the spring of that same academic year. Next slide, please. And just as
024a reminder, I know you all are aware um dual enrollment um programs is a part of board goal number two. Um we would like to increase the percentage each year of student participation in dual enrollment um programs. So that's why this has been a really big thing for us. It's why Dr. counseling team and I have been meeting so frequently. We want to make sure that we are growing this program, but we want to make sure we're being um fiscally responsible so that way this is something sustainable we can do for our kids uh moving forward. Um so currently we've got um 53 students enrolled in dual enrollment programs, 38 currently at Richard Bland, 15 at Breitpoint. Um if I'm not mistaken, it's the most we've had um ever. So I'm pretty pretty proud of
025that and I want to keep those numbers growing. Next slide, please. Um, so kind of getting into the regulations and I will not read all of this to you. Um, I know that you all have copies that you're able to look at, but I wanted to highlight some of the language that we're looking to update. Um, so for the first part um where it discusses um the criteria and how students can access um the different people that support dual enrollment, we want to update that language to make sure it reflects the current people who are supporting those efforts. um it's not just me, it's not just counseling, we're all working together. So, we want to make sure that all of those titles are reflected um in the policy. Um moving on, uh we wanted to
026add a couple of different details for students to understand the requirements. Um, one of them being um, if you look at that the third bullet point, um, students are requesting to be not just drop from courses, they're also requesting to withdraw from courses um, because it does not impact their grades or their GPA. So, they want to make sure they withdraw in a certain amount of time. We've seen an increase in students doing that as well. So, we wanted to make students aware that requesting to withdraw from courses uh repeatedly could also result in them um being excused from the program. Um and then lastly, we wanted students to be aware that um they'll be provided a high school equivalency um from the CNI department um based on what the um classes are are worth.
027So, for example, if you were taking an English class at Richard Bland, you might also be able to get English credit here at the high school. So, we want them to understand how those courses can work together. And finally, the big one, um, we want to clarify that Petersburg City Public Schools will only pay for a retake of one course per academic year so long as the course is needed to meet the graduation requirements of an advanced studies diploma from Petersburg High School. Um, so that means that if it's a Richard Bland requirement, that is not something that we would be financially responsible for. Um, and likewise, they would need to be on that advanced diploma track in order for us to uh fund that retake. So, we want to make sure they understand going
028into it. Um, what what their options are. Um, there's lots of reasons for it. Like I've said before, we want to make sure we're being fiscally responsible. Um, we also want to make sure we're keeping this program held to a high standard. We want students and families to be accountable. We want them to know what supports they have in place to help them be successful. and we want them to understand that if they are utilizing all the supports they have in place um this program is designed for them to be successful the first try. Um so that's that's um part of the justification. Um but we wanted to make that clear to everyone and we wanted to make sure that we put that in place um ahead of the next school year. And that's all
029I've got if you all have any questions on that end. >> Thank you. Any questions from board disappears? not a question but and I think I'm a little bit off but I don't I don't know if it's wrapped around this or not and we had a brief discussion with regards to scholarships is that separate apart from here now or do we have to have that discussion later that's not covered under that wouldn't be covered under these special programs would it scholarships Um, I'll set that aside for later. We'll talk about it later. >> No problem. >> Any other questions? >> Mrs. Tucker. >> So, I really don't have a question, but I do have a statement. I love um the new insert because it gives the student accountability. It places accountability on them. So, I
030think that that is excellent. um especially with the um the retake the one course um will only provide that one time and then the parent then because sometimes we tend to take advantage. So I think that that is amazing and um you've done an amazing job. Thank you. >> Thank you so much and I appreciate you saying that. Um our goal is not to discipline or um be too harsh. We just want to make sure that everyone's involved and I think with that increased student accountability and parental guardian accountability, we'll see success across the board. >> Absolutely. because it prepares them for the future because if they go to college and they fell out of class or they withdraw out of a class, they still got to pay for it. So, absolutely. >> Thank you
031so much. >> Yes. >> Uh thank thank you. Thank you, uh, Miss Gavaro. Thank you for everyone in the team for pulling this together. I just want to double tap on the fact that I love the fact that in Petersburg we are we are supporting all of our kids, but we have got to set a bar for higher expectations. And this is what this does. And I'm hopeful for attendance. I'm very hopeful because we have got to we can support people by also holding people accountable, parents and students, because that is the real world. And no one is going to give you a pass once you leave our doors. And so I think it's incumbent upon us, not just in this, which is great, is we set them up for success so that they're not
032surprised when the real world says you have to do X, Y, and Z. So, I just thank you all for your work. Um, and this is amazing. Like I said, we're here to support kids, but we're also trying to get them ready for life um to be successful and to help parents because those of us that are parents, we know we hold our we hold our kids to high standards and we expect what we expect. We just have to support them so that they can reach the expectations. So, thank you all. >> Thank you, Miss M. I I just want to ask one question. Um because I know last time I asked it last year it was um let's see if it changed. They was they were saying they were going to change the um
033the middle college curriculum where you could take more than just the scientific. Did they change it? >> To my knowledge um students are eligible for an associate of arts degree and then they've also given students the choice. They can identify majors now. >> Good cuz when we started out it was just the scientific. They've got a lot of autonomy over there. Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. We appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate you all. >> Thank you, Mr. Gavara. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown and team. >> We move to 4C. >> Thank you, board chair and schoolboard members. Our third presentation of this afternoon is our update on our 2027 federal Perkins versus our CTE secondary programs that will be given by Dr.
034Thomas our director of CTE programs. Dr. thank you. >> Good evening, superintendent, board chair, board members. Thank you for the opportunity to share this with you. Um, so to the agenda. So, we're going to go over the board goals quickly that's pertinent or relevant to this. Um, a little bit of background, talk about the requested proposal. >> There we go. >> Thank you. U the request of proposal, the rationale, some CT updates, and of course, time for some questions. So for the board goal number two and subsection two, talk about increasing each year the percentage of students participating in workforce readiness and dual enrollment programs. Miss Gravard just did an excellent job talking about the updates with that. Um so with the background of the Perkins grant so the purpose of the strengthening career and
035technical education for the 21st century act which is Perkins 5 is to develop more fully the academic knowledge and technical and employability skills of secondary education students and post-secary education students who elect to enroll in career and technical education programs and programs of study. So it benefits students on the secondary level in the following program areas. Business information technology, traded industry which are things like carpentry, automotive um health and medical sciences, technology education, JRTC and family consumer science. So the rationale for different categories um so we have personnel services, employee benefits and purchase services and internal services, indirect costs and equipment. So for personnel services, this category is typically used for part-time testing coordinators um club stipens u for the club advisors and while it's still going to be the case we're going to be
036increasing the workbased learning efforts. Um so there's going to be a additional need for additional support with that. So on the employee benefits this is going to be an increase that's uh due to the above category of personnel services. So when that increases you also have to increase the employee benefits by 8.5%. And then on purchase services, similar to personnel services, due to increased workbased learning experiences, there's going to be increased additional cost. Most that's going to be due to travel to getting students out to different work site locations. And then on internal services, um this is also going to be when we use our inside the house, inside the district bus transportations uh for those um experiences. Indirect costs, that's primarily for like rental fees. Those are relatively going to stay the same. and
037then equipment. Um it's generally appropriately allocated, but we're looking to improve and increase equipment um for our drone courses. So here you see the different changes in the um allocations from the different categories I just mentioned. So last year personnel services was 27,000. This um this request and this grant request is going to be 39,600. Employee benefits uh last year, like I said, that's the one that increases by 8.5% on the above category of personnel services going from 22.95 to 3,366. Purchase services had an increase of about 3,000. Internal services is going to be an increase of about a,000 and indirect cost staying about the same. Then the equipment is increasing by about 10,000 for a total amount of $221,379. Um so a couple updates on what's been going on within CT this year. So
038the business classes um they've had a partnership with the Metropolitan Business League where they've gone and had a remarkable girls lunchon. Um they've also um had the city of Petersburg entrepreneurship tour stop and also they have the Shark Tank um have a Shark Tank competition coming up with a couple different schools in Richmond. Um that's going to be actually held at VCU and the MBL has come and participated and partnered with our business teachers for several in school interactive events. So, the health and medical science program, oftentimes you'll think of this as nursing. You actually see one of the pictures um there on the slide. They're doing blood pressure checks. Um they also had CPR classes and certifications. U Miss Jones did a fantastic job with the mental health awareness day. And then nurse aid
039clinicals have upcoming, but actually started this week with the nurse aid students going out to the clinical sites. Um and also want to kind of highlight one of the pictures at the top u our carpentry students. So they've been going around with different projects throughout the school, putting new cabinets together, um tables, chairs, etc. Um just keeping them active and helping supporting the school. Uh culinary, they've been helping out with the school nutrition with workbased learning and done various school related events. Uh so robotics has gone on several manufacturing tours, EP, which is electrical precision technology, uh Niagara bottling in the Chester area. So the skills USA students with Miss Glasgow um has gone they've gone to the state fair competition, district competitions and state competitions um with a student finishing second. Another student that
040finished fourth in the respective respective areas um to the point that superintendent mentioned as far as setting and raising the bar bar for higher expectations. We'll pause for a second on the automotive. Um so they had nine students test for the ASSE. All nine of them passed it. That was kind of a change uh this year. um something that we put out put out as an initiative of we're not just going to be selecting a certain few to test for their certifications with the thought and the mindset if a student has sat in your class in your automotive, carpentry, cosplay, whatever the case may be for two years or three years depending on which program they should be testing for that certification. Um got a couple questions and like really we're going to test everybody
041like yeah if they've sat in your class for two years or three years they need to be testing for that programary certification. Um so most of those testings will be coming up here uh in April and May. Um but happy to say that all nine of those students in the automative class passed their ASSE certification. Um uh so some of these numbers have been updated since then. Um but the Westview so also once again these automotive students are going every Friday to CMA Automotive. So they're at Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and uh Subaru dealership. So each Friday since um almost the beginning of the second semester, they've been going to CMA Automotive every Friday. Um the early childhood students, Miss Johnson takes each one of her classes out to um to Westview. Um and I'm going
042to give you some updated numbers on those in just a second. Um but I'm going to pause there for the automotive students that go to CMA and also the um year 2 early childhood students. The individuals, it's about 10 students that completed the paperwork. Um we partnered with Crater Regional Workforce Development Board. And so those students are getting paid weekly. Actually, it's not bi-weekly. The um the cards are made out to the students. it's not to anybody else. So, it's only the students that have access to the money. Um, but they're getting paid roughly about $100 a week. Um, primarily just for coming to school and participating in those uh different programs and those work based learning opportunities. Um, JRTC, they've been busy, busy, busy, busy. They've been at a bunch of different events um
043throughout the school year. They actually was at their military ball. Um, which I'll probably send Chelsea some pictures of those. The young people look great, look fantastic, had a good time. Um, but they've been extremely busy with different different events throughout the year. um mentioned I was going I'll give you some updated numbers as far as workbased learning hours. So the nurse aid students by the end of the year there's seven students that should be going into clinicals or or have started clinicals that should be about 280 hours. The automotive students have completed 216 hours. Early childhood students because there's a lot more of them um have completed about 984 hours and barbering students and cosmetology students are about 440 and 450 hours respectively as of as of right now. uh as it pertains to
044workbased learning experiences. >> Any questions about the Perkins grant or any of the CT updates that were that were mentioned? >> Mr. M. >> Okay. Uh just a few. Um Shark Tank. Uh are they going to observe or they going to compete? >> Going to compete. >> Okay. Um the other thing is um the drones. You said you had drone classes. Yes, we have the the UA we have the UAS class and we're hoping to be able to offer the advanced UAS class essentially the part two of it um next semester or next school year. >> So it's um so when you go to the drone class is just for a period of time is that's the whole semester or >> it's a semester uh long class uh for the the basic class and um
045when they are in the second portion or the advanced UAS class they'd have the opportunity to get their what's called their part 107. So you can't um legally officially fly a drone at least as far as for a job or corporate wise without your part 107. So I want to be able to build that up to where students are able to go into the second part and get their part 107. >> Okay. Um the reason why I asked because we have I have a lot of mentees that's interested with with our organization CBM Petersburg. We got about 80 and um and they're not in high school. They're like in middle school to elementary school. Is there any way possible we can um introduce them to what it is that you that we have available at
046the high school so they can just see what's going on here >> as far as exposing the students to the class >> to expose them? Yeah. >> Yeah. Are they those mentees? Are they in the middle school? >> Those mentees are they in the middle school currently? >> Um half of them in the middle school, the other half in elementary school. >> Okay. Uh yeah. So we we had it set up and scheduled twice this year. got cancelled because of snow, but we had um elective walkthrough days set up with Vernon John students to come over and tour the different various CTE programs. Um so didn't both times it got scheduled was during the snow. Um so we will look to having those same type of things next year to where kids aren't just seeing
047classes on a sheet of paper or on a course offerings list. They're also going to be able to see what Miss Glasco does, see what Mr. Howard does, Mr. D, etc. what actually is drones, what actually is automotive and carpentry instead of just looking at a um name of a course and a description of a piece of paper. So, we want to, as you mentioned, be able to expose them to they actually see what they're getting themselves into. >> Yeah. Um so, this is what I would like to do. Um get a chance to get with you and set up a day just to bring them back >> some setup. So, just um it'll be an outing for my mentees. There'll be about 30 of them and u bring them back so they can actually
048do a little demonstration, show what it is that they do. >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> Okay, I talk to you later. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Dan. >> Um, excellent presentation, Dr. Over the years, we've been talking about CTE and and taking it to another level, and I'm just so glad and so proud to see that we have taken CTE to another level, and we have so much to offer our students. And um we're glad that our students are getting involved off campus and on campus and doing so many great things. So great job and keep up the good work. >> Yeah, it's it's nice to see especially the kids going out and doing stuff. Um seeing them only been able to go there a couple times, but the students have mentioned the CMA
049stuff a lot, but some of the comments just from the students one of the times um just asked him how's it going and he's like oh it's a whole lot better than the English class. I mean, that's not to deter English, but the individuals that like doing hands-on get out of the classroom. Even though we have some excellent labs, there's nothing that replaces real life hands-on workplace experiences, >> right? >> So, seeing them involved in that, it's nice, really nice to see. >> I go up and up and down Johnson Road once or twice a day and I see the garage door up over at the automotive center and the kids are busy working. So, that's a great sight to see. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Um I just have I do have
050a question. Yes sir. >> These pictures that you're showing have you sent did you send all these pictures to Miss Ver? >> I think most of if you have a few extra minutes I can kind of go through each one of them briefly. Uh so the one on the right we'll start here and work our way back. um that is when students completed theiration had a charge for having our students that were in respective classes to um uh complete their O certification within a month. They have a longer timeline but wanted them to kind of get at it and get after it to where they can get into lab sooner. Um so they had a little incentive of crumble cookie after afterwards with their certification. Um the group in the middle, Miss Jones, she teaches
051our mental health class and our um nutrition wellness class. That's actually a trip to Texas Roadhouse. I'm sure they enjoyed that trip pretty pretty well. Um the picture on the far left, um that's Miss Glasgow and the group that went down to Virginia Beach for the state competition. Um the young lady, I forget her name, but the young lady that um did the customer service. She's impressive young lady. Like she's going to be doing it again next year. That's the one that finished fourth and it was her first time doing it. She did fantastic job. Um go back. Uh so the bottom right that is our uh carpenter students working on putting together some of the chairs that were ordered. Um the top picture is them at the the students that were at Texas Roadhouse.
052Um another cabinet that the carpenter students put together and one on the bottom is blood pressure checks uh with our nursing students. Uh the top picture is when the students went and participated at at Brypoint for the reverse career fair. I think we had about 12 or yeah 12 students that participated in the reverse career fair. That's uh I'll pause for the quick second on that. That is uh where students have to qualify to participate in the reverse career fair. have to have a certain GPA, have a certain attendance level, etc. Um, but I mentioned reverse career fair. You might be like, "What is that?" as opposed to a typical career fair. Um, where you have companies have the different booths. The students have their own little booths and you can kind of see some
053of the um their u their boards behind them where they kind of describe themselves, what they do, what their program area is, what their interests are, and the companies come around and visit them. Um, it's pretty good event that um that they put on each year. It's with us, Prince George, Hopewell, Dimwitty, a handful of other school districts. So it's good experience for our students. Um so the the top picture is the automotive students with their ASC certifications. Um and the bottom picture is the young lady I was mentioning about the uh that finished second in their competition in states. Um all right, same photo from the one from Texas Roadhouse. Um but the one down uh the second one that is with the Metropolitan Business League from the U entrepreneurship um shop stop. The
054one in the middle is going to be at Niagara Bottling, Mr. Smith and Robotics class. Um if you ever get a chance, we'll probably do it again next year to go on the Niagara Balling Tour. It's definitely worth a trip to see how they make so many and it's just a short period of time. Um the one all the way on the right is um another MBL, that's the girls lunchon with the Metropolitan Business League and our business teachers. Um the top picture is when we first initially went to CMA Automotive. Um that is Beth, their um workforce coordinator um with the students touring the different different dealerships. And down the bottom right, that's when we visited EP. another manufacturer in the Chester area area with um Mr. Smith's robotics classes. Some of those are
055repeats. >> Okay. Question. You said that Mr. Smith teaches robotics. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Do we participate in the competitions? >> Um so they have like a robotics club and that's Miss Rick Green um that have the competitions. Um so one of the things working with uh Miss Coleman Milner is looking to see if we can progress that um that level of competition for robotics. So if you get a chance to look at what's called um first robotics that's very impressive and it's something we're talking about setting the bar and keep on pushing the bar up there. Um that's something we need to look at pushing towards is getting them involved in the first robotics. So >> okay thank you Mrs. Tucker. So, I went to the event at Virginia State on Saturday and
056it was the Lego competition. What I know we had two elementary schools to participate, Wano and Cool Spring. Um, was that extended to our high school as well? Cuz I know um when we did the walkthrough, I know in Mr. Smith's class, they do a lot of coding. And I know when I went Saturday, they were doing a lot of coding and they were doing robots and things like that with Legos. So, was that something that was extended to our high school students? >> I don't believe I got anything on I know about the VSSU hosted two years ago and this year the first robotics competition for was called First Chesapeake, but I wasn't aware of the um the Lego competition. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks for if you find out information about that
057next year, please report it along. >> Absolutely. we're because it will be amazing to just extend it because I know in our pack meeting this week um some of our parents on our secondary parents they were asking the question how could it be extended to them and I know I did speak with Miss um Coleman Milliner and she said that she's working to expand um so I just wanted to know um was that something that we were working towards getting our kids because we they had some amazing um secondary projects that they had done and I think it'll be amazing exposure for our kids. >> Yeah. And kind of almost kind of going both ways with that. So they're I don't know if you're familiar with or you can look it up. What's called Crunch
058Labs. Um so these small little kits. Um they'll be more sort of designed for upper elementary and middle school students. So you're actually building building a toy, but it's based upon STEM principles. Um so there's it's a NAS engineer that developed this program and de developed this company. Um but so we've ordered Crunch Lab kits um that'll be going towards our upper elementary and middle school students next year. So, it's it's incorporating those good STEM principles and they're learning about it, but they're also building something fun that they can take home and utilize. So, yeah, take a look at it. Crunch your lives. >> Perfect. I sure will. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Move next to 4 D. >> Thank you, Chief Pig and
059school board members. So next for for our fourth presentation we will have our 2027 special education annual plan our federal IDA 611 and federal preschool handicap allocation 619 given by Mr. Danny Kustello our director of special education. >> Good morning Chairman Pritchette, Vice Chair Tucker, Madam Superintendent, members of the board. I know I'm extremely loud. I'm usually quiet. Let me back this up a little bit. >> Good evening to you. and other members in attendance. Oh, I'm sorry it's early, right? I know. Sorry. Good afternoon. Sorry. I apologize. >> Are you a Are you a graduate of UVA or Virginia State? >> Or Virginia State. I just have a kid that I paid UVA money to. That's all. Uh, as Miss Brown stated, I'm Danny Kustoello. I'm the director of special education. And tonight, I'll
060kind of give us an overview of the this year's annual plan. Uh tonight we will look at the uh uh the grant application process itself. Uh those allowable use of funds uh the allocation of funds as well as the grant supported programs and lastly the uh comprehensive coordinated early intervening services which is a little different from what we've had to do in the past two years. So I'll spend a little more time on that. Um, as far as the uh grant itself, this is a federal grant for us that we got maintained to make sure that we are the school division is maintaining and operating those procedures and supporting documentations uh uh for compliance and state regulations uh for students with disabilities as well as students that rel receive related services, lensure and accreditation. Um
061also uh the completion requirements for certification uh require assurances uh you know as far as sections of the annual plan which kind of explains that um the flow through process and application itself as also verifying you know some of the adherences to the requirements for the IDA and as well as well as u federal regulations and uh VDOE special education regulations. As far as the grant application process itself, it starts with our December one count. That's where we identify the number of students with a disabilities that have been identified in Petersburg enrolled as in December 1. As of December 1, we currently had 486 students and of course that's fluctuated since then. We do have a few more students now um that have enrolled since that time, but this data is coming from what we
062have 486 students here at the time. um our maintenance of effort process which uh occurs with our our finance department which goes over thee and they pass a specific test to determine whether it shows uh what is the school division responsible for versus uh the state what they're responsible for. As far as the annual plan itself, it was reviewed with our special education advisory committee on March 23rd. Um and last but not least, of course, today is when we will go over the actual annual plan itself. And then the next step would be approval and submission to video. As far as those allowable funds, uh use of funds. Uh for the most part, we look at our employees uh staff and benefits uh over the years and it'll be the same this year. But what
063we could address is uh those benefits, personnel services, purchase services, other services, materials and supplies, internal services, and capital outlay. And you'll kind of hear me talk about each one of those in the next slide. as far as the allocation of funds uh this year for the 611 piece. So just kind of break up when we say uh like 611 and 619. If you think of 611 that's K12 and 619 is our preschool. So when we look at our 611 flow flow flow through it's approximately 1.2 almost $1.3 million and then those are allocated funds for early childhood which is roughly $333,000. Um, as far as the total award for this year was over $1.3 million uh for us. And so when we break those down into those categories, I kind of talked and talked
064to it earlier. We um use those option codes of uh personnel services, employee benefits, materials and supplies. And then the proportionate set aside is for our students that are um receiving special education services that are in our private schools and our homeschool cohorts and churches that we do provide services to specifically for um OTP and speech, those related services. And then last but not least, I'll talk about those uh CCI, so coordinating early intervening services. As far as the uh grant supported program, those allocations that you see here, as far as what we'll use for uh child fine, that's where we kind of identify our students in the area, whether or not they uh if they would meet the criteria if we need to do assessments for students with disabilities. Uh so that process itself
065with the preschool intake um we've allotted the $5,000 as far as salaries and benefits um which should be should a little bit over a million dollars, which is um what we've putting to the side for years in the past. And these are those salaries uh go to individuals or professionals that support um students with disabilities directly. As far as uh the PSA that set aside money uh for speech OT and PT is what I talked about. Currently we have do have two students that are actually receiving services at our Dream Tech daycare which is on County Drive where we do provide services and then we also have a few students that are receiving services that attend um St. Joseph uh priv uh private school. Um when we look into coordinating uh the CCI's funds, the
066CCI's funds that you see is 15% of the annual plan itself. So you may say well how do we get to this to where this needs to be part of the proportionate set aside? This is data driven. So our data had indicated through our federal indicator of four specifically when you look at expulsion and suspension for students with disabilities that as a school division we're three times more than likely to suspend students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. To give you some actual numbers, we're roughly around seven and a half times more likely to do that. And um which means once that happens over a trend over a three-year period of time, then we have to put the proportion to set aside funds to address those tier one and tier 2 services. Um and I'll
067kind of talk about that a little bit in the next slide as well. So as I stated when we talked about CCIS, um this is put in place to where we will address not just students with disabilities but also their non-disabled peers. So a lot of this will be through uh we would do what is called a root cause analysis or a data collection and then we will look into our next steps whether it's um policy um whether we're looking into interventions and then how long it will be funded through that money that's been set aside. Uh for us in particular as I talk about there's been over representation for those students that have been suspended longer than 10 days. Uh some schools are better than others. However, um when you look at this data,
068it was um more so at an uh two of the elementary schools and a middle school. And you look at that data over the time that um that's why we find ourselves here. We did find ourselves out of CCIS at one point and that was due to the pandemic, us not being at school, which got us out of that. But now we're at a point to where um we are still facing those challenges where students are being disproportionately suspended. So as I spoke to you earlier, I said so we will really concentrate on early intervention as well as uh culturally responsive practices um strategies to reduce uh you know discipline as well as improve the schoolwide climate and achievement and that's done through a process. So there will be a committee of administrators, teachers, parents
069and central office staff that will look at how we will utilize that set aside funds to address tier one and tier two and even some tier three. Um, but it is our intent to find ways to eliminate where our processes and our systems can be improved to make sure our students that are actually in school and not being suspended disproportionately. Any questions? >> Any questions from board members? >> Thank you, Mr. Casello. I just want to go back to slide number six for me, please. If you have a Thank you. I just want to confirm that this is for the upcoming school year. Is that correct? >> Yes, ma'am. >> And so, we don't know. So, we're allocating. Have we already received the 1 million already for 26? We've already received that money. >> What
070will happen is once that money the actual date that is uploaded is July 1st, I think. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> There's a lag in the data. >> The lag. Okay. >> Yeah. The data is actually the data that we see itself is a two-year lag. >> Okay. That's what it is. Okay. And what it is, uh, it's actually a projection. >> Gotcha. >> Once Congress make settlement on their budget, it can actually increase, but that's just a projection that they're making and that's the allocation they told us to go with now. So, you may see a change once we receive those funds on October the 1st. It could be a change. >> Got this is just a high estimate based on what they told you to be able to estimate that we will be awarded.
071And then this is tells us exactly where we're going to spend our estimate awarded amount in this way. But we could get more. But this is how we're going to spend what we've estimated. Gotcha. >> I think historically uh we would get a little more than what we see here. But that that's when I submitted the application itself. I said it was a draft because it will a draft because it will need to be improved and we will need to get the most recent and updated allocations uh to the school division. >> Thank you sir. Appreciate it. Great job. Thank you, Mr. Custello. We >> move next to 4E. >> Okay, we'll move to our final presentation of this afternoon. And this is our 4E, our monthly division update, our head start head start update,
072and our grants update for the month of March given by Dr. Matias Greywood, who is our CFO here in Petersburg City Public Schools. Dr. Greywood, >> good evening. Board Chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Tucker, esteemed school board members, Superintendent Brown, Petersburg community. Tonight, I am presenting the monthly budget update as of March 31st, 2026. This update covers the major funds including general fund, food service, grants, school construction, and Head Start. We will begin with the Petersburg city transfer general fund performance then review food service and grants followed by school construction and conclude with Head Start federal and non-federal shares. The FY226 adopted city transfer is 12.97 million as of March 31st. We have received nine installments totaling 9.73 million which aligns with the expected monthly transfer of approximately 1.08 million. The remaining balance is 3.24 million
073which we anticipate receiving on schedule. General fund budget and expense by state category. This slide shows the general fund performance across state categories. Overall, the general fund is tracking as expected for this point in the fiscal year. Instruction has expended 29.8 million against a budget of 46.3 million leaving a balance of 16.4 million. Administration, attendance, and health. This category has expended 6.3