School Board Regular Meeting - June 18, 2025

00148 p.m. And I like to call our special meeting to order. Murals, if you'll call the role, please. And Mr. Miles is here. [Music] Thank you, sir. Mr. Steven Pierce here. Mr. Hal Miles, Mr. Kenneth Pritchette here, Miss Takari Tucker here, Miss Joyce Proctor here, Mr. Bernard Lundy here, Mr. Adrien Dance. Okay, we need a motion to go into close. Mr. Pierce, I move that the school board go into close meeting as authorized by section 2.2-371. 2-3711 A1 of the code of Virginia for the purpose of discussion or consideration for prospective candidates for employment. You've heard the motion. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carried. We now move into close. [Music] Um and um and then when he comes or maybe we'll just put it out place. Thank

002you for asking. It's hot out there. It's hot out there. I didn't even know. I felt like I was standing Oh, we need to you need to make a you going to Good good evening everyone. Sorry for the delay. At this time board members we need a motion to come out of close. So move Mr. Chair moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Second. Miss Proctor, as required by section 2.2-3712D of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a roll call vote will be taken to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, one only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the act. And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the

003closed session by the board. Prior to the vote, any member of the board who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of one and two as read shall so state the same, indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment has taken place. Does any board member wish to respond? Hearing no response, I will now take the Freedom of Information Act roll call. Mr. Steven Pierce, yes. Mr. How Miles, yes. Mr. Kenneth Pritchette, yes. Miss Takari Tucker, yes. Miss Joyce Proctor, yes. Mr. Bernard Lundy, yes. Mr. Adrien Dance. Thank you, Mr. Burios. At this time, we do have a recommendation from the superintendent. Thank you. Thank you, board chair and school board members. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the recommendations for items one, two, and

004three. Um approval for expenditures of the executive leadership funds as provided. Superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So moved. Moved by Mr. Lundy. Is there a second? Second. Miss Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Welcome again everyone. The time now is 5 5:13 p.m. And we would like to call our regular meeting to order. Mr. Rios, if you will call the role once again, please. Mr. Steven Pierce here. Mr. Hal Miles here. Mr. Kenneth Pritchette here. Miss Takari Tucker here. Miss Joyce Proctor here. Mr. Bernard Lundy here. Mr. Adrien Dance. Thank you, Miss Burios. At this time, board members, we'll move to 1A, approval of the agenda. If there are no changes, to accept a motion to approve. So moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Second.

005Miss Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Next, we'll move to 1B. Moment of silence. No. U moment of silence recognitions that have been given to me. Thank you. At this time, we have a moment of silence. [Music] Thank you. Next, we move to 1 C. Pledge of Allegiance. We be led by Mr. Miles. ask that you stand, please. [Music] I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. you. Next, we'll move to 1D, correspondence. Thank you, Miss Burios. At this time, we'll move to our recognitions. Miss Brown 2 A, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I got a card. Yeah, this was a a get well card from the

006board to me. It said and know why you're getting this card instead of a plant. So you have to hey so you don't have to take care of anything but yourself. And it was from the board to me. But I want to thank everyone in central office and the superintendent for this uh get well card. What happened was I had an allergic reaction to a medication that caused me to go into the hospital for five days for cardiac um arrest. So I mean distress. So um everything is taken care of. So but thank you very much for the correspondence. Okay. Thank you, board chair Pette and school board members. I am so excited this evening that we have some very special recognitions at this board meeting. And so we want to start tonight with our

007very own hometown hero, Mr. Ramier Parker, our beloved Petersburg City Public School student, who as we know he committed a selfless act for his family. If you've seen the news, um I know that you know that Ramier was one of the the life saving um agents for his family because there was a house fire. And so it shows that our kids are paying attention um to drills to safety information. And so we're very very proud of Ramier Parker for his selfless selfless act to save his family and to get his family out of the home when the fire broke out. So, at this time, I am very, very honored as the superintendent of Petersburg City Public Schools along with the school board um to be able to congratulate and personally thank and celebrate Ramier Parker,

008our student here in our very own Petersburg City Public Schools. So, is Ramier here? So, Ramier, we want you to come to the front. So, we'll ask Ramier to come to the front because we have several gifts for you on behalf of the Petersburg City Public School Board as we want to thank you and celebrate you for your wonderful, wonderful act. So, we're coming around. So, please come to the front so everybody can see you. So here we're going to start first of all by again saying thank you and job well done. And so we have the certificate of recognition. And so this certificate says this certificate is awarded to you partner for your selfless act of extraordinary courage and humility. And that signed by our board chair and by superintendent. So we are so

009very proud of you. I know your family is so thankful for you and just know that you did [Applause] so that first [Applause] to the baseball game. And we also have a shirt for you. It says hometown hero. And on the back of it, on the back it great people come from Petersburg. That's right. And you are a shining example. Absolutely. pictures with you and we want to come up as well because we want to make sure that they are celebrating. So glad that he [Applause] come over. I hope you're not shy. You are our hometown. Everybody wants to celebrate you, but you're ours. Thank you. Okay. Do not leave. You can you can stay. We have a couple more surprises for you. At this time, we would like to call up the Petersburg branch

010of the NAACP, um, the president, Miss Patricia Hines. And I believe you have individuals with you tonight. He He can go with the family. Yes, Miss H. Miss H, you can. Yes. Oh, he gave you the mic. I I I understand the assignment. Okay. Watch the cords, please. Come on, Ken. I'm sorry. You got to pay double double duty. How you doing? Come on. On behalf of the Peters Well, let let our membership chair get in the picture. On behalf of the Petersburg NAACP, first of all, let me say we are so proud of you. It is not very often that we see a young man of your caliber. I agree with the superintendent. Your act of selflessness and courageous heroism, it touched everybody in this community. Hold this. I got you. So, we have

011a certificate, too. And our certificate says, "This certificate is awarded to Ramier Parker in recognition of his selfless and courageous acts of heroism on June 3rd, 2025. And we would like to present you with this gift certificate for $250. [Applause] All right. Did y'all get our pictures too? We want pictures. So, please and the family because see we celebrate y'all you all for raising this young man. They had the wherefore all to put others above self. That speaks volumes. Come on. Come on in. Come on. Come on, baby. Look, I'm I'm a boy mom. Don't Don't even try it. I'm just playing. Come on. I really was. I really was. Thank you, sweet. You're welcome. Oh my god. Come on. Did I scare you to death? He gonna come over. Is he coming over here

012with Rose? Okay. [Applause] [Music] both of those grown men. All right. Thank you, baby. And as we are so as we are continuing to celebrate Ramir I also want to take an opportunity because sometimes we don't see the people that actually are the ones who been who benefited from his heroism. This is his grandmother and the two baby boys. These are those are the two the two and his grandmother. What's your name? What's your name? Bridget Parker. Miss Bridget Parker. Ramir's grandmother and the two adorable baby boys. They were the three that were saved by his heroism and his selflessness. And so I just want to make sure that sometimes you got to put a put a you know put a name with a face in the people that are a part of this. So

013thank you. We're so glad again. We're so very proud of you and so we're so glad that you're here to celebrate with us, Sydney. Absolutely. Okay, you can stay right there. Our next our next presenter is communities and schools the director, Miss Wanda Stewart and Mr. Jamal Allison. We can bring the mic. Yes, the mic. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Two, so many times we have unsung heroes um within our community and CIS would have been remiss to not recognize and have another unsung hero or another champion not recognized for impeccable character. So Ramier, I have a small letter that I would like to read to you. Um, thank you. Honoring a CIS champion, Mr. Ramier Parker. At Communities and Schools, we are grounded in the belief that every child deserves the five

014basics necessary to succeed in life. A one-to-one relationship with a caring adult, a safe place to learn and grow, a healthy start for a healthy future, a marketable skill to use upon graduation, and a chance to give back to peers and community. Remier, your recent heroic actions in guiding your family to safety during a devastating houseire powerfully reflect each of these core values. In a moment of crisis, you ensure that your loved ones remain connected to the strength of family, maintain access to a safe and supportive learning environment, and emerged with hope for a healthy f I'm sorry, and emerge with hope for a healthy future. Most profoundly, your bravery and selfish selflessness embody the spirit of service and giving back. Today, Communities and Schools of the Tri Cities proudly recognizes you as a CIS

015champion. In honor of your courage and your resilience, we are pleased to present you with a $250 Visa gift card and a $100 in Food Lion gift cards to assist your family in this time of rebuilding. Thank you for your service. this back together for you. And I'm going to give you this gift card. [Applause] All righty. Thank you. Okay, we have one more surprise for you. This one is coming from I believe I'm I'm pronouncing your role right. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Harper from Club 17 here in Petersburg. All right. Good afternoon everybody. Hello hero. All right. I I know this is a lot a lot coming at you. Um but just embrace it. Okay. You're a wonderful person and everybody's recognizing that fact. All right. Uh you got a long way to go

016in life and uh we want to help set you up. All right. So, the first thing I'll give you is your gift card because this you can spend today. All right. So, that's a $200 gift card. All right. So, I represent the members of Club 17 Charitable Foundation. This year, Club 17 is 75 years in the community from 17 heroes who decided that in 1950, folks that look like us needed a place to go. And since that time, we've been giving back to the community. This is our year of giving just like you gave. So, we're gonna present you with a YMCA card. So, for as a tween, that teen 12 years old, you can go into the YMCA by yourself. Okay? So, mama can drop you off, dad can drop you off, and you

017just scan your card, and Club 17 has picked up you at the YMCA. All right? [Music] So, and this certificate is for your future. This is a uh scholarship Wow. All right. So, this from the members of Club 17 Charitable Foundation. I'm pleased to inform you that as a community hero, this is our community hero scholarship. First one of its kind. This is a $2,000 award that will made be made available to you and the class of 2031. Okay? But we will work with grandmother and put this in a CD that will sit there for you in 2031. So, here's your first scholarship offer of many. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] And I want to thank the NAACP, NAACP, for bringing this to our attention. All right. Fantast. All right. So, it is 5:31. So,

018I just want to say thank you again. you getting pictures. And so I think everybody up here on the board in some shape, form of fashion, including me, have tears in our eyes because when you see upfront what our kids can do, even when people don't know, our kids can do some amazing things and you did some amazing things and we made we're very, very proud of you. So you enjoy all of that. Continue to take care of your family. Enjoy the time at the Y. You're going to love it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Grandma. And he wants to say some words. So, please let's listen to our hometown hero, Ramier. I just want to thank everybody for everything that I have been awarded today, especially the YMCA from Yeah, I like

019I like I love the YMCA. Well, there you have it. Petersburg, out of the mouths of babes. So, thank you all very very much. Thank you, family. continue to keep this family lifted up and supported during this time. So, thank you. We're glad you're here and congratulations to you, Ramier, and congratulations to the family. Thank you all. Thank you. How you doing? Peace. Thank you all again. Thank you. Next board members will move to three. Approval of the consent agenda. Miss Brown. 3A, B, C, and D. Thank you, board chair Pritchette and school board members. For 3A, it is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the final personnel agenda dated June 18th, 2025 as provided. For 3B, it is this approval of minutes. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve

020the minutes of the 252025 regular meeting and 572025 special meeting 3C donations received by Petersburg City Public Schools. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board accept the donations received by PCPS as provided. And if you direct your attention to the screens, you should see the Petersburg City Public Schools donations for the time period of 61 to 6:15 2025. and you'll take a note and you'll see all the different um organizations that have contributed to Petersburg City Public Schools in different ways and we want to thank those people. Thank you Mr. Corey Harris and Bob Bobby Beverly. Thank you to our concerned black men Petersburg alumni chapter of Delta Sigma sorority. So those are our donations for this time period and thank you to all of our our donors and you can see that

021information as to where those funds and where those donations um will be used in the purpose. So it is the superintendent's recommendation that the board accept the donations received by PCPS as provided. In addition 3D, it is super vendor contracts. It is a superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the vendor contract as provided. Thank you, Miss Brent. Any questions? Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? So move. Moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Second. Moved by Miss Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we move to number four, superintendent and guest and staff reports. 4A, Miss Brown. Thank you, school. Thank you, board chair and school board members. Our first um superintendent guest report for this afternoon is um Crater Area Coalition on Homelessness by Mrs.

022Shakisha Weathers. And so, we'll ask Miss Weathers to please join us at the mic. It's this mic, right? Yes. Okay. So, unfortunately, Miss uh Shaska Weathers had to leave. So um I am uh well between myself, Miss Kareimma and Miss TA, we are going to talk about um cash and the school programs that we already have established in cash. So let me just go ahead and get started. Uh my name is Don Scott. I'm the homeless systems navigator for um Flaggler as well as the second in command for um cash. Um, so what is it that I do? I'm the front line of defense. I'm affectionately known as the fan lady, which is the reason why I have it. Um, because my boots are officially on the ground. And so those individuals who come in

023who are experiencing homelessness, they call the homeless connection line and I navigate them to the appropriate resources as well as do assessments for them for them to enter our rapid rehousing program. I'm now working more specifically with cash to make proper connections and to further opportunities for the individuals in our community. A little bit about cash is that we serve nine areas within this region. Colonial Heights, Denwitty, Emporia, Greenville, Hotwell. Hold on. Yeah. Okay. Petersburg, Prince George, Siri, Sussex, and Wakefield and Wavely within the um Siri County. Uh let's see. Our goal is to prevent, reduce, and eliminate homelessness through effective, coordinated communitywide efforts and services. CASH is composed of several different agencies and organizations that offer rapid rehousing, youth and non- youth outreach, prevention and intervention, mental health skill building, HUD, VASH vouchers for

024our veterans that are experiencing homelessness, emergency and inclement weather shelters, as well as domestic and intimate violence shelters. All these agencies and organizations and services work together to provide a custom plan for the person to end homelessness for themselves. Um using housing first, our goal is to house individuals regardless of what their life circumstances are. And this means that all families are offered housing because it is a basic human right. And as for uh as for me, I was a person with lived experience, which means that I was homeless before I got the job. And yeah, we do we do what we got to do to make things happen around there. Let me just pop one more time. All right. Okay. Hi everyone. My name is Tanya Mask and I am a native from Philly.

025Go Eagles. Anybody? Okay. No. Okay. I am the youth houses um stabilization case manager with Flaggler services through St. Joseph's Villa and I work hand inand with the all community and schools and their their representatives to help school age children and families that are experiencing homelessness to gain and maintain stable housing. All right. So I have two there's two resource papers up there and the first one is our flyer which um talks about the service that are that's provided by St. Joseph's Ailla Flaglers. So, I'm the housing case manager for this. Um, it talks about the eligibility. It talks about the referral process and it also has the contact information up there. And then we also have um local resources for food banks and everything over there at the table. So, yep. Now, we have

026Kareema. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Can y'all hear me? I'm sorry. I know I'm a little short, so excuse me. Um, but I'm Karima Davis. I am the youth outreach specialist at St. Angelville at Flagler Housing and Home Services. Um, so I'm kind of kind of sort of where Don is. I'm kind of like front line too. So when we have youth who are 18 to 24 call the hotline, I'm usually the next person that they are referred to. Um, so I kind of just do my role is just like really just being out in the street and just finding these local hotspots in the cash region. Um, again for 18 to 24 year olds. Um, and just linking and connecting them with services. I do house them as well kind of sort of what

027um Tony does. So as you can see I'm kind of tapping into different areas of the whole entire flag services. Um but again I link and connect them to resources like mental health services, substance abuse services, just anything that can help meet their basic needs at that point. Um I again I can also house them as well. Um I also am a co-f facilitator of our um cash region youth action board. Um we call it YAB for short. So, this is like a little group of um youth between the ages of 14 to 24. We kind of meet twice, we try to meet twice a month. Um just to, you know, try to see like what we can do to eliminate or prevent youth homelessness in the cash region. Um it is paid. So, I'm

028so mad I didn't bring any flyers, but I think I added it to the slide and I think it's a QR code on there. So, if you guys know of anybody that may be interested between the age of 14 and 24 that might be interested in or they have like any you um lived experience or are currently experiencing any type of youth homelessness, they can definitely scan that QR code and come join our team and we'll be glad to have them. Thank you. You better sell your program, girl. That's what I'm talking about. Um, and I just wanted to give some numbers uh so that we can, you know, that you guys can kind of see where we're coming from and the importance of helping um in homelessness for not only our adults but our

029children. uh between the uh between the months of July, I'm sorry, July 1st of 2023 to June 30th of 2024, we serve 243 children. Out of those 243 children, 215 of them were for him were from Petersburg. Uh and those are children under the age of 18. We also served 163 households with minor children. out of that 123 were from Petersburg. Uh this year specifically from the time of uh let's see July 1st of 2024 to June June 10th of 2025. We have served 215 children under the age of 18. 213 are from Petersburg. We have also served 120 households with minor children. 118 were from Petersburg. So, if you if anybody would like to join the cash membership or have any inquiries or anything like that, you can contact uh Flaggler and talk to

030the cash director, Shaska Weathers, and her email is literally swathers at sjvmail.net. Thank you. Okay. Are there any questions from board members? I I I do have a question because we get I know I receive calls from family or text messages from families about um assistance in hotels. So I'm assuming do we go through CIS or is there who do we go through like when they're looking for assistance if they're reaching out to board members or anyone in the school division? Is it through CIS or is it do we contact you all? So, are the students I mean are are the families usually when they call they're in a they're either living in their car or either they're in the hotel and it's their last day and they don't know where they're going to go.

031Okay. And do those families have school age students that go to the school? They Yeah. The ones who call me they always have kids in the school division. So, normally they would go through CIS. Yes. And then community school. I'm sorry. slide on here. Yes. Um that they will go through community and schools and then community and schools will contact me. We have a once a month meeting with community and schools. So they always send referrals. So they can go to their counselors. They can write right? They can go to their counselor. Anybody at community schools and then they they will get referred to us. But the um the eligibility requirements is they have to be in Petersburg High School, Vern and John, I believe that's the name, and um Blandford the county. Is that

032the name? You don't do middle school. I mean, you don't do elementary. That's Yeah, that's just for the housing. I'm sorry. I mean to jump in and and and kind of but uh if there's any student that is on the So, it's all part of the rapid rehousing. This these are there different outlets to get in through the rapid rehousing. So the pro the program that she's speaking of that's for middle and high but there's another outlet too that we refer middle I'm sorry elementary and uh Westview age kids to and that's also partnering with uh Catholic Commonwealth Catholic Charities. So, it's all one big program. There's just different ways to get into the program if I'm making sense. But to answer your your immediate question, you can refer them to us and uh we're

033also working with um you know, McKini Vento, there's a coalition, they can there's various outlets, but reach out to us and we'll make sure that they get placed where they need to be placed. If that answers your question. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other question? Mr. M, you good? Thank you. We appreciate it. Oh, that's right. We don't need that number. Next, we move to 4B. Thank you, board chair pitch and school board members. Uh we will have our next uh presentation, which is our divisionwide attendance plan update given by our chief of staff, Dr. Yasmin Gay. And as Dr. Gay comes to the podium. I just want to set the stage again for the work that we've been doing uh around attendance. We know that early on the board has uh we've been working

034together to set a focus around improving chronic absenteeism. And so we set this this goal around attendance. And so we began the process of revamping our attendance plan. And of course we have lots more work to do because this is only the beginning. And so this update is to provide you where we ended up at the end of um this year. uh we talked to you back in February as I remember where we talked to you about where we were in the implementation of our plan. So today's presentation kind of summarizes that. It also talks about the data that we were able to collect, any challenges that we've had and some of the things we're going to have to revamp for the next year. Because what I want to say to everybody before Dr. Gay

035begins is that attendance is owned by everybody in the room. It's owned by everybody in our community. It's owned by Petersburg, not just Petersburg City Public Schools. because we have lots of challenges, but we have to work to overcome those challenges and we're putting things in place. So, with that, Dr. Gay, um I just want to make sure that everybody's prepped and so if you could give um a update to the board and community on our attendance plan, our plans, the data, and where we are and where we'll need to go for next year. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Superintendent Brown. Uh good afternoon, uh Board Chair Pritchard, Vice Chair Pierce, and our other distinguished board members, our community. Um, just again, thank you to Ramir Parker for his dedication and sacrifice uh to his family.

036We have to continue to say his name. And so I just want to make sure that we recognize that. I'm sorry, I'm naturally a soft speaker, so I'm going to um move a little closer. Uh, next slide. Uh, as Superintendent Brown uh just mentioned, uh, we'll talk about five things. Um we're going to dive right into the data and as uh Superintendent Brown mentioned there will be a lot of data that we're showing and I'll help guide you through that data uh the analysis on the background that we did with the data to help us better understand our trends uh in attendance and I really do believe that as we become more efficient in our data um we've been working really hard around the uh validity and reliability of our data data um and being

037more specific and how data informs the direction of our strategy to improve. We'll talk uh a little bit about the PCPS attendance task force and where we are right now. Um we also have a partnership with the Cameron Foundation and Virginia State University in supporting us around family engagement for uh uh improvement with attendance. And then we'll talk about what is our attendance systems of support and accountability that will help us improve attendance and next steps. Next slide please. As I mentioned, if you guys just bear with me, I'll try to guide you through uh this data. Again, I want to thank our data team. Uh Dr. Darter Jackson oversees our newly named uh data um assessment and accountability team. And so what I've asked the team to do is to create a comparison. You've

038seen this before, but this is the end of the year data. And as you can see, there are two lines at the top. Those are called regression lines. Right? That gives you an idea of kind of where we sit with the data over you can see with the demographics. I wanted we wanted to break down in demographics because that gives you a lot of information about how our different children are experiencing attendance. You see all students, SWV, students with disabilities, our English learner students, our economically disabled students, homeless students, our black students, white students, Asian, Hispanic students, or Latino or Latinx, and our multi-racial students. As you can see, between 2023 and 2024 and 2024 and 2025, we made a slight improvement in attendance. Our chronic absenteeism went down just slightly in almost all demographics.

039So, I'll give you just a a few seconds just to look at that. So, Dr. if you could call out some things just off the top like we talk about for example economically disadvantaged students you see um a little bit more if you could just call out really quickly for everybody in the audience and the community to be able to what are the highlights you want to hit from this slide. Yes. I just want to give people an opportunity because data can be very complex and so just wanted to give you an opportunity just to take it in. So with our homeless students, uh we just had a homeless support system. Uh we can see that chronic absenteeism went down from last year to this year, right? And uh when we think about chronic absenteeism,

040homelessness has a lot to do with it in a lot of ways. And not just Petersburg, but in other LEAs or other school districts or divisions. Um with multi-racial students, chronic absenteeism went up just slightly. uh with our Hispanic students, um chronic absenteeism spiked and there are a lot of implications around that on why uh uh chronic absenteeism went up just a little bit. I do want to put your attention to students with disabilities. Our chronic absenteeism went down, but if you look at our English learner students, chronic absenteeism went up significantly. Those are EL students. It's really important for us to understand these demographics because it gives us direction on where we need to support our specific demographics of our students. Next slide. And Dr. Gay, I just want to piggyback the fact that

041we know that many of our EL students and you and I talked about our EL students and our Hispanic students had a lot of frightening encounters this year. And so that's one of the biggest reason that I want to name that our Hispanic population had chronic absentism because many times they were afraid to come to school. And so you saw that in the data. Yes. Now we did a comparison by school. I just want to put your attention again to that regression line. You can see the regression is going down. But you can see the red line which is this year is slightly under the blue line. That means that that analysis that's going down. That's a good thing. We want chronic absenteeism to go down. in almost every school um except Vernon John's chronic

042absenteeism uh went down. Give you a second just to look at that. Uh the greatest improvement in in attendance was Walnut Hill in Lake Mont. Next slide. All right. So here we have some numbers for you. All right. So this is end of the year data. Chronic absenteeism is down 1% from last year. This is overall average between last year and this year. But we made an improvement by 1%. PCPS chronic absenteeism rate for 2023 2024 end of the year was 39%. Which was pretty much kind of average around the country slightly higher. Uh for 202425 end of the year this year is 38%. Again we made one point improvement overall. So we made a slight improvement. However, the board uh created a goal for this year of a 3% decrease. We did not meet

043that end of end end of the year in chronic absenteeism. In March, we did we exceeded the board's goal in March. If you remember last March, we were at 3.16% decrease in chronic absenteeism. However, from March to May, we made a increase in chronic absenteeism. And we're going to talk to you on why, right? It increased by uh.56%. Here are the contributing factors. We dug really deep in this data. 36 students became chronic uh within three months from March to May. 32 students no longer met the 50% membership for chronic absenteeism. That means membership means that they either transferred or are homebased homebound. March, April, and May attributed to now this is very significant 35.4 48% of the total absences for the whole year. So when you think about um uh most of the absences

044or or not most of them but that's a significant number over 35% of the absences were from March to May. 71.58% of the missed days for March, April and May were unexcused absences. We did we dug really deep. Okay, next slide. A little bit more data that we're digging deep in. We look at all of the months here. We look at August. I can't see that. Let me look on my laptop. I think that's 2.8%. One second. My glasses are failing me, y'all. Give me one second. I'll help you, Dr. Gay. So, August says 2.8. Eight. Yes. 2.8. 2.8%. Uh, my computer died. In September, uh, 9.17%. Thank you so much. 9.7. Uhhuh. Yes. October was 12.6. So, you see the wheel and the pie getting larger. Yes. Right. Thank you, Superintendent. In October, 12.6%.

045November there was a decrease in absences at 8.5%. December slight increase 9.4%. In January kind of at the same 9.9%. Um in February there's a there was a slight increase at 11.16%. March kind of stayed in the same place a little stagnant 11.4%. um April 9.4% and May 14.6%. I do want you to take a look at implications or the reason for some of these absences. If you take a look at the suspension days for the following months, this is really important. For the month of October, this contributes to a lot of our absences. 1,170 uh uh suspensions contributed to our chronic absenteeism. March it was 967 and in May 1,079 suspensions. Those are a lot of suspensions. Um, a lot. Um, we even have we broke it down into schools in which schools are

046carrying more uh suspensions. Um, we were having a conversation at our cabinet meeting about the direction and where we need to focus our attention. Um we need to look at why is that happening in October? Why is it happening in March and what's happening in May? A lot of our uh attendance issues were in May. When we think about it, some of the high school and middle school testing is over. So what happens after that, right? How were students engaged after that? Next slide, please. just briefly about the attendance uh task force and I just want to honor uh those that have been a part of the task force. We have representation from so many different places um teachers, we have parents, uh we have communities and schools to help us. Uh thank you so

047much for coming our school leaders um district office just to come together just to look into root cause. So this data is really important in how we think about attendance and the direction on where we need to go in terms of strategy. When we look at attendance task force, we're addressing the issue. Well, let me go back to the reason why a task force convenes. The purpose of a task force is for people of different perspectives to come together to identify a problem and create solutions around it. And there are various stages of a task force. It's not going to be um clean all the time. it can be very messy and then we start coming together to create great strategy. We're kind of in that messy stage where people are looking at data and

048having different perspectives about where we need to go. But I I think that is really positive. Um there's a lot of activity here. Um we're going to continue the task force because they're going to inform our strategies over the year. Right? So we have a perspective from the parent in the community. Um uh board chair Tucker will be supporting us with the policy work. We are digging into policy right now doing a lot of engagement around that. Uh one of the suggestions that's coming from the task force is us putting out a survey to families uh just to hear from them on uh their perspective around attendance or what are the social determinants that are uh they're facing in the community. We just had a presentation about um uh uh organization that supports homelessness, right?

049Um so just wanted to share that and where we are right now with Paul. Next slide. Our partnership uh with Virginia State University and the Cameron Foundation will be very focused on family engagement and how engagement uh increases attendance in schools is it's uh researchbased. Um it is a two-phase initiative designed to strengthen school-based engagement system. uh we will be work we will specifically focus on Pleasant Lane. So it is a pilot to support Pleasant Lane and we'll be uh researching looking at best practice that we can scale across the division and uh it will be supported specifically by BSU faculty Dr. Walter Willis and Dr. Shard Harris. So we're really excited about that. Next slide. We're going to continue to show this graphic because this graphic is um our structure and how we're going

050to combat chronic absenteeism. We are developing strong systems and structures. You hear from the superintendent all the time, systems and structures. Systems and structures and how we increase attendance here in Petersburg City Public Schools. One of them is our data and how we're collecting data and how we're analyzing data uh to inform strategy. Principal oversight. What is the principal's responsibility and their teams to monitor attendance to report attendance and monitor it on a continuous basis. Uh the creation of school-based attendance teams strengthening uh school-based teams there. Um again division oversight. So our data team will be supporting our principles with data reporting and also working with them around data analysis and also recognition of schools uh that are improving attendance over a period of time. Um so again we'll continue to show this graphic um

051and make changes where necessary. So please get used to that. Next slide. Here are our next steps. This is our last slide. uh summer training will take place actually next week for attendance monitors, secretaries, registars and school leaders not individually together as a collective right so there's a common understanding of attendance protocols uh collection monitoring and reporting in preparation for the upcoming year uh the PCPS data assessment and that's actually we just changed the name um it's a data assessment yeah no that's the right name data assessment and accountability team will provide targeted support to schools. Um we are hiring another data analyst. We'll have total of three uh to support the system uh divisionwide data system and also to provide individual support for our schools. Again strengthening our uh school-based attendance teams with protocols.

052We will be monitoring that process. And lastly, we're in the process of hiring two family liaons that will provide uh on the ground support for families. So it's building the bridge between families and school that is a research base to support attendance in our schools. Uh so those are four next steps that we have to improve attendance here and I think that's our last slide. So thank you so much and we welcome any and all questions. Thank you, Dr. Gay. Questions from board members. We start with Mr. M. Um, this is not to you, Dr. Gay. This is to the board. Um, it's our responsibility to come up with policies, guideline policies and red flag limits to address to support her in absenteeism. And we when we come together as a retreat, we need to

053come up with those guideline policies and red flag limits because our responsibility is to educate these kids whether they at school, at home or wherever. That's our responsibility to make sure we get them education. So we got to come up with a way to do that whether they're at school or at home. So we got to set the limits of when we're going to address that. We can't let it go uh uh 18 days, 20 days. We had kids that missed 51 days before and and and it's not addressed. We got to set those limits when we're going to address that absenteeism and how we going to address it and how we going to get that child a education because if they at home and we got to set it up at home, then we

054educate them at that house cuz we have programs set up to do that. So when so so we got to make the call when we going to address a child that doesn't come to school whether they going to be homebased whether they we going to get them to come to school whether or not we going to implement the programs that she have to help those layers to get them to school but our responsibility is to educate them regardless because that's what we're here for as a board to watch them march across that stage and and and um and and graduate to make sure that they become a professional learner and get their high school diploma. But we got to set those limits and policies because they cannot address the issues if we don't make sure

055those guidelines and policies are in place and especially the limits when it come to red flags. When do we address it and when when is it extreme? They keeping perfect records of of what absenteeism is. I mean, that's a perfect example of this report right here. It's telling us exactly is what we had. Now, we got to decide how we're going to get get them an education. But I want to thank you for that very accurate report because in the past, we had people come up here give us sugarcoated reports. I'm telling you, I am very pleased. I'm I'm very pleased with this because this is accurate and it let us know exactly where we stand and we need to as a board need to decide how we gonna move forward and set those limits

056and policy to support um um these kids our kids. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Miles. Mr. Pierce, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Gay. Just one, could you go back to slide four, please? Yes. Um, I just wanted to bring the attention u to um we're missing one school and we're missing Blandford. It was under I know it's under Burning John, right? because well and I'll explain the reason why I got it because we do consolidate from time to time but in a student hearing I got kids that are coming so they're segregated out so I need I need a a picture of what that looks like because I I think if we if we look at the numbers we're going to find that Bford Academy has a relatively decent rating. He did very well. But

057but you don't you don't know that looking at that. That's right. So, if we could do that on the next round when we show it and I know we consolidated. I got that. But, uh I would appreciate it being able to see them for what they are received. Okay. That's all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Miss Proctor. Thank you so much for that presentation. Um on slide four, I am curious. Um, so I went back to um, one of the board presentations from September 6 from the data from and 2000 to 2024. Um, and I also went to VDOE just to get my data straight. Um, and what I noticed is there was a significant and I I'm know you are aware there was a significant decrease from the year 2023 2024 or 2022

0582023 I'm sorry to the blue. So, is there I guess is there a way that we can get that piece added to the because what I think um I know we're celebrating our 1% 3 years worth of data is what I would love to see because then we can see what the growth really is and what I would say is just looking at from the PowerPoint where you said Vernon John's they went up they had an increase um 3% in the year of 2022 2023 they were at a 51% % 51.43 to be exact and by the end of last year they were at a 40 which means they had a 11.43 decrease. So I am curious to know why there was a 11% decrease in that year but we got a 3% or 3%

059increase this year. What did we do different? Did we do anything at all? Um and that goes to the other schools as well. Um Cool Spring had a 6% decrease. Um, Wanda Hill had a 3% decrease. I think that that data is worth celebrating because we never really had the celebration for that data. So, if we could add the 3% and it kind of to me, this is something I'm passionate about. The data is etched in my mind. As you all know, it is etched in my mind, but it we don't want to discredit what was done. And also, something worked. So, if we can get back to what worked and add it to what we're moving towards, I think that'll be um that'll be great. And as far as the March, April, May, the

060most missed days, are we planning to attack um that impact data early this going back into this year? Cuz I know last year that was something we came into the school year knowing. So when we came into the school year knowing we had already planned ahead of time with what we were going to do in those months so that we knew how to keep the kids engaged, how to keep them active so that discipline the discipline numbers would go down. I think there's a lot of things that we did do that worked. Um, but I'm here to celebrate the 1% but I also want to get back to where are the other percentage that we lost because 1% when we look overall um I wrote it down on my paper overall we had we were

061at a 42% so we had a significant decrease to get down to 39%. Which was like it was a three almost 4% difference. So, I just want to revisit or with the task force. I know that's something that you all are working on, but just to go back and revisit some of those things because a lot of the things that we talk about in the task force meeting or that were discussed in the task for meet are things that we've done, but this year like what can we say this year that was done in the school to maintain the attendance. I think that's something that I want to know. Very good. I think that's a Oh, sorry, super. No, I was just going to um respond to um um board member Tucker because that's great

062information. So, as we're learning, we don't know what happened in 22 23. What I do know is I think there's a different structures in place. I think there were different people. I think there were different structures that you all had in place. People I think you had a department where they went out into schools. You did all of those things. And so, that's information for us to learn. If that worked, then what is the structure we need to put in place to pull back and get some of those things? So that's a relearning for us because you all can tell the story up here. What is it that worked in 22 23 to your point of that data? What was that silver bullet? Because we want to know what that is. So do we need

063to replicate that? Do we need to do something else to add on top of that of what of whatever happened in that time? Because I know in September we had a different person over at Dr. Woods and then of course working with um Dr. Lee and her team there was a different way of going about it. So, we'd love to learn what that looks like and if we could bring that information. What was that thing? Cuz like you said, celebrate it. What was the thing that caused our kids to come to school and you not see chronic absentism? But it's chronic absenteeism across the country, but I'd love to know more. And I know you're on that task force or that um committee, so I'd love to hear even more. I know you've shared some

064things. What is it the thing that worked that really really made an impact for our kids? Do we need to do more of that? Do we need to bring it back? So that's going to be good information for us so that we do it. But we absolutely can add three years of data so you see the trajectory given that there are changes and change and things that happened over the three years. But I'd love to know more about that structure so that we can get back to it. Perfect. The only thing that I'll add to is uh uh board member Tucker is you're doing exactly what we need is inquiry is for you to continue to ask poignant questions about the data. One thing about data is you got to keep asking questions about the

065data so that we can dig deeper into it. To your point, we are doing that work in the task force to superintendent's point is that we are doing asset mapping. What were the great things that were happening? So we know how to scale it. But also what we did understand too is that we needed to strengthen systems of collaboration, the connection between the school leader and family liaison and our better data reporting, right? Which helps us to understand um our data on a continuous basis. Um it's kind it's wraparound, right? You can't name just one thing that improves attendance. It is family accountability. That's one. The other thing too is what we can control is our strong systems and structures of monitoring attendance on a continuous basis. Right? And it's also engagement. How we are

066engaging our students in school so that they want to come to school. That is why we're partnering with VSU and the Cameron Foundation to talk about engagement. And I'll stop after this. But research says that when students are engaged and want to come to school, attendance increases. That's research, right? So, um, thank you so much for your questions and we will be coming back, the superintendent has mentioned on a continuous basis to report to the board on our attendance progress, our progress on our systems instruction. I just had one more thing to um say full steam ahead that is with some of our chronic absentee babies, right? I went down today. I had the opportunity to go and check it out and I would say this, they are loving the full steam ahead. Um when

067I got there they had on lab coats and I asked them I said you know is this something that you all would want to do if it was would you come to school if this is something that was incorporated in your everyday you know activity in your building in your classroom and they said yes. So I would challenge us to consider moving full steam ahead into the schools and not just summer noted. Thank you Mr. Lindy, the only thing I could really think of during the course of the schools was when we had Pleasant Lanes and we had Cool Spring. It was a lot of confusion. A lot of kids that were on the buses and all were always moving around and and it it it made a lot of problems especially for Cool Spring

068because these students weren't the students in the areas that they should have been in. Parents weren't aware of what was going on and it made havoc for the leaders of the building and I noticed that a number of times that that took place. So that's something we really have to look at. Also, the numbers were wrong. The numbers were oversized and uh the parents weren't able to um keep up with that also that that it was a whole lot going on. The leadership really went through a lot of it on both sides, Pleasant Lane and as well as Cool Spring and that was what I looked upon. Thank you. Well, the London Mr. Miles um to make a decision and I and I'm a data person. What percentage of the chronic absentee kids contributed to

069that 39% of that 38%. As you going to go back and look, you're going to see that probably 18% of the kids contributed to that 39%. That made up most of that 39%. When I said we need to come up with policies and guidelines and and and red flag limits of how we're going to address, go back to the page where you had the suspensions. This is something we you can really address. You had three 3,000 um um un supervised suspended days where they received no education. We can come up with policies to to make sure that 60% of those days would not be absenteeism because they're going to receive supervision of educational supervision. You see what I'm saying? So, we got to come up with those policies to address that time out and when

070and set the limits when we address it once they get to a certain point that they're not going to have those those 3,000 days absent because now uh 2,000 of them going to be educational days where it won't be absentee because we're going to address it. See, that's what I'm saying. We got to come up with these policies to assist you to make sure we can implement education. Our responsibility whether they come to school or not is to educate these kids. And we got to come up with ways and work with the superintendent and yourself to get them that instruction. Okay? Because if they need to be suspended, if the principal said they need to be suspended, I'm going to support the principal because they got to they we got to make sure that school

071is safe. We got to make sure that school is orderly. So we have to support those principles when it come to that. But we have to educate these kids whether they at dad school or at home. So that's on us. They can beat their head up against the wall all they want until we come up with the policies and the guidelines and the limits. Say like when somebody get the 10 days, we got kids missing 51, they get the 10 days. Hey, we got to make sure those next 41 days they getting instruction. And some we got to set that up. We already got it set up to do it for some. We got to set it up to cover the absentee part also because it is this is critical. This is critical. What you're

072doing is so important and the state is correct. We need to be held accountable for the kids that's out of school, not just the ones that's in school. So I I and again it going to take some brainstorming but we do have programs and we got to figure out how to implement the programs in a way that we can address that those 3,000 cut those 3 suspended days down to 2,000 on being with instruction and then they won't be absentee days if they receive instruction and that will change that tremendously. Thank you Mr. Miles, Dr. Gay, um I know Mr. Miles was saying that that we would talk about um this probably during our retreat, but it's probably something also u Miss Brown that we need to talk about probably during a work session that

073we just that we just talk about this. And Dr. Gate, one of the things that that I like to know and you can share with the board, have we we know that it starts early. Have you looked at Westview? Because we don't have any data on Westview to show what the parents are doing over there. that there's no data in your presentation. Did you look at that also to see how they are coming to school? We did not. Um but we will definitely look into that data because it does it does start early. Um we focused on the data that we report to the state. Um but we will definitely look into the data for Westview and also Pitman. Right. Right. Even though we know that it doesn't count, but we still need to look

074at it because we're sending them into the elementary schools. And if they already have a pattern at Westview for not coming to school, why do you think the parents going to send them when they get in kindergarten? Correct. Also, um, go to slide same slide that Mr. Miles been talking about, slide six, it was the one that you had the the three months. just um if you can also break that down for us. How many of those students are repeat offenders? That's what I'm talking about. How many of those students are actually, you know, repeat offenders out of, you know, out of the numbers? Also, it'd be great to see I know you said that you didn't have it in here, but we need to see which schools which schools are suspending the most kids.

075We need to see that data. We need to see who they are. And then that's the conversation not that the board needs to have, but that's a conversation that Miss Brown needs to have. Yep. So if you um Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't want to. Middle school and high school. We know that already. And boy, you're absolutely correct. We've already started that conversation. This was their deep dive into the data at the end of the year. So Dr. Gay and I have already had that conversation around these suspensions because that is an alarming amount. And of course, we know we want to have schools that are safe and orderly and that we have high expectations for kids because kids cannot learn in chaos and when students are not be doing what they're supposed to do. And

076we're going to hold kids accountable. What we're going to be doing and we started the conversation this week based on this data is how do you implement other practices in addition to suspension restorative practices? How do we do that? So, we've started this conversation, but we had to have the data to be able to ground us in the next steps because we've got to figure out does every single behavior require a suspension? And so, that's work that we have to do with our school leaders and working hand in hand. But this is our starting point to really have the data to say now we have it. Let's go forward and we need to talk about these suspensions. Like I said, you're going to say you're going to see which schools have the highest. But we've

077got to equip our team with other strategies to address behaviors outside of suspension. But make no mistake, we're going to hold kids accountable, but everything may not be a suspension, but that's the work we have to do and further define. Miss Brown did ask for that data about uh which schools accounted for most suspensions. We do have that data and we can update uh the board in a memo around that. But if you could go to the last slide when we talk about our systems of accountability and support, Mr. Pritchard, this is in response to your question about schools that when we think about the layers of support or the layers of accountability, schools should be looking at their data on a weekly basis and identifying who the frequent flyers are. that will happen in

078our school-based teams. And so they create their school plans to mitigate that, create restorative structures for those individual kids or those group of children. Right? So the work really starts at the when we talk about moving attendance is at the school level. What I wanted to provide is how the district I'm sorry I'm learning how to say division. The division is supporting that work, providing professional development, right? Providing data systems where our analysts will be working with school teams to help them understand their data. This is when we talk about board member Tucker, what's new. These are the new things of support that we are providing. We are honoring the the the work, the former work. However, we want to make sure that we're providing that division oversight to support what Miss Brown was talking

079about. So, I hope that answered your question. We'll continue to show this because these this is the layer of systems of accountability and support that we'll continue to talk about and and and Miss Brown also it' be great to go back how it used to be where each month we were given the data so we we can see the attendance data monthly and and it could be given during the work session and and what you said and we can see them. Show us the data by schools. Don't don't lump them together. Well, what you said, Mr. Chairman, um about the repeat offender because to cut down on absenteeism, those are the ones that we going to have to address. It's not the why they out of school, it's the one is that they out of

080school and we addressing it. See, because if you just look at the school, we know where the suspensions are. Middle school and high school. Those are behavior problems. Those are cell phone problems. Those are all the problem. Elementary and them that that's not the problem. You know, even though they had some absenteeism, but we know where the suspensions coming from. And the big suspension is coming from because you have to have order. This year in the United States alone, we had three over 300 school shooting, 39 deaths. They not advertising it like they normally, but we had over 300 school shootings. The state law requires when somebody make a threat verbal or physical, they supposed to leave that school immediately because we don't know if they going to carry out that threat because if you

081don't get them out that building and they carry out that threat, we're allowed. So once they make a make that threat, whether it's verbal or physical, they supposed to be removed from that institution immediately for school safety and everybody else's safety. So, I'm not going to tell I'm not going to micromanage no administrator for for to tell them how when to keep their school safe. That's on them. We delegated that authority to them and we going to hold them accountable for it. What I'm addressing with absenteeism is that when they're not in the building, how we get them their education. And see, that's what we need to focus on because if it's if it's and and the thing is is that if they out for so many days and 20% of that day is no

082instruction. Well, if they get 80% of that 80% of their days is with instruction, then that's not absenteeism because now we're educating them because we they receiving home base, they receiving instruction, they're doing what they're supposed to do. They in a program that we have outside the school to make sure they're being educated. And see, that's what we got to do to cut down on those suspension days that's not instructed. They got to receive receive some type of instruction. And we had too many kids. You got to do what you got to do. But our job is education. Okay? And so we got to look at it. We got to come up with a plan. We got to come up with a way and we got to come up with support to to do that.

083And um because the ones that on home base are not absent. The ones that not on home base or not receiving instruction are absent whether they suspended or they were put into some type of program. So we got to make we got to extend that to cut down on their absenteeism. Make sure they get that instruction. And just one more question. Did you all go back and look at each school to find out if they were entered into the system correctly? Because we have found that before that the attendance clerks had entered information into the system that was not accurate and accounted against kids because it it has happened before. They had to go back and clean it up. Yes, we have a training next week on making sure that um uh we the attendance

084clerks, our secretaries are entering data accurately. We did check to see before we presented this data if we if our students were accurate. Um data cleansing is really important for us moving into next year in partnership with human resources and finance. Um that's a big part of our improvement process. Um, next week we'll start that data cleansing work. Um, we're going to have meetings every month to make sure that the data is accurate. And if you all remember board members, if I may piggyback, if you remember, we talked to you about early on in the year how our power school data. I think you all had shared with me from the discipline perspective that you go into the data system and you see things not entered. And so we did a reset with powers school,

085which is our vendor. We brought them out. If you remember, I talked about it. We brought them out. They retrained leadership so that we could better understand how to use powers school, how to get information into the system because things were missing because you all shared that. And so that is a part of this work of understanding power school information being entered in not just the se the um admins the principles were at the table because they're ultimately responsible for what's entered in the system and what they enter is what I sign off on to send to the VDOE to say that this data is correct and so that process we will be continuing our power school work because we found that information was inaccurate. So that is great to hear that. Not great to

086hear, but I'm glad that you are sharing that because that's exactly what we found. And so that is the next thing of training. I think it's in one of the slides. We'll be training attendance clerks and principles making sure that what's entered is what we go by because we're not at the school every day. We don't know if Hal is at school. If you put Hal in absent and he's on homebound or he's on home base and he's not you're not supposed to, we're taking that data. So, um, that's good information for us to go back and dig deep and for us to try to monitor the accuracy of what's being entered because it's only as good as the human being that's entering it. And so, thank you, Mr. Chair. And perfect ex what you

087said. That's what we're addressing when we have our student hearing data that's not accurate. When the child is suspended, we need to come up with a policy that we update all that information on that day of suspension that we get that make sure them phone number, address, everything, everything is right, contact information, email, because they'll come 10 days later to us and Mr. Pierce and and now we're getting the correct information. We got to update it because third I I guarantee you 40% of the PE kids that come to us the majority of that information had to be updated that this number not right this the address not right you so all that's not right the email not right and believe me low income change cell phone numbers every two months and Mr. Mr. smile

088is telling the truth because we get students that that sometimes they don't come before us because Mr. Chavis will share I've gone by the house or someone's gone by the house and no one is living there. So, we can't locate the student and they're still on, you know, on the list as being absent. A suspension when when that child leave, they we need to make sure we get all that contact information from that parent and that child before they leave that school. Even though they suspended, we need to get everything updated then. Just don't give them the letter and suspend them and they go home and and all of that stuff haven't been updated. We need to do it that day before they leave that building. Make sure we got the email, the address. That's

089why the power school and all the other stuff you might not be they might not be getting that information. Yep. That is one of the main reasons why we are instituting family liaison to uh maintain information on families to do home visits. Um that has definitely worked. Um I used the family liaison model in Baltimore City. Um, it definitely did help to uh make uh information more accurate. As principal, I knew where our kids are, whether they went from home to shelter. Um, highly transient in low-income communities. Our students are highly transient a lot ways. So, putting in structures of support does work. Um, so, uh, again, one of our ways to mitigate that is to have a person at the school level, um, to be that mediator between home and school. Thank you, Miss

090Tucker. So, while I do know, I do know home visits work. Um, I was one of those ones doing home visits. Um, but we had a team of 11. Yes, there was a team of 11 of us. So, we're hiring two parent liaison. How is that going to be split between the division to do home visits, especially when we only have two truency officers? And while I do know Truency is a tier three, but we're bringing them integrating them back into tier one. So, we're going to start them at the beginning. How is that going to be conducive to the amount of students that we have? Because what I also know is that is a heavy case load to have to do home visits. That is a heavy case load. And we know one person

091can't do a home visit alone. Um, yeah. And so, how is that going to work with the two parent liaison? How is that going to work with transportation? Um because are we giving the parent leaison vans like Yeah. So like how how is that planning to work with just two parent leaison all of the schools in the division because as we see it's a lot of we have a high number. We still have fam uh specialists that will support that process. So it's not just the two family liaison. Um based on our budget it definitely will grow. The goal is to have a family liaison at every school. That is the goal, right? But for this year, we're starting with uh two more support structures. Yep. Uh where they will family liaison will probably have

092two schools a piece. Um that will be their case load. Um but again, just add the specialist support on to that um will increase the number of home visits. So we will be focusing in on home visits this year. Uh again bridging that gap between home and school. Um but thank you for that question. You did have a team of 11. That's not our reality right now. Um however, and it does work, right? Because it's that individualized attention for Absolutely. We will grow to that because as board member Tucker said, it works. It definitely does. That individualized attention for schools work. So we're building towards that. Thank you, Dr. Gay. Thank you. We'll move to 4C next. Thank you, Dr. Gay. Um and thank you board members for the engaging in um discussion. Four. So,

093our next presentation of this afternoon is going to be our Petersburg City Public Schools Division literacy plan. Um and so, Mr. Brown and um u Miss Massie are not here this afternoon. So, we have two of our academics team members who will come and give you an update on our literacy plan. And as you know, um Virginia has a focus around um our literacy work. And so, this is an update to our plan that we will be submitting to the state. And so, at this time, our two um presenters, please introduce yourselves and we'll turn it over to you to talk about our new revised PCPS literacy plan for 2526. Okay. Good evening, Chair Pritchard. Superintendent, can't you hear me? Do what? Lift it up more. Oh, move a little closer. Gotcha. Good evening, Chair

094Pritchard, Superintendent Brown, um board members, and all assembled. My name is Tasha Jackson, and I am the elementary reading instructional specialist. And with me, I have Dr. Gates, and she is our secondary l um secondary specialist. Um we are standing in for Mr. Brown and Miss Massie. Um but we are here to share the revisions that have been made to the literacy plan for this school year. So this plan is um built upon our 2024 foundation and it is going to prepare us for the full implementation of K through8 under the Virginia Literacy Act. Next slide please. Oh I forgot. It is it is important to note that this revision to our division literacy plan is not about compliance to what the Virginia Department of Education has mandated. Um what we have done is we've

095provided a roadmap that will help us focus on the intervention, the training, and the monitoring that will help us expand our plan to grades K through 8. So, this is just an overview of our literacy plan, but under the Virginia Literacy Act, it requires all divisions to um provide evidence-based literacy instruction for students through grades K through 8. And you all have already invested in our Amplify CLA for our grades K through 5. And we have recently adopted um SAVIS my perspective for grades six through eight. So within our 2024 plan, we focused on our K through five. Um but our updated plan, which is 2025, we have expanded to include our grades 6 through 8, ensuring that um we are aligned across curriculum um assessments, intervention as well as professional development. Next slide, please.

096Section one of our division literacy plan focuses on our comprehensive communication model and we are excited about our attempts to collaborate with our family engagement team to ensure that we are able to provide all stakeholders with information regarding this plan. We will do this a number of ways. We have listed a few. Um some of the family engagement opportunities include those school literacy nights where we will provide information about our updated curriculum. This is an opportunity for us to to share with the community our new textbooks um the resources that will be available that we've purchased and how they can be used at home. We'll also produce quarterly literacy newsletters. These will be shared on our school and division websites as well as through our division's media outlets. And finally, we will share our student

097reading plans with our families. We'll do this by sending home information, but we'll also communicate this information with families through these conferences that we'll hold and through parent nights. In section two of our plan, it talks about selecting highquality instructional materials. So, with our core instruction, we will continue with amplify CQLA for K through five. Um, but we have adopted SAVIS um my perspective for grades six through eight. But when we talk about our supplemental and intervention, we are going to be using Boost. Um what else are we using? We are going to be using Lexia Core 5 and um PowerUp. And we will also be using L Ufly for our diverse learners. And all of these materials are on the approved VDOE list that will um that does meet the needs of all of

098our general and special populations to include our ESL sped and gifted students. Next slide, please. Sorry. Section three focuses on our evidence-based reading research training. We have four different avenues that our educators can take in order to receive the required training. The first one is one that we implemented last year. We will use the um state provided canvas courses for all new teachers coming into the division on those grade levels. Additionally, we will use the um value series for instructional assistance and for tutors to provide them with the support that they need. We also have a third avenue and this is a capstone project type situation that allows those teachers who have already received training for letters or for the OG program to receive additional training. Last but not least, which is very important to

099us, is that we will provide professional development surrounded um that is based on our savage, the new textbook that we've adopted. So, we're very thankful for the adoption of those resources. We want to note that also that the new calendar that has recently been approved will allow us days that we can all lot towards providing that professional development. Next slide, please. Okay. In section four, it talks about monitoring student assessment and progress. And some of the tools that we're going to be using is vows for K through eight. Um MClass dibbles for students that in grades K through three. Um we will be using our unit assessments that are attached to SAVIS and Amplify. We will also be using um MAP for students in grades two through eight. Next slide please. In addition to focusing

100on how our students are progressing, we want to make sure that we implement measures that will allow us to assess our division level progress. We'll do this a number of ways on both the school and the division level. Some of these activities will occur weekly, some bi-weekly, and there are others that will take place monthly. These activities include um having weekly literacy me team meetings. We'll also assess students work um bi-weekly. We'll also have division level literacy team meetings. And we will also provide or conduct literacy walkthroughs that give us an opportunity to inspect what we expect. In section six, it talks about us enga engaging parents, caregivers, and our community. And we are working very closely with the school and the student um family engagement to help us with this. But we do plan

101to have um at least three checkpoints or check-ins with parents of students who have student reading plans. We also plan to have um in-person uh meetings with parents of those students who have been identified as monitor high- risk. And we will continue to use our um newsletters and our take-home materials to communicate with our parents. Thank you. Next slide. And here we have some of those resources and activities that will be highlighted in our efforts to ensure that all stakeholders receive information regarding that division literacy plan. In terms of the literacy resources, we have a few here. We are planning to develop a literacy web page. The launch date for that is forthcoming and we will um be back to provide an update for that. We have the parent centers and other literacy resources noted

102here. We will also have events. Again, we are looking to ensure that we collaborate with our family engagement team. We will be joining them and establishing literacy nights and also partnering with them with their family engagement university program. Um this is um an effort to ensure that this literacy plan is known well known throughout the community and that everyone has the resources and the knowledge needed to be empowered to implement this with fidelity. Um we have some next steps here for the division literacy plan. The plan will be signed by the superintendent and the board chair and it will be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education by June 30th, 2025. Next slide, please. In closing, there are just a few highlights on what's new with our plan that has changed or have been updated

103since our plan from last year. We want to make sure that we note that students in grades four through eight who score basic or below basic on their reading so will be assessed using the Val screener. In addition to that, they will receive student reading plans. Um, every student that scores basic or below basic will receive an individualized student reading plan. Those plans will be developed by reading specialists in collaboration with teachers and they will be developed, monitored, and implemented with those personnel and support from the division level. It's important to note also that we are excited about the expansion of our team. We have recently added several um de um school level reading specialists who were able to receive their certification through the VDOE microcredentiing opportunity. Um this slide here shares with you the

104division personnel who can be contacted in regards to the division level reading or literacy plan and Miss Jackson and I are also available to assist with any needs that you have. We do want to remind you that we are representing Mr. Paul Brown and Miss Massie and we will take any questions that you have and relay them to them. They have already committed to coming back and providing clarity and giving updates as needed. That's right. That's right. Are they Are there any questions for them to take back to Mr. Brown or or Miss Massie? You good? We got the message. I do have one one that you can take back to Mr. Brown and ask Mr. Brown because we've been doing it for a long time. Ask Mr. Brown, why do we start tutoring so

105late? Why is tutoring so why are we not tutoring in October, November? Why do we always try to wait until it's almost so time? And I'll be able to give a little bit of perspective, board chair, is that we receive funding later. So like for example this year we received the SIG grant money. It came in late. We've been waiting for the the state to send the money. So sometimes it is funding. But I also say this was a transitional year of people coming in at different times. And so the plan is to start tutoring. I know that for a fact um ladies that the plan is to start it much much earlier. And so um we'll bring all of that. I think we've already Dr. I think we've already kind of outlined our tutoring

106um cost all of those from a HR perspective. So, we will be starting much much earlier this year. I think it was a byproduct of some funding and some transition and understanding what we had access to. So, I because I learned we had all-in tutoring. Wasn't aware of that. That's what Virginia's had for a couple of years. I think it's kind of phasing out now. Is that correct? Some of the all-in tutoring. So, we use those funds. But, I think for this year now, I think we're here. We can get ahead of it. And now we know we need to start tutoring early and getting people in and looking at cost for tutors. Um in addition to that, I just want to thank you all for s for sitting in for uh Miss Massie and

107Mr. Brown. He was texting me a few minutes ago asking how did my team do. That was his first question on my phone on my phone here. I haven't responded to him yet, but I'll definitely tell you all did a great job. But I just want to make sure a couple of takeaways because this read the Virginia reading literacy act everybody should remember that that is and I learned that that is what Virginia put in place in the requirements for how we're going to focus on reading instruction reading intervention to support reading outcomes for kids. If you don't take anything away I want you to remember that we already had a Virginia literacy act and we had a Virginia literacy plan. It is a requirement of the state. We just revised it given all the

108new things that we're putting in place like highquality curricular resources. As you heard, we just got approval last board meeting for SAS and my perspective. So now K to 12, we have highquality curricular resources. So that's new that had to go into our revision of our plan. We have professional development that will be different and focused. Now we have time in the calendar. Thank you for the approval that we can put into the plan. That's what's different. I want you to take away. And you also heard parental involvement because in a lot of plans you don't hear that. I want you to walk out and know that there's going to be parental involvement with parents helping us to help kids with reading instruction. And if you missed it, we going to have individualized learning plans

109for reading. Yes. For those kids who fall in basic. Is that correct? What's the other category? Below basic. below basic that it's going to be a developed plan that you work with parents that teachers and staff are going to build so you can hone in on those kids. Is that correct? Correct. And we'll be providing tutoring and support and the state is paying for some of that because I think Lexia has paid through state partially. It is partially. And so I hope that you walk away with those things. I just want you to know that this is the difference in the plan that we've added those things because those are additions and some of the work that's pivoting around literacy. And the last thing is the focus around um teachers and staff getting training through

110the requirements of Virginia around Orton Gillingham. I heard you said OG and that is the that is the multiensory way of teaching kids how to read. We also have letters which is a way to teach kids the foundational pieces of reading as teachers have to understand the foundational pieces of reading in the five different areas of reading. And so I just want to make sure that I tap on those things around the literacy plan and those are the things that we change so that we can start to pivot and move some of our reading instruction. So thank you all. Did I get it right? Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you, Mr. P. Appreciate it, Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. M. Okay. Uh, and what you were saying about being more proactive than

111reactive, getting uh getting the tutor in earlier. Now, this is now I guarantee you there's a correlation between literacy success and literacy and absenteeism. I guarantee it. Mhm. Mhm. We're putting a lot of money into trying to prevent absenteeism. If we take that same money we putting into trying to prevent absenteeism and get the kids to an early start on literacy, they going to enjoy school and be more successful at an early age so that kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. You take those people that we've trying to address absenteeism with and put them in the classroom with aids and reading specialists and different things like that, our kids going to get a better start. So when they get to the third grade, their test score is going to be better. The attendance going

112to be better, their success is going to be better. We got to be proactive and we got to come up with policies to address that. And we got to make sure that in our school system if we got to load that first those first four years, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade with those specialists and the people to help those kids in that classroom. Our kids going to be more successful and they going to want to come to school because they not only going to receive the attention they need, it going to be people in there to address their needs. And so we got to be more proactive. So what they're doing is so important. Literacy is the key. When I first got on this board, Mr. Lundy, that's all he talked about was

113literacy. And and it brought it to my attention because I was that special needs student that had to go to a speech therapist for the every day for two years, kindergarten, first grade. Then I had to go to the reading specialist in the library every day, Monday through Friday. Miss Morgan at Blandford School who married Mr. Harrison. Monday through Friday. Rea reading by color. You know what I'm talking about. Until I got on the sixth grade level. They did not let me out that program till I was reading on the sixth grade level. They did not let me fall through the cracks. And I know Petersburg public school did it for me. We need to do it for these kids here. We can't let them go to a reading specialist one day a week when

114they need it every day of week. We got to put we got to frontend load that to make sure they get it. And we just can't leave it to chance. If you're worried about absenteeism, make sure they're literate and then you that that'll take care probably 90% of the absenteeism. Thank you, Mr. Miles. Next, we will move to Thank you. Thank you, ladies. Great job. Thank you. We move to forward D. Thank you, board chair and school board members. Our next presentation of this afternoon is our um May 2025 PCPS monthly budget and head start updates given by Dr. Matias Greywood, our chief financial officer. Dr. Greywood, [Music] good evening. Um Matias Greywood and um board chair Mr. Pritchard, Miss Brown, um, school board members, Petersburg community, I'm Matias Greywood, and I'm here to present

115the budget update for, um, May. Next slide, please. This slide uh goes over the city revenue budget and um for FY 2025 we're expecting 15.7 million in revenue. As of May 31st we've received approximately 14.73 million leaving a balance of 1.03 million outstanding. Next slide please. For the general fund, um, we have instruction budgeted 40.44 million with expenses of 33.3 million, leaving a balance of 7.1 million. In operations and maintenance has a balance of 2.49 49 million remaining from from a budget of 10.4 million. Technology carries a balance of just over 101,000. Overall 69.26 26 million was budgeted for FY20 25. We've expended 56.7 million to date. Next slide, please. Food service and grants funds O2 and 07. In fund O2 for school service, we've used just over 2.9 million of 5.1 million budgeted for

116grants in fund 07. Construction has a healthy budget of 19.2 million with 12.56 million used. Transportation and operations ran slightly over budget in FY24, but are more balanced in FY25. The combined balance for funds 02 and 07 totals over 10.7 million. And taking all funds together, our total budget for FY25 was 97.9 million with expenditures of 75.16 million. That leaves a 22.75 million balance, positioning us to complete the fiscal year strong. Next slide, please. questions. Miss Proctor. Um, yes. What happens with the surplus? Does it go over to the next year? Are you talking of surplus in terms of um the issue we face at the end of the fiscal year with um net income? We um by statute I think the city has traditionally clawed back that money but we have plans to uh

117to make sure that doesn't happen this year. Okay, great. Thank you. Any more questions? Any other questions? you can move to the next. Okay, we'll move on to the the next uh slide. This is the Head Start uh federal funding update for May. We were funded 1.4 million from federal sources. To date, we've expended 1.15 million. Um, most personnel and supply lines are tracking well with notable savings in items like child plus and field trips. We have 251,000 left. And next slide, please. In the uh non-federal share, we have 350 that was budgeted and we spent 310,000 and overall the combined budget has 291,000 left in Head Start funds. Next slide, please. Questions? Any questions, Miss Proctor? Yes. Um, when is our fiscal year over? The fiscal year ends June 30th. We're very close to

118it. So, if you look at the updates, we're getting very close to the budgeted amounts. In fact, if you look at one of the categories, we've gone over by about $31. So, thank you, Dr. Gray. If we can go back to the slide. Um I think it's slide number back again. I think the one that shows all of the different um um Keep going. Keep going back again. Keep going. Yes. Right there. If you look at uh one of them, we're we're slightly over by $31. So what we're doing right now, we're working on closing the books, making sure everything's balanced at at an overall category. We're still positive, but for that category, you know, we're we're 30 $31 short. We would move money in between to make sure everything balances, but we're working on

119closing the books for FY25 as of June 30th so that we can roll into the new fiscal year 26 beginning July 1. You still have I was going to say we still we have federal dollar. Any more questions, Miss Proctton? Any other questions? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Um, so because I I'm still seeing a lot of money and I'm just wondering are there expenses that are out that we have to pay for out of this? Yes, there would be encumbrances that you know even though we may roll into the new year, they are still because of the payment process, there are some things that we've you know incurred that have not been paid yet and it may take one two months in the new fiscal year before we fully closed out the uh the year.

120But we would be doing all that. will provide a full year's uh accounting and update maybe sometime in the new fiscal year so you would know where we start where we ended the thing I would say about this is we have budgets and then we have actual cash so the actual cash would always be different from what was budgeted and we will provide you a full update of the full fiscal year sometime in the new uh in the new fiscal year I think that completes my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Greywood. Thank you so much for your presentation. I just want to make sure that I I tap on this that these are the numbers and so we're in great financial standing after this fiscal year. Is that what I heard you said? But

121we still have outstanding expenditures of different things that we are paying for that we said that would probably go a couple of months over and so they would still come out of this this this pot of money. Is that correct? And I think it to board um member Proctctor's question about what happens to that money. We've already pretty much encumbered a lot of that money for a lot of the things that we planned out that we would spend. Is that correct? Yes. And we're managing the funds so that we won't have that problem we had in the past where the city takes the money that remains. The city is not looking at um budgeted amounts here. They're looking at net income, which is cash in your bank account. Whatever remains as of June 30th, cash,

122that's what they're going to try to pull. But we're trying to manage that. And I think we need to continue conversations with the city to get them to understand some of the needs that we have around some of the uh capital improvements that we initiated. those are going to roll into the new fiscal year because of the the requests Miss Brown came with twice in phase one and phase 2 5.8 8 million and about 850,000 that we requested. But because of some things that we faced during the uh implementation, some of those are going to roll into say maybe September 30th, we would need some flexibility with the city and we kindly request that you know through Mr. Richard, maybe conversations could be started for them to provide us some flexibility just around the CIP

123that we're implementing. And thank you, Dr. G. I think when we brought it to the board back in February, one of the things we said was the plan was February to September. So, we were triggering to the city that a lot of our projects, especially some of the things that we are finishing up would go over and remember, they don't invoice you until it's complete. So, we are we have the need for that money and we've started the work. Now, we have to just make sure we're able to pay them. And so, we're making sure that that money is there because it's there. We just have to wait till everything is completed. They will invoice us and then we will pay out of our accounts. And so that's the thing I think we want to

124highlight which is why we called it February to September capital investments that was approved. Yes. Everything else we're good on but we just need additional flexibility on the CIP that we initiated back a few months ago. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you sir. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Miss B, our last presentation item 4E. Thank you, BJ Pritchette and school board members. Tonight, I'll have our policies for first read um for June 18th, 2025. And if you direct your attention to the to the screen, we have several policies and I want to start with our very first policy of this evening. You make it a little bit larger. Thank you very very much. And so our first PCPS policy for first read is PCPS policy DJF. The title of this policy is purchasing procedures. It

125is in alignment with our VSBA policy DJF. And the purpose of this review is our policy language has been updated to reflect enactments of Virginia code 22.1-296.1 by House Bill 1924. An addition of Virginia Code 2.2-4311.3. 2-4311.3 by House Bill 2150 and Senate Bill 913 cross references updated with VSBA 525. Our next policy number two PCPS policy DJFA. It is a new policy. This PCPS policy title is our public private procurement of education facilities and infrastructure and it's also known as PPA. And this is does not have an alignment to VSBA, but the purpose of this new policy that we're recommending is permitting the Petersburg City Public School Board to receive and evaluate unsolicited or solicited proposals from private entities to acquire, design, construct, improve, renovate, expand, equip, maintain, finance, or operate a qualifying project

126in accordance with the Virginia Public Private Education Facility. ilities and infrastructure act of 2002. Our number three PCPS policy is policy is a new policy as well. It is a DJFA-R. The PCPS policy title is guidelines for implementation of our public private education facilities and infrastructure act of 2002. There is no VSBA policy alignment, but the purpose of this new policy that we're recommending is that this regulation is recommending establishing implementation guidelines for the receipt and evaluation of unsolicited proposals from private entities to acquire, design, construct, improve, renovate, expand, equip, maintain, finance, or operate a qualifying project. That concludes our policies for first read this evening. So the recommend my recommendation is that the PC superintendent recommends that the school board approve the policies for first read as provided. Thank you, Mr. Brown. And and

127I think you also I believe that these policies was vetted by our attorney because we did not have these policies and so our attorney made sure that we put these in place before having conversation. Exactly. Right. Thank you. And before advertising because that's what we we will be doing. That's exactly right. Thank you board chair for bringing up that point. These first these policies are all around our procurement processes related to construction. As you are aware, we will be working on the building of our new Walnut Hill um elementary school that will include West View as well. And so in order for us to begin that process, as as board chair Pritchette said, we must put in place policies approved by the school board related to our PPE um process. That is an approved procurement

128process here in the the Commonwealth. And so this is the first step for us to have a first read and then we will bring it back for second read. But we will be following the um policy and we will be following the guidelines as required for this process because in order to make sure that we have no hiccups in this process, we must follow the VDOE guidelines related to um the procurement of um a building such as our Walnut Hill and Westview Elementary School. But this is the first step and once we bring it back, we'll begin to implement that process. And so that will be exciting for um Peters the city of Petersburg. But I just want to double tap that we will be following a very stringent process as it relates to the

129implementation of our procurement process of PPE is what we will be implementing. So with that again is the superintendent's recommendation and that the board um approves the new the policies as provided. And I do want to also say that again our attorney provided guidance and our policy person to write these policies as they are written and eventually will be adopted by the board. Thank you Miss Brown. Any questions from board members? The superintendent's recommendation is to is to um suspend first read and move it to action which is it is an action but is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? So mo moved by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? Is there a second? Mr. Lundy. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Next, we move to number five, our public comment period.

130Public comment 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, address, or ward number when approaching the podium. We have one individual signed up, Mr. Tommy Harrison Thomas, I'm sorry. Good evening, Superintendent Brown, Chairman, uh, Pritchard, and all the school board members and citizens. Uh, first I wanted to just say one thing that I was the student who was suspended. I was expelled from school um in Chesterfield County and I had a person that visited my house every Monday and Friday. Monday to drop my work off, Friday to pick it up. I was out of school for 40 days and I still passed that year because someone from the school was required to bring me my work. So

131when you were suspended in Chesterfield County, suspension could not fail you. You still had to have access to the work. So, that was just my little two cents because I heard that and that sounds great and I I really think that you can still maintain some students education even when they're suspended because they did it for me. Um, why I'm here today is because I've been an advocate for new schools in Petersburg um for a long time now. Um, I'm asking that the board convene a feasibility uh team to study uh how many schools we need, if we need them, um, which ones need to be replaced and how we can replace them. Um, I met with the city manager and I've been like a little pingpong ball because he pinged me and he said,

132"I can't um, do anything until the school board requests school." So he smacked me back over here. So I said, "Okay, I'm going to go to the school board and see what this process is." So I'm pinged over here. So I'm asking you all to ask for new schools. Um I have a vision of building a um college campus type um school system. When I was in uh school in Connecticut, we had a elementary school, a middle school, and a high school on one campus. We had shared facilities which allowed us to have a swimming pool and a gym. And the other thing it did was when we had emergencies in school, our older brothers and sisters were just in a building away. So parents weren't really worried about all the kids. So, um, I

133ask that you all look at that. Um, I'm asking the school board to assess the condition of Petersburg's aging school buildings, explore the options for renovating construction, modern education facilities, investigate the development of centralized community center that serves the youth, families, and seniors, and identify funding opportunities including public private partnerships, uh, state and federal grants, and other financing strategies. So, I see that you all seem to be heading in that direction right now. I'm here to encourage that you really, really keep going in that direction. Um, I opened for Junth and I made a statement that Petersburg led the nation in educating black people. So, in 1867, Petersburg built the first school for black people. It was Peabody. They figured out how to build a school in 1867, two years after slavery. So, I am

134sure, I'm more than confident that in 2025, we can figure out how to build schools for Petersburg. Um, that's what I'm here for. Uh, that's what I came up here to stand to ask you all and that's where we'll leave it. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Oh, there there there is one thing I wanted to say. I'm sorry. Um you all were discussing absenteeism, low reading, low math. So there was a Virginia Tech study that said uh Virginia Tech based review found that improved building cons uh building conditions in new schools uh increased grades by 5%. 5 to 17%. Um, it increased absent. It all but got away with absentes because kids want to go to a new school. Kids feel better when they go to new schools. It's sort of

135like new shoes. You think you can play basketball and run faster. Yeah. I remember the commercial. You get new shoes, you think you run faster. You get a new school, you think you're smarter. You want to go there, you want to participate. And we need new technology. All most of us went to the same school. My wife just left. She graduated from Petersburg High School. She said that when she came here for Junth, she said that's the same curtain that they had when she was here. Doug was on there. Doug said, "Oh my god, he graduated from here." So then I pulled a thing to see our new schools. The life of a school is 50 years. Our newest school is 50 years. Like the life of a school is 50 years and our newest

136school is 50 years old. And then I pulled the comprehensive plan because the comprehensive plan I worked on it because I'm on the planning commission and we yielded to the school board. Mr. Harris. Yes. We have three minutes and I believe now you're in six. I don't I didn't see the timer cuz when you come is right there. The time are finished, man. Oh, okay. Well, then I thank you for my three minutes. Thank you. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Harris, for all of that information. And I do want to take a moment because this is exciting time and I just want to kind of just follow up on some of the things. I absolutely agree with a lot of the things that you said about an environment, but just know that we've started

137this work in Petersburg already. I as a superintendent had one of my first meetings was to convene meeting with the city um the um city manager because that's my role to work directly with the city manager and the funders to make sure that we can move forward in this process. Mr. Martinez, our new assistant superintendent of operations in collaboration with Mr. um Gdet have been meeting so that we could work with the state to again move this project forward. So there are conversations that are already happening around moving forward with Walnut Hill Elementary School. And so that process sits with me, Mr. Martinez, and we'll be bringing recommendations directly to the board. But we are we have been tapped by the state to work on this process and so we will bring that. So I

138just want you to know that we've had we started before I even had a conversation with this this the state we had a feasibility study done. So someone came in and looked at all of our facilities including Pitman and including Westview and every and Bford and they gave us um a clear assessment of all the systems. They also outlined what the cost would be to renovate it, what the cost would be to rebuild it. And so I commissioned them to be able to give us that information because we have to use that information when we're applying for grants for the VDOE because we applied Petersburg had already applied back in 2022 and got funded a portion of that. And then we applied again just recently so that we could tackle some of the renovations here

139in Petersburg High School. But that has not been approved. That was just in a proposal that we gave. So, we've had a feasibility study done and we included that as a part of our um documentation. Is that right, Mr. Martinez? Around that. Also, we just want to let you know that we're working with the um VDOE because we are part of a cohort. Um they try to look at all the highest need um LEAs or local school um divisions in the Commonwealth and we are part of a 30 member cohort. And so the city, the state has gotten a grant where they then can come in and focus on a building and give us yet another assessment on a specific building. And so this building, I think, is the building that they're going to target

140as a part of the grant. They're going to provide us as a grantee member. They're going to give us dashboards. They're going to train our maintenance staff. They're going to train everyone to understand how to understand the conditions of a building so that when we need to repair and we need to apply for money, we have everything at our fingertips. So, we've already started that feasibility process and so we are well on our way and we have all that information um that I'll be sharing um with the board. And so I absolutely agree that kids need to have an environment that is um state-of-the-art, but we know funds don't always align to that, but when they do, we can start somewhere. So our start is Walnut Hill in Westview. So me and the team are

141working collaboratively with the VDOE because that's where the funding part of the funding is coming from and they are very serious about if we don't follow a process that is approved by them at every step, we will lose the money. We're also working with the city uh my team is working with the city manager because that's the role that I work with and we have funding for the lit the lit loan that they've received and there are serious stipulations that we must follow in order to not lose access to those funds. So this process tonight we're really excited like I said the PPE is the process that we're going to move toward but we needed to have something in place. So I agree with all the things that you said. The learning environment is one

142key because when kids walk in the door, that's what they feel that we value them in the environment. And so we don't have, you know, endless money. So what we do is we do the best we can. But just know that I will be having to lead this effort with my team and I'll be bringing recommendations back to the board for them to review. But that work sits in my office with my team so that we can move forward and get this process rolling so that we can get this school built. But we have to get it built in a very very um specific way so that we don't jeopardize funding that we've already you know been awarded. Is that feasibility study a public record? It can be absolutely because I I would like to

143see it if you make a request. Absolutely. If you make a request and we also can post it but we have that. Absolutely. I'm making a request. I'd like a copy of this ability. Yes. we will get the foyer. So, uh, Miss So, our communications person will connect with you so that, um, we can document the foyer request and we can absolutely provide you with a copy of the initial assessment and then we'll also have an assessment that the state will do later on once they get the grant funding. Thank you, ma'am, and congratulations. You're doing a great job. I appreciate you. Thank you. And Miss Brandy, just want to make another comment. I was at city council meeting last night. Mr. Tuck, I don't know if you had left or not, but they had

144their financial advisor there who said exactly what you said that if this he shared with the city council, if the school board does not follow the guidelines of VDOE, we will lose the money. And also, Mr. P, thank you for bringing that. Also, they didn't meet with the board. Their first line of contact is the superintendent because that's who signs off. That's who asked. The previous superintendent with the board's blessing went to the VDOE and asked for the money. They are communicating with me and my team and we bring the information back to the board as a report as information, but it sits with they're holding the superintendent and the superintendent's team accountable for implementing this process. And so what I've said to Mr. Pritchard and the board is I will update you as we

145get information. Once they've authorized me to move forward, then they're trusting me to move forward and following the process that's in place. And so I'm asking people that have questions, those questions are going to be answered because they're with me and my team at this moment. So I'll continue to update the board, but again, the Davenport group said we could lose the money. So we are bound to holding hands with this with the with the state um around this process. And so I just want to make sure that everyone knows that we will be working in tandem with the board, but it's going to start with the work that we have to do and we've been charged with um as superintendent and team u from the board and from the state. Thank you, Miss Brown.

146Next, we move to our action item 6A. All right. Thank you. So our So thank you. Our first action item is our membership application for the school year 2526. This is our Virginia High School League. um um application and so we are bringing it for approval. Sorry, one second. Coach Lawson, if you could come to the front and answer any questions about our VHSL um membership application before I make the recommendation, Good ne good evening everyone. Yes. Uh I'm free to answer any questions that you might have concerning the Virginia High School League uh information that we have to do yearly based on the sports that we have at Peaceburg High School. So, baseball, basketball, boys and girls, cheerleading. Okay. Cross country. Yes, ma'am. So, we have a lot of offerings. Field hockey. It also

147includes gaming and forensics. Uh well, not forensics anymore. It's called speech. Speech. Um but yes, and actually some news on speech. Uh our young ladies that's in uh Iowa, they did not make it to the next round, but they are uh still there. They're judging and they have other smaller competitions, but they did a great job. Uh they were a little upset when I talked to them, but when they saw some of the other competitors that did not make it to the next round, they understood. You know, you're in good company and our kids are amazing. They're underassman. So, we we'll be there. And the great part for next year is actually going to be in Richmond. Absolutely. Absolut. And so, Absolutely. So, we want to make sure we keep their spirits lifted because they

148they they actually achieved some amazing things this year. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. And so, they don't have any reason to hang their head down. They should keep it high because they represented themselves, their families, and Petersburg City Public Schools so well. And if you have been close to any the three of them, you know what they can do. They have absolute talent. And so, they are going to go far. So, congratulations to them for getting there because that is an accomplishment within itself. Definitely. Definitely. So, what's Miss Tucker? Go ahead. I don't have no problem. Go ahead. We have a swimming team. No, that's not how you check, is it? Is it check? So, okay. So, with all of the sports, I did want to ask this. Um, how often do we or

149are we looking to integrate any new sports? because I know I do know that there's a lot of different things that are becoming like sports every year. Yeah. So, um I know flag girl flag football is one. So, are we looking to Well, flag football is not a Virginia high school league recognized sport. Okay. Okay. Um that's one thing. Um but it would be great if we could. some of the issues that we're having um and I'm not sure of the exact numbers but we probably have approximately a thousand students at the high school where we have I think my number is close almost 300 as far as uh total number of kids that are participating in sports participation so it's hard to get enough participation in some of those other sports because now you'll

150take away from the sports that we do have uh and we're still trying to grow the sports that we have. So, um uh it's sort of hard um to really start a totally new sport um without taking away from what you already have. So, Coach Lawson, so if it's not checked, because this is an application that we'll be signing and sending. So, all of these sports, so we have swim diving boys, swim diving girls, This is not the right form, but it might not show. It's check right. So on here, so we have it right here. So here, so all of the checks. So it's not checked. So on this one, this is the one. You can't see the checks on the screen. So just know that we don't have the things we don't have

151checked are field hockey, gymnastics, lacrosse, swim, diving, boys and girls, debate, film festival, scholastic bowl, student media, theater festival, but everything else is checked with exception of those. And so we have opportunities to add more, but we don't have any for this year for VHSL, but we have that written down that how do we expand from this list as we take a look at it, but that's not checked. So this is the correct formula. So we do have 22 sports off of that sheet. Absolutely. That's amazing. 22 sports. Absolutely. And that's that's uh mainly that's just varsity sports. That's not including um your JVS or your middle school sports. Okay. And do you think, Coach Lawson, that you all will have a conversation about field hockey and lacrosse? Field hockey we used to have. Um,

152actually Miss Fields was the coach when we had field hockey, but that's a uh a girl sport where the numbers is the problem. Um, like I would love uh one sport that's really big more up north, lacrosse. But as they're finding out, like in Chesterfield, um lacrosse is a very expensive sport. Like the schools don't even pay for the equipment. each kid has to pay for his own um stick, head gear and everything. So, you know, a cost factor is another thing that we have to look at um in starting new sports. Uh, also facilities, you know, I don't want to touch too much on the facilities, but to be honest with you, we just don't have the space um to be able to conduct practices um, you know, for us to really excel in

153it. It's great to have a team, but we just don't want to have a team. You know what I mean? Appreciate it. And we're continuing to focus on building our pipeline because that is the key word here in Petersburg. Pipeline support is what we're focused on. We have these, but what are we doing before they get here? Exactly. The focus that we'll be coming back to talk about this year that we have on the plans, right? I got Thank you. All right. Oh, no. I was just going to touch on the pipeline as well. So, I'm glad you said it. Um, recruitment. Um, as far as recruitment, have we considered doing anything different like as far as advertising sports, maybe like doing I know how we do with um like the technology fairs and stuff

154like that. If we did like a a sports fair or something because I know we have a lot of kids and 300 kids is not a lot of participation. It's not right. And and just like you said, it it starts at the lower levels. Uh as you know, last year we were trying to uh get our track and field day. um where we're going to bring all the kids from the different elementary schools here uh to participate in different events to try to help build the track and field. Um we're going to continue to try it for this upcoming year. Um we're actually going to try a couple different um avenues. We're going to try to do track and field. We're going to try to do um flag football. Then we're also going to try

155to do um a youth basketball um league where we used to run a tournament and to start out just to get it in the in the schools. We're going to look at it tournament style that way not a whole season but I've also talked to the parks and recreation department. We're going to try to partner because that's really where back in the day it was tapped in as you know um through the recreation. So, we're going to just try to help guide it so we can sort of push them to go back to the old school. That's great. Thank you so much for all that you do because you do a lot. So, we definitely appreciate the continue efforts. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And I know that you and um Coach White will

156work well together as athletic director and assistant athletic director beginning July one. I know it's already started, but July one is the official date in a few days. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Anything else? So, at this point, yep. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the VHSL membership form for the school year 2526 as provided. Thank you, Miss Brown. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So move. Moved by Mrs. Mrs. Tucker. Is there a second? Second. Miss Proctor. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move to 6B. Thank you, poet and school board members. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the job descriptions of school nutrition program administrator and purchasing agent as provided. You've heard the recommendation.

157Is there a motion to accept? So move. Moved by Mr. Pierce. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Lundy. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Next we move to 6C. Board members. This is our 2025 BSBA delegate assembly selection and we will need a delegate and an alter to represent in November at the state meeting. Once you lock once you go in, you can't come out. It's true. Yeah, we know they lock the door. You can't leave the meeting. You can't leave. And you can't go to workshops either. I'll see to that. Is this after the election, the general election? Is it held after? Yes, it's after the November election. I move second. Oh, sorry. No, we need you have to tell whether you going to be a or um representative or even a

158delegate or a I did it last year. Mr. P, are they as a counter? Sir, counter. Yes, sir. But it's still forced upon us, Mr. Chair. Mr. Tucker would be wonderful for that. What about Miss Tucker? Miss Tucker, as a new board member, it'd be recommended that you try to attend it. Yeah, that would be wonderful. That would be wonderful, Miss Tucker. Yeah. So, Miss Parker, I would be your ultimate. So, Mr. Pierce, you want to make the recommendation? Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. P. I recommend um I we have your mic was I recommend that uh Miss Proctor will be the uh the new delegate for 2025 at the general assembly and that Miss Tucker. No, Mr. preacher will be the alternate there. Second, second. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. I'll be I'll

159be watching. Next, we'll move Miss Brown to your Yes. Policies for second read. Okay. All right. Policies for second read. It is the superintendent's recommendation that the school board approved the policies for second read as provided. BDDE rules of order. FEA educational facility specifications. GA AD access to employee social media accounts. GBF report of discrimination. IEB national motto. JC school attendance areas and JCJ classroom assignments for twins. It is a superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve these policies for second read as provided. You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So move. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Then we will come come to Mr. appears and we had already voted to move information I mean yeah um information item report items 4E

160to 6E it had already been moved Miss Brown your recommendation the um okay absolutely you're saying the same thing that You read right here. First one. Okay. Approve. You're going to say the superintendent. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you, Boj Pitch and school board members. Thank you, school board me. Thank you, Boj Pritch and school board members. It is the re superintendent's recommendation that the school board approve the policies 6E that were um communicated as part of first read that they are they are moved to second read and approved as provided. Thank you Miss Brown. You heard the superintendent's recommendation. Is there a motion to accept? So move by Miss Proctor. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Tucker. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Next we'll move to our information item. Superintendent report. Thank

161you virtual school board members. I have a very brief superintendent report this evening to share some basic brief information. Um so for our first slide this evening we have just a reminder that if you saw that we um were able to work. Thank you communications team um Miss Vonger and um BJ Pritchette and board member Lundy and all the schoolboard members and your support for PCPS and our preschool campaign. We are enrolling for preschool 2526. Westview Early Childhood Education Center is enrolling for next school year. We are placing retractable banners and flyers throughout the community and we have posted information on our website, our social media platforms, including a cute video. If you have not seen the video, it's cute about why preschool is beneficial for children. And so, please help us get the word

162out so that we can make sure we enroll as many students as possible for preschool. As you heard tonight, it starts at Westview when we talk about attendance data and other feedback. And so we know that we have to get them in school. So please help us get the word out that we are enrolling for preschool in Petersburg City Public Schools. And you should see these banners all across our community. Next slide, please. Thank you. And so just briefly, I wanted everyone if you haven't seen it just to click our preschool video at Westview Early Childhood Education Center. Thank you. At Westview Early Childhood Education Center, every day is a chance to grow, explore, and shine. Our youngest learners build early math skills by counting, sorting, and discovering how numbers work in the world around

163them. They're learning letters, writing their names, and getting ready for kindergarten one step at a time. They listen to stories that spark their imagination and grow their love for reading. They learn how to share, work together, and make new friends. Through hands-on activities like cutting and creating, they build confidence and fine motor skills. And of course, plenty of time to move, play, and be a kid. Because at West View, we're not just preparing students for school. We're preparing them for life. Give your child the best start possible. Enroll at Westview Early Childhood Education Center today. [Music] Great job to Miss Vong, Chelsea Vonger, um, and our entire communications team, Frank Akens. Thank you so much for getting that out. And so this is a wonderful way. And again, just as you see, um, so thank

164you. Get the word out. We are enrolling for preschool. So, everyone who's watching at home, please help us get kids in preschool here in Petersburg. And if you have any questions, you can call and we are happy to support. And so, here is uh one of my favorite pictures. And so, as you all know that we did our we're doing advertisement at the Richmond airport. Um I think two days ago we were meeting with the Richmond Teacher Residency Project in Richmond and um the um director of the RTR program, Dr. Kim Mcnite said to me, "I was flying in from somewhere across the country and I was flying into Richmond and I was waiting for my bags and she said to my" She said, "To my surprise, I looked at the carousels and I saw

165Petersburg and she was absolutely thrilled and thought it was just amazing and she was so excited to share with everyone." And so here are our wonderful students. One of our students who's was who's actually featured, is that correct, Miss Vonger? in the picture. They were traveling to De Moines for De Moine, Iowa for their National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament. And it took a picture under the recruitment um sign and all four or five of the carousels at Richmond International. And the young lady, I think to the im the middle right that you're looking at, she is the young lady with all the medals in the picture on the screen. So, as you're flying through Richmond, people are noticing and they're telling me as superintendent, they were thrilled to see you and how surprised

166they were. So, we are getting the word out and these young people and our wonderful staff member took a picture. So, our students are featured in the progress index and the VSBA, Virginia School Boards Association newsletter. Our students were featured and so we are very, very excited about that. So, we're getting the word out. As I tell everyone that I meet, Petersburg, we're coming. So people be clear that we are coming as a school division and so we have lots of work to do. Um but we are on the right track and thank you for going on this journey with us. And so with that the next slide is we want to congratulate I think the other night um Pritchette and our Congresswoman Jennifer Mlen. This week, six students from Petersburg High School were recognized

167by the Congresswoman by Congresswoman Jennifer Mlullen for their art in the 2025 Virginia District 4 Congressional Art Competition. Look at all those students. Please join us in congratulating the following students for their awards. The first one in digital arts. First place, like a moth to a flame, Lena Lloyd of Petersburg High School. Second place, Sandman Sheep Proud the Night. Carol Win or Carla Win of Petersburg High School. The winners for photography in second place. Congratulations is called Spring in Town. Dianara Gonzalez Hernandez of Petersburg High School. Congratulations for mixed media category. Second place, the title, The Fire in My Eyes by Elizabeth Smith Brenella of Petersburg High School. Third place, Marristella Naa Edwards of Petersburg High School. Congratulations. And paintings, honorable mention for a painting, Look of Love by Mia Selenus Santiago of Petersburg High

168School. Look at all of those students who were recognized by Congresswoman Jennifer Mcclullen. And I think if I'm not mistaken, we had the most students in our area of all the localities. So, congratulations to our students. for helping to put Petersburg City Public Schools back on the map. So, thank you. Next slide. I think that concludes my so pitch and schoolboard members. Yep. So, thank you. Thank you so much, Project Pritchard members. completes my superintendent's report for this afternoon or evening. Thank you, Miss Brown. Okay, we'll move to committee reports. Any updates from your committee? Just want to let you know that Maggie Walker on last last week. What's today? Wednesday. No, Tuesday. Was it Tuesday or It was Monday, I think. Um we um hired a new executive director for Maggie Walker Governor School.

169And the reason we had to post a position because our former director, he passed um due to cancer. And so we hired Miss Kristen Jensy. She had over 20ome years of experience in Colonia Heights High School. She started out as a teacher, worked her way up as an assistant principal, had been at Colonia Heights High School, I think for over 12 years as a high school principal, left there and went to central office in Colonia Heights and and worked there in a central in a um director's position. Left there and went to Buckingham and has been in Buckingham for three years and decided that she wanted to go back to a school because she missed the kids so much. her son graduated two years ago from Megan Walker and so she accepted the position and

170she will start in July as our new executive director. [Applause] Okay, next, as you can see, our next board meeting is July the 2nd and July 16th, and we have our board retreat on July the 31st at the Nicholas Center Student Center at Breitpoint Community College. Are there any new business from board members? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn? So move, Miss Proctor. Second day m second by Mr. Pierce. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carried. This meeting is now adjourned. You all have a great evening. You got to end. I'm sorry. Well, well, I don't want anybody to wait for anything, you know. We have that pause of like it's time people have