Petersburg City Public Schools 10/15/25 Work Session!

0013712D 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. two, only such only such public business matters as were identified in a motion by which the close session was conceived or heard, discussed, or considered in the close session by the board. Prior to the vote, any member of the board who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of one and two as read shall so state the same indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment has taken place. Does any board member wish to respond? a little bit closer to you. >> Hearing no response, I will now take the Freedom

002of Information Act. Roll call. Mr. Steven El Pier, Senior, >> yes. >> Mr. Halby M Senior, >> yes. >> Mr. Ken, >> yes. >> Mr. Tucker, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes, >> Mr. Jr. >> Yes, >> Mr. Adrien. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I believe that's number two. Can we say two? I think it's 28. I can't see the numbers in front of me. This is the work session. This is not the session. I can hear now. >> No, we need to close session one. Go back. It's just I couldn't see the number. I believe it's number two. Is it 28? No, that's that's close session. I mean, no, that's work session. Yeah, I couldn't see the Is that There you go. No, it's three. Okay. So, we'll move to 3A. Approval of the

003personnel agenda. Miss Graham. >> Thank you, board chair Bridges. School board members, it is a superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated for 10:152 2025 as provided. >> You heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >> So move second. >> Moved by Mr. Miles, second by Mr. Pierce. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Next, we move to 3B. Proclamation Royal Baptist Church 87th anniversary. Thank you. Borche Pritchard and school board members. This is exciting. The proclamation honoring Royal Baptist Church 87th anniversary. Whereas Royal Baptist Church located at 316 St. Mark Street in the city of Petersburg, Virginia has been a steadfast pillar of faith and service for 87 years. And whereas throughout its history, Royal Baptist Church has provided spiritual guidance, moral leadership, and community

004support to the citizens of Petersburg, nurturing generations in both faith and character. And whereas the church has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the youth of Petersburg by supporting education, instilling values of discipline and responsibility, and working in partnership with families and schools to help young people achieve their highest potential. And whereas the Petersburg school city school board recognizes the strength of our schools and the success of our students are deeply connected to the encouragement and support provided by faith-based institutions such as Royal Baptist Church. And whereas this 87th anniversary is a moment not only to honor the legacy of Royal Baptist Church, but also to acknowledge its continued service, inspiration, and dedication to uplifting the Petersburg community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Petersburg City School Board hereby recognizes and honors Royal Baptist Church

005on the occasion of its 87th church anniversary and extends sincere appreciation for its faithful service, educational support, and positive influence in the lives of Petersburg's children, families, and community. And be it further proclaimed that this proclamation be presented to Royal Baptist Church as a token of respect, gratitude, and celebration of its lasting contributions to the city of Petersburg. In witness whereof, the Petersburg City School Board has caused this proclamation to be issued on this 15th day of October, 2025. Thank you, Miss Brown. Can we go back the recommendations over there? Right there. Thank you. And so, it is with great pride that it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the proclamation for Royal Baptist Church's 87th anniversary as provided. Thank you. You've heard the recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? >>

006So move. >> Moved by Miss Proctor, second Mr. Pierce. All in favor? I post. Motion carries. Thank you. >> Are there any announcements before we adjourn from close? Is there a motion to adjurnn? Moved by Mr. Dance. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Tuck. Mrs. Tucker. Okay. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. meeting is now adjourned. Next, we would like to call our work session meeting to order. Today is October the 15th. The time now is 5:14 p.m. Miss Davis, if you would call the role, please. >> Mr. Steven Oier, Senior >> here. >> Mr. Halby M s >> here. >> Mr. Kenneth Pritchette >> here. >> Mr. Carter >> here. >> Mr. Joyce Proctor here. Mr. J. Lundy Jr. >> here. >> Mr. Adrian T. Dance Singer. >>

007Yeah. >> Thank you. Next we move to B. Approval of the agenda. If there no changes, I take a motion to approve the agenda. Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we move to moment of silence. >> Okay. All right. Mr. M. Moment of silence. Did you have a name? >> Yes. Um Smith. He'll be memorialized. His homecoming service will be tomorrow. Bland funeral. >> Thank you. Thank you. Repeat his name again. >> Retired Colonel Samuel Smith. Thank you. We have a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. Next we move to D. Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God

008indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Next, we move into our work session and Miss Bram, the superintendent and staff reports 2A. Thank you, board chair Bridget and school board members. We have our first um presentation of this evening before our our work session portion, our FY2526 monthly budget update given by our chief financial officer, Dr. Matias Greatwood. Good evening, Chair Pritchard, Vice Chair Pierce, board members, Superintendent Brown, and community members. I am Matias Greywood, Chief Financial Officer. Tonight, I'll walk you through our monthly budget update as of September 30th, 2025. This presentation will highlight our current financial position across all major funds including general fund, food service, grants, and head start. Let's begin with an overview of our agenda. Next slide. First, we'll review the Petersburg city transfer budget and actuals.

009Then, we'll examine general fund budget and expenses by state category. We'll follow with food service and grants budget performance. Finally, we'll close with Head Start funding, both federal and non-federal. Each section will include year-to-ate expenses, remaining balances, and comparisons to prior fiscal year budgets. Next slide, please. Petersburg City transfer budget and actuals. This slide reflects the transfers we've received so far from the city. For FY26, our budgeted amount is 12.98 million. As of September 30th, we've received three installments totaling 3.24 million, leaving a remaining balance of 9.73 million from the city. Next slide, please. General fund and expenses by state category fund 01 construction remains our largest investment with a current uh budget of 48.2 million. So far we've spent 10.47 million leaving a balance of 37.76 million. For administration attendance and health we have

010spent uh 2.5 million in expenses with a balance of 5.2 26 million. For transportation, we spent about 957,000, but we're monitoring closely due to prior year overages. As for operations and maintenance, uh we have a four we have spent about 4.4 million with 5.8 million remaining. In technology, investments are pacing steadily with 1.43 43 million spent and 1.83 million remaining. Overall, we've spent about 19.7 million out of 73 million for the FY26 general fund budget, leaving a balance of 53.27 million. Next slide, please. Food service and grants budget for fund O2. our school food food service budget. Our current budget is about 3.3 million and we've spent about 1.29 million remaining about 2 million in the budget for fund 07 which includes multiple grant fund categories. We've spent about 4.7 million in instruction out of

01114.4 4 million for administration and health at 177,000 spent so far. So combined for fund 02 and 07 we have spent about 18.95 million in the current budget and with 5.55 million spent and 13.4 million remaining. Next slide please. for a total of all funds to summarize our total for FY26 for all funds is about 91.9 million and yeartoday expenses total 25 million leaving about 66.6 6 million in revenue. At this pace, we're doing well and uh we're monitoring grant funding uh over the course of the rest of the fiscal year. Next slide. >> Should I proceed to head start? Dr. >> I think you were giving a summary of the so it was on head start. So if we could go back to the slide right before head start >> then that way. >>

012Yeah that's what I think the um >> let's go back >> the right preview is right there. I think that's where because I think everybody was >> that's where everybody go. >> So if you could please go back to this and then do your re summary again so that everybody can take it in. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. for for a summary uh current budget we've um which is 91.99 million year to date expenses are 25.3 million and remaining balance of 66.6 6 million. Okay, next slide. Okay, we can go back after the head start um piece. Um for head start budget and expenses on the federal side, personnel costs are budgeted at 1.33 million with Where are we? >> Okay, >> that's where I am. >> Okay, so for personnel, we have 1.33

013million and budgeted with about 184,000 uh spent so far. Supplies uh 25,000 and spent about 3,000. In total, we spent about 888,000 out of 1.4 million, leaving a balance of 1.21 million. Next slide, please. Um, for Head Start uh budget and expenses on the non-federal funding side, we have 23,000 uh budgeted for salaries and we've spent about 3,800. We have 80,000 in donated goods and services with 12,000 recognized, about 240,000 for transportation with 38,000 uh spent for a total non-federal share of 350,000 with 53,877 spent and 296,000 remaining. As a total we have 100 1.75 million uh budgeted for Head Start. We've spent about 242,000 and uh the remaining balance is 1.51 million. Next slide please. This concludes our financial update as of September 30th. I welcome any questions or feedback. >> Thank you Dr.

014Greywood. Any questions from board members? from the regular Miss Proctor >> on the transportation for last year 2425 uh there was a negative and um have all of the and and and with regard to 2425 have have all of the expenses come in because I noticed they were pos posit positive balances on every other category than the um transportation. >> Yeah, for um transportation we continue to monitor um for this year whether we would be in that situation. We haven't um um we need to do final year adjustments which I think were finalized as of September 30th because we did the ASR. I need to go back and reconfirm on that. But on other categories, we're positive and it would be a net positive for us. We just under budgeted for transportation because we would

015just need to adjust for that in the current budget. >> Yes, >> Dr. Greywood, are we on the correct slide? >> Um >> cuz I'm not seeing a negative. She said it was a negative in transportation. >> Um go back one more >> in on general. Go back. >> Right there. Okay. Yes. Yeah, that's what she's referring to. >> Okay. Yeah, >> transportation expenses are going up and we just need to keep track of it and budget more for transportation especially in this new budget year that we're coming into. So, okay. And I'd like to comment I may board chair Bridgetette is that again because I think we're reminding that we provide transportation outside of our buses and so we have private um companies that we use to transport our students and those that cost

016continues to increase. Um and so I think this just this year we've had to sit down and talk about transportation for special needs students, students that go to day schools, you know, and their schedules are different. homeless. Absolutely. We've had to do a lot. Thank you. We've had to do a lot with transportation and we did not in this previous budget. So, we're constantly having to find money for this year um to be able to pay for those increasing costs that we can't anticipate. But now, in this budget that we have this conversation today, we're going to have to lean in and say we're going to have to invest more in transportation. So, it's actually a perfect time. Although we're trying to, you know, pay Peter and pay Paul to transport kids at this moment,

017we know that we can plan for it better in this next upcoming FY27 because this will be our first full budget cycle together as a superintendent, cabinet, and team that we work through a budget together and it just doesn't come to you in February with um you know um just coming up with a budget. So, I'm glad you brought up that transportation. We just want to lift up again and double tap that we will have to increase transportation cost. We have that conversation today about investing more in transportation for our kids outside of just the yellow buses that transport kids. >> We're we're in an inflationary environment and uh we need to do a better job of forecasting. We're doing a lot of data cleanup. Once that's done, we will be able to better forecast

018and uh avoid these uh situations going forward. >> Any more questions? Yes. Go ahead, Mr. D. Dr. Greywood, I think on your second head start slide, you had $23,000 for benefits. Pull that slide out. >> Slide five. Thank you. >> Yes. 20. What's that? 23. Nonfederal share. What's What is that? >> It's um It's just salaries and free benefits on nonfederal dollars. >> My small number. >> Oh, well, you already have some covered on the federal side. This is to supplement, right? >> Okay. >> So, the non-federal is our money, right? So, if we go back, so we're paying for >> we're paying out Yeah, we're paying now most of our funding for Head Start in this case is coming out of our federal dollars, >> which is over a million dollars. >> And so,

019then you flip to the next slide. Is that slide five? >> This is just a supplement. >> Oh, slide eight. Okay. Then we then pay out of our FY budget, but I guess we pay just 23,000. So that means that they're paying the bulk of our >> bulk of the cost and we're only paying a small portion. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Head Start is a federal program. Most of the money comes from there, but this is just to augment and supplement whatever already exists. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> Mr. Pebbles. >> Uh thank you, Dr. Greywell. Just a note, could you define non federal share funds? Could you define that? >> Local general funds. >> Okay. Okay. M. So, Dr. B, I have a question. So, on slide four, if you

020go to slide four, I noticed there that your facilities is zero is blank, but when you go to slide five, you filled in something on facilities. What's the difference? It's a it's a it's a it's an issue that I've talked to Miss Gabul. She's the senior budget analyst uh supporting me. It's just uh that needs to be deleted. It's covered in that uh category that you're talking about. Um there's a um operations and maintenance. That's where the uh the budget now rests. So I probably just need to delete the facilities line and that's what's confusing me. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. Yes, >> there's some consolidation that happened there and that line needs to just be deleted >> because we don't have a facilities category anymore. It's basically operations and maintenance moving forward. >>

021Yes. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Yeah, >> Mr. Yeah, since it's since it's a workshop, this is something that we could get a snapshot of from probably in January or February. Just look at your department because I know you catching up on a lot of stuff came into a big and and see what we can do more efficient whether or not far as employees different things like that because right now everybody you have you don't you're not going to leave once you get to where you supposed to be. Okay. So give us a little snapshot in the future once you get it to where you where where you want it to your satisfaction then what it would look like once it get there but February you know in the future. Okay. >> Not now.

022I know you can't do it now cuz you got a lot of stuff. But you came, man, you were working on stuff from 2005. That's ridiculous. But so the thing is is that once you get it to where you want it to be, then give us a snapshot of what it is that you what it would be once you get to what we call it wouldn't be a perfect world. It would be close to what what what it is that you're trying to make it make. >> We we can do that. Are you talking in terms of across the division or just >> just your department? >> Okay. >> Just your department. I don't want you to solve everyone else's problem. Absolutely. That's pretty easy to do to do because you know every everyone that

023came in here came into what was left for them. You know what, you know, they just walked into it. Well, >> you know, we we'd like to see in the workshop what it is that you wanted to be. >> So, what you working towards? So, the thing is that give you a couple months probably February or March, >> you know, I'll get an update for the board on that in in March. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. >> And you'll cover that in the work session. Is that correct, Dr. Gray? When we get into the deep dive, you'll talk about >> how it's set up now because I hear board member Miles asking because right now um as you get ready to prepare to do the work of the FY2627 budget, you'll be able to

024talk through um kind of the state of finance, right, is what I hear. And here's what you're here's what we're working on now. Here's what you have in place. Here's who you have helping you. Here's what's in the background. What have they been working on as we get to this point so that the board better understands? I know you have some ideas about moving forward that you're going to address today in there. So, kind of talking about if you're forecasting using the word that you talked about down the road, you know, what would it look like that we've kind of gotten to a point where we're, you know, you know, at the point that you desire for us to be so that we're in good standing continuing to move forward. >> Okay. I'll get to

025it. Uh I have a couple of updates for the board in in a little bit after questions. So >> any other questions? >> Thank you Dr. Good. Great word. >> Um before I move forward, I have a couple of updates. The last time I was here, I talked about grants and I had indicated that we have about 300 um we have about three million in outstanding uh reimbursements that were due. We've so far received about 2.1 million. We've done reimbursements up to three uh 2.1 million. By the next update, uh we have about 900,000 still outstanding that we've submitted for. I'll provide an update on that, too. So, we're making progress and I anticipate that in a couple of months we will be all caught up and we will be out of the uh grants

026reimbursement issue that we're facing. >> Great. Questions? And I'm not sure if you I'm not sure if Miss God if she knows or not, but the training that we attend in VSBA and they send us the invoice that that is also reimburseable. We need to send the state because it comes through the umou. We pay for it and they supposed to reimburse us for the training. >> Okay. I'll look into that with the uh grants team. >> Okay. >> Um in grants we we're fully staffed, almost fully staffed right now. We have with the restructuring that we have the two teams have been split between programs and um and and fiscal the fiscal side the team is taking shape and some of the uh reforms that we've been trying to implement have already begun and

027I anticipate in the next few months we will get more results and better efficiency out of the team. So now that um we've we are we have approved the positions for you, will you all be doing internal audits as well before we have our final audit done? >> Um that that was the plan. Um we don't have capacity for internal audits. I'll get to the second update here. >> We have uh a team in place. I had promised M Mr. Miles had raised this uh when we were recruiting for internal teams and I had told him that our plan is to do an internal controls assessment type of audit. It's not a full audit but looking at internal controls quarterly. We're not fully set up yet, but once we're fully functional, we would do assessments

028quarterly and provide updates on whether we're meeting our internal control uh guidelines or not. But that's in the works. >> Okay. And I have a question also for um it's probably Mr. Brown. Um I know that we have put money aside for trips. Are our schools >> Yeah. Are they doing field trips in in all of the schools? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Good evening board. Um yes, we are um right now arranging field trips. Uh Miss Coleman Milner is actually meeting with principles and schools right now to schedule those field trips out. We are specifically aligning our field trips right into the units that we're currently teaching. And so one of the field trips that our kids are getting ready to participate in right now will be um around the water cycle. Um and

029that's for the elementary schools. And so we're scheduling those right now. They will consist of field trips that are in-house as well as those where kids are going off campus, but the goal is for every school to participate in field trips because I'm a big fan of field trips and I know our students need that exposure. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Green. Which which brings me to my second update. Um this is just to update the board that uh we're facing some uh some some issues around the consultant for the accounting services and we're currently uh looking for arrangements uh that would uh help support uh audit readiness and uh secure supplemental uh preparedness for uh our upcoming audit. And um we would update the board as

030we make progress on that questions. Okay. And that ends my update, monthly update for uh budget this cycle and we can move on to the next one. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Greywood. Thank you Christian and school board members. can now move into our work session for our FY2627 budget process. And so that will be led um the work session of course by Dr. Greywood, our chief financial officer. He'll be supported by our senior budget analyst. Is that correct? >> Yes, >> of course. And so um Miss God, >> Patrice God, >> Patrice, I know it well. I just you know how you get a blank. So yes, Miss God, thank you so much for being here. >> Yes. >> Another great wood. >> Thank you. Before we start, I just want to

031make sure that everyone knows we have a folder for each board member and it has all of the documents that Dr. Greywood will go over as we dive into our budget development process for this um upcoming FY27. >> We have a few handouts in there. The main goal of the handouts is to help with the audit uh with the uh budget development process and help guide uh what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how we're doing it. And some of it is to just demystify some of the budget process. We use a lot of technical lingo in the budget process. My my preference is that we simplify it and make sure everybody follows and is a breast of what we're doing so nothing falls through the cracks. So with uh with this presentation um

032a lot of the work that's in these handouts was done by uh Miss Patrice Gbo who is in charge of uh budget for us. Um we're still recruiting for an assistant director of budget which we haven't been able to successfully uh recruit for and she's been very helpful and supportive and has been working overtime to get these done. So it is just acknowledging the work that she's put forth tonight. Um we'll begin with the superintendent statutory role in the budget development process. We'll examine improvements we've made uh over the previous two cycles of budgeting. Then we'll walk through the four-phase development timeline, budget parameters, and proposed strategic priorities. Finally, I'll open the floor for board discussion and outline next steps. The Code of Virginia 22.1-92 outlines the superintendent's duty to prepare and submit a budget

033estimate for the upcoming fiscal year. This estimate must be approved by the board and submitted to the city by the statutory deadline. It includes major classifications and any additional items necessary to support our schools. Slide four, historical budget context. In FY23-2024, our budget total 82.1 million. For FY2425, our budget was for 79.6 million. And for last year, this current fiscal year, FY 2025 2026, our budget was for 89 million. Note that the FY 202425 budget was developed using an abbreviated process which limited strategic alignment. The previous budget development process in prior years we faced several challenges. We faced inadequate planning and lack of structure. We focused on a revenue-based budgeting process rather than a needsbased budgeting uh system. We had weak position control and no formal approval process. Capital and technology plans were underfunded. CIP

034tip. We had no monthly budget holder meetings since 2023 2024. These gaps informed our processes uh process redesign for 2026 2027 budget uh year. Our current process the budget process improvements for 2026 2027. This year we've implemented key improvements. We've implemented formal training for all budget holders, monthly coordination meetings, integration of strategic plan goals, full documentation of the budgeting process. These changes ensure transparency, alignment, and accountability. We'll go into the uh budget development timeline proper for phase one of the budget development. We're currently in phase one and enrollment projections were finalized on September 30th which forms the basis of revenue projections. Today's session launches board engagement. Budget materials are being distributed ac across the division. Stakeholder trainings are underway. Most of it is complete. And phase two involves data collection and analysis which is between

035November and December 2025. We'll collect we'll collect and analyze data. Budget submissions are due November 12th. Revenue forecast arrive in December. The governor's budget is released around December 19. Strategic plan recommendations will be presented to the board around this time for approval and eventual incorporation into the into the budget process. In phase three, phase three involves budget construction and this would happen between January and February 2026. In phase three, the superintendent finalizes initiatives by January 14th. The budget is presented, you know, is the presentation is completed by January 30th. The proposed budget is submitted to the board around February 4th. And then in phase four, it would be the review and approval process. Phase four includes public hearings and work sessions around March 18th. Department allocations on March 5th and 25th. Board and city council

036approval in April and May. Final amendments by May 27. Now we'll dive into budget parameters. There's a handout in your folder dealing with budget parameters. >> Handout three. It's more detailed, but we'll go by summary here. It these are our non-negotiable budget elements. Healthcare cost in your handout. It's four. Uh here it's about five items, but it could be shown. Uh we have state mandated uh SOQ, salary requirements, enrollment projections, compli compliance requirements, and existing contractual obligations. These must be funded before any discretionary spending in the budgeting process. Then we move on to propose strategic priorities for FY2627. Our strategic priorities fall into three categories. talent, recruitment and retention of licensed teachers, compensation and classification reform, and then academic and academics and instruction. In academics and instruction, we're looking for fine and visual visual arts

037investments, high quality teacher experiences, high quality student experiences, sorry, staff professional learning, chronic absenteeism initiatives to reduce operations. In operations, we're looking for departmental support, capital and technology improvement plans. Now we'd like to hear from you in the actual um work session on what we've presented. What I've presented basically is an outline of the budget development process. This is not the budget construction phase of the uh budget development process. This is a calendar of steps and things we need to do in order to build the budget, present it to the board so that it could be approved and then finally sent to the city for uh approval. So there's a calendar in your folder of a detailed calendar of steps. >> Handout is handout two. >> Okay. I'm sorry I don't have it on my

038notes, but thank you Miss Brown for highlighting that. That's the detailed calendar of you know series of steps, timelines, things to do so that we would be on target to complete our budget on time and uh appropriate accordingly. Do you want to hit any high you want to hit any major points for the timeline to call out for the board? Just a couple of things that you know you want to call their attention to. >> Okay. >> In the timeline for handout two. >> Yes. Um >> well before you do that I have a couple things. >> Um that was a pretty good outline. Uh uh my my my interest is that when you when you do the uh the due diligence and with each department uh how deep do we go? Do we go

039um u say for example the high school? Do we do the science department the the u the CTE department stuff like that and they give you the things that they have the things that they want or things that they need to get rid of and stuff like that so we can adjust the budget according to their needs. And uh how much input are we getting from those individual departments? Okay. So because I know we do the principles and the principles should be getting with their departments. So you won't have to do it yourself. So we they'll know what each each uh department uh have because they have some things they don't need and they have some things that they need to get and at the same time. So other places we can make cuts, other

040places we need to add money and and to to get it to where they want to develop it. And see that's that's my biggest concern when we set a budget because each principle just like what you did last year with Blandford, you added that we knew we were short of secretary and she added it the following year because once we do the budget, we can't bring them in because it's not in the budget. So now, so next year we worked on getting that secretary and they got that secretary for Planford. So we were fully staffed there. Those the type of things we need to know from the people that's working there, from those principles, assistant principles, directors that you have, stuff like that. We need that input from them because other than that, they just

041going to keep complaining about I don't have what I need. But we need to know what they need and we need to know if we doing something that we don't need to do, too. So that's why I wanted to know how deep do we go when we get that input because a lot of times the um um we don't we're not u getting the full picture and we get the full picture we can make a better better budget and we can uh it could be more uh we could be more proficient but we want the budget to be efficient. >> Absolutely. Um we have two phases of that. one part is the non salary piece and there's the salary piece. Those go through two different uh iterations. The if we've talked about salaries being the

042majority of our budget between 80 to 85 maybe close to 90% of our entire budget and we're going to be establishing baselines salary you know staffing baselines um before we do anything. That's going to be a needs assessment and we're going to determine what's needed based on SOQS and whether we need to spend on reducing class sizes and things like that. So for each unit we would do that and determine what the appropriate staffing levels are and that's going to be part of the baseline. What we've done is we've sent uh forms to all the budget holders, directors, principles for request, budget requests that are non-s salary or non-staffing related. for those they will be able to say what their needs are and uh through the process of um um consultations and meeting with them

043they'll be able to tell us what they need what their needs are and currently what we're giving them in the budget that they don't need. So to answer your question, that is being worked on, but it's going to be approached differently, non-salary and salary related. And and when those department heads when you give it to them or each assistant superintendent give it to them, they need to let you know um um how they could be more proficient to increase the efficiency because assignment of duties are very important to cut down on cost. And a lot of times we just keep adding people, but they can do a better job assigning who's responsible for what, different things like that to cut down on cost because they they have enough hours in the day to do what

044they have to do because that's all we're going to get to those hours. And uh the thing is, but they they they need to let you know how they can be more proficient, >> okay, >> to to help us efficient. >> Absolutely. This is going to be a consultative process. What we've had in the past has just been a top- down process where we tell them this is what you're going to get and you you're stuck with it. The problem with that is throughout the year we're going to be finding situations where they need extra and they don't have it in their budget. So they keep coming back to us to figure that out. But with this consultative and collaborative process, we can eliminate majority of that in the process so that we just deal

045with two exceptions throughout the fiscal year. >> And that you call justif. >> Yes, Mr. Pierce. >> Um just one other thing and what's interesting is our timelines. We have time. >> Yes, this is ours and it's not fixed. you can look at it and provide feedback on whether we need to incorporate things in there. It's >> to to kind of tag in on what Mr. M is alluding to for those departments. Do they have a suspense timeline? >> I I I know you said you gave them the document. >> Yes. >> But did they have a suspense timeline as well? >> Yes, >> they do. >> They they have a timeline to return that. November 12th, I think, is when they would return that back to us. >> That one's down. >> Yes. Budget

046materials are due back to >> Department of Finance. November. >> We're going to post these on as well while you're talking. >> All right. >> So, okay. So, that's for everybody. >> Yes. >> And that's what I'm asking because I mean this is the high level portion of it. However, when we started talking about our, you know, in the division and our department, yada yada yada, that type of thing, I was wondering if it was just that specific so that they could get it back to you in time enough for you to to manage that enough so that we can get that. >> Yes. If we get this back by November 12th, we've told them don't wait till November 12th. Some of them don't have a lot and we the sooner we get it the

047you know we could begin the processing and data analysis around it and um November 12th would put us right into uh ahead of schedule in fact to be able to uh get things in December we will get the governor's budget introduced we could start having projections >> okay >> I'm sorry we we don't have it projected yes Okay. Thanks. >> Oh, no. We're just going to pull up as we're talking through the timeline and all the handouts. Um, we're just reminded that we needed to have these up for the public to be able to see the different handouts. And so, we included the presentation, but inadvertently didn't include the handouts so that we needed to put them on board docs and we needed to put them up. So, Mr. Pritchette was reminding. So, if you

048all could pull up the timeline just so that the community can see the timeline that the board is looking at and giving feedback on. This is the timeline for our budget development process for this 26 27. Does everybody have the they have it now so they're going to bring it up? Okay, that' be perfect. And while we're waiting, thank you so very much. Perfect timing. That is the the the timeline that for handout number two. Um Dr. Greywood, if you want to call the community and the board to attention to any couple of different things you want to just highlight, not everything, but just the major things you want to bring forward about this timeline that we presented. >> Okay. Um we anticipate that in December around the 19th the governor's budget will be introduced.

049Um prior to that September 30th enrollment numbers were due to VDOE which we've submitted. Enrollment numbers are what revenues are based off of and we could do projections based on that. And um in January there'll be general assembly budget adjustments with the new bianial and possibility that there would be a new governor and that governor could be from a different party that could impact adjustments and amendments and that could you know delay or uh cause some adjustments in the budget uh revenue uh projected revenue. And the general assembly would adopt the new budget in March. >> Yes, >> this scroll up a little bit. Thank you. >> Okay. And in March, we're anticipating a public hearing on the budget. Last time we did it was around March or March 18. So there'll be a public

050hearing on the budget. We'll also have a walk session which we did last year on the budget. The um approval of the budget is going to be in April and we'll present it to city council at a later determined date. It's going to be a joint uh collaboration between the board and the city to determine the date. And last year um this is not incorporated into this calendar. I remember the city council asking specifically that they should be uh 2 by twos and I don't know if that's to the discretion of the board or not but they would want some consultation on the budget before it's presented >> and Dr. Greywood I think and handout four handout 4 a >> miss wants to say something. Okay, sorry. I was going to leave it. Good evening,

051Board Chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Pierce, Board Members, Superintendent Brown, Petersburg community. Um, I just wanted to inform you that I have been meeting with the budget holders monthly. Um we did a training the week of October 3rd um actually September 29th through October 3rd and we went through the budget process and they also have um my information. So we have been meeting with them after they've received their budget worksheets so that they're able to go through and put in the necessary um adjustments to their budget and request for fiscal 27. So we have been um meeting and speaking during this process >> and and miss God just want to make sure that I'm clear that before the budget process that people typically um and I could be wrong. I just want to make sure that

052I'm correct. historically they have had a budget but looking at that budget beforehand and then like traditionally going to the CFO saying hey I need X Y and Z versus being very thoughtful about here's what I need for this year figuring out how it aligns to the goals so that people are just not adding stuff to a budget that doesn't have anything to do with the alignment of whether we're trying to increase and be more efficient if we're trying to attack if we're focusing on chronic absenteeism everybody has a has a a goal in that and they're working on that. And so I understand that now that the budget holders are becoming more accountable for knowing their budget, understanding their budget, and not calling for back of lack of a better word, I want to

053buy this or I need that and we're scrambling in the general budget to try to find money because if it's not in your budget and this is the time that you can sit down and do your needs assessment and actually say, "I need X." and we can look at it and say, "Okay, we can build that into the budget this year." Even if you don't get it all, you might get it all some of it in 2627. You may get the rest in 2728. But you're thoughtful on the front end and you actually know what you're proposing for your budget, whether you get all of it depending on because the pie is the pie is the pie, right? Um, is that correct? And so now they're having a better understanding of how are we building

054the budget versus here's your budget, here's how much much money you have, you can spend it and if you don't have enough in there, we're going to find the money elsewhere. That's not what we're doing at this point. Right. >> Exactly. You're exactly right. Thank you, Superintendent Brown. Um and we also make sure that we attach the the board goals um to their sheet. So if they asked for an increase, they had to attach it to an actual board goal and say what priority it was. if it was a high, medium or low priority. Um, we also gave them opportunity at the bottom of the sheet to be more detailed. I know that was one of the questions that was asked um earlier so that when they do do their needs assessment and they meet

055with their departments within their either within the department or within the school, they're able to detail that at the bottom of the sheet. once they turn the sheets in by November 12th, I will be meeting with them again just to make sure that before it gets to the cabinet and Superintendent Brown that everything is detailed out and there are no questions um that would need to be asked before it gets to the next stage. >> Absolutely. And that stage will be the entire cabinet. We'll all be looking at everybody's um sheet that says here's my wish list, right? And we may actually have them come in and talk to us about so tell me why you're asking for this. what is the alignment and what we're trying to accomplish before we put together a budget.

056So, as we talk about um priorities today and I want to speaking of that relates to schools, you'll see in your handout in another handout which is the SOQ sheet and this tells you how we have staffing for our schools. So when people are asking for more people or asking for additional you know additions where are you with the SOQs and are you already over this which in a lot of our schools you probably are over this and how are you using these people that Mr. Brown has asked a thousand times how are you using these people? Um because sometimes we're not um we're not you know we have people but our application of what they're doing to be able to get us the outcomes that we need. And so this is another sheet that

057we're using. So, I just want to make sure that everyone hears that we are really trying to be very intentional about this budget because we we're trying to get to what the code says is asking for a um needs-based budget versus what we've gotten in the past is here you go Petersburg, here's your 131 12 million, spend your 12 million, how you gonna spend it, but that's all you're getting. versus we need 13.5 million so we can pay for things for kids to be whatever it is whatever we need that and we need to fund that based on the needs and here's our data to support that's what we're trying to get to with the budget but this is just our first step >> just just to add to what you said on that handout

058that's how we're funded and if we go anything above what is being funded in the formula that has to come from somewhere. We need to uh fund it from local funds or anything like that. So um if we overstaffed in any area it's coming from local funds and that diminishes our ability to uh fund local initiatives initiatives of the superintendent board goals that we have. So uh we really need to keep an eye on that and make sure we're efficient and not going too overboard on the staffing. uh ratios, >> but if we do, we have to use federal dollars if we can, long as it's not supplanting. Is that correct? >> Yes. And um we just need to um on some of them, those are board goals to reduce class sizes in certain categories.

059We know about them, but we need to put it up front in the budget and say this is how much it's going to cost us to do that type of initiative. But where it happens without planning, then it creeps up and it cost us money on some initiatives that we put together. We're going to lose. We're going to be funding it and it's going to come from uh funds that we're targeted for special initiatives. And Dr. Greywood and Miss Brown and board members, I'd like to make a suggestion. I noticed that you've only given us one work session and I noticed that February the 4th the superintendent is going to present her proposed FY27 budget to the school board and I would recommend to the board that on February the 18th that that becomes a

060work session. >> Okay. >> Where we would as a board can discuss what the superintendent has presented to us at our next meeting >> because we would need we need more than one work session. Okay. And also down where you have um Miss Scarbo, you have city council supervisors. If you could remove the word supervisors. >> Sorry, >> I thought I deleted that. >> Sorry, that's my fault. Board members, are you okay with adding February the 18th as a work session? The superintendent presents her budget to the board on February the 4th. So that next meeting would be a work. >> Great idea. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lundy. Dr. Greywood. >> Yes, sir. You know, how long does it take you with your grants and reimbursements? Um, currently we have a backlog of uh reimbursements.

061We've done the majority of them. I haven't confirmed this, but I think we're caught up. Usually, it should be between 30 to 45 days of reimbursements. You should be able to reimburse within 30 days and get paid within 45 days. We're beyond that. And my ideal is for us to be in a state where within 45 days of expending something. We've submitted that reimbursement to VDOE and we've received the money but we're beyond that 45 day limit. And the ideal for me is between 30 to 45 days. >> Thank you. Yes. And I'm sorry I forgot to mention also at our November 5th meeting if you could bring your those um calendar back for board approval. >> Okay. The finalized, >> right? >> Okay. We'll add that additional uh work session in the calendar. Thank

062you. Thank you. Any more questions? Not on handout two, I don't believe. No, you go with handout two. That's the calendar. Yes. Thank you. >> No, you're not done. We're talking No, we're talking about handouts. Sorry. >> I wasn't dismissed. I'm sorry. >> It's our board work session. >> So, as we're moving on to the next >> just started. So we're moving to the So we've gone over the um so we have the budget parameters handout handout that will be handout number three but it's several pages >> budget parameters >> the budget parameters and so we want to call the board's attention if we can bring up the budget parameters page um pages one two three four it's five pages of handout number three and so this talks about the budget parameters These are the

063non-negotiable required elements that must be included in our school division budget. So we want to make sure that everyone is clear on those parameters and Dr. Greywood can go over the four core budget parameters piece so that they can bring up that handout. Okay. And they can refresh. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So when we talk of uh budget parameters, these are required elements that must be included in every school division budget. We have revenue projections. Um these include state funding, uh local appropriation, federal grants, and um these are non-negotiable because we cannot spend money we don't have. Revenue determines budget ceiling and these must be based on confirmed sources. um for the FY2627 um enrollment enrollment projections affect state if we have more enrollment we'll have more money from the state less enrollment equals less

064uh revenue uh city's fiscal capacity question I just I wanted to check to make sure so the community that are logged on they're unable to see these documents cuz I I just have I wanted to check to make sure all I'm seeing is us sitting here. >> Miss, I'm sorry. The question is that the community cannot see the documents. >> So, they can go along. they can because that was the whole intention that the community cannot see the documents as they >> they cannot see those documents because we're having to live via the way we're set up now location. >> Would it be available after on the uh YouTube channel? >> Yes. >> Okay. Can we show them the board docs um website and then show everyone how to get to the board docs so

065they can see them as They're going along since we can't at this moment. >> If we could pull up. Go ahead. >> But the screen it's going to be the same thing as what's being shown. We can show them as she said how to get to board and post it for later access and post them in boards. >> So, can we pull up board docs now on the screen over there? Can we log into board docs and show everyone how to get to the board docs and where the handouts are? Not at this moment. >> Okay, got it. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. But so they are on board docs and so if you pull up board docs under the handouts if the community everyone that's watching thank you for watching. If you want to

066see these individual handouts you can go into the board docs is exactly where you can find the actual presentation to this um work session. The documents are there as well. So, you can pull that and follow along and we'll make sure that we call out each handout so that as you're looking online, you'll be able to cross reference with what you're what you're hearing that we're talking about and what's actually up posted on the um board docs um website. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, Davis has already posted. >> Okay. And so our so our community that's listening, if you look in the board docs, we're looking at um handout number three, which are the budget parameters. And that is that consists of about five pages. >> Okay. And on page one, what we're basically

067saying is that we have four core budget parameters. One of them is revenue projections. revenue projections are based on state funding and uh SOQ formulas and uh we can't do anything about that based on that that determines how much money in revenue we'll be receiving. >> The second one is in page two salary and compensation. Uh for our budget between 85 to 90% of our total budget uh is spent on uh compensation. Um all All salaries, statemandated increases, step longevity payments and substitute costs. These determine how much we need to spend on salary. We have basically no control on that. Uh employee benefits too. Uh number three, these include health insurance, VRS contributions, um FICER, workers compensation and these these pretty much predetermined and impact our ability to uh to budget. Um number four is

068SOQ compliance. Um we have minimum staffing ratios, required instructional uh support positions, statemandated services and for FY 2627 enrollment shifts will impact this. New state mandates would impact and >> unless you want it like this >> accreditation standards there's a new term I hate to use the old term but I'm not an academic I rely on the uh teaching staff to help me with that but there are some accredit accreditation standards that would impact uh budgeting and it would cost on the expense side um on the budget site. If you look at page three where it says how parameters shape the budget. This is really critical that we understand this. It says uh we calculate the budget parameters. These are the required costs. We identify revenue. These are available resources. Then we allocate remaining funds.

069basically protect revenues based on SOQ's funding formula and all that. We determine what the um budget parameters are, exclude that from the revenues. Then whatever remains is what we allocate to board priorities. And when we do that, anything that impacts uh the uh parameters whether it goes up or down would determine what remains on the bottom that we can apply to board priorities and superintendent priorities. So that's the basic budgeting process. And then when we go to page four, there are questions for board discussion. These are just food for thought things we we we should think about as we budget and uh build our budget. Uh some of it resolve what assumptions should we be making fun Are you sure? Martin. I'll switch. It's always I'll 51. >> You hear me? >> 51. >> Huh?

070Thank you team. You kicked the >> It was your shoes. The next time you go to the restroom, you need to take your shoes off. I can't read. We apologize for the technical difficulty, but I believe we're back live. >> Okay, we're good to go. All right. Um, I'll go back to page three. And what we had on page three is just the budget sequence and I basically said we calculate the parameters, we identify revenue sources and we allocate the remaining funds to board priorities and superintendent priorities. Um, typically our budget, um, salaries and benefits take up 85 to 90% of our budget. Uh, SOQ compliance is key. Uh, and basically whatever revenue we get sets the ceiling for what we can do within our budget. We can't go past the budget u budgeted revenues.

071And in page four, um, we're talking about just food for thought questions that we could talk about as we, uh, develop the budget. Um, basically, we talk about things like what assumptions should we make about city funding? Are they going to give us the same level of funding from last year? Is it going to be more or less? How do we balance recruitment with fiscal limits? We know we need to recruit and we know we are limited in the amount of revenue we have. But how do we balance those two to make sure we get uh we get um uh goals accomplished? Um in terms of benefits, how do we prepare for rising insurance costs? Uh can we manage benefit costs without reducing quality on the SOQ compliance? Where do we exceed SOQS and should

072we continue? Um how do we how do enrollment shifts affect staffing needs? Um in the next 5 years enrollment going to change drastically here. So we're doing fiveear projections of enrollment in order to start projecting uh our future uh budgets. So, more to come on that. And in page five, um, we're just discussing how to manage parameters. If they go up, what do we do? If they go down, how do how does that impact the budget overall? Because if uh parameters go up, which means we have less money to spend on board priorities or superintendent priorities. If they go down, that means we have more money to spend on initiatives. Um, the key takeaways here, budget parameters define our legal and operational flaw. Everything else is a strategic choice about how best to serve Petersburg

073students. That's it for that handout. Any questions? >> Any questions for board members? No questions. >> So, have we done all the handouts? >> Yes. The only one we've not done is the SOQs, which we've covered in the other handouts. is a little technical and yeah, there's a cheat sheet just for reference guides on how many what class sizes should be in each grade level. And uh there's something behind it where it, you know, outlines it and gives you a little bit of an idea of where we are relative to where we need to be on most of them where over uh the uh the ratios. But um as we go along during the course of the year certain things change and uh we need to adjust but we always incorporate that in the budget.

074>> So just for clarification purposes for the SOQs. So of course these are what is funded >> through our dollars through our local dollars. This is what's funded from the from the state. Yes. And so anything over that which often times in school divisions everywhere you're never going to just deal with just the basics because these are just the basics. If we know we have a greater need in our schools or any schools across the Commonwealth or anywhere in the country, you're going to always have more. We just would need we just pay for it out of our local dollars and not what's funded to us. And if you look at one of those pages behind the cheat sheet, we have a class size reduction grant to reduce in a certain category of, you know,

075uh, grades and that too, we may get a grant to reduce that could supplement whatever we're doing. >> Great. Because I think historically, um, before just as an example, if you look at assistant principles, um, when I first came last year, I remember there were assistant principles at other schools, there were more than one. And so the SOQ's say that you get a assistant principal at a certain number. And so as I understood before, I understood historically Petersburg had given additional APS, but that was through ESSER dollars. And once those funds went away, we went back to the SOQ. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. That's what I understand when I first came. And so, but we are now at our SOQ funding source. So we're not paying for more at this moment. Just

076wanted to clarify. anything over we would have to fund locally. >> All right. So that so yeah is anyway when we when we go through this budget can you share with us because we are over SOQ in a lot of positions. So, can you share with us the positions and how much the total cost we are over? I think it would No, because it'd be great to share it with our legislators. We we can do an analysis on that. Um, we're currently cleaning up our staffing and uh there's a lot of work that uh Dr. Lane has done on that. Um, that's the next phase of the uh budget development process. We have a series of meetings to level set. She's cleaned up position control which was virtually non-existent. >> And when that data is

077cleaned up, we'll be able to produce some of that reporting that you have. We'll look at SOQs and we'll figure out where we're over, where we're under, and determine how much it's going to cost and u report that back to the board. >> Okay. >> We got the request correct. Mr. Can you say it one more time? We need to give you um >> the actual you know um you stated in the SOQ we where we are meeting in SQ that they told us that we also over in in some area. So which positions are we over? How many are we over and what is the total cost that we are paying out of local because we're over. >> Okay. Thank you for clarification. Okay. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. So, Dr. Greywood,

078so um I guess that's the board reference guy. Did you go over that one already? Um that was just the presentation itself and it's a reference guide based on just the presentation I went over. >> Okay, perfect. So at this point um can we please move to some of the proposed strategic priorities? These are priorities that I met with the um senior cabinet team and brainstormed and looked at where we are. That is slide number 12. And so we want to be able to give the board an opportunity to give feedback on, you know, are there things that we should be thinking about? >> Miss Proctor had a question. I apologize. >> Sorry in in here somewhere and I I read it, but I can't find it at the moment, but it was something we

079should be considering. Um, and that is um recruitment versus what was the statement say? >> Pardon? attention. >> I think maybe it was something like that. And someone had raised that maybe um in terms of filling some positions where we may have had difficulty, we could look at um and I don't know if these were people in certain programs that we currently have who are students maybe at the Virginia State in I think you you were raising that. Do you want to hear it? >> Thank you. But thank you um board member Proctor and um board members. Um I think that was um was that the conversation around for example this two conversations I think one of them was around the fact that we have students that are coming in to our schools each week

080um you know doing um observations doing practicum practicum experiences you know in education they're in the school of education at Virginia State and so they're coming in three days a week to get those practicum hours and so because of the fact that we are always hiring for long-term subs and other positions that is there a way for them to come in and serve in some of the capacity of a resident teacher, a long-term sub, something where they're already there, you know, as they get those hours. Is there a way to leverage those um students who are coming into our schools anyway, 3 days a week? Is there a way to use them, you know, as an opportunity to fill some of um the vacancies that we have and some of the long-term stuff? They can

081get paid. They can also help us out. and they're learning about the teaching process as students. And so I think that was one um conversation that was raised um with my conversation with the board. Is that is that what you were referencing? >> And specifically I think that we're talking about math and science. >> Absolutely. And so also um thank you board member Proctor. Another part of that conversation was around leveraging teachers that we already have in the in the division. For example, we have PE teachers who if you become a PE teacher from the conversation, they're going to take a lot of courses around pro possibly anatomy, you know, biology, all of those things. physiology. If you're going to teach um physical education that maybe we could use them to leverage when we have

082vacancies in science, those, you know, portions of science that they could teach. They might have um even more expertise from their training that could support, you know, versus just, you know, a long-term sum who may not have that expertise. And so that was one of the the the conversations around how to leverage and maybe you know giving them some additional you know um stipens something where we could leverage them to help fill the gaps that we have around some of the STEM some of the science that the conversation and there was one other thing that I thought was interesting with regard to athletics is um they because they're coaching um or you know they're around that field of coaching um probably have good would likely have u good classroom management which you know that is

083real important in a classroom. >> Absolutely. So leveraging them um Dr. Lane. So those are strategies that we kind of discussed that we could leverage that we already have at our fingertips and then we can figure out how to integrate that and use what we have to support our vacancies and support when we have transitions of staff that we could fill in immediately while we're waiting to fill them. We could leverage students. We could leverage coaches who already know how to manage kids and be able to work with them in an environment and how to leverage their expertise around some of the science content. Okay, gotcha. Okay, thank you. Um, and so now we'd like to move to slide 12 of the presentation. So we go back to one slide. So again, this is um

084Thank you so much. All right, slide number 12. And so I wanted to bring the boards call the board's attention to and our community attention to some of the priorities that we talked through as a senior cabinet based upon some of the um things that we know um at this at this point of the work. And so wanted to bring these which is why we said proposed initiatives and priorities for the 2627 budget. And so starting with what we proposed at this point is just for um tal we're focusing on talent because we know talent is very important. So, recruitment and retention of licensed teachers, you know, continuing that focus um around funding that. And then, of course, teacher staff compensation classification because we know we will be having our recommendations coming up. They'll be

085wrapping up the comp and class study for Petersburg. And so, that'll come forward with some recommendations. And so, we need to think about that as we're building the budget. And are we going to prioritize that? Not all at once, of course, but how do we look at potentially phasing, but we have to think about how do we want to attack compensation and classification once we get those recommendations because it'll be before we even get into more of the budget process. I want to lift that. Uh so that was around talent that we're proposing and then academics and instruction, fine arts, visual arts program investments and that is focused on you know as part of our vision of transforming opportunities and learning um for our students. And so, you know, it is really important, for example,

086that we talk about in athletics that we want to have a pipeline. And so, for me as a superintendent, I also want to look at our students who are our creatives and they have an opportunity to have those fine arts. And so, for example, do we have a pipeline from elementary, middle to high school, which is the vision for athletics. Do we have that same vision for fine arts and for visual arts? And so for example, we have dance at the middle school, but we don't have dance at the high school. So students who are there, that is not a pipeline for dance at the high school. And so that's important as to me as superintendent. And then the other piece is we look at our fabulous band that performs everywhere. What does that pipeline

087look like? Again, the same focus we put on athletics last year, looking at elementary, middle, and high school, a pipeline for um band, and a pipeline for orchestra because we have a symphony here in Petersburg that our kids can get experience with, but we've got to give our kids starting in elementary school exposure. And that could be, you know, and so we have some ideas around that. And we know over time it could just be phase one. We start with phase one of building out that program because it doesn't happen in one one budget cycle, but we commit to it if we say and we know we want to offer because like to offer fine arts, build up our band pieces so that we build our high school band program even more, but we do

088middle school and we do elementary school at some level and we provide kids with band orchestra at fourth and fifth. fifth grade because then you build it and it happens over time but you start. So that's where that's it's also with our visual arts. So that is what I mean by fine arts and visual arts program investments that we are going to build a pipeline for athletics and for the arts in Petersburg city public schools. So that's a a focus. Next one is our high quality student experiences and that is during and after school. I think Mr. Bridget just asked the question about field trips for our kids. And so we want to make sure that we can provide kids with all the tools they need during school to have those experiences, but also after

089school. And that includes all the costs related to that so that we can make sure that we can give our kids those experiences without having barriers to it. That's just high level right now. and then continue to support our staff professional learning that we can build the capacity of our staff all of them so that we can make sure that we continue to move and improve our practices so we can continue to get better and better and better for our kids in Petersburg. So that's the academics um focus for this budget. Um chronic absenteeism is one of our goals is to reduce chronic absenteeism and we need to you know we have to invest in making sure that we can put things in place to help that. And I know that there's been some things

090that have happened over the years that really really helped reduce it. And so this is where we lean in and say we want to continue to invest in chronic absentism and doing some things, you know, better reinventing some of the things and bringing some of the things back. Just wanted just wanted to lift that. Um and then our operations department support. We know we need more operations support on the ground. We know that we have a wonderful workforce, but people have been working in our in our division for years and they can go and say I can go and rest and go home and we've got to be able to add more support on the ground to do this work. And so wanted to lift that as well, our operations department. And then of course

091just asking the board to consider continuing the work for our capital improvement plan. We started this past year capital improvement and technology improvement so that we can continue to move that work. And so that's some of the these are the priorities that we kind of um u came up with through my conversations with cabinet and taking a look at a division and kind of the vision of where we're trying to go and just wanted to put these out for the board and then now for you all to weigh in provide feedback things we need to be thinking about adding all of that. So just wanted to bring those proposed areas that we thought moving forward for this one budget it could be. >> Thank you board members. Board members, you want to chime in? Miss

092Tucker, >> thank you so much for that. I actually do have a question. So, when we talk about the fine arts and visual arts program, is this going to making sure that we get instruments >> in the elementary schools as well as the middle schools? >> That's exactly correct. Yes, ma'am. We That's exactly what I mean by program investments. That's elementary and middle school um instruments and the um upkeep of the instruments. all the things related to that so that we can have storage, we can have the the contracts in place for that. We also have to have um just like we had um this past um budget, we invested in a counseling coordinator, we have to have a person who's going to oversee this work for for this for our fine arts um vision.

093We have to have that one person that's going to help oversee it so we can make sure it go it happens the way it's supposed to happen. Um, so that's including that and including the instruments um, for our kids and it's also including some of the experiences that we want them to have as we build this program out. Um, and again, like I said, we can phase it in, but we got to start. >> So, would this also incorporate or include a curriculum for um, fine arts as well as visual arts? >> Absolutely. So, we'll first look at Mr. Brown shaking his head. Yes, cuz we have we have SOS and curriculum that support. So, we would have to purchase additional curriculum and we would have like the standards that here's what kids should be

094learning, right? Because we offer visual arts now in Petersburg, right? We have a vacancy here or there for, you know, for uh visual arts. We have that. Is that correct, Dr. Lane? We have that. Um so we do offer visual arts but you know what else in addition to that do we offer that we see um you know we have to put money into that but we see our performing arts a lot right and so we can't just depend on just our wonderful high school to do that. We've got to we've talked about this last year with athletics. We got to get our kids involved and give them experiences and opportunities. And so we went that forward we're doing that and we're going to build it. You'll hear about that when we do our athletics

095presentation coming up um in the next couple of board meetings. But we got to do that for fine arts for the kids that are your creatives. Um and there are kids that for me I just want to see our elementary kids with a violin, a cello with the trumpet with a clarinet in fourth and fifth grade. And then you go to the middle school and you have a robust middle school program that's just for the middle school and they play there and then they get into there. and they go to Virginia State, they go to Northfor State, they go all these other places and they play and they get scholarships just like you get scholarships through basketball, football, soccer, and all these other things, right? And so that's exactly um to answer your question. Yes,

096ma'am. >> Thank you. >> And we offer more scholarships in Bane >> than Little State. That thing had been on the corner for a long time that tow didn't want to wash it up. But anyway, I I I wanted to say one thing. I didn't have a my mother didn't have anybody to keep me, but they sent me to Virginia State to play in an instrument trumpet and clarinet. And so what we did, we had a theater program. It was a very good gentleman, Mr. Clayton T. Richardson. And when he came in there, they would bring the students to the elementary schools. And from the elementary schools, they would go to the next level to the middle school. Then when I began to play, I stopped playing in Peabody and then I went to Petersburg

097High and played also. So that fetal situation really does work, but we should have gotten that music >> in first and we didn't put that in at that at that particular time. But Mr. David Chambers, who's musically inclined, he wants to help Mr. Bill McGee of another musical genius. He wants to help >> and so I hope that's something we can lean on. >> Oh, absolutely. I just got I thank you so very much um for that. I'm so glad to know that we are both um fellow clarinetist because I am a clarinetist as well and so I um yeah I played a little bit in college as well. I played all the way from, you know, I didn't have the experience of the elementary school, but I was a principal of a elementary school

098where they had we had fourth and fifth grade orchestra and band and kids got to choose, right? And so it built up the middle school. Like I said, I have a lot of people. So I love those names. If we decide to fund that, then we have the people to come in to work with our kids, you know, weekly, you know, we can get people to come in weekly and teach them how to play these instruments at for and I can imagine our fourth and fifth graders who don't come to school, they will come to school for that. They will have an instrument that they get on the bus with >> or something else and they will actually be involved in school in a way. That's my vision. Just like we want them to play

099sports, right? So, I'm asking for, you know, just as a priority. So, and like I said, I've gotten two names from you. I got another name that I was given um recently of another person that that's interested that we're going to be reaching out to. So, if we bring that forward, every time I go to the the symphony, people always reach out to me and say, "Hey, we'd love to do something for Petersburg City Public Schools." But you got to have the avenue to be able to do it. Our kids should be able to go to the Petersburg Symphony, right? I'd love to see our kids play with the symphony, right? I'd love to see us have a dance class at the high school because we got one at Vernon John's, but once they leave,

100what else are they doing? And so, we need that. So, that's just one position. We're not talking about 50 people. We're talking about one dance position at the high school that just a continuation. So, I just wanted to bring you all some highlevel things um to say that these are things I would like to have the priorities be focused on for this year and get you all's feedback and say, you know, what are we missing? What do we need to pivot? So, thank you for that. Jamblas, Clayton, and I have another name. Any other questions? >> Just a comment, Mr. I know we've uh been working on um increasing our staff and operations for a number of years and uh as we move forward um the ideal situation would be to have a multicraft person

101at each one of our schools because right now we move a lot of people around and they go from school to school. So if you have a multicraft person at each school, one that can change light bulbs because that's always need to be done and unplug a toilet, fix a light switch, a receptacle. So as we increase our budget, I hope down the road that would be our plan to get a multicraft person at each one of our schools so that we don't have to move our personnel all across Petersburg. You know, somebody has a flood, we got to stop doing this and take them over there and do that, then they got to go back. So that would be the ideal situation. So as we work on our budget, I think that would be

102a good goal for us to keep in mind. >> Okay, that's great. And I think um thank you for that um board member Dansson. So that is something do we phase in? So do we say this year we take these schools and we put a I hear it's called kind of like a mechanic is what I'm accustomed to. It's like a building mechanic is what I'm accustomed to when I was a principal. That person did all those things. And so is it that we start with phase one and we take these schools and we figure out which school has the highest number of work orders and we put them in those three schools for the first year and then we add the next layer because no budget cycle because again the budget pies the pie

103is the pie. And so is it that we start these three schools get a mechanic first and the next year we pay for three more or we do two this year I mean next year and then we add two the next year. So we phase it in so that we know that those two schools are taken care of and then these other what the other ones will still have to kind of help but at least those two schools we're not pulling to there. So what I hear is building out support for those on the ground so mechanic for um schools. Perfect. >> Mr. Dr. Mox Phillips is also interested in helping us. He was the band director at Prairie View and he's also an alumni of uh Pittsburgh High and uh Virginia State. So he's

104retired now back in Peaceburg and he's willing to help us with our fine arts program. >> That is perfect. So we already have three people that can come in and um you know and I you know and I'll just say this um that you know if we are able to fund it you know here's where I stand on the instruments. I think we purchased it, but I also think that you, you know, parents, you know, I I believe that you tell parents that, you know, they were they're partners in that. They got to help us take care of them. They got to help us, you know, the kids will have take pride and this is your instrument, right? You're you're basically borrowing it for Petersburg because you got to save it for the next. So

105I just feel like that I think that it would create a sense of excitement and then you've got three members already who would come in have so much experience to help because we would have to have a person over it and we would have to have a band and orchestra person because you know our elementary schools would share right because you won't have you know they would share. So if you get two people, you have a band orchestra person at two elementary and a band orchestra person at the elementary and that's that's two people that you find because you can find people who can do both. Um and then you have the middle school and then you have the high school that has instruments but it's still like I talked to I went over to

106um Blandford and I talked to the band director at Blamford and he said to me that you know we got to share instruments and all of that and we got to you know it's never enough. kids are sitting in the back and so they don't really get the experience of understanding the keys. And I saw him teaching, you know, the the notes. And so I just think that u it would just I think it would help with our absenteeism. I think kids would feel a sense of things changing. And again, we're trying to transform opportunities. You know what I'm saying? That's we're trying to change opportunities and learning and that will do that. So that's great. We already have three people. So if you know if the board chooses to support that piece then we

107have three people already that we can but we can reach out to them like I'll reach out to like Mr. Phillips and Dr. Phillips and others and say, "Hey, what do we need to be thinking about? I propose this to the board. What should we be thinking about that we haven't thought about as we prepare to ask the board for funding to this program and ask us as we try to structure it out? They could be thought partners for us as we build it out. So, they could be on the front end and not just come in with our kids, but kind of say, "Hey, you want to think about this? You want to think about that?" And I think the symphony would definitely help us. Um I I feel that they would that they

108would come in and help you know as we introduce to parents. So that's great. And then like you said on the ground and that's working with Mr. Martinez if we fund it because we know we need operation support. We start we start in phases because we don't have money for everything. These schools are going to get a mechanic and they are the ones that can do all those things for those schools and the next year we'll add on and add on but it's like a three-year process which is a fair Okay. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Go back to the next slide. Talks about the priorities really quickly. I was just clarifying um that we're going to be talking about after school activities and during school and we have to pay for things like

109transportation. We got to pay for all the things. We need to be planning upfront so we're not trying to ask Dr. Greywood to look into a budget that's already applotted for and try to find money. So that's why I put that during and after school experiences and support. So, those are some of the priorities that I wanted to propose tonight and wanted to get your feedback if you wanted to add additional things. I have great feedback already. Dr. Greywood is listening and we'll when we come back to get to have our session, it'll show exactly what that looks like. So, we're talking about a teacher for teaching band and orchestra, another, you know, teacher, two teachers, a person, and we're talking about a mechanic. So, you'll see that in the the the the things that

110we asked for that are more specific, but these are just the priorities and wanted to make sure that we didn't miss any priorities, that the board saw that we missed any priorities for this next year. Um, or are these things that you think about that these are the directions that we're going and remembering we're building a strategic plan. But for the life of me, I cannot say from my experience that you're not going to have a strategic plan that focuses on talent, recruiting people, retaining people. I don't see a school, you know, I don't see that. I don't see you not going to have a strategic plan that focuses on academic outcomes. I don't see that. So, we try, you know, it may look different, but your act because your strategic plan will talk about

111what are we going to do over those five years, and you'll have things that you have to fund for us to reach our goals. I can't imagine it not talking about our kids and it can't I can't imagine if Petersburg it not talking about our infrastructural facilities not in a Petersburg. So you know those things are not far off but our strategic plan will be very focused and our goals will be very focused but these are the things now today that I that I that I think as superintendent we should be leaning in on again like I said we're building a pipeline for for for athletics. That's what our work is now. And so it's time to look at our other parts of our kids that need that that that that need to feel like

112this is a place where they can get all they need >> or get more of what they need. >> Go ahead, Mr. Tuck. I'll >> No, you're saying after you. >> So just to be clear to have all of these student experience that is focusing on before and after. Well, we know before but um activity bus um for our students >> that is included in the after school experiences and support. >> Yes. Okay. >> That's what that is. And so like I said, this is high level. So what we'll do is because we'll be asking city council for more money. >> Right. But so we have during we're going to have experiences that we have to pay for that kids need to go to that we're going to pay for. But we also if there

113are things after school from what I've heard if there are things after school that we have to make sure is there we got to put it in the budget because we don't have it it's not lying around in our budget and we got to ask you know again go and say hey it's a needsbased budget so a needsbased budget means we need this and so um that's what that would be a part of that um as we continue to research what that looks like but that's what that is that's what I put this is high level we'll get into the weeds as we get closer but it's during and afterchool experiences for our kids so that we can say we got that taken care of because typically when I'm asked about things I'm like okay

114we got to see if we have it in the budget it's you know in the middle of the year but this is ahead of everything so we can be thoughtful and plan through it but that's yes and I did want to say one last thing I think it is um very important that we um highlight the fact that you know we've moved up when it comes to athletics but we are not just focused on athletics we are focused on academics we are focused on career breaking away. I focus on instruction and just, you know, the allaround student, not just one specific, the whole child. And I think that is important um, you know, for the audience to understand like we are not just focused on athletics. >> And guess what? And those are things I've

115seen in a strategic plan, >> right? A strategic plan can call out the whole child and all of your initiatives over the five years goes into supporting the enhancement of the whole child. That's something that could come out in the in the strategic plan. Like I said, I'll be interested to see, but we get to pick our buckets and if the whole child is something that we focus on, then that'll be one of our tenants of our strategic plan. So, just I'm good. >> Yes. Yes, I'm good. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, Dr. Greywood. Okay. >> Um for next steps, uh we'll incorporate board feedback and we'll begin the detailed budget development uh that starts in October. We'll provide updates to board and we'll conduct community engagement activities and once approved we'll incorporate division

116strategic plan initiatives in the budget process. And thank you all. This has been great. Um our goal in finance is to uh be transparent about the budget development process with the board and the entire division so that this becomes a document that we all share together and own and are invested in. Thank you. Thank you. And Miss Brley just want to add at the last board meeting hopefully you you will incorporate that. I put it out to the board members that um to let us see what it looks like to lower the teach student teacher ratio in the class. >> Okay. Make sure that it's inade to lower because and the only reason I asked because I don't know if it's true or not. Um, a parent shared with me last night that she decided

117not to put her child at Blandford because she went to orientation and she asked for the student teacher teacher ratio and they told her it was 1 to 35. That's what someone told her at Bford. So, she put her child in a private school on 460. They have a new school. You you know about it. >> Yeah. >> Somebody at Blandford told the parent that and she did not enroll her child. >> Yeah, that is we'll need to correct that. That is that is absolutely not true. If you've been over to Bamford, that is that is not the case. And I think Dr. Lane, we talked about after that board meeting, Mr. Pitcher, when you talked about I think it was Lakemont, you refer we saw the numbers. I think it was like 1 to

11813, 1 to 14, and we talked about that. And so, Dr. Lane, I think if you could just share with the board um because there was not a way that I guess how did the numbers get that way. You know what I'm saying? Like there's a certain process that you would take. So, if you could talk to that, we talked about that. Which is why he because of he asked about like how did what you know how did we how did this you know one school get how the numbers this way versus another. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Already created uh when I arrived, there were partially done staffing sheets for each school and it had the individuals who are already within the schools and we were able to attach position codes to each

119of those individuals and roll things over. And so what we've done is we worked with the principles to determine what their needs were based on enrollment and we've made adjustments as needed as close as we could to what the SOQ requires but also understanding that numbers were fluctuating and so were our staffing. As we move forward what we do is we look at each school and where they are. We look at their student enrollment numbers. We look at the staffing. We look at lensure and we look at codes and we look at funding. And after we to all of that information, we go individual by individual, grade level by grade level, and subject by subject to ensure that we have a person that's attached to a position that's attached to a funding code so that

120we can have an absolute number per totality that would then equate to an allotment for each school. >> Okay. So, previously the reason like you see the differences was was that because of the allotment process? The last aotment that I could find was 2223 and so I'm not sure what happened 23 2425 but the partially done staffing sheet is where we started and we worked collaborously with principles to ensure that their needs were being met based on the enrollment numbers at their respective schools. Gotcha. But okay, perfect. So then that be so Dr. We'll have to give a number for what it would take to get numbers I guess across all elementary schools right 1 to 13 was that we can't see we're trying to be able to see the speaker the camera keeps moving

121it's moving away from the speaker just want to make sure we can always catch the speaker yes that's okay so I wanted to make sure so I know Dr. We have so we will have to give separately just what would it what would it look like to put all classrooms at 1 to3 or 1 to 14 or to reduce the numbers from the S soQs but I think it was Lake M was the model I think was at Lake Mont was I think it was 1 to3 and so I think he had asked what would it look like so whatever that number is you can run the scenario right for all the schools for elementary school and see what the cost would be to move all classes from 1 to 13 one to 13 ratio

122because our SOQ now is one to because I know it's different at K so kindergarten but 1:3 the the S so SOQ is 1 to 30 right and there's a policy that we have also that's under the instructional section that outlines what Petersburg expectations are for class sizes so we start with the S soQ which is the basic what we have to have then we look at what the division requires us to have we look at the funding sources and that's how we're able to start with a lotment So there are a couple more pieces that go into it beyond the SOQ. And then we also have to look at position classification types which is another policy that's under um the G section under personnel. So all those things are put together and that's what

123helps us develop the allotments. >> So sound like have you to come back probably in January for a work session to go through all of that. So so we can look at the policy and may see may we may need to adjust the numbers in the policy. I was going to say I'm curious to know is it any way we can get an updated um ratio count on Bford because I was over there today and while I know it's not 35 to1 it's still a large number and it's given overcrowded but I would definitely love to know what a updated number is. >> Can we get the ratios for Blandford? Um >> 1 to 25. So it's 1 to 25 now. Okay. >> Okay. And so the So for middle school for elementary is >>

124Yes. >> So we're below the SOQ in in a lot of areas. >> We're below >> our board policy >> because there's some implication with title one as well. um that pertain to class sizes. So that's another piece that we had to look at that's connected to funding. >> Okay. So we we'll come back and do a work session on but we'll get the so 1 to 25 because the in middle school. >> Okay. Okay. And and I just want to say also because this year Miss Miss Brown gave us a lot and and and a lot of our focus and positions as as board members know a lot of our focus and positions went into central office. We created a lot of positions in central office. I would love I don't know about you

125all but I would love as Miss Tucker said for the 26 27 27 we put a more focus on the classroom >> and not any more positions to central office. We're only offering we're only doing um the fine arts that we would take, you know, that would be the one position and then we also have the the the operations which they'll sit, you know, on central office, but they'll be assigned to a school. So, yeah, but we're not adding there's no um plans to add any expansion of any additional positions like that at all. >> Repeat that again. >> There are no we have Yeah, we have no plans to add any expansion of any major positions. Um, like I said, some will be categorized as schoolboard office because they're they sit in there, but

126they are assigned to a school. Absolutely. >> Fine, except for the fine arts, which we talked about. That was the one. >> Okay. >> But our 262, I mean 2627 budget will be focused on academic and instruction, not on central office. >> Correct. >> We need to make that known. Like she say, it needs to be in the community that we're focusing on >> academics because we don't need people going out here saying that all we're thinking about is what we're building. >> Oh, no. No. >> Isn't that correct? >> We don't need people to be saying that >> because that's not all we're doing. >> No. The AC, if you go back to it, the majority of what we what we proposed, if you go back to the priorities, academics had the most under

127it. We know that talent talent is our school base. That's what we're talking about. We said license. If you go back to the priorities on page 12, that's exactly right on slide 12. Click. Oh, thank you. Right here, if you see >> that the M, if you could look at this visual, >> right? I see that. >> I just want to make sure that that it's understood. >> That's exactly right. >> New positions in central office. >> That's exactly right. That and we want we proposed >> they're talking positions in schools. And if it's, you know, even like you said, fine arts, but we know it's going to go into the school. >> That's exactly. >> But no other positions in finance because >> we're heavy there in finance. You just got to get your

128people. >> So we're heavy in finance. >> Feel open. You just just have to feel. We need more positions in instruction, academics. >> We have to get our schools straight. >> Central offices straight. Get our school straight. We done fixed up central office. We remodel and everything. Now let's take care of our children and our teachers >> for learning. Yes. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's exactly what this >> and like Miss Tucker say. I mean even though we know we're getting ready to go into seasons with with sports and stuff, but that should not be our number one priority. >> It's not. We just focused last year so we could provide that as a way to and I appreciate the board supporting the athletics work because it was all about getting kids opportunities so they

129would come to school. >> That's exactly what it was for. was just how do we get our athletics because our kids love athletics and we want to give them an opportunity to like I'm going to be in school. I'm going to come on time. I'm going to be and when you're involved in those extracurricular activities, you're more likely to come to school and so absolutely Mr. P, I want to double tap on that. Our focus is academics and instruction. And when we bring the board, there'll be a percentage that we'll look at. How much are we spending on academics? And so, Dr. Greywood, when you come every month, what is our largest budget item? Is it academics? >> Is it instruction? >> Salaries. >> I mean, of course, salary, but that's but that's people, right?

130But salaries is going to be every school system is is 90% of your budget is salaries, right? >> Right. Gotcha. But thank you, Mr. Per, for double tapping on that. We're not That's exactly right. We don't have our anything with capital improvement is coming out of that CIP that we're funding. That's already there every year, and that's what we'll be funding for that. So, our focus is teaching, learning, and instruction. That's what we're focused on. And that's why we're trying to provide additional academic opportunities for kids. And we're trying to provide even more licensed teachers for kids because that's where it starts in the classroom. You got to have the right people in front of kids. And you got to invest in that. And that's what we're investing in. People for our kids and academics,

131which is what our kids um are learning and the um experiences that they have. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. D. >> Yes, I do believe in our ward meeting a couple of weeks ago that uh I spoke about teaching and learning and uh being excited about the fieldhouse. Well, why wouldn't I be excited about the fieldhouse? I haven't built anything in 50 years. So, uh yes, I'm excited about the fieldhouse. I'm excited about improving all our facilities because our kids deserve nice facilities. And when you see good things going on on the outside of a building, you got good things going on the inside of a building. So yes, we're talking about teaching. We talked about teaching and learning. And uh it was also stated that uh we're not the only ones that's

132struggling with teaching and learning. We have learning loss because of co across the country and uh everybody is suffering with uh learning loss. So certainly we are concentrating on teaching and learning. Um, as we talked about fine arts, we want uh our kids to show get interest in what they're doing and they have to have the facilities, nice facilities for them to make them want to come to school, to want to participate and in activities and extracurricular activities. So, our facilities are very important. Um, um, a lot of things in Peasburg could stand a facelift. So, we're glad that we're making facelifts and doing good things outside of our schools to our schools and providing opportunities, state-of-art um athletics training facilities for our students. >> Thank you, Mr. Dance. I knew you said more than

133that, Mr. London. No, I was just thinking that um we can do many things athletically in clim with in climate, but to walk away from something that you can keep in your mind for yourselves is a very important task to keep involved. to help parents that want to realize the same things that we're speaking about for them to be more intricately intricately involved in what is happening. We just we need them very much. So we need them very much so. I don't know how we can bring things together like we would like to but to bring them together would mean a a plus for us because our kids they want to learn. I believe they want to learn. I really do. They try hard >> and what we have to do is keep them going.

134>> Thank you. >> Absolutely. And I just want to thank the board and remind everyone that's listening the 2526 budget of what you all approved. You approved millions of dollars in new highquality curriculum resources. That's academics that you see throughout all of the schools this year. Math and reading. We invested in 6 through 12 um reading. Is that correct, Mr. Brown? and K through 12 math, millions of dollars for curricular resources, which is all academics. You invested in um mental health support for kids, which supports academics. We got a new counseling supervisor. We got um our character strong curriculum resource that was all academic in nature. That's exactly we focused on recruiting licensed teachers, giving a nice bonus before that we th those are things that were specifically focused on the AC changing the academic

135infrastructure for Petersburg and that was done last year when we didn't have this extensive budget process. Right? The athletics was just one small piece. We got one position. That's what we did. We got an assistant athletic director. That's all we did. Everything else we focused on parent engagement. You >> requested we requested funding for that position. >> You did. You approved different additional parent liaons for our schools on the ground. So, I just want everyone to remember that the budget last year was academics, the mental health supports for our kids, wraparound services, and recruitment of te licensed teachers and paying for getting teachers in place. Is that right, everyone? That's what you all focused on and what you approved last year. And you can see it making a difference. Um, and so I just Yeah,

136that's okay. you you asked the question on what's our largest category in the budget. So I've asked them to bring up the budget presentation I just did. If you look at it uh last year we spent about we budgeted about 40.2 million for instruction. This year we have 48 million in instruction and so far we spent about 10 million remaining 37 million. So instruction is our largest category in our budget. We just have to get I know it's the largest which is instruction. We just have to recruit the best and talented teachers to put in front of our students. We can we can have $90 million and still be a failing school division because we don't have the best in front of our students. So we have to go out and we have to recruit.

137But I'm looking forward to that that um study for HR. Yes. Looking forward to that. >> Absolutely. >> Just wanted to ask question. >> Absolutely. Thank you. The compensation and classification because to get and I know that money doesn't equate to the best, but it allows you the opportunity to compete to get the best for people to come and people to stay because you're being competitive around. >> Absolutely. And as as I close um one additional component that I failed to mention is we look at school schedules. So there was some extensive work done on the testing accountability assessment and curriculum and instruction side to get training in power school that had been done in a few years to help adjust the master schedules because that adjusts how many teachers are also needed for the

138classes. And so one of the uh things that we had to do as we were making adjustments in staffing numbers is when the numbers started increasing in classes, we were able to collaborate with curriculum instruction as well as the principal to move staffing around to ensure that our classes would be the best they could based on the parameters that we had. >> Okay. I have a question. Is it true? I had heard is M. Yolanda Jones here to assist with our teachers for um certification? Yes, we have her coming in uh within the next couple of weeks. She's gonna be doing sessions at Lake Mont in the library for test prep for elementary teachers. >> Thank you. I'd heard that she was coming on board. >> Yes. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Chair,

139Mr. Dave, >> I just want to say uh that I'm so glad that um we look at the whole picture. Be City Public Schools. We just had a discussion about the whole child. So, athletics and teaching and learning and fine arts and all that. We're looking at the whole child. have a look at the whole picture and uh we're not going to just clean up cuz we got company coming. We're going to stay cleaned up all along which we should have been doing. >> Thank you. Let me let me clarify something. I I just received a note when I said we need the best teachers in front of our students. This division, as you know, HR director, we have a lot of subs that may have a degree, some may have a high school diploma.

140That's what I'm talking about when I'm saying the best. We want individuals in front of our kids that are certified, licensed certified, fully certified through the Department of Education, but we have to reduce the number of subs in our school division. Just wanted to make that clear. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> E either one. Um so to just to piggyback off of um what Mr. Richie said, "I know we have a roll out for recruitment. Have we decided on a concrete roll out for retention for our teachers yet? What what we're going to do like in regards to retention to keeping our teachers um yeah, I know I know we're waiting on the competent class study. >> I I I do know waiting on the class study. I mean, that's the answer to a

141lot of stuff. It it really is. But I just want to make sure that we put it out there that we are con we're working on it. We are working on it. We are working on it. So I just wanted you know that to come from y'all. >> That's exactly right. Which is why we have the right. Absolutely. And we talked about recruitment and retention up there of our teachers. And then we talked about the compensation and classification as a priority in the budget. So when people hear, we are committed to re recruiting the best but also keeping our great people and it's going to happen through those two things which is talent is our number one priority that I that I see as superintendent that that's where it starts that who we put in

142front of our kids matters and so but we've got to put our money where we say if that's what we want to put in front of our kids then we make sure that that's a priority in our budget. That's exactly right that ret once we get all the information we can then craft our retention strategy because I know that before historically you know Petersburg had given different things to try to retain retain people but that's just one step what is like you said the bigger strategy for retaining people because it's money but it's also what other opportunities for growth there are other things that help people stay in a place you know but I know money is a big part of But there are other things that you add in over the time to say

143here's also what you get when you stay in Petersburg, you know, and so that's one of the things that we're working for. But we got to start with how do we pay people? What are we looking at for year over the course of years and it won't happen overnight and I hope everyone here I love the fact that the board that you just said and I want to double tap on it. We are absolutely working on it. getting a competent class study for everybody, but we can decide where you start. We say it's teachers, if they say it's staff, we can decide as a group, but we're saying we care about your compensation and we are going to look into it and you're going to have because I think we'll be scheduling the presentation once

144we get everything so that you can hear the information, you can hear all the the comp class and then we can determine because we got to know before this budget is done. where do we want to invest for year one because there's phases but people just need to know absolutely we are working on retaining people and one of the things about this confent class I'm excited about it we've heard it takes into account getting people here but what about people who've been here >> right >> and have been committed to the division that's what that confident class is going to also tell us so that we don't get into this down the road that if you stay here's what's what your thing is going to look like over time and you can bet on it

145and know that it's in place once the board votes on. Thank you, >> Mr. D. >> I just like to say that uh to all our long-term subs, our subs, our unlicensed teachers, our teachers, everybody, we value every one of you all. We value all our employees. And thank you cuz we could not make it without you. >> Absolutely. >> So, we're all in this together. It takes a village. and we value each and every one of you regardless of what you do for Petersburg City Public Schools. Thank you for your service. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> We move to our last year. >> Okay. Thank you all so much for your attention, attention and support this evening. So we will have our final work session um final

146part of our work session which we will now focus on the PEA process for the Walnut Hill West View Early Childhood Education Center new school construction. And so that will be led by the assistant superintendent of operations, Mr. J. Martinez. >> Outstanding. Outstanding. and thank you for having me. Board Chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Pierce, school board, uh community, thank you. Uh my name is uh Jay Martinez, and I would like everyone to get this gray binder right here. And let's just go through it real quick. Um so we know what we got here. Okay. Uh we have our presentation right here. Somebody's missing one. And then to the left. >> So somebody need one. >> We just need to make sure that they're up on board docs. >> Oh yeah. This this presentation is on

147board docs. This the this presentation and then we can get the bios. So these are the bios to the left of our consulting firm >> and we'll have those added to the board doc so we can make sure that they're up for um absolutely community to see. >> And then we have one more that's the PPA policy that that's board policy. Just want to make sure everybody got their bearings first before we begin. All righty, we good to go. All right, first and foremost, we are one step closer to a brand new school. Ladies and gentlemen, this is exciting news, right? Walnut Hill and Westfield. It up. This is very exciting and I'm so proud to be a part of it and I appreciate you uh for allowing me to be a part of this

148team. Um alrighty so let's go next slide here. We're going over our agenda here. Uh we'll go over our project overview which is an understanding of the context and scope of the Walnut Hill Westview project new construction. We'll go over our conceptual review committee, our receive proposals, our consultant scope of service, our next steps, and we'll end with Q&A. And I hopefully I assure you we won't be as long as the previous presentations. Outstanding. All righty. So, just real quick, um, board members, uh, and community, I just want to go over just a brief overview of exactly where we're at, right, and and how we got to this, uh, point in time. So, uh, we had an initial proposal that triggered a competitive process under the PPE. So, the board uh, approved a PPA board

149policy and, um, we also got approved for a SCAP grant. And what that did was it allowed the community to say, "Wow, you guys got approved of a construction grant. Looks like you guys about to uh build a school. So, we think we want to propose to you. Right. So, on August 6, uh PCPS received an unsolicited conceptual proposal along with a $25,000 review fee from Gilbane Incorporated. I just want the board to understand what unsolicited conceptual proposal actually means. It's unsolicited. We didn't ask for it. They came and dropped it off, right? And that's what triggers what we're doing right now. So the proposal is for the replacement of Walnut Hill Elementary School in Westview in accordance with the guidance of board policy DJFA-R that is our PPA policy. Then we received two additional

150proposals uh within our 45 45day mandatory window for competing conceptual proposals. The submission window is now closed. So according to our policy um we receive these um proposals and we have a um conceptual review committee and this committee is comprised of key stakeholders and district leaders responsible for assessing the initial proposal. The comm the committee is supported by the external consultant that we will discuss here shortly and I'll let them introduce themselves as well. So I'll be chairing this committee and we have six uh so it's a total of seven committee members and we will have will be steered by our consultant. So here we have three competing proposals. U these proposals are from design build teams each partnering with a specialized architectural firm. Right? So for an example, like I discussed earlier, Gilbang was

151the first one that came by and they're partnering with Moody Nolan. Then came MCN, who's partnering with their architect firm, Perkins Eastman, and then English partnering with Mosley Architects. We have these proposals at the SBO office for the public to look at. Um, and they're available for the according to our policy 7.1. >> Mr. Mr. Martinez, I just want to clarify because when we say PPE, just for everyone listening, that is a procurement that is a way that you can procure the construction of a school, right? Is that correct? >> Absolutely. >> That is that is a procurement that is a um a legal procurement um method in order to build a school. There are other methods out there, but we in Petersburg have um adopted again, as you said, a PPE um policy that

152allows us to utilize that method um to be able to procure services to build a new school. >> Absolutely. And if you would like, I could read exactly what the PPA is and with within our policy. So uh public private education facilities and infrastructure act of 2002 is intended to allow a responsible public entity to narrow and channel options through a multi-phase approach. PPEAS may be structured either as solicited or unsolicited. An unsolicited proposal is for an infrastructure solution where the public body has made it known that a problem exists that it needs to solve. This is often included in locality's comprehensive plan, the public's body capital improvements program or other strategic or long-term planning documents. Solicited proposal includes releasing advertisement of general requests for proposals for which creative responses are sought and evaluated regardless

153of whether a proposal is solicited or unsolicited. That is in our our um board policy that the board approved. Now I would like to introduce our um consultants here. MVP please come up and they will introduce their company and themselves uh and then we'll move forward with the presentation. >> So as a part of the process it is recommended that you work with the consultant. Is that correct? >> Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. And this is our u principal project executive Mr. James Yatik >> from Mcdana Bard Bulliard and Peek >> MVP McDonald >> MVP. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Yes. Um so, uh members of Petersburg school board, uh Superintendent Brown. I'm excited to be here tonight. Jim Yatsik with MVP and I think we heard it earlier, but uh this is

154the first school that the city of Petersburg will be building in uh since uh I think the last 50 years. I think believe it was this high school 1974. Um so we're excited to be beginning this journey with you. Uh so as Mr. Martinez indicated, we've been engaged to support um the school system as it works through this PPE process. Um just a little bit about my company background providing construction consulting these type of advisory services. This is um really the core service of what MVP does. Um we're not a general contractor or designer. So we we are solely around to provide these type of advisory services. Um we're headquartered we're a Virginia company. We're headquartered in Northern Virginia, but we have a office close by in uh Richmond. Uh the core of my background

155for um last 30 or so years has been in um K through2 construction and local government. So it's really my my background has been in these kind of projects. And then um over the last decade or so, I've been involved in probably a dozen or so PPE projects. So very familiar with the process. Um and this is not something that isn't tried and tested um everywhere throughout Virginia. There's several school systems have have used PPA to deliver schools deliver them successfully on time under budget. Um good good schools that uh were resulted out of the process. Um before I I get in a little further, I'm going to give my my colleague a chance to introduce himself. >> Good evening school board superintendent Mr. Martinez. appreciate you providing an opportunity to introduce ourselves. Um, Brian

156Haskins. I am a senior project manager with MBP. I've been here for almost 20 years. Uh, focused pretty much primarily education, uh, K through 12. did about four or five years at Virginia State University uh managing a lot of the multiple uh maintenance reserve projects where one of them tying back into what you all were talking about earlier, the music hall, Davis Davis Hall. Uh did did a few projects there off of College Avenue, but uh currently with at Chesterfield County Public Schools managing uh multiple projects uh there. So looking forward to partnering with you all. So um the the listing of services on the uh right hand of the screen there that's from our proposal but it basically walks through um the process that we envision. There is a lot of flexibility with this

157PPA process. So there are are things that each one that we've been involved with there's some been some differences and we'll we'll just continue to collaborate and work with your team to to make sure that we have a process that that works for you all. Um but I think we can go to the next slide that that gets into a little more detail with the process. So um right now we are Thank you. Right now we are at um basically at the very beginning of this red bar you see here um conceptual review stage. Uh Petersburg schools has just received um three proposals. So, uh, the the mission now is for the evaluation committee and we'll be working very closely with your committee um reviewing those proposals and um what we'll we'll be doing a

158very deep technical dive on the proposals looking at construction and HVAC systems and and square foot costs and all those kind of things. But we'll work closely with with your team. Of course, we're not educators, so we we definitely want to work and and hear from the the the people who are going to be um involved in in the function and operation of the facility and and we we'll pull all of that um kind of uh background together and at at the end of this conceptual review. Uh likely what we'll what will typically happen is um we'll come to a decision point um to move forward with all three proposals to to continue discussions. we might move forward with only two. We might move forward with only one. Um and you have option not to

159move forward at all. Um but uh the again there's lots of flexibility within the system. Um typically what happens um unless there's an outlayer there's there's no reason not to move forward with all three. It's just it's good to have the competition and and be engaging and hearing different ideas. There's no um doesn't doesn't take any um away from you to move forward with all three. But we we can't really answer that until we get through get to the end of the conceptual review stage. And then um coupled along with that is uh when we get to end of conceptual review, we'll we'll develop a list of questions. If there was things that wasn't clear from the proposals, there were things that we liked but maybe wanted to see adjusted a little bit. That's that's

160when we move to this next stage with the detailed phase and we'd we'd send those questions to the proposers and say, "Okay, we need more information here. We'd like you to adjust this." Um it's it's really um we we won't know what that answer will be until we get to this this the end of the con concept review and the the conceptual review and the team is working together detailed phase we'll we'll get that new information from the proposers we'll we'll perform a similar review. A lot of times what happens after we perform that that second review and the detailed phase we'll we'll invite the proposers in for interviews. the these are going to be your design and construction partners for the next um long period of time probably two two years three year uh

161design construction process. So you want to make sure that the the fit is good and a good chance to do that is to to bring them in and talk to them and and have them present their qualifications and their their concepts to you. And generally what happens after after we have that discussion is is you you've gotten enough information that the the selection committee has gotten enough information at that point where they're able to say, "Okay, this is this is the team that we feel is the best fit for us and that's going to deliver the right project for us." And that that's generally when a recommendation to the to the board would come from the from the committee to say, "Okay, this is this is who we um we we think is the right

162fit and here's the reasons why." And and then a vote would generally take place at that point. um that would lead into a contract. So there's a couple ways to to structure the contract. What what we like to do and and what we've talked about is is entering an interim agreement with them. So an interim agreement is not for the entire project. It's it's generally to perform some early design, maybe up to a kind of a half halfway design or 50% of the design. And then that's that gives you a chance to tailor the project a little further to to exactly what you want. And then when you get to that kind of that interim design stage, that's that's when they give you kind of the the hard dollar number and say, "Okay, this is

163how much it's going to cost um to to build that." So there there's some additional steps to that, but but ultimately um you want to want to we're going to get to a comprehensive agreement where they're going to do the design and then build the project. Um so you'll enter in a contract with with one entity with a single entity that's going to both design and build the facility. And um that that pretty much is a over overshot of the what the process looks like and I I think we could probably move on if there are questions. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Thank you. Miss Proctor, you turn your mic on. >> Um an initial question. What's the private part? Are are these three entities part of the are they the private part? Yes. >> Okay.

164So we're choosing who our partner will be. Correct. Okay. Yes. Yes. So, you're the you're the public and the p the the public part of the P and they're the the private entity will um be the one who designs it and built it. >> Next, Miss D. >> Mr. Pierce. >> No question. >> Miss Tucker. >> Mr. London. >> Okay. I do. I have several the conceptual review committee. Who who are the evaluators? The evaluators is myself. Um it is Miss Brown. Um it is uh Mr. Godet, Miss Yates, um Dr. Greywood, uh, Mr. Dance, Mr. Miles, and that's it. Seven. >> So there is >> BP or they're staring. >> When do we add egg community members? >> After what? So we're we're just in conceptual review. We're just in a conceptual review phase

165right now. So when we get to the design piece, the design phase. So we're we're not anywhere near the design phase right now. So that's all we down at the bottom. >> Yeah. Right. So right now we're just trying to see basically if these three teams, if you will, the best fit, right? So um we're just, you know, so we're just getting to a point where >> Yep. >> So this is not a long process right here, right? This is not a long process I think the way it looks. So basically this is So Mr. So Mr. Martinez, just for clarification, once we do the review, right, then we'll bring it to the board. So, preferably by November, right? November at the board meeting. No, we only have one board meeting. So, by December, >>

166and I was going to ask also, Miss Miss Bren, I hadn't finished. I was going to ask where is the timeline? >> We're not ready to present that particular timeline just yet because you're getting ready to go through a timeline, >> right? No, we're not ready to go through that part. So, we we're reviewing the three. So, we received three proposals and they have their own individual timelines in there. So, we have an internal timeline that is just like as an estimate or whatnot, but our consultant team, they're going to go through each proposal and they're going to help us help the committee, if you will, visualize their structure and then we're going to go back to them in or in a detailed phase and say, "Hey, you know what? We like this from this

167group. We like this from that group." Um, or or whatnot. and then they'll come back and give us a little bit more information. Am I correct? >> Yes. And and that was really the the very next thing we we want to do. The the this the sequence that Mr. Martinez put together with these bars. That's that's the logical flow, but but you're correct. What's missing it right now is is time frames um which is the bar going to take a month or six weeks or whatever. So, we're going to we're going to um have a little bit of back and forth to talk about what a realistic timeline is. So that's that's really the next thing we need to add add some detail to the schedule. >> Thank you, Mr. Lenny. I was just thinking

168about my father as a industrial arts person and as a contractor and I was thinking about the fact that when he first did something he first created this picture this this maze that they put up together and this what they did with the contractors. Will we have something like that that will be in place? Because you do place these here, place these in positions where you find out how you want your building to look. And um I thought that was very intellectual for him to to do that and I that stuck in my mind and so I was wondering will we still see that same type of situation? >> Absolutely. Um, so I want the board to realize where we're at right now. We're in a conceptual phase. So these proposals have no idea what

169we want at all. So what started this process was that Gilbane dropped off an unsolicited proposal. So when they dropped off their whatever their rendition of what they think that we possibly may want, we had to open up the window for 45 days for other competing proposals to come in and show and prove what they think we may want. Right? So us right now as a board, as a committee, we just received those. We're not even looking through those as of right now. We're looking through them right now, but we're not deep deep dive into that. But we will return back with what the renderings may look like and and and milestones and schedules. Mark, >> that was that was very clear at Breit Point. Everything that you said that was very clear. Um and

170I was just talking about the structure part because that is something that you use as you facilitate what you're really going to do. >> Okay. Thank you. Well, yes, to that point, they they have with the concept proposals, each one of them has presented a a concept, but I I think Mr. Martine's point, they haven't had any feedback from us, from the school system yet, whether that's a good concept or it's a bad concept or if they should adjust something with concept. So there there will be some back and forth dialogue and that's really what happens at the detailed stage is is that will be our opportunity that will be the school system's opportunity to say um to to provide some feedback about th those concepts they provided and if there's something where they've they've

171cited the building on the site with their concept there may be something about that that doesn't function. So that would be the the school systems opportunity to say we like everything about your proposal but we we need you to make some modifications based on this part of it that doesn't really really function for us. >> But again the conceptual phase just so people is this is the the step the very first step we're at just at step one. This is just step one is all we are. And so at this point it is deciding which of these three >> are the best fit to move forward in a relationship for this project. >> That's all we're deciding. That's all we will be looking at. And then of course whatever the design we haven't gotten to

172that stage. This is just which one of these three >> right? you know based on what they've presented and the questions we've asked from the committee that we think that this is going to be the company that we should be working with for the next few years however whatever is that correct this is the one we're establishing a relationship with that's all the conceptual phase is about is that correct >> correct I just want to keep >> and usually the team that is selected they it they're whatever the concept is it's not going to be exactly the vision that you all have that that the school system has Um, so a lot of time who is selected is ex superintendent Brown exactly as you indicated. It's the the team that is the best fit, but

173also a lot of times it is the the team that has kind of put the concept out there that's closest to to matching what your needs are. But when you enter into an inter agreement with them, that doesn't mean you 100% agree with every everything in their concept. The whole point of the interim agreement is to to continue engaging with them to to to move this. I don't like where this office is and this needs to be over here and the the bus parking needs to be over there. You you still have an opportunity to do that after you enter in a contract with them. Um and it works especially well with the interimm agreement and then the the community engagement. It's it's hugely important. the community community needs to be engaged and and really

174at the beginning of when when those concepts that when when those concepts are that are prepared I I think it would be a good opportunity to invite the community in and have an open house and that's what I see done often times and and get that feedback what's what's important to the community and what they want to see in their new school >> and once you get past the conceptual phase to the design phase which is I think to where we'll start we'll have the community members we have we'll ask the board who do we want to serve on that. So right after we pick that the the whoever we're going to start with the conceptual then we go to that next phase and that's when we will integrate the additional um community members that

175represent you know how whomever the board has selected to serve in that space. We will expand that that team to now get into the next nitty-gritty of the actual project itself. Um and so we'll figure out how many that is and we'll get um recommendations um for that team. Okay. So I will go back I understood what you said. I'll go back again to number one. Can you give us a date? Can you tell us when when when are we starting? One, two, three. I mean do we have anything? I mean after you leave here tonight, what what what happens? What happens is the team they're so the committee gets it back together the MVP they're going through each proposals and they're showing a steering committee how to review these proposals right how to look

176at it from a lens from a subject matter expert lens right um and then uh they're going to have a a matrix and a grading uh situation but in the meantime um they're going to bring in their subject matter experts which are these two gentlemen here. Um and uh we're going to review as a committee multiple times. Um and next thing you know, the next step would be um the detail phase, right? The detail phase is when um we'll go to them and and and what we'll just ask them to, hey, we need you to do this and then so to answer the board chair's question, when do we think we'll get to the detail phase, the next phase? Is that what you're asking? I can give it an aspirational goal, right? >> I would

177say November would be okay realistic. Yeah. To move from conceptual because that will I think it's going to there there's a lot of information in the proposals. Um I think it's easily going to take the rest of the month to to go through. November we should be at the detail phase >> that I think that's when we'll be able to move from concept detailed stage will really take place when we decide who you want to move forward with whether it's the one two or three and when you send them the requests for additional information that's really kind of the kickoff for okay the official but then there's a waiting period again because you've you've asked them for more information so it's going to take time depending on how how much we ask for um If

178we ask for new drawings, that's going to take time. So, so, so the detailed phase may start in November, but it will continue past that. >> Okay. Miss pract. So to move things quicker, could you be working on that committee now that >> Oh, okay. >> So, so I wanted to just super take just I just want to make sure that we're clear and I think Mr. Martinez, we've had these conversations and I'm glad. So once the the committee comes together and we're going to be working um with our consultants so that we can look through these three proposals, right? There's amount of time that we're going to so that we're not taking months for us to go through the process. So we have in our mind so let's just say for like this is

179for example we start this process this October. We're going to get you know the committee is going to come together. You're going to talk us through what we should be looking for in these conceptual designs. We're going to do that process. How long do we have? Like, let's just say you say we have three weeks to go through it, right? Then those three weeks are up. So, let's just say we do that. So, we're now looking at maybe the beginning of November, right? Once we review those, at that point, let's just say the first week in November, we're finished reviewing. You've given us three weeks. You got to be done reviewing. have your grading, have your pieces ready to go the first week of November. Follow then after that what happens? So we come to

180get so we have our recommend. So we come together as a team. We've all reviewed it. We got our numbers. Then what happens? >> That's when we would so so part of that process is to make the decision about who to move forward with. >> That's that's what I want. That's what right there. Okay. So, how long are we anticipating and do we know for our seven members on the committee now that we have you on board, now that we've brought the the board in to know where we are in the process for step one. Once we do that, let's just say you gave us three weeks. We come back to you and we say here is the the one, the two or the three >> that we want to move forward to the board.

181Is that correct? >> That we want to move forward with the detailed stage. >> The detailed stage. Right. So the so we can say we want to move just one forward for the detail stage. Right after those three weeks then we call the company back and we say you're the one we're moving forward. So that one person that one that we've decided doesn't have to come to the board for approval to move forward. Is that correct? >> Not not to go from conceptual to detailed stage. >> So got usually with the detailed stage um again it's it's a lot of times there are we're going to see things in the conceptual review. There's many questions that are generated. There's going to be many things in the proposal that aren't clear. There always are. So the

182detailed stage will consist of us of your your team sending them questions and saying we need we need you to change this or we need you to provide more information. So so if that happens say early in November depending on what we're if we're asking them for a lot we can say we want that back in a couple weeks. We're asking for um a lot we might need to give them a month. So that that would probably mean getting that information back in maybe early December. >> Okay. So that's >> but I I will um I because I right be before the the meeting here tonight that was the one thing I said Miss Martinez is we need a we need a schedule and some duration. So it's something that that I I'm going to

183>> that will guide us so that when we shoot board member proctors we're not you know it's not belaboring on we want to get the best person but we don't want to look up and it's seven weeks >> and we're still reviewing we so that timeline I know that we're working on is tight that this is what our comm committee is working on then we decide at what point then so from superintendent perspective as I talked to the board once the committee makes the recommendation that we're going to say we're going to move one of these companies for two of them or three of them. Whatever we decide, that means we got to start asking them for information. So now you're asking if you decide to do one, you're only dealing with one company. Right.

184Right. >> If we decide to go one, what do I do with the So am I then just letting the board know, hey board members, I want to let you know the committee has finished reviewing the proposals and we're going to move forward with one company. I tell them what that company is and then we say we're going to be reaching out to get additional information. Is that how that's supposed to go? So, it's not coming to the board meeting to say we're going to move forward with one and you're going to vote on that one. I'm just letting them know that the committee has decided that's the committee's role, right? That we're going to move only one forward, but they need to know we're only moving four because we got three and we're going

185to be working with just one at this moment. So the other two we're done with. Right. >> Right. >> And we're only dealing with that one. And if we have more questions about their conceptual pieces because that's the one company we're going to work with on this. >> Right. I just want to make sure that I'm clear. We've talked about it, but I want to say it out loud because it helps me. >> Um and then once we get that detailed phase, is that the phase where we're now asking them for part of the 30% of the design? That's not that phase. when you when you get to the when you finish the detailed, that's when you've made it. There's nothing else after that. You've you've made a selection and there's there the the choice

186is either we're not going to do anything or we're going to enter in a contract >> to build the school >> to to design and build the school. >> So that's that would certainly I'm sure trigger a board action to to to approve that and then vote on the contract. >> So at this point the board just needs to know that we're entering in the review process. How long do we anticipate that taking? >> And then once we decide if we're going to one or two, right? Even if we go with two, we still got to narrow it down so it bel narrow it down to one again. >> And then let the board know we're moving forward with one, >> right? >> And then that's when the board will approve for us to go

187into contract with the one. >> Correct. Yes. Okay. And there and there are some things that can be done to because it is a process and time is certainly the essence. Time is money and the more you wait costs go up. But I know your school system very is very interested in in your school. So we we understand that that time is of the essence. Um so we will we will be working to to to push that um with with you all. >> Okay. Gotcha. I just want to make sure that so in December we should be telling I should be able to tell the board this is the company that we're going forward with um and be asking them before the end of the year that we're going to go into contract. But I

188guess it'll depend on what we ask from them and if we decide to go with more than one. >> Yeah, I think that's closer to the the timeline um in end of the year there. But there what what I meant to say is there are some things that can be done to to overlap and um one in particular would be if um if if it's looking even before you make a selection there's going to um there's going to be a contract vehicle. So so maybe while some of those things are are taking place concurrently you can be working with your attorneys and um to to to fine-tune that language. So, so very very close to the time that you make a selection and um that there will be a contract just kind of ready to

189go and and the board will be able to to vote on the selection, approve the contract at the same time versus selecting someone and then because what what happens sometimes is you select them and then there's two or three months of reviewing contract terms. So, so I think you can probably get some time savings there by by working on the cont contract concurrently. So at what point on the committee again do we start adding because we have the seven. So at what point do we start adding you know the additional community from Westview conditional whoever the board selects to be the representative to represent W three represent the Westview community. At what point do we incorporate them? Cuz we're doing the first part. At what point is that the detail phase or is that a

190whole different phase? It's probably upon execution of this interimm agreement that we're talking about. >> So once we get the interim agreement then we start bringing them in and that's when the design of the school. >> Correct. >> Gotcha. So the design of the school will happen and that's when the principles of both schools >> Absolutely. From from day one. >> Yeah. >> So absolutely. So they don't become a part of that until we get into a interim agreement >> correct >> with the company. Then that's when we add the additional people because that's when we're actually designing the school. >> Correct. Yes. and every design committee I've ever been on that the principal has been a a key member of that. So that's that's the the very first person we want on the committee

191is the principal. >> Yes. Yes. Yes, I do because I'm I'm concerned about constituents, community, taxpayers. We're at this first phase and you've chose seven. Is there anywhere in this policy that says we need seven and does it say that it cannot be constituents from the community? Is it anything that says we cannot choose constituents in the first phase? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> Okay. So, how did we come up with seven without the community being a part of it? >> Board chair, the idea was that this was just a conceptual review. So we can just get this committee look at if this is a good fit, whether we're going to move with one, two, or three up to the next detail phase. And once we get to that phase, we say, "Hey,

192superintendent, our recommendation is that we review these three proposals. Now we we can discuss bringing in other community members and and and so this is just a a conceptual review committee just to see if this team is good to go." >> I understand what you're saying. I mean, and board members know how I feel. this this school is being built in the third ward. I'm going to have to explain to them why no one from the third ward was on at the beginning of the phase. I'm going to have to explain that. So, what do I tell them? I mean, cuz I'm not in agreement with them. >> Absolutely, sir. You we we we can add whoever you want to put on this review committee. It's it's completely up. This is there was no board

193policy there. Even though we have the school, we got the two schoolboard members, we have school employees, we still need some someone from the outside, some outside individuals to be on that committee with you all. >> Absolutely. I need some outside input. >> Mr. Davis and then Mr. Lundy. >> I'd like to try to explain this. I may be wrong. You may correct me. Um, it's just like you building a new house. So, we got three builders that want to build a house. And we're not telling how many bathrooms we want, how many kitchens we want or nothing. We just want you to build this house. That's it. That's all. That's where we are right now. So, we're not designing it or anything like that. We got We want to build a brand new house.

194We want to build a brand new school. We got three construction companies that want to build a school for us. We just want to pick the best one that can build a school for us. But we're not um saying how many bathrooms we going to have, how many kitchens we going to have. None of that. None of that's taking place right now. None of that. >> And I understand that. >> Yeah. But later on down the road, the community and the principles and everybody's going to be involved when we get ready to design the school to to actually build a school. They're going to be involved in that. Community is going to be involved in that. >> Right. But that's after we have chosen who we're going to go with. >> Yeah. But it just

195I mean, you got three people that can build a house. You just picking one person to build a house. That's it. You picking the best one to build a house. Am I explaining that correctly? That's all we're doing. We're not We're not uh designing it or anything at this stage. We just >> I understand what you're saying. I'm not in agreement. Next, Mr. Lundy. >> I think what we're saying is that we're not trying to put anybody out right >> of it. >> Right. We know that and and in Petersburg there are some very um intelligent builders, some well-rounded builders that know a lot of things. And so with that being said, he he's saying that he's he's being very cautious about how he wants to go about this or how we want to go

196about this because we don't want we we do not want anybody to not be involved that we know that might have some better understandings all the way around. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. So the Picking a construction manager and architect is one of the most important things that we can do for the school district. So, we want to be very very mindful within this particular construction method. I hear certain folks or like certain things that we want to get things done by this certain date and whatnot, but we have to be not only this committee is put in place to be very transparent to be able to grade these proposals to see and because we can move all three up and then have a new committee and say, you know, we're just trying to filter, you know,

197and and clear out the minutia, if you will, right? Um and um and that's just to because the PPA was was designed and it was written a certain way. It it just triggered things to happen because an unsolicited proposal happened. We got a 45day window and allow other folks because we could have had 10 proposals come in, right? And then so when you start opening up to a big committee, you're really not how much can you get done, you know, to and so all we're trying to do is just say, you know what, we got three viable uh contenders. Uh we reviewed it. These are the things and we're here to break it down so when we move it to the next committee, we can break it down in chunks, if you will. you. So,

198um I believe um there's no policy or process in place within the policy that denotes who and can be in it. Um we just thought that it would be better fit this particular way. Um and uh if if the board feels like they want to make any changes, we're we're open to it. I'm fine. The board can move. I'm I'm not in agreement, but you all can move forward. I I have to answer to W three constituents and that's my job. They hired me for war three. So you all do what you need to do. >> Miss Tucker, >> if I could um I just want to share one of the messages out of the three that I received and it said community involvement from beginning to end. So I think I am in agreeance

199with um Mr. Pritchette even if we only put two committee members from the community in it. Um, I think from start to finish, um, because as Mr. Pritchard said, those are questions that's going to have to be answered. And I just feel like our constituents and our families deserve from beginning to end. And I feel like two is not, you know, overpowering what you already have. Um, and I think, you know, just being strategic in the two that selected, but I definitely think we need to incorporate some of our community members. Mr. AB absolutely because the thing is at the end of the day I I definitely agree with you um Miss Tucker because we have our subject matter experts here. Remember PPA is not this is not a delivery method that so the regular

200method is design build you know you plan it out we didn't 2 3 years we didn't planned out the school situation but we're here we're going to build a school this is a perfect opportunity to go through this particular process um and if the that that wouldn't change the the schedule or whatnot like if if if it's good to go with uh our superintendent we'll move forward strategically um or the board chair Um, and then we can definitely make that happen because we're we're being steered by the PPA consultant and they're going to help not only steer those community members but steer the the whole committee as well. >> Mr. Pearson, then Miss Proctor, >> I'll just add this point. Um, um, we we we this is this will be the first structure that we

201we would be building in the last 50 years. That said, we have made additions to some structures since that time. Lakemon Elementary, U Springs, Pleasant Lane, we we've made some additions. Um how although the the the the our um policy doesn't indicate that we have to have some involvement in this in this and in these stages that we are moving in this is good. However, it has always been the board's mindset that we would involve our public in every stage of development with regards to our public education, whether it's construction, whether it's instruction. So, that's the point that we're getting at. Um, now granted I I don't I don't believe and uh I'm in double agreement of the conceptual stage and moving uh the next month, that type of thing. But in your mind's eye,

202how long do you think it would take to just shoot this out here to the public to see who's uh as uh he was indicating? because we've always made sure that we shared that information in a way so that we're we're extremely transparent and we always told our constituency that we would be remain transparent. Not to take anything away from anything that you all have done. As a matter of fact, it's a very good report and it highlights everything. And we know con we not a construction expert. However, I do know planning from beginning to end, but I've always told my con constituency that we would be very transparent >> whether you agree to sit on it or not or whether you be they agree to be a part of the initial phase or not.

203We want to make sure that they are aware and if we do have some that let's just say there might be an additional individual. It might be eight, it might be nine, but uh at least the public is aware >> that they're involved, if that makes sense. >> Absolutely. >> Uh nobody's trying to to fight that. >> You guys got you got it going on. We can see that. We can see it from our level and won't take anything away from that. However, uh I have some elderly constituents in my in my ward and they do ask questions. >> They have a right to ask questions because they pay taxes. Taxes are what builds us. I guess you guys know the rest. But when they do ask the question that he was alluding to, we

204have to be able to respond. And if we can't respond to that to the public, that's a problem. Absolutely. >> So, that's what we're aiming at. We're just finding a common ground so we can make sure that the people who uh uh we represent that we told them that we would represent and we're going to do the do the best part of that representation by making sure that they have some level of engagement. That's all. And that's fair to them. So, if in fact, and I know we can, we can take just another shot and reach out to the public uh uh and find out um you just what their interest is. They might be we might have one that we're looking to sit on, you know. >> Absolutely. Thank Thank you, uh Vice Chair

205Pierce. And the good thing about um discussing this is that we're in the initial stage. So we're very flexible. It's good that we're not talking about this in the middle. So the fact that we're in the initial stage, we can make all of these adjustments immediately and understand we're working together collaboratively. This is a work session. This is a this is a board session. So this is a team. So this is the rank platform to make these adjustments. Now, not only Walnut Hill is not only is W three, we're also doing West View. So, Westview is citywide, right? So, um Right. >> Ward six. Okay. So, um so what the So, we have to look at um a process um and we have to make sure that the process um make sure they understand it's

206a commitment to be part of that committee. >> That's right. >> Right. So, um, we welcome it and, um, and we'll also include that further in all of our processes when we, uh, start building things. >> Yes. Uh, consider Gosh. Cons, considering Can you hear me? >> Yes, ma'am. Considering the conversation here, um I move that we um um expand this initial committee uh to include a representative from first ward three, which is where the uh school is located. And um if if a second one is open then a representative from the West View community. >> That's six. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That's will Well, I'd just like to say I don't have any problem with anybody else um serving on the committee. I was just explaining where we are. We just I think we

207just a little further than where we are right now. We just picking somebody to build a school. That's it. Not designing anything or finalizing anything. That's all we're doing. >> So, thank you board members all for your feedback. That's the purpose of the work session is that we're here like I said just like we did for strategic planning. It's the exact same process. We were able to get feedback and figure it out. Thank you Mr. Dance for um the clarification as we're all learning this process and we have our experts here and so I hear that expanding um it to the two representatives is the two that we're saying consensus wise we want just the two to expand and then at this point I would also offer I know Mr. Brown will be 100% in

208agreement too as he said that also having to expand leaders because if we're going to expand the you know the additional piece for the school leaders would also potentially be a part of that as well for West View and for Walnut Hill. And so that would mean that again as the numbers expand it is a commitment and that everybody I know people are excited and I don't think anybody's not going to be committed to this work and I think people are going to be excited. So this is what the work session is about is for us to have dialogue back and forth and to figure out all the things that we're all learning together and things we thought in our mind at the moment. But you all have a different span of expertise. you know

209the community, you know the questions that are going to be asked and so it helps us through this process. So I thank you all for sharing that and we'll make those adjustments and so it'll be a a bigger committee um that will have a conceptual phase and you'll know that everybody's voice has been at this first you know selecting a company to go with. So we will add those two additional and then we'll also add the two addition the two principles at this phase versus adding them at the design phase where they would be building and giving you know feedback on um on the process. But I also want to say that this is just going to be the first phase of community engagement because we're going to then after we get through the agreement

210process we're going to have community engagement sessions where we get everybody's opinion on the process but we're going to start with this. I just want to thank you all for your feedback as we go through this process together because that's what it is. So, thank you. Mr. Martinez has those additions to the committee and we'll be getting started pretty soon. So, if you're selected for the committee, we'll be calling you soon. >> Absolutely. Any other questions? It's very important board to understand that this committee has to do their very due diligence and and and and because if we look at at a slide here, each of these firms pay $25,000. And when they're not choosing chosen, you know, um there's protest and they're going to want to make sure that everything was done correctly. So

211that is the reason why we want to uh make sure that we're everything is very transparent and and done with the matrix and whatnot. So that's main reason that's why number one that's why it's important to have the community individuals on there in the beginning because first of all they can't say that it was done by the schoolboard members and staff of the school division. You got community members on there that can say hey no I sat on there at the beginning and this is what happened. >> Absolutely. Because if I came I mean if you if you brought me something I was in a company and and I asked you who are the seven that served and you told me it was a superintendent it was the two board members and I'll be like

212so who who did you have from the community? You got everybody in the school so you chose who you wanted. Correct. And and the mindset was that the board members was community members, >> Mr. Chair, >> because they're they're voted by the community. >> No, they're elected officials. Gotcha. As far as the comm that's right, as far as the community is concerned, they're separate and apart from that. >> However, I can promise you this. When it's time for the community to get involved, >> they going to smack you right in the mouth with the fact that you didn't put them have them a part of this from the beginning. >> Understood. >> It's not that. The only thing we want to do is to make sure that you clearly understand the kind of community that

213that we serve. Nothing bad, good, bad, nothing bad about it. It's no, they're no uh uh they're they're no different than any other constituents in any other part of the country. They just want to make sure that they're involved and they they want to make sure that they have some level of engagement. They know where their subject subject matter expertise lies. However, if we don't make sure that we're transparent, then what we're doing as far as the community is concerned, they're going to feel like it's off or not. We want them as much a part of it as anybody else. You guys are going to do the subject matter expertise that you guys do. We just want to make sure there's nobody just shooting at it just because they're upset because they didn't they weren't

214a part of it and they live right across the street. So that's that's basically how that how that is and we want to make sure that we understand you but uh just a clear understanding for everybody. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. >> Yes. Okay. see Mr. but just want to make a quick announcement. Put on your calendars is it no november the 10th um representative Jennifer McCullen is coming as take your legislative school month and we'll be touring the CTE building. So put it on your calendar at 10:00 a.m. I think it's 10 right it'll be 10 o'clock Missair and Dr. Gay and Miss Brown. They all working and we have everything out to you as soon as we get ready to send it to her. They they sent us a list of questions

215that we need to complete. Yes. And then CTE wing. Okay. There are no other announcements. A motion to adjurnn. >> Moved by Miss Tucker. Is there a second? >> Second. Mr. Dance. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries now. Have a good evening everyone.