001Good evening again, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to continue after a brief recess, and we're going to go back and we've got some items from closed uh to go over. So, Ms. Card, you work. Okay. Motion to approve personnel changes for April 14th, 2026, as presented and discussed. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Marrix? >> [gasps] >> Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Yes. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Motion to release three students from compulsory attendance based on religious exemption. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? Yes. Ms. Marrix? >> Yes. Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Yes. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Motion to waive school board policy GBO-PC retirement to allow Ms. Jennifer Brown to retire under the early retirement incentive
002program effective July 1st, 2026. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? Yes. Ms. Marrix? Yes. Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Yes. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Mr. Mayhew? Yes. Do you have some words? Yes. Yes, sir. Um Chairman Shields, school board members, like to take this opportunity right now to make a recommendation for the principal of Union Hall Elementary School. Um it is my honor to recommend Mrs. Shelley Mayhew as the next principal of Union Hall Elementary School effective September 1st. Ms. Mayhew is an 18-year veteran of Pittsylvania County Schools. Her path represents extensive experience in elementary um teaching and leadership. She has served our students as a classroom teacher for 11 years um at Chatham Elementary School in Kentuck, also as an instructional coach, and for the last 7 years,
003she served as an assistant principal at Gretna Elementary School, and most recently at Southside Elementary School. At Southside, she was instrumental in the school achieving National Blue Ribbon status in 2023. She has trained as an assistant principal under some exceptional principals with our school system. Ms. Mayhew emerged as the top candidate following extensive selection process that included um a community survey and a multifaceted interview process. The Union Hall community asked for a leader with deep elementary roots, a focus on instructional excellence, a commitment to maintaining the school's prestigious legacy. Ms. Mayhew meets every one of these criteria. Furthermore, she is committed to an entry plan centered on learning and listening, honoring traditions and the family culture that make Union Hall a special place for students and staff. Therefore, I recommend Shelley Mayhew because she possesses
004the instructional depth and the relational heart to lead Union Hall. I'm fully confident she is the right person to invest in its strengths and lead them to the next chapter of success. Therefore, I recommend the appointment of Mrs. Mayhew as principal of Union Hall Elementary School effective September 1st, 2026. All right. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All right. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Marrix? Yes. Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Abstain. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Congratulations, uh Ms. Mayhew. Southside Elementary School will miss you. Good luck with Union Hall. I know you'll do a great job. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> All right. Any additions to the agenda? No, sir. All right. Motion to approve the agenda. So moved.
005Second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? Yes. Ms. Marrix? >> Yes. Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Yes. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Uh moving on to the consent agenda. Uh any questions on the consent agenda? Motion to approve? I make a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? Yes. Ms. Marrix? Yes. Mr. Mills? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Doss? Yes. Mrs. Shields? Yes. Dr. Analla, do we have uh anybody to recognize? We got one change of positions, but any new employees otherwise? I do not see any new employees. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes. All right. Character word of the month, Ms. Hamlet from Tunstall High School about caring. Good evening, Chairman Shields, Mr. Mayhew, school board members, and members of the community.
006My name is Kayla Hamlet, and it is my pleasure to present the character word of the month, caring. Raise your hand if you have someone that you care about. Based off of that response, I can guarantee that everyone in this room has someone that they care for. Whether it's a family member, a spouse, a friend, or a coworker, we all care for somebody within our lives. Caring can be defined as feeling or showing concern for or kindness to others. It seems like such a simple word, however, it has a much deeper meaning. Caring isn't just looking out for someone, it's also understanding them emotionally. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person." This means that by caring for another person, you're empathizing with them
007and putting yourself in their shoes. It's like asking yourself, "How would I feel if I were them?" Even if you do not completely understand, you can still sympathize with them. In everyday life, caring can be shown in a multitude of ways. It can be conveyed through words or just simply listening to what another has to say. A basic question such as asking someone, "How are you?" can spark a conversation that gives one the opportunity to show concern for another individual. Action Actions can also express care for someone, such as helping them with the task or giving them a hug when they need one. It all comes back to the principle of understanding someone profoundly. Even if you are speaking to a person that you do not know, you can still show them kindness and care.
008Therefore, I encourage everyone to care for one another, whether you know them or not. Thank you. Great job. >> [applause] >> All right. We'll move on to uh staff reports. Uh Mr. Bowles. Student Leaders Forum. I'd like to say as he's coming up, we had four board members attend this, and I told Mr. Bowles and uh Mr. Mayhew this, just a great job. Probably learned as much. Nothing is better than hearing from our student body and our student leaders, and that's what we done. So, it was just excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate that. Uh Good evening, everyone. Uh I am very, very excited to share a brief summary on our annual Student Leaders Forum. Uh we held that event on Wednesday, March the 25th here in the ECC. Um this meeting
009provides an opportunity for school leaders and division leaders to interact with and also gain feedback from our students pertaining to policies and practices in our division. This also provides an opportunity for students to gather and interact with students from other high schools to discuss their different perspectives. Now, while this meeting has a big business focus, we do have a lot of fun as well. For example, and I won't name any names for students or leaders for that matter, um we had a few team-building activities that went quite well, but they were a lot of fun. Students, would you not agree that that Yeah. I I thought it was a great time. But, these team-building activities, um their principals and school board members were assigned to a team. These activities focused on building communication, and the
010teamwork that we saw demonstrated by everybody was remarkable. Uh and everybody enjoyed it a great deal. Students who participate in the Student Leaders Forum are selected based on leadership potential as observed by their school staff and administration. Each high school selects a student from each grade level, and our student representatives to the school board accompany their school as well. Each of the student leaders was encouraged to discuss school issues and concerns with their peers and share those concerns to be discussed at our meeting. Our division superintendent Dr. Steven Mayhew led the meeting and discussed topics with our students following the agenda that Ms. Carter provided for us. Some of the items discussed were actually provided by our student participants. Policies and practices discussed included the high school course selection guide, schedules, the College of Averett
011program, cell phone policy, dress code policy, bullying, athletics and sportsmanship, attendance, school safety, and mental health supports. The conversations with our students and superintendent were positive and productive and the student feedback provided during this meeting added a great deal of value to the event. After the business was concluded, we had lunch together and then our students and principals returned to their base schools. We're incredibly proud of our students. I believe everyone in attendance at the meeting would agree that it was an outstanding meeting and I'm confident that the future Pittsylvania County schools is bright based on the caliber students who represented our high schools during that meeting. I'd like to thank our students, our student representatives. You did an outstanding job. Everything that we discussed, you guys were very impressive. Also, thank you to school
012board members and all who attended our forum. Special thank you to Dr. Mayhew and Ms. Carter, our assistant superintendents Ms. Reynolds and her staff for helping in planning and covering the event. I appreciate the opportunity to share this. It is an event that I look forward to every year, even when I was a principal, I look forward to every year. It It really and truly is something that we greatly enjoy. So, thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> [applause] >> Ladies, do y'all have any comments on the student forum that y'all would like to say? Anybody want to say a word? >> [clears throat] >> I think we all had a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the opportunity to get to share our opinions and our feedback on our schools and our
013community. Thank you all so much for your leadership. We also found out Mr. Fitzgerald was our artist. I think he won it. I think he won the award for the best artist that day. So, um 2026 VSBA Workforce Readiness Month. Ms. Barbara Brooks, I think she's going to come forward and tell us a little bit about that. Yes, sir. Good evening. >> Good evening. Chairman Shields, um members of the school board, Dr. Mayhew, April is Workforce Readiness Month, a time dedicated to preparing our students for success in their future careers and occupations. Throughout this month, our school community celebrates the importance of developing essential workplace readiness skills, including communication, collaboration, problem solving, and professional responsibility. We recognize that career readiness extends to the application of academic and technical skills in combination with workplace readiness skills
014within an authentic, real-world context. Pittsylvania County Schools, with the support of our business community and parents, recognizes that our students need all of these skills in order to thrive and meet the needs of an ever-changing labor market. April 2nd, Chatham High School hosted the first-ever CTE-based school career fair, where 11th and 12th grade students from all four high schools met with representatives from area businesses in fields related to CTE program areas offered at the base high schools. Students connected and engaged with employers showcasing family and consumer science, also called human services, technology education, business and finance, agriculture, military science, and local government. On April 22nd, PCTC will also host a career fair for skilled and professional career occupations. At this event, students will also engage with business leaders and that represent many of the diverse
015programs at PCTC. Career fairs hosted by Pittsylvania County Schools enable students to directly network with our business stakeholders. As a result of these events, many students have been offered employment, internship, and shadowing experiences that have the potential to lead to lucrative careers right here in our area. In order to further increase workforce readiness awareness among CTE students of all grades, CTE teachers have been provided the Virginia School Board Association's 2026 Workforce Readiness Month toolkit to assist in instructional activities throughout this month. April 16th is Workforce Readiness Day. CTE teachers will be instructing on the topic of Workforce Readiness. Thank you for your support of our career and technical education initiatives. All right, thank you so much. We have a couple more desk reports. Any questions on those? If not, we're going to go to the
016superintendent's report. We'd like to recognize our superintendent. He's been doing a wonderful job this first year. You've heard a couple people already make reference to to Dr. Mayhew. So, if he won't busy enough being a first-year superintendent, he decided also uh finish his doctorate. So, it's a big honor. I really don't know how he did both at the same time. It's just a credit to his professionalism and I know he didn't sleep very much. So, Dr. Mayhew, would you please have our superintendent's report and congratulations for the board. Thank you, Chairman Shields. I appreciate that. Appreciate that. So, I know with our schools right now are anxiously preparing for end-of-year activities. If you go in the building, there's lots of buzzing. Testing is getting ready to start. I know there's been a lot of planning
017to for instruction that was lost due to this unusual winter, but nonetheless, met with our assistant superintendents, our directors, and our principals and we are ready and prepared because our teachers always rise to the challenge and always do what they best support our students who are excellent at what they do. So, they do a nice job and we're we're anxiously waiting. We know things will work out the way they need to because the people in Pittsylvania County make the difference. And so, I just have a few remarks. The slide show wasn't able to work, so I'm just going to give a few updates cuz I always like to talk about good news in schools and we have lots. So, if you'll bear with me. Our JROTC programs, we have them at all four high schools,
018but this year three at Dan River High School, Gretna, and Tunstall were recently under a federal review for JROTC inspections. All three schools, I'm pleased to announce, won the gold star award, which is the highest award and were designated as honor units with distinction. So, congratulations to those JROTC instructors and all the students cuz the students were actually the ones who ran this or who under the guidance of their instructors. So, very, very nice job. Think I even had an individual, one of the students that actually took the oath to join the military. So, congratulations to them. Layla Barrett, an eighth grade at Chatham Middle School, she was the winner of the regional spelling bee at Averett University and will go to compete in May. So, we'll hopefully see how she does in the Scripps
019National Spelling Bee later on in Washington, D.C. Dan River High School Interact and Tunstall High School SCA earned $2,400 together for their annual activities for the Danville Pittsylvania Cancer Society. So, we appreciate their their hard work supporting those agencies. Kentuck Elementary School recently had their K-Pac K-Pac rendition of Disney's fan favorite Frozen. The students did an excellent job. The acting was superb. The vocals were amazing. Just a very nice job for some very complicated parts and singing parts, by the way. They did a very nice job. We'd like to congratulate Tunstall High School senior Jacob Howard. As many of you board members knew, he received the 2026 Virginia School Board Association regional scholarship for the southern region and that was an amount of $5,000. Congratulations to him. And our board actually received the highest participation
020rate in terms of supporting the particular region. So, again, congratulations to our board. Hadley Bray of Chatham Middle School recently, for her art submission, won third place at the VSBA Southern Region art contest. Of course, I can't show it to you, but you've seen it before and it's displayed in the foyer of the school board office. So, congratulations. Recently, we had an event at for the Daughters of the American Revolution and students submitted essays pertaining to good citizenship. I'm pleased to announce that Victoria Spong, Chatham High School, was the overall winner. Bryce Jones, Dan River High School, Vivian Taylor, Gretna High School, and Noah Williams, Tunstall High School, were all recognized for good work on their essays. They received their prompts, had to write those in a in a in a timed environment, and then
021they had to also speak and narrate that in front of a crowd. So, not an easy feat, but they did so excellently. Chatham Middle School has caught the bug in terms of performance and they are they also performed the Disney fan favorite of Aladdin and they also did a fantastic job. Very complicated parts and singing parts, but the students did a nice job. It always brings a warmth to your heart to see students do so well, especially the young elementary school students. Mr. Josh McKinney, he is a cybersecurity instructor. His He has SkillsUSA went to state competition and they finished third in the state. So, I think we'll hear more about some more winners for that at a later time. Ms. Brooks. The Gretna High School FBLA program also competed in the regional conference at
022Longwood University and and captured 26 awards. So, congratulations to that chapter. And recently also we had we we we spoke earlier the annual student leaders forum. I just want to say Mr. Boles did a very nice job reporting on it, but the students, you know, they did such a nice job articulating, speaking their voice, providing us feedback and I want the students to know and and everybody publicly know that that planning preparation was done by Mr. Boles, Ms. Carter did that, assistant superintendent supported Mr. Reynolds and her team supporting the IT needs that we we had, but we listened to your voices. We want to hear what you have to say and we take notes of that and we're going to if there's some things that we can put in place to try to improve
023things in Pittsylvania County for our students, we intend to do that. So, thank you for your voice and thank you for your participation and thank you all for your leadership because you're the ones that led each of your groups and you did a very nice job. So, thank you very much for your work there. And we had a Chatham High School their chorus program received a superior rating in the recent VCDA district six assessments. Congratulations to Ms. Hope McKinney, the chorus teacher. And lastly, I had some board members that did participate in this, but the Chatham High School had a veterans project that went with two events in the fall and concluded in spring to celebrate 250 years of service and honor by American veterans. This project was spearheaded by Dr. Rebecca Hodnett and she's
024the history social science teacher and obviously has a very a very passion in this in this opportunity. They did a very nice job honoring our veterans um at that event. Lastly, just a few event reminders. VSBA conference on education is July 25th, 2026 at Hilton Richmond Hotel and Spa at Short Pump. If you're interested, please let Ms. Carter know. Um I would like to announce that Career and Tech Center will have their annual plant sale April 20th through May 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 and if you have needs outside those hours, contact the school and they'll be able to help you. The annual retirement luncheon where we celebrate our retirees that have indicated that they intend to retire at the end of the 25-26 school year will be held at Friday April 24th at
02512:00 p.m. at the Pittsylvania County Recreational Center in Chatham. Please let Dr. Rennella or follow the RSVP to let us know if you would like to attend. I'm sure all the retirees would enjoy having the board members to be there. And then Pittsylvania County um Pittsylvania Cattle Youth Livestock Show and Sale is Friday April 24th, 2026 through Sunday April 26th and that'll be held at the ODAC. I encourage you all to be if you can if you could be there, it would be good. And that's all I have, Chairman Daws. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Mayhew. All right, we'll move on. There is no unfinished business. We'll move on to new business. Um Ms. Werley, talk about uh something always everybody likes, which is a bonus payment. Good evening, Chairman Shields, school board members and
026staff. I want to share some information with you tonight from the Virginia Department of Education um along with the General Assembly regarding the bonus um and approved bonus funding for fiscal year 2026. I want to share a few bonus business rules, I'm sorry, with you um from those two groups. First and foremost, participation in the bonus program is optional, but you know, generally we like to move forward with what our um state and the Virginia Department of Education have promoted and we also do not like to leave state funding on the table if if we can help it. Um this does require a local match and that will be based on our current year local composite index. The bonuses, we have the option of giving those in fiscal year 26 or fiscal year 27 um
027and the division has the flexibility to determine the amount of bonus per employee to promote retention. The payment um to school divisions is based on a state share of a $1,500 payment for SOQ funded instructional and support personnel. PCS will receive approximately $959,000 in state funds for the SOQ position bonus. We are required to provide a local match and that amounts to about $338,000. School divisions must certify their plan for the bonus um by May 1st, 2026. So, I want to share PCS's plan with you at this time. So, we do plan to provide a retention bonus to staff in August of 2026. The um $1,000 for full-time employees and $500 for part-time employees and that will include special ed assistants um that return next year um for their those positions. This will cost the
028division approximately $1.5 million. So, we will need in addition to the state funding, we will need an additional $530,000 from our budget um to help fund that bonus. And our plan is to we will carry that money over from the 26 year into fiscal year 27. Just wanted to um I did look up before I come over here this evening. So, just to give you an idea. So, for fiscal year 2026, SOQ funded positions for Pittsylvania County schools are 792 positions. Three weeks ago, I ran a preliminary um query to find out our potential number of employees for this bonus and for full-time and part-time employees, we have 1,527. So, that's the difference there in the funding that we receive um you know, cuz we most all of our things are funded based on SOQ
029numbers and as you can see, we have quite a bit more employees than that. So, any questions? No action really for the board. This is just information only. We want you to know what we're doing and we will I'll be working with Dr. Mayhew. Congratulations, sir. To um to certify that to the state by May the 1st. All right, any questions? All right, good news. Thank you very much. All right, I need a motion, please, to uh English textbook adoption. Uh y'all we all got the attachment on that and what it was about. Can I get a motion to approve that, please? So moved. Second. All right, roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Merrick? >> Yes. Mr. Meeks? >> Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Shields? Yes. >> Mr. Daws? Yes. Uh
030revision of school board policies. It was right many in the email that we received. Um for everybody to have a chance to go through that. We're going to waive a second reading and approve tonight. I can have a motion for that, please. >> [clears throat] >> I'll make a motion. Second. All right, roll call, please. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Merrick? Yes. Mr. Meeks? >> Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Daws? Yes. Mr. Shields? Yes. All right, Dr. Moon, tell us about Mount Airy Elementary School on the roof restoration bid that we want to do. Hey, good evening to you all. Good evening. So, we have for for review and approval the installation bid for Mount Airy Elementary. Uh this project was bidded out. We received a total of four bids. Um This
031evening we're recommending Apply Roofing Services. Uh this does come with a 25-year warranty on the on the roof once we get it installed. So, if there's any questions you all have regarding it. Any questions on the roof bid? All right, thank you, sir. Thank you. No action needed. Do you need to do you need to do anything with it? All right, can we have a motion to approve that, please? Yes, sir. That being in Banister District, I'd be glad to make that motion. All right, thank you. >> I'll second it. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Merrick? Yes. Mr. Meeks? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Daws? Yes. Mr. Shields? Yes. Uh vehicle lease purchase agreement. Uh we saw that also in our packet. Uh motion to approve that, please. So moved.
032Second. All right, roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? Yes. Mr. Henderson? Yes. Ms. Merrick? Yes. Mr. Meeks? Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. Mr. Daws? Yes. Mr. Shields? Yes. Uh Mr. Fitzgerald, want to give us a little update and insight on the 250th year celebration they're planning for Chatham. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman and the board members. Last month, I attended the Board of Supervisors meeting. And at that meeting, I was asked to ask the board members to participate in the 250th Independence uh celebration on July the 4th. And they are trying to raise donations rather than coming out of the general fund of the Board of Supervisors. So, we were challenged and I'm challenging the board members that we each would give a donation of $250 towards the project. And I'm asking you to make uh make the check
033payable to Pittsylvania County and it is tax deductible. And I would love for you to bring it in next month to those that want We'll do it. And I'm also going to ask the superintendent and his staff and any of these principals of the schools to also do the same to show our children that we support them. And we bring it in next month that we can put it all together and present it to the board of supervisors. Any questions? Is it one one gift of 250 or one 250 from each other? 250 from each of us. >> Each of us. Okay. And it is voluntary. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Fitzgerald. So, we've all been challenged by Mr. Fitzgerald to help out with this project. George, if you want to multiply 250 *
0347 and take care of the whole [laughter] board, we'd appreciate that. But, I'm a senior citizen on a fixed income. All right. If there's nothing else, if anybody got anything else to bring up, if not, a motion to adjourn, please. I'll make a motion we adjourn. Second. All right. Roll call. Mr. Fitzgerald? >> Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. Ms. Maricks? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mills? >> Yes. Mr. Moon? Yes. >> Mr. Doss? >> Yes. Mr. Shields? >> Yes.