001a meeting order for the regular business meeting the december 7 o'clock roll call mr burton president miss crop here mr doss here mr mills here mr moon here reverend ramsey yeah and mr henderson is absent can we have a motion to recess from closed meeting we'll have to go back later i'll make it into my opinion i'll be stacking it open second roll call mr burton miss crop hi mr doll aye mr meals aye mr moon aye reverend ramsay aye mr henderson is absent could you give us motions for the items in closed session we have a motion to approve personnel changes but december 14 2021 as presented i'll make that motion a second motion second in discussion all in favor's roll call mr burton aye ms crump aye mr doss aye mr mills aye
002mr moon all right reverend ramsey hi mr henderson is out i apologize we're a little rushed so we'll try to catch up now the agenda should be pretty straightforward do we have any additions or changes in the agenda anything can we have a motion to approve the agenda is printed i'll make that motion mr chairman second motion made in second roll call mr burton aye ms crowd hi mr dos aye mr mills aye mr moon aye reverend ramsay aye and mrs henderson is out we have a motion to prove consent agenda make a motion to prove the consent agenda i'll second roll call mr burton aye ms croc aye mr dolls aye mr mills aye mr moon aye reverend ramsey aye mr henderson is absent okay we public presentations we have one name is mr
003martin fisher if you want to come down and have three minutes merry christmas sir well first of all rejoice our savior is born a happy new year to you all as well resolutions for 2022 should include vigorous and intentional strategy against the upcoming betrayal of promises we already see with the incoming administration of bush league rhino glenn younkin i call on fellow parents and all who favor education excellence remember virginia's string of feckless gop promise breakers the past repeated strategy of offending no one waiting and waiting as every campaign promise is left to rot that never works we must double down we must rise we must push back there are numerous signs of yunkan's duplicity just one would be glenn yonkin when asked if he would move against the compelled speech practices that promote the
004lies of transgenderism he refused the question he said instead we will ban critical race theory he refused the question he refused to take a stand we have to push hard our localities are needed we must not wane from demanding real representation and by the way critical race theory already hides lurking in the shadows of a dozen or more curricula as supposed instruction on race equities and other cleverly renamed lesson plans that indoctrinate instead of teach the need for parental involvement is only just beginning we must rise to this occasion as our resolution for 2022 as our elected members representing us you too must rise to this challenging predicament that of a bush league rhino pretending only pretending to have our best interests in mind thank you sir do we have anybody that signed up to
005speak to the budget we got plenty of time but i appreciate the effort either way character word of the month while she's coming i'm going to ask the student representatives to do us a favor i would like for y'all to go back to your school and over the holidays come up with some ideas where we report back in sippington that will help us curb vaping and unlawful unwill i think wrong use of cell phones i for one but i'm ready to get rid of cell phones but it's causing more and more disruption and y'all are in the schools every day i'd like you to come back after sometime in january talk to the superintendent about those two issues go ahead good morning chairman burton dr jones and distinguished members of the board my name is
006parker holt and i'm the school board representative for tunstall high school i will be speaking on the character word of the month courtesy as christmas approaches each year i notice that even though the weather is cold and the leaves have fallen there is so much warmth in the atmosphere when the christmas trees go up and the candles are lit we are reminded of all the good in our life this time of year brings out a bit of kindness and light out of everyone we see the best versions of ourselves shine one trait i really noticed that is illuminated during this time of year is our character word of the month courtesy courtesy is defined as the consideration and respect for others sometimes showing courtesy to someone who is rude to us can feel impossible but
007we must not forget to hold this straight near to our hearts during the holidays when others seem rushed and stressed we tend to be more patient and understanding this action can have a huge impact we are all human beings and we all have burdens we carry every day when we are courteous to others we can shed a little light upon their day i urge you to take note of the curviness around curdiness around you this holiday season and to continue being courteous even after it is over thank you thank you [Applause] you're going to make your report back there you're going to come up here to join us okay thank you you're welcome hey merry christmas to you merry christmas to you as well um i tell you it's an interesting time of year it
008really is that was an excellent speech thank you you're welcome i like how she used the alliteration of illumination of the character word um excellent so uh i will say happy holidays to y'all and start off with saying part of this is a reflection for what we discussed last month right american education week 2021 right and a lot of things were illuminated over that time over the past 30 60 90 days we've seen some things nationwide like a massive need to address issues and concerns in the education spectrum a lot of those things include having an inclusive learning environment you know where parents teachers administrators that the whole village comes together to tackle the challenges of the child's education and we know those challenges are very different our society is changing much like what you
009just asked her to do the entire representative board to go back to school to figure out how do you curb things like vaping cell phone use but then when you start to look a little bit deeper there are other issues that are going on with these children and those are things that we have to face as a whole in the learning environment each and every day also when we look at things like students arriving safely to school because they have an adequate amount of transportation to be able to get through their bus routes and that has plagued many of the school divisions around us where routes had to be canceled because kids couldn't be picked up and unfortunate to say oh you have to learn virtually where we have to also realize some of our
010students still don't have access to a chromebook or a digital device to do their work from home and then thinking also about the supply chain needs right high tech gadgets are not the only thing stuck in ports or on ships or trucks can't get them things like eggs milk bread cheese all those things affect the breakfast and lunch menus every day of our young people matter of fact students were coming unhinged they're like there's no chocolate milk you wouldn't think something as simple as that could change a child's day and it does because it's an expectation of something that brings some comfort just a little container of chocolate milk and then thinking about student safety their health and their welfare and making sure that they're able to learn and hit a goal and most of
011that time my goal is academic is being able to say hey i hit a benchmark or i was able to pass this or i was able to do that but we have to look long term in that spectrum to see that that success takes them way farther than being able to say that they're a high school graduate but they're a productive citizen and we played a role in every part of that in their life and when we see the discord that's occurred it often makes you wonder are we ever going to get there and if so in what condition so as we continue to foster a greater breadth of knowledge during these tumultuous times discerning problems and then coming up with solutions prior to the problem coming up whoever thought that you know you have
012to learn how to build the plane as you're flying it and we see that happening more and more in education every day and understand that we have to be vast in what we're doing but also be very responsive and reflective to those issues as they arise one of the things that i know for a fact this time of year gives us pause and last month we did get an opportunity for pause it was two days before thanksgiving break i mean i will be very honest with you there are my colleagues there were people that were just literally some days just crying because they couldn't figure out what they were going to do next because they were trying to address so many needs at one time and the same thing with children trying to figure out
013what they're supposed to do so i will tell you right now though i know many educators including administrators and teachers have to adjust schedules okay things like athletics school activities events sol tests industry certification tests and other things even though that adjustment had to happen the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive that you gave people a moment to take a breath and it may not feel like a lot but it is when there's so much that you have to bear particularly when you see what's going on in the world around you particularly if it's at your own address so i want to say thank you for that on behalf of my colleagues in this county thank you for giving everybody adults and students the time to take a breath and understanding that there are ongoing circumstances
014and situations there is no magic wand things have not changed arguably things are getting worse in some instances i want us to take a time to reflect and take into account the horrendous tornadoes that ripped through six different states friday night you know who would have thought that people could have had that much devastation happen literally watching their lives shatter in an instant i know that some of my colleagues in kentucky particularly james had his house gone his farm gone his mother's house is gone his sister's house is gone his family's okay but his neighbors have passed on top of that six different students have had a lot of loss in their life they're ffa members in kentucky and we're doing what we can to try to give them support so i'm asking you to
015reach out however you can if it's donations if it's prayer we have to really bond together because things like this continue to happen and we can't ignore them because things are happening in our children's lives every day and how easily could something like that happen to one of us in an instant and how we want to be treated in that case so in some as a board y'all have had to make a lot of decisions you got to make decisions tonight and moving forward and i know that the crown is heavy upon your head because you do not make decisions lightly because they impact so many people and knowing that we're in a world where people have to deal with devastation every day and it seems like it's getting worse whatever you can do to
016lighten that load goes a long way in the lives of your employees and the students that come to pennsylvania county public schools so i'm going to say right now we hope that we can continue to reach every child in every way knowing that all these things are happening and we look to you all for your support we wish we could do more and have more to do it with so we could be even more successful so we show grace though we are weary and we're warm we all are because we care we continue to aspire to do what is right by our students our colleagues in the greater community because that's the task that we've been given we pray for peace that we can all do our jobs and have your full support in what
017we do in every school and every work site in this county and we seek respect from you from what we're praying to how we're treated because we're here to do what's right in the face of every circumstance that comes our way and we do have a glimmer of faith that you will do right by us because you know it's the right thing to do so again i wish you well and a happy holiday season and that you continue to be blessed and highly favored in all that you do thank you thank you mr hudson so you were looking my way the last time i thought she skipped over the pea and jumped down to me no yeah thank you i knew where you were sitting but good evening mr burton board members uh dr jones
018has asked me to give you just a short uh update on some of the larger projects we have going on the phase three performance contract the led lighting part is about 90 percent complete the rooftop air conditioning replacements at gretna and twin springs they got three more units at each school going to be replaced during christmas break that will finish up all the air conditioning replacements um the boiler at gretna elementary is finished and running the new chiller for gretna middle has been delayed like everything else it was supposed to be here the end of january it'll be put in into january first of february and that'll finish up the performance contract when we get to the chiller the last item on the list to get done the solar power a lot more paperwork to
019do in solar power than i realized this is taking a lot more time getting to the point of putting in panels but we're getting closer i got a few minor roof repairs they got to do now to get ready they're saying start putting panels on the roofs probably uh mid to late spring putting panels up on the buildings high schools first and then we'll roll into middle schools hopefully in the summer so the sports field lighting project is going pretty well going pretty quickly the baseball field and softball field at dan river high school a complete light to burn baseball field childhood high school is done the wiring their wiring should be completed at three feet all three fields at gretna high school it's football seasons finished here go ahead and do all three fields
020while they're at groutman high school they're saying wiring completing that in about three weeks as soon as they finish gretna high school they'll move to tunstall high school and do all three fields at tulsa high school and then go back to gretna i mean i'll chatham and dan river and complete the football fields but it's polls for gretna high school are supposed to be in monday some of the football fields um field polls for tungsten are going to be in this coming monday so moving along um the new maintenance building um that's progress is moving a little slow but we've got the the office sec office and maintenance shop section of it pretty much ready to go which just a matter of us getting moved in and then we're going to move down and get
021to work on the warehouse section and try to get all the warehouse stuff ready to go and get that moved out of whitmer over to the new building the last project which we've been talking about is the hvac replacements for the schools you'll be receiving the uh where you're going to ask to prove the bids for pctc and kentuck later in the meeting but those bids come in did come in considerably higher than expected so we'll be able to do less of those projects than we would hope but we can get part of them done any questions i got one oh we're gonna still be able to get all the pctc ventilation and all that work done yes well pctc and kentucky's which will be completely 100 complete yes hopefully mrs hudson don't feel bad
022everything i've done lately my business has cost more than it did last week but a week before it takes twice as long to get it and cost twice as much yeah that's right if you can get some of them thank you thank you thanks any questions on the desk reports do we have a motion to accept them i'll make an emotionally accepted death report exactly [Music] okay dr john yes sir mr burton school board members i have a couple of items that i'd like to draw your attention to that are good news about a staff member and good news about several our schools first i'd like to recognize mr travis wood he's our welding instructor at the career and technical center he's been recognized by chatham fire department as the top call runner with 194
023calls from november of 2020 to november of 2021 and he also received the bobby campbell firefighter of the year award for 2021 so quite quite a recognition for one of our staff members at the career technical center also most recently the u.s news and world report published the first ranking of public elementary and middle schools seven elementary schools and three middle schools in pennsylvania county made the best schools list hurt elementary school was 11th union hall was 33rd south side was 74th kentucky was 79th grand l was 229th stoney mill was 237th and chatham l was 242nd that's out of over 1100 elementary schools in virginia and then for middle schools out of 419 schools chatham middle was 61st tunstall middle was 63rd and dan river middle was 65th it just speaks volumes what miss
024petty and miss haymore mr mayhew and miss mr scott and staff central office staff school level staff are doing for our students you know our students our schools are always in the top tier and we just feel very good about what you all are doing so thank you all assistant superintendents for that also mr burton was a part of a press release this afternoon the west piedmont planning district commission and river street networks announced an 87 million dollar award for the project to build fiverr broadband across several different counties those counties are amelia bedford campbell charlotte notaway and pennsylvania counties this will combine with the money that you all have already contributed through cares act and uh with the with the county to to again leverage additional homes that can and will receive broadband of
025access the state gov the state will release the governor's budget to us on december the 16th at 3 30. school divisions we've received a lot of a lot of federal funds and has been recognized in our local papers and on the news but that funding is is earmarked for special projects like window replacements like improved instruction like hvac there's a quick turnaround and so there are a lot of strings attached to that money we really need the state funds to to pay for the operations of our buildings because these federal dollars will drop very quickly we vass which is the virginia association of school superintendents asking the legislators to maintain the 2022-2024 formula based re-benchmarking of the soq so as you are out and meeting with legislators and possibly going to the capitol convention in
026january also we'd like to ask the legislatures legislators to look at holding divisions harmless for adm and lci changes that will impact basic aid and then the rural schools initiative is making is asking the state for funding for renovation and construction of school facilities there was a study done of schools older than 50 years of age and i believe 50 or more of the schools in the state are older than 50 years of age and mr burton i think that's all i had this evening other than to to draw your attention to the capitol conference is january the 24th in in richmond and the orientation for new board members is january the 25th in richmond and that's all i have this evening mr burton thank you sir and we have one item unfinished business have
027a motion to approve the two videos for family life i'll make that motion second any discussion roll crawl please mr burton aye ms crock aye mr doss aye mr mills aye mr moon aye reverend ramsay aye ms henderson is that in front of you there you have guidelines for recognition and placement of plaques at school we have a motion to accept this and then we'll ask any questions i'll make that motion on a second motion made in second now do you have any questions on this mr scott's here roll call mr burton hi miss cronk hi mr dolls hi mr bills aye mr moon aye reverend ramsey aye and mr henderson is absent we need to set a meeting date for the budget committee on january the 4th i believe we have meetings already scheduled
028to start at 5 30 at 5. i'll sit in the third you have two members already on but i'll send him to the third one do we have a time set for that 5 o'clock on the january 4th do we have a motion for that i'll make a motion mr moon second roll call mr burton hi miss cronk hi mr dos mr mills aye mr mayne aye reverend ramsay aye ms henderson is out authorization for grant application vdoe school bus driver incentive grant i'll make that motion in discussion on that roll call mr burton aye ms crowd hi mr dallas hi mr mills aye mr moon reverend ramsey mr henderson is absent procurement bid and it's at your desk somewhere we need a motion for those and then discuss it also i'll make the motion
029a second ocean made a second to approve them before we vote i haven't seen her for forever and she's here tonight miss worley could you please come forward and tell us why some of the reason we think these are so high the two of you together may need there's a letter on the front of the bids that will help if you haven't had a chance to look at it i uh i spoke with the i talked to the the engineers uh we were almost double budget a couple things that's going on with it uh material cost everywhere going up and this these projects have to be done following all the federal regulations part of that being davis bacon wage rates which you have to pay much higher labor rates to do with any kind of
030project that's tied to the federal projects so but it's i think it just just caught well plenty of daily speaking and then the cost of materials going up mr that's one thing that didn't cross my mind when this money was first passed and coming to they were gonna have one size fits all for this like to have everything else and i can understand if you've got to follow their regulations at pay scale and all the other red tape it will drive costs up significantly so this is what we're going to have to look forward to the any other money that we receive from this february any federal money you have to follow the regulations to do that i just want somebody else to sex me so thank you any questions a roll call mr burton
031aye ms prophet mr dog mr mills aye mr moon aye reverend ramsay aye mr henderson is absent okay yep i'm looking for that miss trump is leaving us i'm going to miss her and this is no reflection on anyone else but because of her experience another division and what she's done in the past she'd made me think about a lot of things differently she asked some real important questions that maybe since i've been in so long i just overlook i don't think about and there are times uh that we agree and there's times that we disagree but i've always found her agreeable and she doesn't mind explaining to you why she feels the way she does that's helpful for me i enjoy conversations with people that we are disagree on and to talk things out
032but she's been here four years she has been a good service to the children of this county and i appreciate that service you got a little something there cassandra crump pennsylvania county schools 2018 to 21. this looks like one of those old desktops i thought we'd run out looks like every time i think i'm told we'll make a dig up boy i'd just like to thank mrs crump for her professionalism and a boardmanship over the last four years it seems like it's gone by really quick and and all uh also the personal conversations and caring and all that she's shown for the board members especially myself when i was sick i appreciate that i know the lord's got something else out there planned for you to do and again i'd like to say thank you
033for your time the four years on the board thank you i would like to say it's been a pleasure to get to know you i didn't know you before you came on the board you and your husband both i know he's back there um we're gonna miss you i wish you well i appreciate the support you gave me when i was chairman and the support you've given mr burton you're gonna put an asset with your knowledge and and we'll miss you and i wish you well in whatever you do next i i too would like to say that certainly have enjoyed working with uh ms crump these four years i think we came on the same time and so all this was relatively new to us but uh ms crump did an outstanding job she
034represented her district well she represented the board well and we appreciate everything that you've done to assist the school system the students and employees of pennsylvania county schools yes mr crump i really appreciate your dedication to the the students and the staff and and how much compassion you've brought to the board and just the conversations we've had i've really enjoyed getting to know you better and and it's been a joy to serve on the board with you and i just you know thank you for what you've done and and i hope god blesses you and whatever you do next [Laughter] this is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well yeah well you know mr crump i'm gonna miss those uh on the work conversations that i have with you and then those when you're coming home from work
035conversations that we have uh very good questions and really makes you you think about how we operate down to the family and the student level and the impact that it has on kids in our schools and going to miss that and also that the knowledge that you have about really operations in schools you really have a good understanding of that i really appreciate that and just the deep questions that you ask and and the the work that we have to do to get back to respond to you we appreciate that so thank you keep us on our toes and we appreciate it thank you appreciate it i just want to say that i have appreciated the time that i've been given to serve on the board and my continued prayers for each board member that
036you all will continue to work together to benefit the students staff and our families of pennsylvania county thank you any of the board members have anything else tonight we'll have a recess and go back into closed session in about five minutes okay reconvene from closed session and certify action closed session can we have a motion of that effect i'll make it motion i'll second it roll call mr burton aye ms cry hi mr mr doss mr mills [Music] action from closed session the motion to expel a student with opera placement at the regional alternative school for continuing educational services to complete graduation requirements i'll make a good motion i'll second it roll call mr burton hi miss croc hi mr doll aye mr mills aye mr moon all right reverend ramsay aye mr henderson thank
037everyone uh we we finished out the year we made it through i hope you all have a happy holiday season and i have a motion for german i'm like second roll call mr burton hi miss croft hi mr daus aye mr meals aye mr moon aye reverend ramsey aye mr henderson is out thank you you