School Board Regular Meeting - July 2, 2025

001Okay, good afternoon everyone. The time now is 4:08 p.m. and we'd like to call our special meeting to order. Miss Williams, if you'll call the role, please. Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Davis. Mr. Steven L. Pierce here. Miles senior Mr. Kenneth El Pette here Mr. Ky Tucker here Miss Joyce Proctor Mr. Bernard J Lundy Jr. here Mr. Adrien T. Dance senior here. Thank you. We would need a motion to go into close. Mr. Pierce I mean Mr. Dance. Yes, Mr. Chair. I move that the school board go into close meeting as authorized by section 2.2-3711A1 of the code of Virginia for the purpose of discussion or consideration of prospective candidates for employment usually headed. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Pierce. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carry. We're now moving to close. show you this

002new movement I got. Come on. thing I [Music] tell you. Come in here. You supposed to have a break on this summer. We never had that. Hello. How are you? Thank you. I'm okay. How are you? Look at that. When is the dance? Okay. He was talking also. You ready? Good evening everyone. Board members, at this time we need to come out of close. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you, Miss. Davis. As required by section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a roll call vote will be taken to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the act. And two, only such public business matters as were

003identified in the motion by which the close session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the close session by the board prior to the vote. Any member of the board who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of one and two as read shall so state the same indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment has taken place. Does any board member wish to respond? Hearing no response, I will now take the freedom of information roll call. Mr. Steven Pier, senior. Yes. Mr. Hal J. Miles, senior. Mr. Kenneth El Pritchette. Yes. Miss Takari Tucker. Miss Joyce Proctor. Yes. Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. Yes. And Mr. Adrian T. Dance, Senior. Yes. There's no action from close and we will adjourn from close. Good evening once again everyone. The

004time now it's 5:07 p.m. and we would like to call our regular board meeting to order. Miss Davis, if you will call the role once again. Mr. Steven El Pier, Senior here. Mr. Halby Mal Senior, Mr. Kenneth Opet here. Mr. Car Tucker. Miss Joyce Proctor here. Mr. Bernard J. Lundy Jr. here. Mr. Adrian T. Dance Senior here. Thank you, Miss Davis. At this time, board members, we'll move to 1A, approval of the agenda. If there are no changes, is there a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Second, Miss Proctctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. At this time, we'll move to 1B, moment of silence. Miss Davis, the following are to be remembered during the moment of silence. Mr. Takari Tucker, school board member and

005family, in the passing of her mother-in-law. Miss Queen T. Simmons, who passed on June 25th, 2025. Miss Corey Riddick, associate principal of Petersburg High School and family, mourning the loss of her father, D. Lewis Moore, who passed on June 30th, 2025. Thank you. At this time, we have a moment of silence. [Music] Thank you. Next we'll move to 1 C pledge of allegiance. Like for everyone to please stand that is able and Mr. Dance if you will lead us. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next, we move to 1D, correspondence. Any correspondence, Miss Davis? Thank you. Number two, recognitions. I do not believe we have any recognitions tonight. We'll move to

0063A, approval of the consent agenda, Miss. Yes. Uhuh. Yes, you can go. Thank you, board chair Bridgetette and school board members. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated for July 2nd, 2025 with the items number 10 and item number 13 removed. For 3B is the superintendent it is the superintendent's recommendation that the super that the school board approve the agenda minutes for we don't have any no minutes. There are no minutes, excuse me. So we'll move on to 3C. It is donations received by Petersburg City Public Schools. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board accepts the donations received by PCPS as provided. If you'll take a look at your screens, here are the donations um for Petersburg City Public Schools. And we want

007to thank all of our organizations and our individuals for donating and making donations to Petersburg um city public schools. Thank you. Any questions, board members? If no, if there are no questions, we entertain a motion. So move that by Mr. Pierce. Second. Second, Mr. Dance. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. We move to to number 4A, Miss Brown. Now, we're at the superintendent and staff reports and guest reports. It's 4 A. Thank you, board chair Bridget and schoolboard members. We're excited this evening to start off our presentations this evening with our university instructors presentation given by Mr. Josh Ellis and Dr. Jeff Smith. And so this is an opportunity for the entire board community and the entire staff to better understand a potential partnership with university instructors. So with that, I

008will ask um if Mr. Ellis and Dr. Smith, if you would join us at the podium, and I think we have an additional guest this this afternoon as well. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Superintendent Brown. It is always good to be in Petersburg. My name is Dr. Michael Gil. I am a strategic planning associate director of a strategic planning for university instructors and I am joined here this evening with our vice president Josh Ellis as well as one of our consultants Dr. Jeff Smith, former superintendent in Hampton. And let them briefly say hello. School board chair and uh Superintendent Brown and members of the school board. Uh good evening and it is an absolute pleasure to be here with you and I know that Dr. Jones will certainly guide us through the

009presentation but thank you for the opportunity to present uh information to you this evening. Thank you. And uh school board and superintendent, thank you for the time this evening. One, we're committed to Petersburg's community and their schools as well as their students. And through this presentation, you'll see how we've again built a program to support students uh throughout the country, especially in the Commonwealth with many of our partners. And uh and and again, Dr. Gil will take care of going through that meticulously this evening. So, thank you again for your time. All right. Go ahead. Okay. And we'll say it's especially good to see you again, Mr. Pritchette, as well as Mr. Lundy. I had the pleasure of serving with Mr. Pritchette on the Maggie Walker Governor School Board for a number of years as

010well as Mr. Lundy on code RVA. So wonderful to see you all again. So I want to first just introduce our team and a little bit about University instructors. You see here some of our key leadership members. Uh starting with our president, Mr. Jim Pop, who founded University Instructors 31 years ago. Our executive vice president, Tamu Thomas Walker. You just met Mr. Ellis, our vice president. Chad Gilbert is our executive director of human resources. Dr. Eric Jones, another former Central Virginia superintendent, is our director of instruction. You just met Dr. Smith, who is one of our instructional adviserss. Tiffany Davis does our uh director of recruitment and heads our recruitment efforts. And myself, again, director of associate director of strategic planning. So, who are we? Again, we have been in business over 30 years. We

011are locally based with a national footprint. Uh we started in Richmond, just 22 miles up I 95. Again, our first partner was Richmond public schools and they have renewed their contract with us all 31 years. And I think that speaks to uh the longevity and commitment that we have with those we partner with. Uh we are locally based but again we have partners across the country as you are going to see tonight. On the right side of your screen you see some of our major offerings and we'll be talking more about them as we go through this this evening. I'm not going to read to you but like you we have our missions our visions and our values. Um while you certainly again can read yourself I will leave it at this. Your mission, your

012vision is to be a student centered organization as is ours. At the heart of everything we do, while we are certainly in the adult placement business, everything we do is with the students in mind. And so we hope that comes through not only in the presentation this evening, but with everything that we do throughout the school year. We couldn't put all of our partners up there. uh that would have been an entire presentation in itself, but we thought we would choose just some of our long-standing partners to represent some that we do business with. We chose a lot um on purpose of the those in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So, kind of starting left to right and you may not may or may not recognize the the symbols there. Newport News, Norfolk, Hampton, Stafford, Virginia

013Beach, Portsouth, and then going outside of the Commonwealth, Charlotte, Meckllinburgg, Lowden, Jefferson County is actually Louisville, Kentucky, Cobb County, Georgia, uh, Chesapeake, and Manasse City who came on board last year. And again, so we have a wide range of partners um, typically in large urban and suburban areas, but we've also partnered with some in more rural areas as well. But uh happy to have our partners and very happy at the opportunity to expand them. Again, we are a Virginia based company and so we have a lot of partnerships in Virginia this year that we uh went up to 59 and one of those 59, one of those stars there is in Petersburg. We uh had the chance, I'll say, to put a foot in the water in in the fourth quarter of the last school

014year and do some tutoring work. And so we're able to get just a taste of the partnership that is available again that we certainly hope to expand upon. So what are the services that we offer? And I will go left to right there on your screen. Our tutor ed approach is exactly what you would think. It is highintensity tutoring typically 1 one to a 1:7 ratio of highly qualified tutors to students getting real results. And we're going to show you some of that data as to what you can expect in Petersburg for the upcoming school year. But all of our tutors have the same qualifications as those in our teacher placement service. All have a minimum of a bachelor's degree and are highly qualified in the area in which they are tutoring. Our instructed platform

015is our teacher placement service. And so we partner with school divisions in the increasingly challenging environment. And we know that, you know, even precoid there was a national teacher shortage crisis of over a 100,000 teachers that has only been exacerbated in the postpandemic environment. And so we are proud to partner with school divisions again to place highly qualified individuals. And as we're going to talk about uh as we continue to go on, this is also what we are offering Petersburg as what we refer to as a pathway model. And essentially what that means is while we will recruit them, we will train them and partner with you for this school year, the ultimate goal is for you to move the teachers onto your payroll and therefore being a full-time Petersburg employee for the 2627 school

016year. So we're not just about short-term solutions, we're about long-term solutions. And while Edforce is not something that we're talking about this evening, I will briefly mention it. Ed force is our umbrella of offerings and sort of a catch-all from everything from instructional assistants, pair of professionals to also teacher lensure and teacher prep and so we offer those services as well. We refer to ourselves not as a staffing company although staffing is one component of what we do. We are an instructional solutions company because we will be with you from start to finish. And let me elaborate a little bit on that. So, how do we prepare our instructors? Certainly, we have to recruit them first. We do not have just a cadre of individuals just waiting in the wings. When we partner with the

017district, our leadership team is going to get with your leadership team and find out about every detail that is pertinent to success. And so, the middle school may have different needs specifically than the high school, than the elementary schools. And then we're going to make sure that our teachers are trained not only in good pedigogy and classroom management, but specific to content areas and anything that is specific to the needs of the schools in which they are serving. Advance. And so this slide and the next couple that follow begin to really speak to why we consider ourselves an instructional solutions company, not just a staffing company. And that sounds like just semantics, but we really believe it and we live it because we are not here just to place a teacher. We are here to

018offer what we refer to as wraparound services. Now, in the instruction world, wraparound services recognizes that it's not just the instructional health of the child that we have a responsibility for. We have a responsibility for educating the whole child. As a company, we believe in wraparound services as well, but we are wrapping our collective arms around the districts we are partnering with. So, what does this look like? This means that from the very beginning, we are our human resources and recruiting department is working with your HR department. We are making sure that the vetting processes are up to par on both ends. It means that operationally we are meeting with your principles, with your district leadership to make sure that you are fully satisfied, not just in the beginning, but we do weekly check-ins. It

019means that we are doing instructional observations throughout the year. This is in addition to any instructional observations that your administrators are doing. our expert team is coming in and doing additional ones to make sure that we are meeting all expectations. So it's like a puzzle from instructional expertise to human resources and recruiting to the overall program management. Another thing I haven't touched on yet, we have a full data services team headed by Dr. Sally Aansen, former assistant superintendent in Hampton, uh, who can provide real progress on the success of both the teachers and students. And so again, I will reiterate at the at the risk of being redundant. It is about true instruction instructional solutions, not simply placing a teacher. This is really kind of the same imple uh information, but laid out more on

020a timeline. So we begin with district planning. We want to make sure that we have every eye dotted and every tea cross that we understand every need at the district level, at the school level, right down to the classroom level. We plan with you. We take our instructors and tutors through a series of professional development before they're before they ever set foot in the classroom, but then again sustained throughout the course of the school year. We place them in the classroom and then again we monitor monitor monitor. We inspect what we expect. I'm going to again this is more just bullet points of what I showed in the puzzle pieces. So at the try to be a little bit more expedient. We can go ahead and fast forward through this. But I did mention that

021this is a pathway model. And so we have an expert human resources team. um as well as a placement team who is going to work to make sure that that we know how to navigate the VDOE's system for placement. And so all of our instructors again have a minimum of a bachelor's degree, but we are going to work to make sure that they meet all of the requirements for a provisional lensure so that if you choose to offer them a contract for the following year, you can do so. You don't have any obligation to do so. You're not locked in, but if you choose to do so, you can seamlessly move our teachers over to your payroll at zero extra cost. And so from talent sourcing to placement to aligning with your goals and your

022mission to continuous training to supporting you throughout and building capacity for a pipeline of success, we are your all services provider. I thought it might be prudent just to give you a snapshot of who can you expect to be teaching your students. This is not just uh kind of a cookie cutter bullet point. These are real teachers that have been employed by university instructors. And so just a snapshot of their resumes, their CVs. You see one, and again I won't read line by line to you, but what you will see is the common theme there. Whether it's in an elementary classroom, it's in a secondary classroom, it's in the maths, the sciences, ELA, they are highly qualified with a diverse background in the subject, content, grade levels that they are teaching. Same thing with our

023special education pathway. Um, every school district, and I know Petersburg is no different, special education has become an increasing need in the teacher shortage crisis. And so we have the capabilities of placing instructors from the general ed collaborative setting right up to highintensity autism. Our instructors are trained. They have the requisite background and they will have embedded professional learning to ensure success. So let's talk a little bit about that pipeline. So just in the last year we have had a significant number of newly licensed teacher. We also hold a 95% conversion rate to district employment, meaning that those that we are hiring this year, 19 out of every 20 are choosing to go on to work for the district the following year. Just in the last year, 325 over 325 instrued placements took place and

024we've had a 98% successful placement rate into classrooms that have been identified by our partners. That means when you give us your list of vacancies that is has has been our successful rate in placing our instructors. No, this is not an eye exam. Um so we do not expect you to actually read the uh uh the numerical data here. What this is intended to be is a snapshot as to what your administrators can expect from a data dashboard. So partnering with us through data services and we are all furpa compliant. We will make sure that all of your data policies are file are followed as well. But your administrators are going to get real time data in a dashboard format on the progress of your students. Again, we don't just care about making sure that

025you have a qualified instructor. The whole point of that is to make sure that your students are experiencing instructional gains. So to wrap up from the instruct uh instructional side and then we're going to get into the tutoring uh here briefly in just a minute. You're getting high quality instructors. You are also getting and I didn't touch on this uh enough. We are recruiting in your own backyard. We are not recruiting nationally. We are recruiting in the Petersburg area. Why do we do that? Because we want them to have sustained success. We want them to have incentive to move on to work for you in the success of school year, but we also want them to know the community. And so you have a higher rate of success when you understand and you know the

026community. And so we are recruiting in this community from instructional monitoring from the data services. Again, you you've heard that, but we will partner with you every step of the way. So the data that you're going to see in the next couple of slides is representative of our tutoring services. And again, we had the opportunity to partner with you. I think it was only a total of the last five weeks. So again, it was uh a foot in the water. Um but here is what our tutoring services and this is not just generic data. This is uh from Virginia school divisions um in the last year. And so I know the chart might be a little bit hard to read there, but the yellow bars are math score increases. The red red bars are English

027language arts. The left two are those who have had 5 to 25 hours of tutoring or sessions as we call them. 26 to 50 and then the far right is 51 to 90. Now partnering throughout a whole year, every student would be in the 51 to 90 range. But again, look at the percentage of students increasing their math scores who have partnered with us. 97% in math, 83% gains in ELA, in reading. We also have compared it to those not doing tutoring. So, if this was a research study, we would call this an untreated or a control group. And so not receiving uh in our tutoring the gains were at 23% in math during the so gains but those who received the tutoring had a 39% gain. It is even more dramatic if we look

028at ELA the treated students and again 23 point gains that's massive but those who did not receive it actually went down 11 points and so again I know that was a quick overview and mixing in both our teacher placement as well as our tutoring services but we thank you for the opportunity to present this evening uh we would respectfully open to questions questions first and then I'll end. First of all, thank you Dr. Gil. I did not recognize you outside of Zoom. So, it's great. Thank you so much for coming during your vacation. I didn't expect you to be here. So, when you were walking across and when you turned, I said, "Wait a minute, that's Dr. Gil, the former superintendent in Hanover County. Is that correct?" And so, we're excited to have um all

029three of you all and the former superintendent in Hampton City and a couple of other places, Dr. Smith and of course Josh. And so for everyone listening and for everyone in the audience, I just want to provide some context on the back end that we are looking at universities tutor, excuse me, in university instructors in Petersburg. As you heard Dr. Gil talk about, we already started this work with university instructors this year. Although be it late in the year for our students who needed tutoring and so we already have a relationship with them. And so although it wasn't a long time, it was very impactful. And so we're going to be looking at how we start tutoring much earlier this year in Petersburg so that kids get that additional support around tier 2 and tier

030three support for kids. And so we're going to do that. But tonight what I wanted Dr. Gil and the team to come to talk about is Petersburg. We are considering support around some of our teacher vacancies. And so just so you all are aware we have about 54 teacher vacancies currently in Petersburg. Although we have our human resources department who is working on recruitment through a variety of measures, I want to thank Mr. Paul Brown, our chief academic officer, who actually started working with university instructors this year around tutoring, but also learned more about their support around helping school divisions across the Commonwealth, and you saw many of them on the screen earlier to really help put in instructors or teachers into classrooms. And so they've already talked about in the presentation the quality of

031the instructors that they're able to recruit. And so we are looking to partner with university instructors to bring in some additional teachers to help reduce that number from 54 um down by at least 13 teachers at this moment, but there's a range. And so we want to partner with them so that they can help us fill our vacancies with high quality people. And they also showed you and talked about how they support the candidates that come in. So they do a lot of that work to help us in our recruitment. And once we get those teachers, they're there to support us every step of the way. And so I want everyone to understand that this is our next level partnership here in Petersburg now is looking at bringing in qualified candidates to put in front

032of our kids because we know there is a teacher shortage across the country but also in the Commonwealth. And so we have to try something different this year as we move forward in Petersburg because remember the vision is to transform opportunities, learning and success for every child in Petersburg City Public Schools so they graduate with a life filled with choices. And so this is a first step toward putting qualified teachers on top of our recruitment efforts into place. And so I'm asking the board tonight and I'm also we're presenting to the community that this is a new strategy that we're trying to implement around our core business which is teaching and learning. And so you cannot get performance if you don't prioritize teaching and learning. And so this is a step now in this direction.

033And so I'm thankful that Dr. Gar who's been a superintendent, Dr. Smith who's been a superintendent right here in the Commonwealth and now they're partnering. and we have our partner in Josh and they understand the importance of that. And so I just want everybody to understand that's what we're asking the board to consider tonight and I want you all to think about that as well as we bring that forward for consideration. So with that I'll turn it back over. Thank you um for allowing me to provide some context. Thank you Miss Brown. Thank you Dr. Gil. Thank you sir. Wonderful seeing you again. You as well. Board members, are there any questions? Mr. M Mr. years. Actually, not a question, but first of all, it's I'm, you know, I'm appreciative of the presentation as we've

034as superintendent already indicated, we've already started that process a little bit. I was particularly interested, not interested. I appreciate uh your slide 16. I'm sure every every school division uh has their own level of concerns and uh that kind of popped out at me uh because we're always looking for u uh assistance and getting um support for some of our our children who have uh of concerns of that nature and having qualified persons that sit in front of them to to assist them. So I appreciate the presentation overall. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And Superintendent Brown did talk about the timeline. One thing I neglected to mention is kind of our onboarding time. So the fact that we are talking about this on July 2nd is is really um very timely in that we typically

035take four but allow six weeks from the time that we partner with the district to the teacher in the classroom. We know your teachers, not your students, but your teachers report on August the 11th. And so that is roughly six weeks. And so um again, we're we're happy to have that possible opportunity. Appreciate you, sir. Thank you, Dr. Gil. Just a couple of questions. Can you elaborate a little bit more on how many days during the week or is it one day during the week that you're coming in and observing? You all are coming in observing teachers. No, fantastic question, Mr. Chairman. And so we are not going to just have our personnel uh just pop in. We're going to coordinate that with the principal and so and and or whoever the principal is designates

036to to make those decisions. What we want to convey is that we are always going to make ourselves available. Um we do instructional rounds. We are going to contact we're going to check in with the principal and team typically once a week. We assign what we call a program manager and a program director. Um so we sort of have our own hierarchy if you will of kind of the equivalent of principal central office etc. So there's going to be somebody checking in with the principal at least weekly from the instructional rounds. We coordinate with our director of instruction Dr. Eric Jones and his staff and will uh work with the principal on what kind of schedule works best. But we're not going to just pop in your schools uninvited. We are here to complement and

037supplement and be that added resource. So we'll work with you on whatever works best. Okay. Thank you. And the next question for the teachers that may be provisional, you all are going to work with them and you're paying the fee for the testing and all that. That is correct. Okay, that's it. That's it. That's it. I think because this is this is brand new and and it's a lot in here. I'm going to move, if you don't mind, I'm going to move to the audience and see if there are any questions. I know we have some educators out there. Any questions from the audience? I can't. It's a glare. Mr. Beverly, yes. If you could come up to the mic and give your name, your ward, or either your address. It's a big Hi. Good

038evening. I am from Ward 7. My name is Bobby Beverly. I am from Petersburg. Uh, and here's my question. How do anyone from here or them explain those who have masters and bachelor's degrees that cannot volunteer in the school to tutor? Cuz I can tell you some instances where that has happened. So, I'd like for somebody to address that. They have a masters. They have a bastards, but they can't tutor. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you so much for your um question or comment. And so what I'll say to you is I'd like to talk to you offline to get more information. But what I'll say is one of the things that we're establishing in Petersburg now is a culture. We want to make sure that we provide opportunities for community and those people who

039want to come in and provide support to our kids. Of course, there is a process to make sure that you vet people that you're putting around around kids. And so it's going to start with the process of the principal right now until we establish a formal process. But I do encourage anyone in the community who'd like to support our students through tutoring, whether you have a bachelor's, a masters, or if you um have a skill set to be able to support kids, that you reach out to the principal. And after you reach out to the principal to provide that um to offer that support, there will be a process where we have to vet background checks and all of the different um aspects to make sure that we can put people in front of kids.

040So if that happen, we can talk offline. But I will say to anyone, please start with the school principal because that is the person that will be able to help direct you and support you in providing um volunteer um hours and support to kids. That would be my response at this moment. Thank you, Miss Thank you, Miss Brown. Also, Dr. Gil, Miss Wilson, you can come on up. Dr. Gil, if you could share with individuals online and in the room, how can individuals apply through your program through university? Actually, you want to feel that? I'm going to let our vice president go ahead. Okay. Great question. Um, so our website, www.universityinstructors.com, universityinstructors.com is a great place to start uh where they can look at all our job opportunities. Uh if we're elected to participate in

041supplying positions for Petersburg, those will be posted there. Um also Glass Door um Indeed, as well as any of the job for search functions that are out there. If you search obviously Petersburg openings for positions and our university instructors, they'll be readily available. Um we've linked them on our website and again we've got Google Analytics that prioritizes them for the area that we're looking in. So, um, any other questions that, um, we also have direct numbers and email addresses on our website for our HR recruitment team. Um, Tiffany Bevvens, that's on the, uh, that was on the presentation as well as Chad Gilbert, uh, who is local, um, and they respond to that. I get a lot of requests myself, and I send those over immediately. So, um, we're set up to, to handle those

042requests. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Miss Wilson, good evening. Evette Wilson, fifth district or fifth ward. I just have a question about your employees. Most of the teachers who come through our school system or employees are vested in VRS. How does that work for your people? Because if they're in your program, are they gaining years with VRS? And when that when their time come, will that be accredited as they move forward? Great question. Again, great question. Um, so part of our part part of our process is is the compensation that we provide when we're the employer of record. We're not VRS. Um, we'd love to be a contributor of VRS. Uh, the DOE doesn't allow us to do that. Um, but what we do is we compensate them with those benefits they would receive as full-time

043teachers in VRS. So their wage actually encompasses not only the benefits that we're required to by law to provide but also additional compensation so we can help mitigate their retirement while they're with us. Again, after they go full-time with the district, they would be eligible free for VRS and they would start that process. So what about the years that they're with you? They won't get credit for those years. They won't get VRS credit for those, but they will get additional compensation in their wages from us to compensate while they're not getting that VRS supplement. Well, I would suggest to you if there are young people, Miss Wilson, if you could move to the mic so I think I know you get in trouble when I don't. Okay. Um, young people don't see retirement. I I

044go through this every year when I see the VRS presentation because all they see is weekend ski trips. So, two years down the line makes a difference when you're trying to get out the door. So I think there is an education piece that you need to provide money in my pocket to let me see down the line. So I would encourage you all to educate them as well on retirement because the state of Virginia um is slowly but surely uh you know trying to move away from VRS funding. So they have to think of we tell our people to do 401s and because I'm not saying the VRS system is perfect. for the people coming in the door, but it's something. Okay, I appreciate the qu questions and the comments. Um, to piggyback a little

045bit on what Mr. Ellis said the teachers who are partnering with us often again may not be immediately eligible for that provisional but part of the reason you're partnering with us is so that we take the onus of responsibility on to get them that lensure and then move them over to you so they can get that VRS credit. So in many instances they wouldn't have been eligible for VRS anyway because they would not be necessarily going through your human resources system. We are preparing them. We are training them, but we're also getting them eligible for that provisional license. So again, that we can partner with you. And this partnership, even though the contract is for one year, you're really partnering with us for a pipeline for teachers for the future. Thank you, board chair. Thank

046you, Dr. Gil. But I want to go back to u Mr. Beverly in the back. I just want to also direct you to our website. there's a section that's called volunteering and it gives you the option and so we're working on where that's routed but if you go to our website there's a section that allows you to volunteer and it'll take you through that process so um just wanted to um add that thank you so much for the question Mr. Harist Thomas Haristen. Um I live on Halifax Street. My question is how long and you may have answered this but how how many teachers can we look to have this school year? Like how many do we think that's our decision? That's the board's decision. The superintendent would make that recommendation. We are happy to

047partner with you for the number that you deem appropriate. Thank you. Are there any other questions? We do appreciate you. Thank you for coming. Always great seeing you. Thank you. Thank you all. Great to see you all. Thank you. Bye, Miss Brown. Next, we'll move to 4B. Thank you again, board chair and school board members. will now move to our second presentation of this afternoon. And so we'll start with our our second presentation is our 2025 2026 mobile devices and our yonder patch imple excuse me our school year 2025 2026 mobile devices and our yonder pouches implementation plan given by Mr. Paul Rona our director of safety and security and Miss Rea Green our principal of Vernon John's Middle School and Miss Alicia Fields principal of Petersburg High School. Thank you. I'll turn it over

048to you, Mr. Ronco. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, vice chair, and our superintendent. Uh we're going to talk really quick about a Yoner pouch implementation plan for the future, and we'll do an overview of what we've done, where we've been. If you go to the next slide. So looking at the agenda, so we'll do the honor pouch overview, talk about the device free learning environment that on the reset, the PHS 2025 2026 implementation plan, burning John's and Blandford, same their 2025 2026ation plan, and then we'll do some uh yonder pouch replacement process and we'll talk about some of the success and highlights that we had. Uh next slide, please. So, if you recall, you know, we had adopted in December 2023 the portable communications device guidelines and then they were revised in February 2024. Uh the

049Virginia governor's uh executive order 33 came out in July 2023. So, we were already ahead of the process when we did our policies. Uh VOE guidance, the governor's executive order required VOE to come up and establish guidance for um no cell phones in public schools. and they established that guidance in September of 2024. And that guidance basically is uh just bellto bell, no cell phones. And that's the guidance for, you know, for a short one sentence. Um Vernon John's and Blandford did a first implementation back in February 2024. Again, we were ahead of the curve. This was before the established uh guidance. This was before the executive order. Uh and then PHS did an initial implementation August of 2024 and we did a reset implementation in February 2025. Uh the initial implementation if you see

050we had about a 13 13% ret retention rate. So we only retained about 13% of our pouches on that uh initial implementation in August of 2024. We did that second reset implementation and we're a lot more successful with that. uh we had a 88% retention rate for us on the pouches that we distributed and we had so you do the next slide. So, device feed learn flying. I apologize. This is July 6th, 2025. We're not we're not doing things in the future. It's actually January 2025. So, my apologies for that. That was my fault. Uh but we did a uh the superintendent did a a cell phone free schools PCPS statement and went to parents via parent square with a flyer and you can see the flyer that was attached that went with it and

051it was notification of the schoolboard policy the notification of the executive order from the governor and the use of yanner pouches and redistribution based on re-evaluating protocols and our procedures which was that reset that second implementation for PHS. the notification that devices must be turned off and stored away and what the consequences were for uh non-compliance. And again, you can see that flyer on the bottom uh consequences for non-compliance. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to uh Miss Fields to talk about the PHS new implementation plan. Thank you. Good evening, school board chairman, vice chairman, school board members, superintendent, all in the audience. Petersburg High School implementation plan is as follows. Students IDs are located inside the pouch. As you see, an example of a pouch is there. It also has

052the student number and also it is colorcoded. That means that if we find a pouch, we will know what floor and what wing is located in. During the first block, teachers will distribute pouches to students and record them on a spreadsheet. Students who arrive late because some students don't always come to school on time, they will still get a earmarked pouch either through the cafeteria or in the front entrance. School security provides teachers with a magnetic magnetic unlocking device at 2:30 at the end of each day. Next slide. Our class bell has been um adjusted because we shaved some time off during transition and transition and lunch. We still made sure we protected instructional time. That allowed for us to let students to go back to their first period to get their pouches unlocked. The

053first block teacher unlocks, retrieves, records, and notes any damage to the pouch on the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will be accessible to all admins for review. That means we review to make sure that no pouches are damaged. If they are damaged, we make sure we locate that student and call that parent for replacement. Students who comply receives um students will receive incentives for compliance such as access to the gaming room. That was a big push this year. Students enjoyed it. They were able to come in and show their pouch with their phone in it. They had they used that time during their lunch period and they also got a snack and a drink before they left. This year we're going to encompass home football game and basketball games because it's hard for young people to get

054get rid of their phones. So we want to reward those students that are following the actual PL policy here at Petersburg High School. And we're also going to ask students what other incentives that they may like. That may be what I like that see them have, but they may have some additional in incentives. So we'll be meeting with students to get more feedback as well. Good evening, school board chair, vice chair, school board members, superintendent, central office staff, and everyone in attendance this evening. Um, Miss Fields just went over a lot at the middle school. We just changed it just a tad bit, but the vid the picture that you actually saw of the pouch is the same pouches that we will be using. What we'll be doing at the middle school, students will turn

055their phones off once they enter the building. As soon as they enter receiving from if they're a car rider or walker or if they are getting off the bus, students will report to their first period class. Students will place their cell phone, smartwatch, earbuds inside their assigned yonder pouch and secure in front of their teacher and security to make sure they're locked. Students will be responsible for carrying or appropriately storing their yonder pouch on them throughout the day. Students arriving late will be required to place their phone, smartwatch, earbuds in their yonder pouch upon entry to the building at any time to ensure that their phone is off and secured within their pouch. As students leave the school, they will have their fourth period teacher or school security officer unlock their pouch using a magnetic

056device. So, in other words, our students will be keeping their pouch. We will be assigning them a pouch on the first day of school. parents will be signing off on it and they're responsible for that pouch as opposed to us collecting them every day. Middle school kids, we do not need as much transition. So, we're going to make sure they stay in place and we just focus and maximize the instruction. Remove their phones, smartwatch earbuds, stay in place and put it in their in their that backpack. We're asking students at that time once we unlock their phones, we are going to watch them make sure they put it in their backpack, their backpack or in their pockets on their purses as opposed to leaving it anywhere else even though they're getting ready to dismiss. Students

057will take their pouches home each day and are expected to bring their pouch back to school every day. Students leaving early for the day at any time during the school will have their pouch unlocked before they exit the building or before they go into a locker room for sports or any other after school activities. We also have a flyer with most frequently asked questions by parents. So, every parent will be receiving that based off of what we dealt with this past year. Everything is already in place. And I believe it's going to be a great year without yonder pouches to just reduce the fact that our students like using cell phones for any and every reason other than instruction. Thank you. Okay, I'm back. So the yawn pouch replacement process unfortunately we do have to

058talk about replacing yanner pouches. Uh we're require there's a requirement under the policy. Uh there is some wear and tear there's loss and some damage to be expected monitoring the process so we can keep the replacement process down to monitor the process and adjust with quarterly meetings with principles and we want to conduct inventory at least twice per year so we can keep a track of how many pouches we have and what we need to do. Let's do a comparison cost. In fiscal year 2025, we spent nearly $95,000 on cell phone pouches. Fiscal year 2026, our current replacement cost that we're looking at is $12,67. And that's what we're looking at to get off the ground for 2026. Part of that, a third of that cost is for Blandford. Uh Blandford is going on year

059three of these yonder pouches, and they haven't received any new ones since. So again that wear and tear we want got to replace 200 pouches or so for Blandford for u uh this coming year. The difference again the savings we have $81,597 is the difference in the cost that we've doing uh between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026. Next slide. Thank you. So we do want to talk about the success at least celebrate the success that we had. So, a lot of thank you to our students and our parents and our support teams, our teachers, our front office staff, the security officers, and especially school principles for their leadership and commitment to the implementation of the honor pouches and reduce the initial cost by 85%. I think it's a a great success story. So,

060thank you. And any questions? You want to say you can go ahead first? Thank you, Mr. Rocka. Thank you, Miss Fields. Um and thank you um principal green. So thank you. I just want to say in front of everyone and I think going back to the highlights I know that again we started this process um back in 2023 early 2024. And so we know that we had to reset because there were lots of challenges with the initial roll out and process and structure. And so we went back and we restructured in January. And as you can see, if you go back a couple of slides, please to the reduction the highlights. Go back to the highlights, I'm sorry. Thank you. Right there. So again, just celebrating that we reduced the cost by 85% but that's

061also because of implementation in schools and the expectations that we reset for students and the expectations we reset for parents around yonder pouch implementation. I just want to say thank you in front of everyone to our principles and your teams for your hard work and resetting and we know that this will be a a a great year to start off the year with the expectations and support. So I just want to say that um again to thank the school board for allotting the funds to be able to do a hard reset um when I came on board in the middle of the year. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from board members or comments? None from me, sir. Okay. No questions. Okay, I just had one and that would be my concern is Vernon John's

062Middle School the taking home pouches does not align with our policy. So what are how can how can we hold them accountable or consequences because we don't have in our policy about taking pouches home and bringing them back. I will have a conversation with the parents day one when we have our meet and greet. We'll already be putting that information out prior to, but what we ran into this past year, school board chair, is when they had them in school and they collect them at the end of the day. We had a lot of parents making complaint about the the cleaniness of them, the sanitizing of them, what are we doing with the pouches every day if we just putting in the pouch? Who's cleaning them? A lot of parents actually requested the kids could

063keep their pouch. So we can actually just I'm looking at everyone that I spoke to as it relates to the yand pouches the other districts and actually the individual Miss Allen who was overseeing us she's our partner. It was pretty much a suggestion that can you try to have the students actually keep their y pouches to see how that works. So my question would be for you and Mr. Rona. If we seeing that, if we see that we're having to replace a lot of those pouches, I believe we probably need to take another look at what we're doing because I do have a feeling that some of the kids are going to purposely not bring them. And we have extra pouches and we also have a plan in place for those pouches when they don't

064bring them. We have something in place when those students come in every day if they don't have a pouch. But like I said, we can honestly just trying to try something different because what we had in place was not necessarily working at the middle school. Our middle school students were more focused on having a phone as opposed to instruction. They would prefer to go home. The parents were like, "Send them home because there's nothing else I can do." But I want them to stay in school. So, if I can keep them in school and try something different, the y pouches as opposed to them becoming defiant and insubordinate because they refuse to put the y pouch the phone in their pouch. They're destroying the y pouches. So, they destroy the y pouch because it had

065a code on it, but then they take somebody else yonder pouch. So right now we're being accountable because they have a spreadsheet. So they got double accountability. We have your name laminated inside the pouch. It's a little section in there. Then we have a number on the pouch for you. So when you come in now, we have double accountability with that first period teacher making sure that you have your pouch. So that's the first thing we do in the morning because we have set aside 15 minutes for roar time. So with that raw time is for breakfast in the classroom. They're making sure that they have all the announcements and checking yonder pouches. So, it's just trying to do something different than what we were doing to see if we get a better result. Okay.

066Is it any is it a possib The board is okay with it a possibility? I'm not sure if you're going to say first semester or whatever, but they come back to us with the data on that. Yeah, that's great. That we can make sure we not That's correct. We're not losing money. Definitely. I I can I can go back and reduce it and said first 45 days. The first nine weeks. Okay. 40. Okay. First nine weeks. First 45 days. Yes. Mr. Lundy. Yes. Uh, Mr. Rona, I remember we spoke I remember we spoke on the the uh pouches. However, I was still very concerned about the fact of this being a very lucrative situation and not a a waste. And I'm wondering how we can think about turning that around uh so that we can

067look at those monies because I think we talked about that one time and we talked about how much it was costing and I think you shared it with me also. But are we still losing? You know, I would say if you if you go back one more slide, please. I think it is if we're looking at say $12,600 to replace them and and let's just say worst case scenario we have to do that one more time in the beginning of the year you're looking at $24,000 investment and to me if we're getting students to have less distractions to increase their learning to uh reduce some of the the problems that we have I think it's a well worth the money spending when you're only looking at say 20 $12,000 now maybe $24,000 maybe again. Um,

068but that is well worth the money and it's a lot less and then what we've done in the past on on the almost $95,000. So again, I I say we'd have to weigh that out. Uh, but I do believe that uh if we're spending only $24,000 a year and these kids are learning, getting better, teachers are being able to teach better and and we're having less distractions and less problems, I think it's well worth the money to spend. Uh just one comment, Mr. Pierce. Uh I think it would uh as Miss Green indicated, I think the 45 days would be good to invest to see if in fact we can change that culture enough to uh we're in a different age now. I got it. You know, children are different. And if and if this

069is going to support that to reduce that cost and we can see that in real time data then it might be something interesting to make sure we can invest that way. So um uh I'm okay with the 45 days and see if that's going to work. Thank you. Any questions from the audience? Miss Wilson. Now, you all know I have other districts, right? And there's a district near you all that had those pouches. And some of the comments I got from the teachers was they knew when the kids were in the building cuz I heard the click click click click. And the clicking was they had figured out how to open those pouches because at when they first implemented I think this school district was the first to implement it. They would keep them in

070the office. Then they allowed them as you all are to have them and in the morning that's what you heard. Click click click kids figure out things. So, I just caution you because that had taken place in a nearby school. So, if those kids can figure it out, I know our kids can. So, I just wanted to bring that to your attention. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. We appreciate it, Mr. Rona, Miss Green, and Miss Fields. Thank you. Thank you, team, Mr. Brown. Next, we'll move to 4 C. Thank you, board chair Pritchette and school board members. will now move to our next presentation which is the school year 2025 2026 draft presentation around our PCPS new parent student handbook and code of conduct that will be given by Mr. Paul Brown our chief academic

071officer and supported by Mr. Jesse Chavis our discipline hearing officer Mr. Brown. Thank you. Good evening, Board Chair Pritchard, Vice Chair Pierce, board members, Superintendent Brown, community members, parents. Today, I will pre presenting to you the recent updates made to our parents student handbook and student code of conduct. These revisions aim to improve clarity to staff, parents, and students, and to ensure compliance with policy and provide families with the most current information about our division. Next slide. This presentation will address revisions and additions to the handbook by section. And as you notice, our handbook um is divided into six sections. So, we will go through each section and then we'll also um acknowledge the members of the team who supported this implementation. I'm getting old so I can't see with my glasses on now. So,

072next slide. I see better. Yeah, with my glasses. I used to need to read and drive, but now I just have to adjust them. The cover of our handbook features our students highlighting the end in mind. Graduation. Next slide. Section one. We started by reorganizing section one. The the division calendar has been moved to the front of the handbook to make it more accessible. And we've also added the school start end times and included key contact information for the division and our schools. Next slide, please. Additionally, in this section, we have clarified details regarding parent teacher conferences to foster better communication between home and school. As you can recall, we did add in our new calendar um PE teacher parent conference days. And so, we also want to make sure that parents are aware that

073we encourage parents to schedule teacher parent conferences with our teachers. And finally, we've added a question and concern protocol for parents when issues arise concerning their child's education or just concerns about the school. So, this is something new. If you go back to that slide, please, this um outlines a protocol for parents, who to call, when to call, and where. And also in the handbook, we have contact numbers as well. Next slide. In section two, under student attendance, we have incorporated language referencing the code of Virginia and the code board and the schoolboard policy regarding attendance. We've also added specific language related to chronic absenteeism and truency emphasizing our commitment to regular student attendance. Next slide. In the area of academic information, we've updated the dates for child find and special education dates. We've also

074included information about the PCP parent student welcome center which we are now promoting parents to use for all parents um for engagement. Furthermore, we've listed assessments students will participate in such as MAP and so tests to keep our families informed about academic expectations. Next slide. In the area of safety and wellness, we've added information about our resource officers and school security personnel to highlight our safety measures. We've also included details about the annual tornado drill that is a state requirement. And additionally, we updated bus expectations to reinforce student safety during transportation. Next slide. In the area of Title One parent and family engagement, we've also included new initiatives and resources for parents and family engagement. In the areas of family engagement in for the up andcoming school year, we've made sure that we aligned our

075family engagement around our title one requirements and the district commitment to involving families and student success. Next slide. In the area of student code of conduct, it's quite a list, but found in this area of student code and conduct, we've clarified behavior expectations and pro policies to promote a positive school environment to ensure consistency across our schools. Before closing, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the members of the team which consists of principles, central office members, our discipline coordinator, Mr. Chavis who is here um Miss Fields, Miss Green um and other members of the team who supported in revising this handbook. To our board, community members and to our students, we want to say thank you for your attention and ongoing support. These updates aimed in promoting a safe and supportive learning environment

076for all students. Questions? And board members, you do have a copy of the revised handbook to go through. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you, Miss Thank you, Mr. Chavis. And I just want to remind everyone that this was our first iteration. So, we had a handbook from last year, and there were lots of um lots of information in the handbook. And so, this was our first try at making some tweaks. The plan for next year, because we'll start out the full year together as a team, we will overhaul the entire handbook. This is the first iteration of changes, but next year we're going to bring a fully overhauled handbook because you cannot do everything at one time. But we wanted to make a real, you know, gall gallant effort to be able to update some

077information, make it easier for parents to read, make it more accessible for different members of our community. And so again, just giving you context as we take a first step and try to um adjust to the previous handbook with most of the information and just provide updates, but we're going to take it the next take the take the next step um next year and overhaul the handbook so that it is in alignment with our restorative practices and our direction that we're moving here in Petersburg. So with that, I will turn it back over to Butch and Bridget. Thank you, Miss Bram. Any questions, comments from board members? No questions. Okay, I'm going to walk you through the manual. I read all 86 pages. Let's start with page 11. Page 11. I would encourage you all

078to go back and look at the phone numbers. I called every number and some of the numbers did not match the department. I call academics and HR picked up. There are also phone numbers on here where there are no voicemails so you don't know who you're calling. So just just check over every number that is on here. Also, it'd be very it would be very helpful also if you all would put on here the superintendent where they can reach the administrative assistant if they're looking to speak with the superintendent because if her number is not on here, they're going to be calling board members. Okay. Okay. Also on the Blandford Academy number, I mean, I'm sorry, on the Pitman Academy number that is listed, I call the number and it tells you, "Thank you for

079calling Blandford Academy. the Blandford number that is listed, it tells you thank you for calling Vernon John's Middle School. It doesn't say you you that number was transferred over because of summer and so a lot of our phone numbers were transferred over and some of them are not been completely transferred to the appropriate place especially at the district level since we've moved out of the building. But we will go through each number and verify to make sure that we have the correct number. Okay. Page 13 under your student experienced homeless homelessness. If you could put a contact number in there for parents to call if they need assistance. And I guess number six on page 16, if you could go to your questions and concerns, I'm sorry you don't you don't have that, but it's

080in your page. Oh, it is there. Okay. And maybe you haven't finished because it's draft, but number three say refer to the directory on the back of the sheet. Does that supposed to be there? No, the directory is actually in front of the book. So, so that needs to come out. Yes. Okay. And then it does tell them to contact the office of the superintendent. So that's why the the number needs to be on there. Okay. Page 18 in the um handbook it says before a student's absent the parent and guardian must complete must complete a request for exceptional circumstance circumstances form. Do you have a copy? Can we see a copy of that form? I've never seen it before. I didn't know parents had that option to do that. So, I don't have a

081copy of this form as mentioned before. We'll get a copy, but I want the board to remember that this is based on our handbook that was approved last year and that so all of these things that some of the things that you're suggesting were actually a part of our handbook last year and we're revising it, but we'll make sure that we have a copy of that form. Yeah, that's why I'm giving you all the correct information to update it. Page 21 behind Walnut Hill, you have ESA. On page 21 of the handbook, it should be W. It should be elementary school, not I don't know why has a a behind it. See it. Okay. Page 22 under gifted and advanced learning. If we could also provide the parents with the number to reach the gifted

082coordinator. Page 22 of the hand. Yeah. Oh, so you have the handbook. Okay. Dan, also under the high school opportunities, Richard Bland is now standalone college is no longer part of women Mary. So if you could take women Mary off page 22. Okay. Also on page 23, do we still have is the welcome center still going to be located because that's in the handbook that is going to be located in central office is being moved to a an elementary school beginning in the fall. So we'll remove that. Okay. Thank you. Page 25, Miss Brown, and and this is not for where Miss Mr. Brown and Miss Brown. Um, if if it's possible if you all could present to us some of the VKRP results. We have not I didn't even know what it was. We've

083not re seen any of those results supposedly that's taken by our prek students. Okay. And kindergarten students. No, we have not seen them. We've never seen I don't even know what it is. So, we'll um board chef Bridget will meet with Dr. Pam and we'll make sure we bring that data. Okay. Page 33. We need the contact number for the Clemson Clinic on page 35. This would be for um communications. you we're telling parents where to look when school is closed or we're closing early. If we could also it said visit the social med media accounts. If we could also give the accounts the links that parents need to visit and also list our local TV and radio stations that we will be using. Okay. On page 40, it talks about if your child is

084taught by a person who is not meeting VDOE requirements, and I I remember receiving this when my kids were in school um for at least four weeks, a letter will be sent home notifying the parents. Who is responsible for that? I know it's not in, but I'm just asking just in parents may want to know who do they contact. Do they contact the principal? Okay. Also on page 40, the division parental engagement policy. if the policy number is not listed because you had all the policy numbers attached to everything else in here. Okay. Also a rem a reminder of the parent engagement policy. Each title one school will establish a parent teacher association on page 44 at the bottom which the word should be the code of student conduct. It says the OD. See that

085the Oh, you don't have that. 44 should be the code. 44. The code. See, it says OD. Page 44. Should be a C there. Yeah, it should be a C there. Okay. The next ones are for Mr. Chavis. Mr. Chavis, I believe yes, you're on page 55, you start with the elementary codes first. Okay. And pull up also your secondary code. You going to have to put the secondary beside it. So secondary. So you want to beside it. Yeah. You see you have B A P3 for elementary. And you said the level goes out to level three, correct? But for secondary, you had BAP3 and the level only goes out to two. The elementary is higher than the secondary. DSO3 is the same the same way you have elementary level four. Yeah. Yeah. And you

086have secondary level three. Okay. BSO 13. Same way you have elementary over in the far right column. And you don't have anything for secondary. You see that? Yes. So 13 for secondary. Uhhuh. For secondary, there's nothing in the in the block all the way to the far right. Okay. But for elementary, you do have you have a exit there. Okay. And I'll give this to you also. BSC6, same way. Elementary, all the way over to the far right, you have a X. But on secondary, there's no X. DSC6. Okay. BS BSC19. You have a X all the way over in the right corner for elementary. No X for secondary. Also, if you look at page 69 for secondary, you have 19. Number 20 is missing and number 23 is missing for secondary. chair. What I'm

087going to do too as well is uh I was looking at model guidance. So let me look through that because I can't memorize every single incident. Okay. So I will have to still compare them with our model guidance which we had done. Okay. All right. And on page 61, BS bees five. Same thing. You have a X for elementary over in the far right and no X for secondary. Page 61. Bees is elementary. They have an X all the way all the way to the far right. And for secondary, there's no X. And also on that, Mr. Chavas on the secondary one. Um, B E S8 is missing. Got you. Also on on the elementary on page 63. Now if you could check this also you have bees 08 on secondary but you do not

088have it on elementary. So, I don't know if that's supposed to be on there or not. Check. This community uh charges, correct? Say it again. The SO8 is related to the community. Correct. Uh-huh. I think that's it. That's it. But I will give you I I will give you this. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. We will make those changes um and bring them back for before action is any other questions. Any questions from the audience? Okay, next we will move. Where are we? Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you team. Where are we now? Capital improvement. Yeah, we'll move to 4 D. Thank you board chief pitch and school board members. Um we will have our next presentation which will be our capital improvement project updates um given by Mr. um J. a Martinez,

089our um assistant superintendent of operations um supported by our chief financial officer, Dr. Matias Greywood. And so this update again, just for context, is a followup to um the capital improvements or capital investments plan that I provided back in February of 20 um February 2025 where we had additional savings from our um 2425 budget. And so I asked the board for the opportunity to reinvest those savings from our budget into priority areas that I observed and had learned about here in Petersburg. And so Mr. Martinez will give an update on those capital improvement projects. Mr. Martinez. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Board Chair Pritchette, Vice Chair Pierce, esteemed school board members, Superintendent Miss Brown, and our dedicated community members. It is a privilege to be here tonight to share an exciting update on our capital

090improvement projects. I'm J. Jacob Martinez, and I'm thrilled to walk you through the significant progress we've made in enhancing our Petersburg City public schools. Our goal, as always, is to ensure our students and staff have the very best environment to learn and thrive. Tonight, we have a clear agenda to guide our discussion. We'll start with a brief project background and overview, setting the stage of these vital initiatives. Then, we'll dive into the project updates detailing the progress across our portfolio. I'm particularly excited to share some before and after photos that truly bring our work to life. And of course, we'll conclude with a Q&A session where I'm happy to address your questions and can certainly defer to members of my outstanding team or leadership if needed. Our journey began on February 18, 2025 when the

091school board was informed of significant budget savings for fiscal year 2025. Our superintendent, Miss Brown, proposes strategic reinvestment of these savings, focusing on key operational and instructional priorities. These projects were designed to be implemented from March through September 2025, forming the core of our phase one efforts. These priorities span between three crucial phases. Our phase one, capital infrastructure enhancements, was a major focus on critical school facility upgrades and improvements to our schoolboard office. Our phase two was our staff retention initiatives uh where our people are our greatest asset. This included a onetime $1,200 bonus for each staff member. And our phase three was our curriculum adoption and instructional resources. Uh next next slide. Now let's look at our overall phase one project status. I'm pleased to report significant progress across the board. Out of our

092total portfolio, two projects are already completed. Five projects are confidently on track. Only one project has had its completion date modified due to specific circumstances we have effectively addressed and two projects due to the nature require formal bidding process before they can commence. Our team is actively addressing any challenges ensuring we remain focused on successful project completion. This is a testament to careful planning and diligent execution. This table outlines each of the 10 capital improvement projects funded by the budget savings proposed on February 18. Uh you can see each project, its name in the corresponding slide page where we'll delve into the details. Uh from exterior power washing and painting to crucial security upgrades and transportation enhancements. Each project is designed with a singular focus improving the student and staff environmental across environment across Petersburg

093City Public Schools. Now, let's dive into pro uh the first project, exterior power washing and painting across eight of our schools. This scope here is all about enhancing school appearance and protecting our infrastructure. I'm delighted to share that this project is well in progress and substantially complete. We've successfully completed work at Cool Springs Elementary School, Pleasant Lane Elementary School, Vernon John's Middle School, Pitman, Blandford Academy, and Westview. Our remaining work is at Lakemont Elementary and Petersburg High School. It's estimated to be completed by July 15, 2025. And uh be reminded that Walnut Hill Elementary School was intentionally not included due to pending new construction. Next slide. And here you can see the immediate impact of Cool Spring Elementary. A glimpse of the before and and and the transformation. The power washing and fresh paint have

094truly revitalized the building's exterior, making a clear difference in curb appeal and overall presentation. Similarly, at Bford Academy, the results are equally impressive. You can observe the significant improvement in the building's appearance. These seemingly simple upgrades contribute greatly to a welcoming and well-maintained environment for our students and staff. And here's a look at Lakemon Elementary. As you can see, the power washing and painting work is making a visible difference. The project is part of the remaining work and we anticipate its completion very soon, further enhancing the school's exterior. Now, moving on to the next project, restroom renovations here at Petersburg High School. Our scope here is to renovate uh and modernize six restrooms in the gymnasium and auditorium, enhancing functionality, hygiene, and aesthetics. This project is currently in progress with an estimated completion date of

095August 1st of this year. We've addressed additional needs including the cost of new toilets and urinals ensuring a comprehensive upgrade. Next slide. And project number three brings us to asphalt parking lot and resurfacing and striping at West View and Vernon John Middle School. The scope was clear. Enhanced safety, visual clarity, and structural integrity for vehicle and pedestrian areas. I'm pleased to report that this project is complete, reaching 100% progress. We expanded the project scope to also address sidewalks and teacher staff parking. Here are the visuals at West View. You can see the significant improvement in the asphall and striping. This makes a real difference in the safety and functionality of our parking areas, which is crucial for daily operations. Next project, school window replacement. All righty. So, uh, project number four focuses on school window

096replacement at Cool Spring Elementary School and Lake Mont Elementary School. The primary goal is to significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce operational costs across these buildings. Currently, uh, this project is not started standing at 0% progress. This is by design as this project will require formal bidding process uh, with identified specification and scope. Our estimated completion date will be December 31st, 2025. Following closely uh our next project is our exterior door replacement also at Cool Springs in Lake Mont. The scope here is to upgrade all exterior doors for enhanced energy efficiency, improved security and modernized school entrance. This project is currently in the planning phase as well also at 0% progress as it too will require formal bid with outlined specifications in scope. We anticipate an estimated completion date of December 31st, 2025. These two

097projects, window and door replacements, are integral to modernizing our school infrastructure and improving security. Next slide. Uh right now for project number six, the digital marquee sign at Petersburg High School. The scope is to replace existing marquee with new modern display to enhance school communication and community engagement. This project is confidently in progress. Currently 80% completion. The installation process began just recently on June 23rd, 2025. We expect completion hopefully by next week. Superior Signs is doing excellent work here. The new marquee will be f a fantastic asset for school announcements and connecting with our community. As you can see here, the ongoing work here at Petersburg High. This before and during picture showcases the preparation for the new digital marquee. We're truly excited for the finished product which will be modern dynamic communication tool for

098the school. All right, our next project, project 7. This is crucial. This is our school security upgrade, specifically the installation of new vestibules at Cool Springs Elementary, Lakemont Elementary School, and Pleasant Lanes Elementary School. The scope is to enhance safety and control access throughout these schools with new frosted vestibules and electric access systems. This project is also in progress currently standing at 50% completion. Installation incurred on June 23rd and we anticipate full completion by July 30th. Carowway Glass is handling the glass work and CTT is managing the access systems. These upgrades are a direct investment in the safety and peace of mind for our students and staff. And these are images that provide a glimpse of the security upgrades at these school sites. These vestibules are a vital layer of security, providing control entry points

099and ensuring a safer environment for everyone within our schools. Next, technology infrastructure upgrades, which is a divisionwide initiative affecting all nine schools in the SBO office. This involves modernizing our core information technology infrastructure through hardware domain controller replacement, Active Directory implementation, Google Active Directory synchronization, and SPO data drop upgrades. This project is confidently in progress at 80% completion and substantially complete. We received the new service and are in the process of installation. We anticipate completion by mid July. This work ensures our technology systems are robust, efficient, and ready for the future for learning. Next, uh project nine addresses our transportation needs. New student transportation vans in our facilities vehicle. The scope was to replace three malfunctioning seven passenger student vans and add an SUV to enhance and support overall school operations. I'm thrilled to report

100that this project is complete, reaching 100% progress. The completion date was April 30th, 2025. This ensures safer, more reliable transportation for our students and provide crucial support for our facilities team. Next, and here you can see our new fleet additions. These vehicles are already on the road serving our students and supporting our school operations. clear sign of our commitment to modern reliable resources. Finally, project 10 focuses on our schoolboard office safety, efficiency, and functionality improvements. The scope is to implement necessary renovations to enhance the safety, efficiency, and overall functionality of our SVO facility. This project is in progress at 50% completion. We did encounter some identified abatement issues which push back the schedule by approximately 4 weeks. However, I'm pleased to share that as of June 26, 2025, the abatement has been completed and our

101new estimated completion date is August 8th, 2025. We are working with our partners and um our flooring should be installed really soon. As you can see here, these images truly captured a significant transformation underway at our SBO. You can see the progression from the initial state to the current renovation uh phase. This overhaul will create a modern, efficient, and functional workspace for our dedicated staff. And here's another view of the SVBO improvements. We're taking a comprehensive approach to ensure every aspect of the office is optimized for safety and efficiency. This is a crucial investment in supporting the vital work that happens here every day. And one more look at the SVO improvements. The progress is clear and we're on track to unveil a significantly enhanced SVO in just a few short weeks. We're very excited

102about the improved envir environments that we will provide. And before we open for questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the incredible team who has worked tirelessly on these projects and especially who deserve a standing ovation is Mr. Derell Gadet, our coordinator of uh facilities and operations. The amount of hours that man put in is is tremendous. Tremendous. and and and he is a pillar of this school district and hopefully have a school named after him one day. Um, absolutely. Also, I want to spend a special shout out to uh Miss Monnique Yates who's also in the same uh breath, Mr. Paul Rona, director of security, Dr. Michael Lee, director of transportation, and Dr. Matias Greywood and his finance team. [Applause] Your dedication, expertise are truly making a difference. And of course, Miss

103our superintendent, Miss Yolanda Brown, and her leadership staff, and to the board chair, Kenneth Pritchard, Vice Chair Steven Pierce, and our operation advisory committee, um, Mr. Dance, Mr. Miles, and all of the PCPS school board members. Thank you for your vision and unwavering support. Absolutely. This is an exciting time for PCPS. Um, excuse me, Petersburg City Public Schools. Miss Miss Miss Brown. I hate that acronym. Um, we are signing that brand recognition as we continue to transform. Absolutely. We We're not just completing projects. Um, we are actively improving the student and staff environment and we are proudly on track to fulfill our commitments. Now, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have about these capital improvement projects. Please feel free to ask and as I mentioned I can certainly defer to my members

104of my team or leadership if their expertise would be more beneficial. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Martinez. And I concur and I just want to thank um the school board and everybody on the team for when I came back in February and brought these three different phases of implementation where we invested in our capital um inventory where we also invested in our people and then we invested in our core business of teaching and learning. And so this was an update as to where we are. And so just thank you again for your support. We are on the move. You can't do everything overnight, but when we had savings, we wanted to reinvest into those three key areas to move the division forward. So thank you again, Mr. Martinez, and to the fantastic facilities team and

105to all of the operations team. And thank you, Mr. Martinez. You've been here exactly two months now, I think, and so you jump right in. So thank you for your work so far. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Any questions from board members? Mr. Dance, excellent presentation. Yes, sir. Um, on slide 13, when we get into window replacement at our elementary school, two elementary schools, how are we going to um coordinate with that with teaching and learning? Well, the we have to spec that work out, right? We we have to spec it out. So more than likely we have to bring a consultant or architect to come in and spec it out correctly. And once we spec spec out that work, we have to formally bid that process out because that originally was

106estimated $750,000 job. Um so we're looking at between 750 to maybe 900. Um so we would, like I stated in the report, we'll probably get that done in December at the end of December. Um so that work will probably be done during the Christmas vacation. Great. Thank you. Yes, sir. And I I just want to also just piggyback on your question. Um board member Dance also I think the intent is to after we spec it out and we take it through the process is that we focus on a vendor who can do it during the the Christmas holidays. That is the focus. So when kids are not there, we're planning to have the installation. We just got to get the pre-work done and everything ordered and in place and then they're able to put them

107in over the break. That is our intent. Mr. Pierce, just just want Well, first of all, great presentation and it's great to see this level of work, you know, throughout the division that we haven't seen before because we know that, you know, uh environments like these are great for kids to learn in, especially when they they see something very very nice that they can can get their work in. Um uh Mr. Dance made a comment about well my question would be since we the bid process hadn't already hadn't started sir um so there is a a strong possibility that it might run later than uh completion date of December correct u um at some point at some point and I realize won't be now but at some point I'm sure you'll have some cost overruns

108and and just kind of break that out so we and see just overall what those cost overruns have been per project. Absolutely. All right. Thank you, Mr. Pierce. Dr. Greywood and I had spoken and he plans to bring those costs back to us. I'd ask the same thing. So, he's going to bring it to us in at another time. I don't know if it's going to be is it going to be August the 31st at our retreat? Uh, we can do it during the ret retreat. But um what I just wanted to add is that he had indicated that it may go um the windows may go to 900,000 which would be over the 750 that you guys approved. Yeah, he indicated those we would come back to the board for approval for the additional

109funds and Mr. And I just want to also add and so that would be remember this funding was around the savings from FY25 and so having to go into any additional funding if you all recall in the approved FY26 budget for the first time we actually put in there support for our capital improvements plan. So you all approved a certain dollar amount. I think it was over a million dollars for us to have so we could then not just do this one hit wonder that we could have funding in our FY26 budget so that if we needed to go over and we came back to the board, we already have a pot of money that's already already earmarked for capital improvements. And I think Mr. Dance is shaking his head because he's been a part

110of that conversation serving on the facilities advisory team not just this year but before that. And so he's he and Mr. Dan Mr. um Miles have brought lots of historical perspective, but we for years had an unfunded capital improvements plan in Petersburg. And so now for FY26, there is funding there. So we would ask to leverage that funding for anything that runs over. And I also just want to make the point that um to the board as we talk about capital improvements, remember that we also have two different categories. We had renovations that were using the excess funding or the savings that we had, but we also have routine maintenance. And so, Mr. Godded has already has a budget that you all approved before. So, as things break, things you find that need to be

111fixed, they become maintenance items that you go to maintenance and say, "Hey, those have to be fixed because it's already a part of the budget." And so, just wanted to make that point that these things we're presenting is around renovations. And so again, anything that goes over our renovation dollars, if they were maintenance, they had to be paid out of maintenance because that's what you normally do. And so we'll have all those final pieces as well. So I just wanted to make sure that we had to fix some things that were not a part of renovations, but they were things that had to be fixed regardless if you renovated or not. When you found an issue, Mr. got it and his team had to make sure that those things get taken care of because that's

112what already you already had aotted funding for maintenance in each budget. But you also again that money for the first time I have to say it again you provided funding for our capital improvements plan that's never been done in Petersburg and I love that that pot of money is there to support not just the maintenance but when you want to do capital improvements you allotted dollars this year to the tune of at least 1 2 1.5 million that we can talk about in our advisory time. So I just want to lift that as well. Thank you, Miss Brown. Just have a question. Now, I do on Fridays the division is closed and someone is opening the schoolboard office for the contractors to go in. Are we having to pay overtime for that person to do

113that? It's a what? He said that's a gift. Oh, so that's you. Oh, okay. I was want I was wondering who was opening the doors. So you stay so you stay there. You also stay at 6:22. That's an insatch. Thank you, sir. I appreciate. I appreciate it. Any questions from the audience? Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Yes, sir. Thank you. Uhhuh. Thank you. And your team. Thank you, Mr. Godad. Absolutely. [Applause] Oh, I'm sorry. You had something to say. Yeah. I'd just like to add that um all all of this work is um long overdue and uh our schools have been neglected for a long time and um we're putting a good faceelift on the city of Petersburg and uh hopefully we'll continue and we have well we have set a good example that we need

114to get a new face look on Petersburg. So improving our schools is great for our school system and also is great for our city and our communities. Absolutely. Thank you Mr. Dan Miss Brown. We'll move to our last report and that is 4E policies for first read. Thank you board chair Bridgetette and schoolboard members. We will have our policies for first read this evening for July 2nd 2025. We'll start with policy number one. Petersburg City Public Schools or PCPS policy. The policy is JEC-R and PCPS policy title is school admission. That is in alignment with our VSBA policy JEC-R. And so the purpose of this policy um review was the policy language has been updated with cross references added. The footnote added and this in line with VSBA 525. Policy number two, policy JEG for

115Petersburg City Public Schools. policy title exclusions and exemptions from school attendance that is in align with VSBA policy JEG and this policy language has been updated for clarity and is in align with VSBA 525. Third policy PCPS policy JFC this policy title is student conduct. It is in alignment with VSBA policy JFC and the purpose of this policy review is that we have updated the policy language for clarity. Legal references and cross references all have also been updated and there's a footnote added in alignment with VSBA 525. Our fourth policy PCPS JFCD. The policy title is weapons in schools and that's in alignment with VSBA policy JFCD and this policy language has been updated with cross references and a footnote added in alignment with VSBA 525. Our fifth policy in PCPS is policy JFCI and

116this policy title is substance abuse student assistance program. It is in alignment with our VSBA policy JFCI and this policy language has been updated for clarity. It includes cross references updated and a footnote has been added in alignment with VSBA 525. Our sixth policy for first read is our PCPS policy JHC. This PCPS policy title is student health services in align with our VSBA policy JHC and this policy language has been updated to include option to permit the division to offer teleaalth services and mental health teleaotherapy services. The legal references have been updated to reflect the amendments of the Virginia code 22.1-272.2 2 and 22.1-272.3 [Music] by House Bill by House Bill 1945 and Senate Bill 1037. The cross references have also been updated and a footnote added and in alignment with VSBA 525. Our

117seventh policy for this evening for PCPS is policy JHCD and that policy title is administering medicines to students in alignment with our VSBA policy JHCD. And the policy and legal references have been updated to reflect amendments of the Virginia Code 8.01-225 22.1-274.2 and 22.1274.6 and 54.1-3408 by House Bill 104 and Senate Bill 1036. This permits secondary students with seizure disorders to possess seizure rescue medications in alignment with VSBA 525. Our eighth policy of this evening is our PCPS policy JJ AG and that's a new policy for first read. The policy title is student athlete extreme heat safety and protection. It is in alignment with our VSBA policy JJ AG and it also is new and this policy has been created to reflect the addition of the Virginia code 22.1 271.9 by House Bill 1663 and

118Senate Bill 1104 in alignment with our VSBA 525. That concludes two more. Sorry just two more. Excuse me. Our next PCPS policy um is policy JO and this policy title is student records. is in alignment with our VSBA policy JO and the policy and legal references have been updated to reflect the amendments of the Virginia Code 22.1-4.1 by House Bill 2013 and the addition of the Virginia Code 22.1-288.3 [Music] by House Bill 2226 to allow redaction of the foster parents address upon written request and that is in alignment with VSBA 525. Our next policy is policy JRCA. The title of this policy is school service providers use of student personal information in alignment with our VSBA policy JRCA and the policy updated to reflect amendments of Virginia code 22.1-289.01 by Senate Bill 1486 to add

119a definition of schoolisssued devices and school technology provider. Cross references have been updated in alignment with VSBA 525. That concludes our policies for First Street at this time. Thank you, board chair. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Any questions for Miss Brown? These policies will come back on July the 16th for a second read. Okay. Next, we move on to our public comment period. Public and staff comments are encouraged during the public comment period. No person may speak on an issue for more than three minutes. Please give your name and address and ward or ward number. Our first speaker is Mr. Thomas Haristen and I am good evening superintendent uh school board chair and school board members. Um, I listened to you all today and it was great. Everything that you all said, bringing in instructors, teaching

120our teachers, that's wonderful. But I still think we need to build new schools. So, I'm here today um to explore um innovative solutions for addressing the urgent school facility needs in Petersburg. I would like to formally invite you to participate in an informational site visit to Washington DC. This visit will showcase recently completed schools projects and provide direct engagement with key industry leaders involved in school design, finance, and delivery through public private partnerships. This opportunity is designed to support your ongoing decision-making and provide realworld context as we explore how a potential P3 approach could help Petersburg build multiple new schools more efficiently and cost effectively. I propose this to happen on July 7th. The itinerary will be we will meet in DC at 10:30 at the MCN headquarters at 12:14 uh 28th Street Northwest DC

121at 11 a.m. We will visit um schools without walls, a K through 8th grade school. At 11:45 we will travel to Banaker High School to review D uh design features and lessons learned from urban high school project. uh 12:30 travel to uh Perkins Eastman, a design uh partner, so that we could just discuss what Petersburg would like to do. And then uh at 1:45 travel to OU Middle School in Prince George's County, and then at 3 p.m. we would uh have a networking and debrief and then head home. Um I'm inviting the entire school board. Um I also sent emails inviting the superintendent, um the chief academic officer, Mr. Paul Brown, um Dr. Gay, Dr. Matthysse Greywood, and the chief communications officer. Um this site visit is strictlyformational and educational. It does not imply endorsement,

122selection, or commitment toward any specific company or project in align with the Virginia State and local government conflict of interest acts. No gifts, entertainment, travel expenses, or meals will be provided by MCN Build or any hosting firms. Um, all attendees will cover their own transportation and related costs unless otherwise approved in accordance with the school board policy. So, I'm inviting you all. Um, I for the record wanted to make two things known. One that, um, I had a meeting with MCN where I invited the city manager and school board uh, chair uh, Ken Pritchard. He was in attendance. And, uh, Councilman Howard Myers. I had a second meeting that had Annette uh Councilwoman Annette Smith Lee and Jay uh Martinez and um Mary Howard, a concerned citizen. Um so I just wanted to make that

123known to everyone. That is all. Thank you, sir. And I have four seconds left this time. No, they stopped the clock. Our next speaker is Mr. Corey Harris. I didn't I didn't Good evening. How are you? Great. I'm here today on the behalf of people in impoverished neighborhoods, children who worry about their mother and father each day. They have difficulties concentrating in school because I was one of those kids. It is not easy to concentrate in school when you live in an impoverished area and we need to stay more focused on what we could do to listen to these kids. Why is that important? It's simple. Because I believe if we all of us, we pay attention to their needs, we listen to their pain, we can get results in school. This is more important

124than rebuilding the schools because we cannot have a better Petersburg without focusing on our children. It cannot happen. It will not happen. My father worked for the school for decades. I have witness things when it comes to city council members, schoolboard members, and the effort they made to make a better Petersburg. And we can't overlook that. Can the schools be better? Of course. But we have to do it together. We can't criticize when we're making when we are making an effort. We need to stand together for this city, for our children because we are proud and we all are one. We are Petersburg. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harris. That's our last speaker. Next we will move to our action items. Miss Brown 6A. Thank you. Thank you board chair Pettit and school board members.

125Our first action item for this evening is the purchase approval request for our university instructor's partnership in capital improvements. And so, as you can see, it is the recommendation of the superintendent, the school board, the recommendation of the superintendent that the school board approved the capital improvement project and the big purchase items as provided. And so, we'll first start with our Petersburg High School restroom renovations and upgrades. Uh, as you recall, we came back and asked the board for an initial amount. And so, in that quote, they did not include the toilets and the urinals. So, we're coming back to ask for an additional um $90,000 to be added to the $550,000 for the upgra comprehensive restroom upgrades to our six restrooms at Petersburg High School. And so, this funding allows United Unlimited Construction to

126replace those toilets and urinals and outdated fixtures in six of those restrooms and to install high efficiency units, adjust plumbing to updated standards and ensure proper functionality. And so we want to ask for an additional um $90,000 to be spent to finish the work here at the Petersburg High School. And so this is a procurement type is our cooperative agreement from Chesterfield County. If you can scroll up just a little bit for me, team. Thank you. And so this is a one-time service. And so we're asking for contract spending authority of $640,000 not to exceed the 640,000 as requested. The next we can go ahead and do it individually. So what's your recommendation on that one? So is the sup it is the superintendent's recommendation. Go back to the purchase request, please. Thank you. Thank

127you. So, it is the superintendent's recommendation that that the school board approve the capital improvement project for $640,000 for the Petersburg High School restroom upgrades items as provided. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Board members, you heard the recommendation. Are there any questions? If not, is there a motion? Moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Dance. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. your next project purchase order purchase approval request team go back to the very first one please. It is has two um inside of the document. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the university instructor's partnership. And so we are asking Petersburg City Public Schools request um authority to spend $1.7 million for use towards our classroom teachers. PCPS like other school

128divisions is currently experiencing significant teacher shortage with approximately 54 vacancies across our schools. This shortage is particularly challenging in our highest need schools like Vernon John's Middle School and Lakemont Elementary, which are among the highest need schools in the division. To address this, I am requesting board approval to establish a partnership with university instructors to provide 13 um additional certified provisional or licensed eligible teachers for the 2526 school year. This partnership will focus on providing teachers for our highest need schools and addressing critical content areas. UN, as you just heard um and seen, University Instructors is a well- reggarded organization with a successful record of partnering with school divisions across Virginia, including Manasses, Lden, Norolk, Norfolk, Newport News, and Virginia Beach. University instructors previously worked with Petersburg City Public Schools delivering tutoring service with ting

129tutoring services with positive outcomes. Through this partnership, university instructors will handle the recruitment of qualified teacher candidates, providing coaching and professional development to assist with certification with the certification process and offer data and analytics on student progress. Teachers recruited through this program will commit to serving in Petersburg. I think it's for at least is it one year? Okay, sorry about that. One year after certification with financial repercussions if they leave prior to fulfilling this commitment. Additionally, universe instructors will offer comprehensive support services including instructional guidance and program management to ensure the success of the initiative. The cost associated with these 13 initial teachers will be managed through a reallocation of budget funding for our current vacant positions along with the allocation of funding from other areas of the budget including our tip. And so we're

130requesting to move funding to prioritize our teacher recruitment focus to ensure fiscal responsibility and adherence to approved budget parameters. If approved, university instructors will work closely with the district administration and school principles to plan, recruit, and place teachers in classrooms ahead of the 2526 school year. So, at this time, I ask the school board to approve this partnership as it represents a very strategic and sustainable investment in addressing our current staffing crisis while also building a long-term pipeline of qualified committed teachers for Petersburg City Public Schools. This initiative is only a start, but it is critical. It is critical to ensuring that our most vulnerable students have access to higher quality educators. So with that, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the $1.7 million for the for the entering into a

131partnership with university instructors to recruit and reta and obtain additional um educators for our classrooms. Thank you, Miss Brown. Any questions from board members? Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? So move. Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Dance. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you all. Dr. Gil, Dr. Smith, thank you all. And what's the Mr. What's your name? Mr. Ellis. Mr. Ellis. Thank you all. We look forward to working with you all and we look forward to hearing great things about the teachers that you're planning to bring in here. Thank you. Okay. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. All right. Next we will move 6B to 6B. Yes. Thank you for preenting schoolboard members. We'll now move to our 2025 2026 division organizational chart. And

132if you'll take a look at the monitor, this is the organizational chart that has been presented. If you make it a little bit larger, I just want to highlight some of the changes. So this is our new organizational chart here in Petersburg City Public Schools. And as you see, we started with the Petersburg community, the school board, and it has identified the biggest bodies of work. And so, as you can see, we have our chief academic officer, our chief financial officer, our chief of staff, our chief communications officer, and we have an assistant superintendent of operations, assistant superintendent of human resources, and we have another additional position. That is the wrong version. That is not the correct version. It's not. No, it's not. It's not the correct version for Board Docs. I have the new

133one on mine. They need to refresh. They need to refresh. We have the correct one. So that's not the That's the old one. They they had already they pro. Thank you, T. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you team. So here is the um I guess my very first full organizational chart um in Petersburg. And so here is our new version. And so here's what it looks like. And so it is it is clearly outlines the structure of our school division because how our school division is structured is very important to the work. And so we have our chief academic officer and I listed all the bodies of work that sit directly in each department um of the division. It does not attach names. It talks about positions and roles um because names change.

134And so as you can see we have our chief academic officer, Mr. Paul Brown. We have our chief financial officer, Dr. Matias Greywood, our chief of staff, Dr. Yasmin Gay, and we have our chief communications officer. It's a little small. We tried to fit it into the boxes, Miss Chelsea von Gar. And then we have a new position that not a new position, but a position that is changing in the org structure. We have an assistant superintendent of student services. And so we've had that role before in Petersburg, but it was a role that focused on student services and operations. And so as a part of my transition, I wanted to work to make sure that the student services role focuses on support for students and not necessarily the operational side. And so we moved

135all the duties from the assistant superintendent of student services that were operational to the assistant superintendent of operations. And then we focused the student services around just that. All of our wraparound services support. And so that role will now be over new will be over special education, student health, mental health, SEAL and behavior support. It will oversee school counseling, school nursing, discipline, McKini Vento and residency, our BTSS process, attendance and truency, which is very important. Our school social workers, if you scroll up just a little bit, thank you. Our home student placement, homeschool, homebound, um, and homebased. And so this student service is exactly that. And just want to highlight for everyone listening that the student services will work handinhand with our chief academic officer because those two are not in silos. You cannot focus

136on curriculum if kids are not in school. And so we want to make sure that that is highlighted. And then of course we have our assistant superintendent of operations. We can't really see that but I know that my chief communications officer told me about the spacing. Thank you. and we have our assistant superintendent of operations and you can see those departments that report to um the operations assistant superintendent and then our assistant superintendent of human resources. So this is um our um organizational chart for the 2526 school year. And so with that, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve school year 2526 division organizational chart as provided. Thank you, Miss Burn. Any question from board members? Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? Moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a

137second? Second, Mr. Dance. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. 6C. Thank you. Thank you, Bet Pitch. We are bringing our employee calendar revision. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the school year 2526 student employee calendar revision as provided in our original calendar that we provided for um board approval. We had our graduation set for it was originally for May 30th which is a Saturday and due to um availability at Virginia State University we had to choose a different option and so we are moving our graduation to the 29th of May. um Friday um and we of course will establish the time. So we will have the afternoon graduation at Virginia State on Friday the 29th versus Saturday the 30th. And so it is the superintendent's recommendation

138that school board approved the 2025 2026 student employee calendar revision as provided. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So move. Moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Miss Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Miss Brown, if you could bring the calendar to us also at our retreat on July board members. Um, and let's have a discussion about the summer hours, the 10 hours, I mean the yeah, the the 10 hours, 4 day work week, the 5 day week or flex. If we could just talk about that. Thank you. Okay. Next, we will move Miss Brown to six D D. Yes. Thank you, board alphabets. Thank you, Verie Pritchette and school board members. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the job descriptions of the

139following. The lead technology support technician, our special education elementary compliance lead, and our McKenna Vento and residency liaison as provided. And so if you take a look, we have revised those job descriptions in alignment with um some of the new work and the needs. And so it is my recommendation that the school board approve the following job descriptions as provided. Thank you. Any questions? You heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So moved. Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Dance. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Next we move down. I don't know if you have any. Next, we move down to seven information items. Superintendent report. Do you have anything to report? Yes, sir. Oh, I didn't get that. I just need to refresh. Thank

140you board pitch and schoolboard members. Is the superintendent report this evening for July 2nd, 2025. Next slide, please. And so I want to take an opportunity just to highlight for schoolboard members and community our elementary summer academy that's happening right now. Of course we have our camp compass um for kindergarten through 8th grade as they prepare to transition back to school. Reminder, it focuses on students personal growth in positive and thriving environment that are transitioning back to the comprehensive setting. We also have our P power scholars K through five that's happening with has a focus on academics where we are partnering with the YMCA to offer our power scholars academy at Pleasant's Lane for students in grades K through five. Of course the mornings we focus on academic support while afternoons we offer hands-on enrichment

141and Fridays are featuring exciting field trips that bring learning to life for our students. We have our full steam ahead. As a as a reminder, our rising fourth and fifth graders, we have an attendance focus. And so, this is a full steam ahead. And as you see, our students are enjoying the summer. We tried to provide some pictures of just some real time what's happening with students this summer. And I wanted to just highlight our elementary summer academy. And of course, we're using funding from our extended learning grants that we have and other federal funding. So, here are our wonderful students. I just wanted to give you an update on some of the numbers so far for the summer. In our camp compass K to 5, we have about 15 students. Our power scholars K

142to 5, we have about 100 students. And you see the breakdown of kindergarten to fifth grade. And then we have our full steam ahead rising fourth and fifth graders. We have about 52 students. Our secondary summer academy, we have our middle school English language arts, ELA, math, civics, and physical science. And that focuses on middle school students that need remediation. So, we're providing remediation support and ELA math, history, and science. Thrive 9 through 12 credit recovery with behavior support that focuses on our high school students who are transitioning back to the comprehensive setting that are required to recover courses or verified credits. And so, we wanted to show that. And we have our high school again summer academy. And it's focuses on high school students that need initial credit or credit recovery. And these are

143some of our photos from our full steam ahead secondary academy um thus far, middle and high school. Here are some of the enrollment numbers just for everyone to see that we have in camp compass grades um for sixth through eight we have about eight students middle school ELA math civics and physical science we have 115 students sixth grade 27 750 and about 8th grade 38 we have our thrive program 24 students and our high school students we have 280 students who are seeking initial credit and then 53 and 53 and then we have credit recovery for about 227 students at this time those are enrollment numbers I just want to highlight our this community builders. The purpose of the community builders grant is to decrease the behaviors that lead to participation in gun violence through

144our social emotional development, career readiness and exploration, and post-secondary preparation and workforce development. We have a video really quickly by Dr. Brandy Lee, our coordinator of family and community engagement from community builders 2025 summer experience. Please go back for one second. which focused on each of these aspects. Social emotional development, career readiness and exploration, post-secondary preparation and workforce development. Thank you. We can just cue our video. Thank you. I am participant in the self program and my opinion on it was I think Can we turn it up? Thank you. Environmental and very educating. I learned a lot from going to places and going to colleges. It brings me like the opportunities that I can see throughout the Virginia state. Welcome Petersburg High School students. We're thrilled to see you here. I hope you're enjoying the

145builder's club and making the most of your summer. Hi. Uh, what kind of AI program you run on? Are we still working on on this sound? I'm powered by advanced conversational AI designed to engage and assist you in real time. It's all about making our interaction as natural and helpful as possible. This experience is a school year and summer uh thing where you go on trips, you eat food, you have fun, you learn to be a leader, you learn to be respectful, you learn to talk to adults. Now, what it takes to join this is you have to have critical thinking, you have to be creative, and you have to be a leader. And those are all three things you also learn how to improve on here. This is a very great thing to join

146in on, and I think you should definitely do it. Okay. Okay. So, we the recording is low and so what we'll do is we'll get an opportunity to make some adjustments so that we can bring it back. So, thank you very much to our students. But that's just a snapshot of some of the work that's being done around our community builders and so we will come back. Thank you. So I just want to share really quickly with the board that we have secured a grant funding for eighth grade geometry students. So we were recently informed that we were awarded the Virginia Department of Education Phase 1 Mathematics Acceleration Grant. So, we will give $5,250 grant award that will support the enrollment of 14 eighth grade students at Vernon John's Middle School, an accelerated coursework offered

147through virtual Virginia, a virtual learning center that offers a variety of educational opportunities for our K12 students. So, we're excited about that as again we try to make sure that we're we're um going after opportunities that help us transform the opportunities and learning um and success for every student in Petersburg City Public Schools. And then I want to highlight and a shout out to our Petersburg High School soccer coach named one of the most positive female coaches in Virginia. So varsity soccer coach at Petersburg High School, Miss Ashley Martin was named one of the most positive female coaches in Virginia by the 2025 positive athlete program. Positive Athlete is a recognition program that celebrates high character high high school student athletes and coaches who have overcome difficult circumstances, given back to their schools and communities

148in a significant way, or just have an infectious positive attitude that makes everyone around them a better person. So, out of more than 12,000 nominees nationwide, we are immensely proud to have one of our very own here in Petersburg. Phenomenal employees recognized among the top 1%. So, congratulations to Ashley Martin, our Virginia coach, and she is out of town, so she wasn't able to join us, but we are going to recognize her once school starts and give her just due. But congratulations to Miss Martin. Great work and thank you for serving the students and families of Petersburg City Public Schools at Petersburg High School. That concludes my superintendent report this evening. Borcher Pritchette, thank you. Um, thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Brown? Okay. Are there any committee reports from the board 7B?

149I think most of the most of the um committees are on summer break, right, Miss Brown? Did we ever find the link? Did we find the link for Mr. Coleman on the um volunteers for the committee? We did. Okay. The volunte Mr. Brown, I know you're working with Jakori. There is for the community because we I spoke with Jakori on your team, Dr. I mean Miss Vonger. I talked with him about the link. So, we will be posting um I think this week for the committees, Mr. Brown is aware that the committees for everyone to volunteer to serve on our committees and so um communications is trying to research that link. They're aware and so u Miss Fer will have that um up and ready to go. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. New business from

150board members. Good. Okay. Our next board meeting is July the 16th at 5:00 p.m. And let's not forget our retreat on July 31st, but also remember there's an education conference with VSBA. Is it right there? What is BSBA? The conference is July the 25th. July the 25th at 9:00 a.m. at the Hilton Richmond Hotel. Okay. And that's the education conference. Okay. And they sent out the new one today, the 2025 VSBA legislative advocacy conference, and that's going to be September the 19th at the Chesterfield Career and Technical Center. Please see Miss Davis if you're interested in attending. Thank you. Okay. At this time, board members, if there are no other comments, we'll take a motion to adjurnn. Moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Lundy. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. This

151meeting is now journ. You all have a great evening. The link is already up. The link is already up. Look at this. He's already text already up. Okay. Oh gosh. Oh, I can't take that.