RPS School Board Work Session - April 13, 2026

001Good evening everyone. We would like to call the schoolboard work session for Monday, April 13, 2026 into order. Madame clerk, >> Mr. Perl >> here. >> Mr. Ricard >> here. >> Mr. Farooq >> here. >> Mr. Hedgepath >> here. >> Miss Holton >> here. >> Miss Rizzy >> here. >> Miss Burke >> present. >> Mr. Jafari >> present. >> Miss Fernandez >> here. >> Madam Chair, we have a call. >> And I would like to acknowledge that this is the first time that our full board is present and accounted for. Welcome back, Miss Burke. We have um missed you greatly and glad that you took the time that you needed to be away with your family. We're glad to have you back. Thank you. At that time, at this time, we'll do the pledge of

002allegiance and moment of silence to be led by Miss Burke. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation God indivisible for all >> and now we'll have our translation services announcement. Good evening. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the language justice team, we welcome you. If you need interpretation from English to Spanish, please come see me. I will be at the table in the back with the interpreters. We have interpretation headsets for anyone who needs one. Interpretation in Spanish is also available for those watching this meeting through Zoom. I will now make this same announcement in Spanish. Linguist. Thank you. Gracias. >> Thank you. Moving right along to 1.04. 04 adoption of the agenda. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I move

003that we adopt the agenda as published. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Mr. Perl and seconded by Mr. Hedgeb. Madame Clerk. >> Mr. Perl. >> Yes. >> Miss Ricard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farooq. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath. >> Yes. >> Miss Holton. >> Yes. >> Miss Rizzy. >> Yes. >> Miss Burke. >> Yes. Mr. Jafari, >> yes. >> Miss Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Before we move into 2.01, I would like to see if there is a consensus for us to move up 4.05, received an update on the Commerce Road project. We do have Mr. OD Donald uh here on tonight and he also has a a meeting and so we want to see if you know if there are no concerns if we can move up that

004agenda item. Any concerns? Thank you. With that we will start with 4.05 receive an update on the Commerce Road project. >> Good evening madam chair, board members and superintendent. I just wanted to introduce our guest tonight. We've been working very closely with the city on whether or not we'd be able to partner with them to find another location for our Commerce Road facilities maintenance team. Uh they've been really protective of us as we've been working together. I know one of the things that we've talked about with the facilities and properties committee is making sure that whatever move that we make if we try to figure out if there's a path forward, we protect our interests. And we think that what we've put forward as a proposed resolution for the board to consider in the future

005as well as what the council would consider are very conditionally stated to make sure that we are protecting RPS's interests. So I wanted to thank uh Chief Donald for joining us and I'll turn it over to him. Thanks. >> Good evening. Welcome. >> Good evening. How are y'all doing today? First, I would just start off by thanking y'all for allowing me the opportunity to join you. It's good to see many of your faces. Uh whether I bump into you in the elevator in the garage or whether it's uh more formal activities. I know I've seen many of you at the budget town halls and some of the other activities. Uh Miss Burke, of course, uh a board member first uh had a chance, I think one of the first people I got to meet in

006my first couple of weeks here. uh is we were at school get in trouble. Well, I know what district I know at what district. I apologize. I I don't remember the name, but that's because I visited my school. So, that is why I've had an opportunity to uh meet her early on and got a tour of our facility and some of the changes that were happening there. So, just one just thank you for allowing me to join you today and kind of talk through uh this proposed uh relocation. some of the questions that I believe you have. Uh, and in this presentation, I've attempted to kind of get ahead of some of those questions so that anything we've talked about whether in passing or question sent or whatever, we have those to help um with

007you evaluating this process or do I just ask it? Man, y'all are orderly up here. I'm going tell you, y'all y'all do not play around. Okay. Well, listen again. purpose uh here is really just looking at the school facilities and existing uh situation and projects there including uh it's the home of RPB um one of our warehouses there on site as well. So there's an impact to the city but we truly do believe this is a really quality and strong project that ultimately benefits the city in ways that you know go far beyond really our team here. Uh, as you may or may not know, and for the edification of the public, I'll just quickly go through some of the details. So, back in February, and look, I wasn't even here yet, but uh, you

008know, some of the great work both between the uh, school board as well as uh, the council and all of the partners through our unsolicited offers process. We received an unsolicited offer uh, from this parcel at 1240 Ingram Avenue. uh in support of a large scale project that in general is in alignment with the vision of making sure that more housing is available for Richmonders and I'll mention this once or twice during the presentation but it's not just for rent properties also for sale properties making sure that we have that type of availability in our important definitely want to make room uh for our renters but we also want to pathway for our renters to become homeowners and large projects like this kind of help to situate and prepare people to be able to do

009so. The offer has planned the consolidation of 44 acres of adjacent parcels they own to develop a modern and mixeduse um you know area that includes everything from housing uh infield dwellings which is uh vital as well as the multifamily and single family units that I was uh speaking of. the affordable housing market or inserting these things into the affordable housing market is just vital to increase that supply. Uh I think the thing that's most exciting for me is proposing, you know, walkable communities. You know, we've had a lot of things we've had to pay attention to when it comes to uh transportation related activities and making sure that we've got well sit well lit walkable areas. uh that includes everything from trees um and beautifification activities and that uh the area is accessible with

010the type of amenities that we want that include grocery which we don't often talk about and I think this uh parcel from what we've seen or set of parcels from what we've seen will really offer that type of opportunity. Go to the next slide. So generally that's that is why the city of of Richmond is interested is because of the opportunity that this pres this provides. I think it's a very important uh economic development opportunity and I say that to you um and I know that uh chairwoman has heard me say this before but our biggest economic development opportunity is the skilled workforce that you create and as you do an even better job with that every year I've had an opportunity to just look at you know the type of students that you're producing,

011the statistics, and truly what you're doing with the investment that you're receiving from both the city and the state and how you manage your resources to really come up with some historic outcomes. But it doesn't really do much if we don't have a place for those folks to be housed. And so the more we can add to the available resources, we would be able to uh to do that. And this project is one of many that we have to look at, but this one of course we will be doing together and believe that it is helpful. And so to make sure um we're all in alignment, while this is another conversation that we're having, I think it's important to highlight that we do have to hold everyone accountable. You know, it works two ways. And

012so that accountability is included in both the process as well as the plans. And I'll dive into that here. So the first thing is the offer will have to uh meet the evaluation of proposal factors that are included in the city code and again it's for the uh edification of the public who is here. I know that y'all are familiar with city code section 8-63. Uh it also will make sure that the it over it aligns with the overall master plan as well as the Oak Grove and Belme hillside small area plan that is in route to be proposed to council. So um again I know offline had some opportunities to talk to many of you leaders and others who uh are concerned to make sure that those things happen and that is a part

013of the prescribed process. So, I want to make sure to provide you comfort there. And one thing that I know our council has been pretty excited about and vocal about is making sure that we're enhancing uh our commitment to the southside. So, even through I know uh Mr. Mr. Jafari, for example, we talked about at the budget town halls, making sure that, you know, as we invest and we look at the future, you know, of the city, ensuring that everybody is included. And I think, you know, ensuring that we're enhancing our investments on the south side is is one of those opportunities to do that. making sure that we have housing along the spectrum because there is a place for renters but also we cannot forget about those folks many times looking for their first

014home and need that for sale option as well. And uh what this offer will also do is really kind of revitalize what at one time was just uh metal urgy development and warehousing type buildings. that this will ensure that the highest and best use for Richmonders is in place. Go to the next slide. So, just a little bit about the property. Again, making sure that the public is aware. I know that many of you have probably read these things backwards and forwards. And so, uh you know, the site address is 1501 Commerce Road. It is combined uh 1401 commerce which is currently occupied by RPD and our dynamic team there. Um many folks know it as publicly as 1240 Ingram. So I just want to make sure we're using all of the names of the

015properties is located in city council district 8 and the parcel size is right under about eight uh acres. Uh the zoning of course is to D-1 U and re it's recently approved and mirrors the zoning of all of the surrounding property. So uh the subject property has not been dedicated as surplus yet. So I do want to highlight that it's a part of the process and that accountability making sure that we go through every uh process. Uh the RPD site uh is a little bit smaller. they don't have the same uh rights and we're able to move forward uh with our process a little more direct and straightforward with them if they don't have uh what is considered your uh level of availability and oversight in that beneficial title uh uh allocation that you have

016and so Harper owns the adjacent uh acreage and we are working with them to connect the dots on both go to Next slide. Uh again that beneficial title that we talked about based on state law provisions uh allows uh RPS as you surplus the property uh hopefully surplus the property will be based on its current use and and the proposed future use. So, uh, it requires, our city attorney requires RPS to surplus the property before the city can surplus it and then convey it to a third party, which is the crux of, you know, why we're here seeking that approval. So, uh, that resolution as referred to before I came up is to make sure that the full board has provided the approval to declare the property surplus as a suitable replacement property um or

017properties um is provided for your use. So, in short, you don't lose anything in the you you only gain, we all collectively gain, nobody loses in this process. following that and I'll go through and have included in the presentation of timeline and next steps and all of those things but um the city would then uh surplus and convey within the same ordinance and as a condition and this is important as a condition of surplus and conveyance uh on providing a suitable replacement property and cover the cost of relocation again ensuring everybody wins nobody loses and the outcome for Richmonders is one that benefits us all without um hindering anyone with any unintended consequences. And so, uh key condition, uh is that the way the deed is written, RPS does not surrender the property until it

018has been approved and suitable replacement for any of your activities has been found. as a part of our process and I wanted to make sure we harped on that because it's uh almost like that fail safe you know if you're familiar with it making sure that as you transition make adjustments and you come forward with the deal the work does not end there all eyes have to be dotted all tees have to be crossed and that has to be done uh with an approved uh replacement parcel for uh for our partners at RPS go to the next slide And I'm turning this way. I don't know if who's actually managing it. Okay. I want to want to give you respect, brother. I don't want to want to be talking to the wrong person. So, uh,

019proposed process and next steps. Just providing a snapshot. And again, this is proposed. I do believe there's enough time for us to stick to this, uh, calendar, but would also answer any questions that you have. Not only now I think uh met many of you you know if you call in early in the morning late at night you got random question on the weekend don't hold it you know we we're here to to make sure that we support but April 8th I think you've already had um your discussion which was uh highlighted earlier today you know we are here uh just kind of giving you some insights on the proposed project and where we are right now and then in May um this would come back to you for a surplus resolution vote and then

020from there about two weeks later it would go through to the council and it would be the intro of the surplus and conveyance ordinance. I'll pause right there because I think this is important and I think it's both a sign of respect but also one of the things that I've heard when we were going through our uh our formula funding process we were trying to make sure that we we made very clear is just the respectful dually elected officials and bodies who have to make decisions. And so we're starting this process by coming to you first and that is important to get make sure that we get your questions out the way. We understand your position on it. You are sure that that fails safe and those things are in place. And so as we

021move forward, you can both have the confidence to support this type of activity and not only see how it helps with housing and other things, but how it benefits, you know, not only our current students, but our future graduates, which is just as important. Making sure that they can continue the positive cycle moving forward. And so after that council intro surplus and conveyance ordinance, um it would go to the planning commission and then they would discuss it and vote and we you know again continue to vet it and make sure all eyes are being dotted and all te being crossed and then in June 8th would be the uh proposed timing for the council surplus and conveyance ordinance vote. So, it's a a fairly long pathway, but one that I believe allows us to have

022a thorough review and continued conversation throughout the process. And again, starting with our partners from RPS to make sure that you both are able to review it, you're on board, and it's something that you support. And I think here is uh where I'll stop uh talking and really just receive questions from you. I would like to recognize and take a moment of personal privilege and just highlight that we do have two dynamic members of our team here. And if you all would just stand, we've got uh some of our leadership uh from our department of economic development. And while I'm giving you the presentation and here to answer questions, I wouldn't be able to do those things without them. And uh there are you know super detailed questions. I can probably go about four levels

023down which is pretty decent. But uh once you start getting down the five, six, seven, and eight leaders will uh come forward. >> First want to thank you so much for your time. Um when we were first introduced to this proposal, there was a lot of questions and so we've had some conversations back and forth. So appreciate you just bringing clarity and ease to the process. Um I know I can speak on behalf of the board and saying that we do believe that you know the opportunities for housing is extremely important. The city of Richmond have always been in support of that but we wanted to ensure we had a place to land in this process. So I thank you for um you know bringing some clarity to that. And with that I will open

024up the floor for questions. >> Mr. Hedgepath. Thank you very much, Mr. Donald. I appreciate you being here. Um it's uh your presentation is is um a significant juosition to the surprise that we received in December. So, I really appreciate that you're here giving us uh the information uh in person and that we're able to ask questions. So, thank you very much for that. I appreciate the collaboration. >> Um my question is about the guarantee for our new home. Is does that lie with the city or is that with the developer? >> I'd say it's a combination. I mean, the developer does have to provide the resources and the opportunity for us to relocate you, but some of that crux falls on us to make sure that we identify the appropriate space as a good

025partner who w works a lot more closely with you than any developer would, making sure that we assist you in developing those things. It's also our responsibility to know all of the terms of the agreement uh backwards and forward so that if there's any adjustment that needs to be made or if we need to hold ourselves or the developer accountable for delivering exactly what they are providing, no more, no less. And you could imagine they're going to want no more. We're going to want no less. And so we have to make sure that we are in that partnership together. And so that would be the role that we play. So I'd say joint accountability. Yes, sir. >> Thank you, Miss Alton. >> I have both a a question and a comment. Thank you, Mr. Donald,

026for being with us today. The question, just to make sure I understand correctly, is we will have to vote. We the board will decide whether we think substitute property is adequate based on the recommendations that come to us from the RPS administration who obviously is going to work closely with you all to find the substitute property. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Am I right? >> Yes. So, I think what you'll have to do is you're going to have to vote on the overall process that I just described. Not sure if you will have to vote on the property itself. I think that is more of the administrative um activity or you you may >> if I understand it correctly uh that we vote next month on the process. That's right. And then we'll come back and

027vote once you all >> sequence. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. We will vote again. >> That's correct. >> Nothing goes forward until we have voted that second time to >> That's right. That's that account. Yep. You got it. I'm sorry. Sorry, I thought you were talking about the first one. My apologies. >> No worries. I just want to make sure we all understand. So then if I may do my comment, it's just I understand the lawyers have looked at it. The administration has worked at it looked at it and it's satisfied that our interests are protected. I'm completely comfortable with that. And I'll just also add this property is in my district and congregations with um as I'm getting to know my my district had conversations with folks in the area and they're

028all excited about it. They've worked with Harper Associates and have found them very good to work with and I'm on board. >> Well, that's awesome. Really, really appreciate your confidence and your insights there. >> Mrs. Jafari, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, Mr. How you doing, sir? How you doing? Great to see you. Again, I want to echo my colleagues and just thanking coming in like this. I had a couple of points to sir. I think I raised one with you while we were out on the beat out there. >> Y >> um of course the what the sixth, the eighth, and the ninth that's like the wild wild west. That's the Richmond's last pioneering land out there. We look up and we see wagon trains coming. >> Okay. Okay. So, so um now

029now that we're in the right plane here, we want to I've been here about a going on a year and a half, but I've been in the eighth district for 40 years. So, what I say to you, I don't just say to you as an elected official here to represent the views and the needs of my constituents. I also say that as a resident and uh I want to just point out I don't know where we are in this process but a developer looks at the sprawling land and sees an opportunity. I'm not um ruling out that they see that they can provide housing whether it be for sale or rent. But we have to keep in mind that when all of the surrounding homes, businesses, and what have you were put there, they were

030put there on an infrastructure that was designed to handle only that. Now, when you bring in that many units, whether they be for sale or whether they be rental units, it's not only going to add to the utilities infrastructure, but my responsibility is to make sure that they carry their weight in terms of schools. My responsibility is to approach the city or have a chair and vice chair approach the uh the city and make sure that you know we don't constantly year in year out have to put a 5 cent tax on a plastic bag or or a 1% tax here or there. I think that it's only fair that we uh demand and have it in the process that a certain percentage of whatever they're paying for in the overall development goes towards schools.

031one minute >> so that we can have schools that are built so that we can make the necessary repairs without constantly going out to the citizens uh as pulpers and beggars. I think that um the land offers an opportunity but it also offers us what we're entitled to as residents, constituents and and representatives to make sure that schools is taken care of. We need more schools and that would be my ask that we continue to look to that and if possible in this moment with whatever processes and deals that we have in the works now if we can work that work that but definitely moving forward we have to seriously consider that now maybe that's a cold refresh issue whatever it takes it needs to be done. Thanks madam chair. >> Thank you. We have

032Miss Rizzy and then Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Donald, for being here. Um, I have three questions, and I'll just kind of rattle them off right now. Um, as far as, uh, the developers plans are concerned, you know, you talked about the different types of housing that will be built and, you know, some of the features in the neighborhood. Do you have plans at this point that you can share with the public and with us? >> Yeah. So, not fully. I mean, it's still in the development process and I think they're identifying generally that I think it's a don't quote me because it's either two or three phase project but it's multiple phases that it would take to bring this entire project to development. Uh I think one piece and

033if you don't mind I'll combine both you and Mr. Jafar's uh his comment and your question because I think they're aligned if that's okay. So when looking at this uh and they'll have, you know, multiple opportunities and it's not just a total affordable housing project. I think that's actually one of the really good things about it. One of the things when we look at affordable housing is we don't want to concentrate poverty. want to make sure that folks have an opportunity to rent, to buy, that all of our residents, regardless of their uh financial status, have an opportunity to go to the same grocery stores and get the same quality of food. We can go on and on about that. And so, I'll tell you, some of the accountability measures that we have put in

034place actually came from a conversation that Mr. Jafari and I had two months ago um at uh at one of the uh budget town halls just making sure that the accountability is there. So that's why there's so many checks and balances and you'll have so many opportunities to look at it. I think there's a general map but not specific to where each one of these uh levels of housing and all of that good stuff would go. there's a plan, but there's no deal in place yet, just to be honest with you. And if you don't have that, the level of detail that you receive isn't going to be that detailed. You'll get, hey, we want to do this many uh levels of housing. This will be this tall here. We'll have uh certain levels of

035housing here, certain levels of housing there. This is how we'll split it. So those things are in place, but I think that second level of detail that you're looking for is still in process, which also is an opportunity though. It means that as we have conversations, we might be able to provide some level of influence to our developer. While it may not be, you know, extraordinary because they do have to make money. You know, they're in the business to make money. We're in the business of making sure we're preparing for our youth and um and and their future as well as all of the others that we have to provide housing for. I hope that answered your first question. >> Yeah. And you know, and I just want to kind of note that affordable, unless

036you mean something else, is 60% of the AMI, which isn't necessarily poverty. Like when I moved into my house in my neighborhood, it was all of it was affordable. >> Well, it's up to 60%. So that also means that folks who are um at 30% of AMI, folks who are at that's right. So I think that's that is the piece. So many times when we do up to and what you've seen in the past as throughout our country is Yep. is up to 60%. I want 60%. But I think a part of what we're pushing for is that folks along the spectrum as well as those that are right there at that limit. So that's why I said if you're pushing for that, you also have to make sure that it's not a concentration even

037for uh you know workforce housing, which is more so what uh that that number described. So great catch, but I do want to highlight that level of accountability that we plan to provide. >> And um and this does go along with Mr. Far was speaking of will Harper be paying the city for the property um or is this going to be an even exchange kind of thing where like you know you provide this property, you build it out for RPS and you have it for free. How how is this working this trans? >> Oh, so no this no free lunches. So, uh not not that. So, um they would actually have to uh pay for the property as well as take on some of those relocation cost um as well. So, it is uh I'd

038say both and because a big part of it is making sure that they relocate, provide the types of housing that is necessary, but there is some compensation in place as well because not only are you moving, our uh RPD has to move and other adjustments have to be made. So yes ma'am again another great observation and uh it does include both >> and you're aware that there is an ordinance that says that when you sell properties that once RPS's the um profit or the whatever it is the the amount that's paid comes back to our budget. >> Yeah. So I know that's part of the coordination that will be happening between lawyers and uh how the ordinance is written up because I think those uh observations are some that our legal team is very aware

039of as well as economic development and all of our partners there. And so the uh funding related to moving there there are costs to be able to coordinate that. And then the ordinances because I think the city has an ordinance that is similar. And so our legal teams as well as um you ultimately will be reviewing all of those things and making the appropriate decisions and approval >> is um we discussed this in the EPC meeting. Um you said that uh the developer will find the property. Um we want to emphasize that it needs to be movein ready. Yeah. So again, that's a part of these costs that we're looking at and ensuring that whatever happens with the move, it is done in a way that is suitable and appropriate for RPS as well as

040RPD. And if that means that a portion of any proceeds has to go towards that, if it means that the property has to be move in ready and the punch list, as I would call it, has to be met before folks move. So that level of detail is assumed to be a part of our process. I didn't spell it out in the presentation, but again great great uh observations and it's definitely to be considered which is why there is a compensatory portion to the process. >> Thank you >> Miss Burke. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for your presentation. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I really appreciate um >> and welcome back. >> Thank you so much. Feels good to be back, feel at home. I'm my concern is number one, thank you for reminding

041us in terms all of us in the public as well regarding our role as public servants to to collaborate and reach consensus. But at the end of the day, I know it's about uh training our students to be uh providers for their families and and moving forward and knowing that we're skill based. That's what our purp is, but also my concern is that um as we talk about rentals, I'm glad Miss Vizy stated what she stated regarding affordable housing because I that is a concern. That is a concern. But I'm glad that district southside is getting that attention. So my first question is what with the planned community of what you all have, I'm hearing a lot about the grocery stores, the services, the school maybe I don't know what the is or how many

042units there will be, but something to think about as well so we won't be overcrowded elsewhere. >> And if you need a pen, >> I got one. Yes, ma'am. >> Saw me searching over here. You weren't supposed to. The cameras on you. You weren't supposed to tell on me. You telling on me. >> Well, I'm an oldfashioned teacher, so I see everything. >> All right. So, um, in terms of the grocery stores, the schools, maybe, maybe not. I would really like to I would like us to have an idea of that beforehand because that helps us in planning for the future of those students not to be in an overcrowded situation after that is built and I know they'll have nice sidewalks which is a big issue in the southside. Um, what my concern is

043is that with this, so we're going to have a property for Rich and Public Schools that will be provided for us. So, we're pretty much doing a trade. >> One minute. >> We're pretty much a trade because from what I'm hearing, no funding. Will the operations budget be um taken to a different level? I know you can't answer that right now, but something to consider. It's definitely under consideration, but you're right. I can answer that right now. Process is still going. And it also is based on the property that you are why you the current use of how you're utilizing the property as well because it's not a school there. I think it is your warehouse. >> That's correct. >> That's there. Yes, ma'am. So my question there is you mentioned the punch list and

044all the rest which I love doing punch list but my question is that square footage and acreage okay will be aligned with what we already have. Is that correct? >> Yeah and you'll make that I think uh superintended has been great to work with and just giving us insights on what type of needs you have. And I would look at it this way. You may not have let's say I'm just making using round numbers as an example got uh 20 acres currently you don't I'm just again round numbers 20 acres and it took to relocate you to something that was 17 acres but the facility went up a different level per say you know those type of adjustments would be considered like that's the the nuance that that's why I couldn't give you a it

045won't be apples to oranges comparison. It'll be apples to apples, but there might be some adjustments that are necessary because again those considerations. Is it a second floor? Uh currently there's no parking available. You have to share a lot. Well, in this one, are we does it include those things because that will of course impact, you know, the and may make it a more desirable facility for you. And my last thought is >> Yes, ma'am. >> As you stated earlier regarding having not any money exchanges, I'm going back to Miss Rizz's comment because of past experiences. You know, not now, but maybe many years ago, thinking we're going to get a certain amount of money instead. Um, we don't get anything or we have to really go to the bat to to ask for uh

046sometimes we're able to negotiate or not. So it really goes beyond the attorneys. At the end of the day, we make the decision. >> That's right. >> Yeah. So I just because I'm hearing a lot about what the what you all are going to do on your side, but I also want it to be heard on this side because our students and our schools cannot get the services provided from that facility if we're not in a good place. So I don't want to be in a nice new building or whatever else and we don't have what we need on the inside because we don't have the money for the the equipment or whatever is needed. >> I just want to be fair and transparent. Yeah. Well, I tell you, first conversation I had with superintendent,

047so I can tell y'all are all locked and loaded together because he was very clear that, hey, what type of resources come with this opportunity? I know some in some cases is money, and some cases is updated, better facility, greater access, etc. At what point do we get down to knowing what the deliverables are? And I think, you know, I believe I'm hearing this from y'all as well. It's okay if you know if it's not money. It better be this or if it's not the facility updates then it better come with some money. you know if we need a package that is in not only the best benefits of Richmonders of the future but for Richmonders for today that we are responsible for overseeing and I think that's a shared principle that both the city

048I don't like talking about us separate we in the same city hall I would say together on behalf of the city we're all looking at that the same way so I'm I'm excited to hear you uh say it not running from the accountability I hear you loud and clear I'm sure it's on record somewhere as well. So, I know that as a part of us um both negotiating this as well as bringing it to fruition, those questions are front and center. So, yes, ma'am, I hear you clearly. >> How many units uh are we >> I don't want to butcher it because I it's it's a threephase Rogers. >> Okay, we'll get you that. I apologize. because I didn't bring the details on the project specifically with me cuz I wanted I know this is

049a more of a process conversation. >> Sure. Um in the process of us having this conversation, one of the things that's very important for me in the ninth district and I'm sure my colleague in the eth district is a rapid concern of overpopulation currently in our districts. And so as we think about this project and the amount of families that will perhaps be included, I would love to see what strategy will be baked into this plan so we can understand what support we'll receive as we think about how that will impact an already strained population in the eighth and ninth district. >> Oh, great great observation. I I'll tell you when we first started communicating about this and I don't I want to say or at least I'm going to give her credit for the

050reason uh I went on my tour with uh Council Member Jones uh in the ninth is because we were talking about this project. So maybe it was a coincidence but like I said I'm gonna give a credit and tie it to this. Um, we went and looked I got a chance to look at the various uh schools that are in the community and just the connection to population uh properties that may need some attention. Also, I was not as aware of the proximity to the fourth on that uh that upper corridor there. And so looking at all of those things being taken into consideration so it's definitely not lost on us. And again for me the reason these various checkpoints and checks and balances are in place. I'm gonna miss it. This is be honest

051with you. You're not going to catch all of those things. But together if all right we got to come to you first on the process. Now we've got to come back to you on the space. Now, we've got to that means that we're always communicating about it and while it may not end up perfect, it's going to be in alignment with what everyone's needs are. So, absolutely, that's the goal. >> Yeah. And you know, right now, our our temporary solution has been to uh provide trailers and learner facilities in the back of our schools. we are already in in spaces where we just don't have room for assemblies, awards, graduations. We're having to rent out in other locations. And so I just want to make sure that that message is heard loud and clear as

052we think about the great opportunity that this brings to the south side of Richmond, but also um you know the challenges that we we are already currently facing. Um my colleague also shared about sidewalks and the lack thereof. So there's so many different nuances to this and I just want to make sure that that that message is echoed loud and clear. So I appreciate that. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Pel, >> thank you Madam Chair and thank you Mr. Donald for being here tonight. Uh just a quick question. I think we've covered most of the topics, but my concern is a little bit on what does the process look like for actually finding this replacement? And I'm a little bit worried in in the world of software development, we would call this another rock requirement,

053which means bring a rock and you say, "No, not that rock. Bring us another rock." Um, as opposed to intentionally finding a property, I think you could probably ask any house hunter in Richmond um, and they will tell you that they've been looking for a long time. >> Count me in. >> A house. So, finding a property that approaches 8 acres or something thereabouts that can uh house RPS warehouse. H, how, and maybe this isn't much for administration. How are we going to hold hands and go find this property? I'm a little concerned in the resolution. We've got two years to make this happen. Do we do we have an idea? Is there a large inventory of such properties that we can choose from or how are we going to find that? >> Yeah, it's

054interesting. So we're doing an assessment on those things already at this point. uh very similar probably news people here I probably shouldn't be be saying this but I'll say we're doing the same thing for the courthouse right so there are a lot of space needs in the city of that is the one thing that is not unique to the uh to RPS it is not unique to the city it's not unique to our residents and commercial businesses and so it's not an easy thing that you do at the snap of a finger but I'll be honest with you, there are some available locations and as the city continues to change, there are additional opportunities that are coming forth. And so, right now, we've done a general assessment and we believe that there are opportunities in

055the market, which is why that two-year uh time frame is in place. I would also say that in a public meeting it would be improper for me to kind of highlight what some of those options are because what it would also do is make that price skyrocket and make the transition more difficult. But I do believe that there are multiple options uh for us to be able to do so. But again, it could potentially look if you want a 100% uh red apple to red apple, then your numbers shrink a little bit and there's still options. But just like apples, red apple or you can eat a green apple because they're both apples. then that makes our opportunities a little bit broader and you know provide some uh diversity and innovation in the new space

056that you could potentially take on. My only question is um obviously budget is a sensitive topic um currently as we think about apples to apples I want to ensure that this will not interfere in our current budget process. In other words, if we can't get an apple to apple comparison, then we would get a certain amount here or certain I just want to make sure that we keep these things completely separate. >> Oh, absolutely. And this so me being here, this isn't a mistake. So downstairs there are quite a lot of people. I got to make it to that meeting because it's uh I'm pretty sure it's interesting at this point. Pretty spicy. And so, but that really highlights the importance of just being here as a partner. That's really what I'm hoping you uh

057receive from me being here today is that we're starting this process with you together, answering your questions, making sure that we are responding appropriately and delivering in a way that you expect. So that is is where we are with that. So I do hear you loud and clear on that and we will make sure to continue. I hope this has been transparent and we have come forward in a way that's appropriate and you know kind of stood in the box and answered your questions and I hope this isn't the last time either. So I hear you loud and clear. Look that guy in the middle he's been it hadn't been all out in the public but we've exchanged many a telephone call or pulled together a meeting or two to get more information. And so

058I do want to, you know, provide him with the the credit, respect, and just do that. He has been on top of this. And while I think we want to be good partners and good stewards, he's making sure that that we do that and we'll continue to do so. >> Absolutely. And it would be lost on me not to share that Mr. Perl and I have been a part of the conversation as well. >> I should have said that. I I'll have a problem reminding you. Um and you know this we start we started off in a very rocky you know process. I think the way things >> were first presented it was just very you know um there wasn't a lot of planning involved. So I I I say all that to say that

059I appreciate us right sizing things level setting and just starting over in this process. We we appreciate that um completely and the the level of collaboration and conversations that we've had as as it relates to this particular uh process have been positive. >> Um but what we have been looking for is the level of transparency and so we appreciate you taking the time on a very busy day to come down and answer our questions. >> Listen, I wasn't engaged at that point in time, but I'm here now. >> Yes, you that's correct. >> Yeah. So I'm I'm gonna make sure we do it the right way and I appreciate you holding us collectively responsible for that and you got my commitment. >> Appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Jafar. You have

060to share. >> I only have 10 seconds, so I'm going to make this quick. >> I talk infrastructure, not just talking pipes in the ground, just talking distribution, >> water maintenance. >> I'm talking about buildings above ground. >> That's right. >> Where they even finish building rock. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafari. >> I follow you though. I think we get the gist of what you're saying. >> Yes, sir. >> All of that included. Thank you so much for calling that out. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for having me. I appreciate. >> Thank you for Oh, did you ever confirm the unit? >> There are about 200 Sorry, uh Andrew Rogers. I'm the director for the Department of Economic Development. Um so about 230 units in the first phase and what we'll do

061uh because I want to be careful about representing somebody else's development plan that is moving you know changing over time uh is we'll use this in time for that. Sounds great. Thank you so much. All right I'm moving along. That was a very great and robust discussion, but we are at seven already. So, let's continue to move forward. At 2.01, receive Dream for RPS on action profile 4.5, Richmond history update. Good evening. >> Good evening um board members, Superintendent Camas. Thank you for this time. We're really excited to have the opportunity to share with you Dreams for RPS goal 4.5 update on RPS history. As you all know, my name is Dr. Danielle Greenbell. I'm the chief engagement officer for Richmond public schools. I also have Lex Agamo, our strategic engagement fellow. She'll be um

062she will be presenting with me today. Before we get started, I just really quickly want to tell you a little bit about Lux because you may be less familiar with her. um she is a 2025 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, but more importantly, she is a 2021 Richmond Community High School graduate. So, we're really excited that she has um made her way back to RPS and she's been working um with uh using funds uh from partially funded from the Richmond Ed Fund um as our kind of resident historian. So, she's going to be helping me present on the work that she's really been doing. She's been working about 30 hours a week since August 2025 on this effort. All right. So, um just to give you a really quick frame, um we this is like

063I said, Dreams for RPS 4.5. Um that goal is to train all staff on the history of Richmond and more importantly Richmond public schools as well as its impact on our work today. Um this is really really timely. I want to say that RPS did it first, but Mayor Danny Avula, Dr. Danny Avula's 2026 action plan. Um, included in that, he wants to frame Richmond as a city that tells stories. So, not only is communications in engagement, but we also are doing this Richmond um, RPS history retelling, uncovering um, through the engagement office as well. And so, as you all know, Richmond and Richmond public schools has a very complicated history. And so when we were thinking about creating a narrative here, we were really trying to think about what are the questions and the

064concerns that are brought to us most often from our constituents that are misunderstandings or inquiries just in general about the division. And so we have really retail um centered this retelling around three central themes. The first is facilities and school buildings because those are the heart of our schools. It's where people have their most fond memories and what they think about the most and what they're attached to. Um they are also um around individual and community leadership. So who are the movers and shakers who have made Richmond public schools the fantastic place that it is now? Who are the teachers? Who are the board members who really um put us on a really great path? Likewise, we talked about institutional governance. Um, as I mentioned, we have a very complicated history. And so, how do

065we think about where governance has catapulted us into the future um, and brought us really great things and then where are the places that institutional governance given our complicated history as a part of the Commonwealth of Virginia has really kind of held us back. And so, um, what we have done is we have two thing we needed two things to to tell this narrative. Um, one, we needed a place to house our learnings. And so Lux will tell you a little bit about the partnerships we have, but one great one is the Valentine Museum. Um, and we have created um I say we, Lux has created a beautiful timeline um that stretches back into the 1800s um to and it all is housed um by the Valentine Museum. And so they have a timeline that

066we will be releasing that will be accessible to everyone that will be operated and stored on their servers. Um, and then also we had to really uncover a lot of history. There was a lot that had been forgotten, um, hidden. Uh, and then there was a lot that a lot of people were excited to share with us. And so Lex is going to tell you a little bit about the work that she's been doing to uncover that history so we could tell this really great narrative. So I'm going to pass it over to her. >> Okay. Hi. Um, so I've written over 65 pages of research contributing directly to the timeline entries. So my process with the Valentine Museum is they have access to those documents. Um, the people that work there that work on

067the website look over what I've wrote and kind of go back and forth and they upload those entries to a Excel sheet which then feeds into um the program that's going to be held onto the website. Uh, I have a list of primary sources that we've added to the timeline. I didn't want it just to be a picture then a paragraph. So, um, we have the autobiography of OverB Shepard, a family picture of Albert B. Noral, uh, RPS produced PSA's RPS News Desk, and a portrait of Albert B. Hill, which I actually found right in this room just over there. Um, and we also have digitized RPS produced videos. Uh, and I comb through news articles dating back to the early 1800s to actually supplement my research. Uh, and all the histories of every school

068currently in the RPS system will be included on the timeline and all superintendent as well. Okay. So when I first started um this research as a jumping off point, Dr. Greenbell provided me three books that she wanted me to read um to inform my work. So I actually was able to interview two of the authors of those three books. Uh Thaad Williamson, who wrote co-wrote the making of the 21st century Richmond politics, policy and governance. And then Robert A. Pratt, uh, who wrote The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia. I collaborated with the Richmond Public Libraryies Richmond Room and Memory Lab to digitize video. They also helped me a lot with um my research and of course I collaborate with the Valentine Museum, uh, the Black History Museum and the Library

069of Virginia in creation of the timeline. And my work with the Valentine Museum is featured on RPS Direct. So now let's get into the fun part, project aspects and discoveries. So um the rest of the slides are going to be continued with pictures. Uh if you can see on the left, we have the RPS night school program. Uh that was pretty busy around the time of the late 1800s into the early 1900s. um given former former slaves who were adults were looking to receive education after uh the workday and there wasn't a lot of child labor laws. So students would actually receive education after the workday as well. And on the right we have RPS Junior ROC. Uh that would be circa 1979. Okay. So this is our leadership spotlight. On the left we have

070Richard Gustavis Forester. So I found his name mentioned in a book I was looking over on southern governance and I found him and Richard Paul to be the first two black school board members um here in RPS. Uh they were elected in 1882 and they served the second and the fourth district which were the lower grade black schools, Valley, Navy Hill and Baker schools. And then on the right we have a picture of Albert V. Noral. When I first started my research a lot of people told me about him. Um but I wanted to go to the source. So I actually spoke to Mrs. Faith Norl at the Black History Museum and she provided this picture of him um from her family records. And that's the picture of Albert Hill that I found in the

071closet. Lost the time. I don't believe this picture to be on the internet. So, that will be a nice touch. And then we have a picture of Dr. Lucille Brown that I received from the VU library. Currently on the timeline, um her entry is actually a video of her speaking about RPS from the 1990s. So when I thought about the focus of leadership of RPS, I wanted to humanize these figures. I thought, is there a picture of this person that depicts the way that they wanted to be depicted? Uh I used uh I researched this through talking to family members, community members and looking through old documents we already have access to here. Okay. Governance. So on the left you'll see the signatures of Oliver Hill, Leon Leon A. Ransom and Third Good Marshall. So,

072this is something that's also found in this room in the cabinets right behind you. Um, this is from a petition served to the school board November 25th, 1941 for the equalization of pay for black teachers. Uh, it would eventually be filed in federal court to be settled on May 13th, 1942. And then on the right we have a clip of the timeline uh in the legal proceedings of Bradley v the school board of Richmond. We actually have a scroll function on the timeline. Um all legal documents if we can add a function of it will be displayed like that for students to be able to research easier. Uh so Richmond has a complic well well Richmond public schools has a complicated past um and has sometimes harms students and staff strategically through policy. We wanted

073to highlight the creation of these harmful policies as well as the dismantling of them. National, statewide, and city policies are mentioned on the timeline and are explicitly explained through the lens of RPS. Okay. Facilities. So on the left we have the Richmond Colored Normal School. Uh it was founded by the Freriedman's Bureau in 1865 to educate students and train teachers. The first school building was located at the Navy Hill School and the second building in the picture was actually not that far from here. You can kind of see in the background um there's like a little slope or a little that would be the Shako Valley before the highway was created. So in my initial research of the school, it's believed widely believed that this school was actually the first building where Richmond Color Normal

074School now Armstrong was held. But that's actually not true. the Freriedman Bureau built a lot on the Navy Hill school lot um before they built this building. Uh so the reason I was able to find that uh when I was doing research, I went to the Valentine Museum and they were like, "This is the first building." And I went to the Black History Museum and they were like, "No, this looks like this is the first building." But when I spoke to the memory fellow at the Richmond Public Library, we were actually able to uncover and he was able to show me that this was actually not the first location of Armstrong School. Okay. And then on the right we have the Shimberazzo School, the second location. This school opened in September 1905 with grades 1

075through eight. Um, Shimberazzo was a school opened for white students at the time and was considered advanced in sanitation, heating, ventilation, and school architecture. In 1911, an annex was built for the school to hold the growing population of students. Um, Shimberazzo's enrollment actually declined in the 1950s with the influx of black re residents to the Church Hill neighborhood. So in February of 1957, white pupils were transferred to the Nathaniel Bacon School and Shimberazzo was converted to a school for black students. Um the history of facilities is complicated and if I would have put on the timeline, this is the Shimberazzo school built in 1905 and it was a school for white students and someone the next day walked into Shimberazzo. now I think they would be confused. Um so just telling the story through how

076the schools have changed and transitioned over time with the neighborhoods. Okay. So RPS memories. So this is actually a collection that was donated on behalf of RPS to the Valentine. Um this is pictures that we had in our records. Um, okay. And then here are our interviews. So on the left we have Dr. Carmen Foster, a historian and former RPS employee. And then on the right we have Mark Marage, the son of United State District Court Judge Marriage, who ordered the desegregation of Richmond public schools. Um, and these are videos that I took when interviewing them. So, we have a treat for you. We have one of the PSAs that RPS did. This would be circa 19 late7s. So, um well, we'll send it to you. Not long ago in Richmond, you had two choices

077in your children's education. You could put them on a bus to Richmond public schools, or you could put them on a bus to a private school. Now, there's another choice. More and more students are choosing the public school they want to attend. For many, it's one in their community. For others, it may be a special program across town. From science to the performing arts, there are some exciting choices to make. Get choosy. Call Richmond Public Schools. >> So, I will pass it back to Dr. Greenbell now. So, as you can see, um Lex has done a lot of really incredible work. Um most of the video that you're going to see on the timeline was not digitized. it's on like 16 mm film that she found. So, just really quickly want to wrap this up

078with some discussion about continuing the work. Um, right now we are in the process of developing a summer professional development experience for all new teachers. We know that 4.5 says for all staff, so we're going to pilot with um new teachers and we're really excited about that. Um, we have a tour um that we have already established. We've been in touch with operations about transportation. How do we get all of our new teachers to visit these new tours? We've already collaborated with the Shako Institute and other places to stop and the Valentine Museum has um committed to offering all incoming teachers a fall tour pass to extend their experience be beyond what we give. Um we're also going to do a safe schools roll out. So we will give everyone a taste of the timeline

079so they can learn something and have some common understanding. Um and then invite them to participate in the timeline afterwards. Um, and then always collect data so that we know how our teachers are experiencing this so that when we roll it out and make new steps, they're informed by data. Really quickly, just our our needs. Lex has done some incredible incredible work um finding things in schoolboard minutes from the 1800s. Um, just to name a few things. But her funds run out at the end of the school year. Um, so any additional funds to continue the fellowship obviously or just to think about ways that we can keep her engaged, but she has been working 30 hours a week since August. And so the historic excavation is not done. There's still so much more to

080uncover um and to do. And so we're really grateful to her for all of the work she's done thus far. Um, but the lastly for our community, um, we are going to be releasing a district-wide survey to share RPS memories and historical moments. Lex has been doing a lot of this solo, but we know that our constituents, our families, people in Richmond who may be on beyond Richmond have so much more to offer us. So, we're seeking short videos, pictures, and narratives, written and audio to allow the community to participate in this retelling. That we are done. Superintendent. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Vice Chair, a second. Um, I just wanted to say publicly thank you to Lex for the incredible work that she has done. I remember when Lex uh was a high school student

081uh when I first met her. Um, remember her graduating, going off to VCU. It is such a thrill uh to see you come back and do this incredible work and it speaks to why we do this so that uh incredible young people such as yourself or young adults now um can tell the stories of the greatness that um really exists here in RBS and you've done that with such absolute brilliance. I feel like we owe you a PhD or something. uh after all of this and I I'm really proud that you Dr. Greenbell and others have uh just gone well above and beyond what we had hoped at the beginning of this at a time when our country is retreating from telling its history. Uh we're going the other direction. we're leaning in and telling

082all the stories uh the painful and the triumphant and everything in between. And so truly could not be more grateful to you Lex and Dr. Greenbell for for guiding her along the way. Thank you, >> Miss Rosie. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Lux, when I saw you at the Shako Institute, you know, I thought that you were still in high school. I'm like literally talking to you like you're with the high schoolers. I'm sorry for that. Um, so, you know, this crosses a lot with what I do full-time. And so, I'm I'm thank Thank you for this amazing work. Um, there, let me see. I had a couple of um and I belong to a couple well one major preservationist group in the city and I'm wondering if you have run across like

083properties that we may be interested in preserving documents that you know I get a lot of questions from people in the community about documents that may have been left in school buildings. So I'm like wondering if you came across those and then maybe if you have you can shoot those over to preservationist groups who can fight to work to preserve things. >> Um yes the answer uh so one thing is we have more video to digitize which we're hoping to donate to the Richmond Public Library. And I want to shout out Mr. Bradford Johnson. I don't know if he's still here, but um he was the one who actually helped me find this video. And uh and then I think we Monroe school that we were able to highlight which was it was yeah which

084yes which was donated um the Morris Street School which was donated to the Moore Street um foundation. So yeah, just there's there's other things too that I'm uncovering. Um since we're talking about the Shako Institute, just the other day I was doing some research um about the school that was put uh in the site of the Lumpkins jail and I know about the Shako Institute was talking about highlighting that. So I'm like, okay, well RPS definitely has a story there as well. So lots of opportunity. One more follow, >> Miss Rosie. >> Thank you. Um, so yeah, hopefully you will get more funding. Um, I work very closely with Dr. Foster and my work at VCU. I know how wonderful she is and how knowledgeable. Um, and I'm wondering maybe if you extend your funding,

085you could do some oral histories. I think there are a lot of people in Richmond who have experiences um, and memories that we want to preserve. And so if we can get you some more funds, that would be an awesome thing to undertake. >> Yes, we've discussed that, but we had to prioritize given the timeline. We wanted to make sure we got things in. But yes, she's already started seven oral histories thus far, seven interviews of oral histories. >> Thank you, Miss Ricard. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh Lux, thank you for all your work on this. I know the timeline will probably never be done because there can always be things you can add to it, but I guess um when will it go live? Is it live now? Um that's one of my

086questions. >> It's waiting my edits right now. So it is um as done as we're going to get it through her um through June. Um and so once I make my edits, we'll sit down with the Valentine Museum. We anticipate that it should go live prior to our summer professional um development experience. >> Yes. >> Um and just two additional comments. I think um I know you'll then push it out to all staff, but I could imagine as a former history teacher really loving those images and having my students observe what they see, what they don't see, who's there, who's not there. They're just really rich and would be such a great way to um add to lessons. And then, you know, perhaps another potential idea for gathering oral histories is I know like when

087NPR does their story course, sometimes they'll do a a one-day event where everyone just comes and tells their stories. And I wonder if Richmond Public Library would potentially partner with us on like a big oral history day. >> That is a great idea. And I am a former history teacher, so I think about this a lot. Excellent idea, Mr. Hitchbath. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. As another history teacher here, um, history is alive and you are proving that to us right at this moment and I'm just so grateful for the work that you're you're doing. Uh, primary sources are some of our our best secrets that we uncover that can then speak for themselves, right? they can tell the story uh of us and you know if we're not doing this work and we're not

088telling our stories then somebody else is going to do that and so I'm really really admire you and your interest and passion and I'm just very thankful for for what you're doing uh for for the Richmond community. Um couple questions and and comment. Uh, one in the in the fourth district, we actually have a um an old schoolhouse, uh, the Granite Schoolhouse that's uh, behind the fire station across from Walmart on Forest Hill Avenue. U, I'm wondering if you and and you know, Miss Rzzy and I have been in communication with the folks that want to preserve that. There's a lot of interest in that. So, I wonder if if we can draw a connection there as well. But like any historian, I'm sure in all of these discoveries that you have made, you have

089a favorite of what you have found. Can you share? And maybe you can't narrow it down to one, but what what's been the most exciting thing that you've uncovered? >> Um gosh, I I love history, too, so that's kind of that's a little bit hard. Um, okay. I can think of something recently because I've been writing this over um the past few months. Not Oh, well, one thing is the videos. Uh, I didn't show you this video, but we do have a video from the 1970s. Um, which is a PSA for dropout prevention. And it's called Pool Hall. And they're in a pool hall and they use language like jive turkey and all this stuff. So, every time I mention the video, I show people that one and they're like, "Oh, this is amazing." Um,

090so that's one of the my favorite finds. And then recently, um, I found a document from the Freriedman's Bureau, uh, which was highlighting all the schools that were, um, around in RPS. Not, this is pre-RPS, I think, uh, 1867 was when it was from. So, I just found it online and I hadn't found it before. So, always adding to it. Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafari. And then, Miss Burke, >> thank you and thanks for the work that you're doing. You hit the nail on the head. It is a complex and complicated story, but just want to make sure that as you develop this and bring out his full potential that we don't stop short of telling all of the diversity. Um, I'm I'm brought to mind about Sam, the individual of the European America

091who risked everything to help Henry Box Brown escape from here to Philadelphia. uh when I was growing up gave me great pride to hear about how an African-American or a black had mailed himself to Philadelphia. But when I became a an adult and learned and look behind the scenes realized that nobody ms themselves anywhere. Somebody had to help them. And and so what I say is uh all along the way, all along the line, European Americans risk themselves. uh Native Americans risk themselves. He had to be handled like a box, but the story isn't just his handling. The story is how many different ethnicities joined in to make the United States, the ideal of the United States a reality. So, as you do this, don't stop short of telling the story of all of the

092people who have contributed to this complex story that Richmond offers. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Jari. Miss Burke. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much because you've stretched us this evening. I love history. I love the real history. You'll never read about this in Thank you. And I'm sitting here. I have a question because you're referring to the 70s as Miss Holtz and I just shared. I said they look I have lots to share with you. Lots and lots. But there also are so many other living legends. I'm thinking about Brad Johnson in the back because a lot of them live in his neighborhood that were the first teachers during integration with that had to go into schools to integrate and you were a part of them during that era as well. But

093um my question is and this is exquisite. This is an academy award. Keep working. Keep working. So my question is you mentioned that this will be available for students or it will be available online or just how would you share once you finish the document? >> It will be um available to anyone. Um so it'll be on the Valentine website but there it won't be behind a password or anything like that. Um and we will make it very apparent, you know, through RPS Direct and other venues perhaps a link on our website that will direct um folks to their website. It's just the bandwidth and the sheer functionality of it. We didn't quite have the capacity for and the Valentine does, you know, copious amounts of timelines and so they've graciously allowed us to host

094ours there. >> Well, thank you for this opportunity. I like what Miss McCart stated regarding going to the Richmond Library to have an oral story day or whatever. We could do that in Richmond public schools as well, but we have we can't take people where they need to go if we don't know where we've been. And so many of our students, I don't know whether we're still teaching real history. Are we still teaching real All right. Yeah. But some schools don't have it. I know it's an elective but that's that's a part of the culture whatever it is. So thank you for it will not only help our students but our teachers who are teaching our students and also our communities. So I hope we can include the Black History Museum. I know we sit

095the Valentine which I love dealing but other venues as well but um this is this is excellent and I will give you some information from the 70s some stories to tell. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Holton. >> Me too. Thanks and happy to chat. >> Thank you. Um, I had to walk away um for some computer issues, but um from what I've heard and what I've read from the presentation, this is amazing. Um very excited. Um I too had the question about how are we going to get this in this information to our scholars, right? I think history is important, but telling our story to our students is even more important because it it shows them where we came from and where where we are. And so my only suggestion is to consider um

096not just for scholars but for staff a way to incorporate that in orientation just the history of RPS in a very snapshot type setting. um and maybe somehow embed that into the curriculum so that it's something that is shared with our students so that they can take pride in that. Great job, Mr. Cameras and then Miss Rizzie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to also highlight the late Bill Martin who was a great uh friend of RPS and great asset to this project and I know supported uh Lux in her work and um such a huge loss but do want him to be publicly recognized as as part of this. >> Thank you for that Miss Rizzie. >> Madam Chair, yes um losing Mr. Martin was a great um he was also a

097big friend of what I do. So it is quite a loss. Um and I'm sorry. Um I just want to this is a plug and I thank you both. This is wonderful work. I just want to plug the fact that there is a at our elma mater VCU there's a Gabriel summer scholar program and they're looking for six more students for the summer. Um it's titled waterways to lifeways genealogy geography and environment. Um and so I just kind of wanted to put that out there. The information is on the website for African-American studies. >> Thank you. Thank you both. We will have to move a little brisker for the rest of the evening. It says 7:30. We did way more coming. All right, we're at 2.02. receive the dreams for RBS goal 3 VALS K

098through2 literacy data update. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm uh pleased to have Lori Gingrich, our manager of K5 literacy, present. This is her first presentation to the board. So, please welcome her. I do want to note I actually think having this presentation come right after the last one is actually um quite poignant because I've often said with our principles and our our literacy coaches and others really the work of helping ensure our students can read proficiently and joyfully is really about the work of ensuring that they have power in their lives. and so many of the titans of RPS who made today possible uh were champions of literacy for everyone. And so it is an enormous uh point of pride to have Miss Gri come and speak to the great work that they're doing.

099We have a long way to go of course but making some historic gains and for the chair m >> welcome. Thank you for being here tonight. >> No, there um again I'm Lauri Grich. I'm manager of K5 literacy. I'm giving you the update on goal three academics um which addresses increasing proficiency and advanced rates across the content areas um for all of our students and across subgroups. Um, and we know that solid K2 foundational skills are what is going to help us get there across the board. Um, and to measure how we're doing in K2 literacy, we use the vows assessment, which is the Virginia language and literacy screening system. Um, we give it three times a year, the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of year. Um, our data today

100will show our increase from beginning to um, midyear. We actually start our end of year assessment on Monday. So we'll have that data by miday. Um our headlines from beginning of year to midyear, we made 7.8 percentage points in our students not being high risk. Um high- risk is the category designated for students at risk of reading difficulties and they require per state um mandates to have intervention services. So, we're really hoping to get students into the moderate and low risk band um out of that high risk band. So, bigger headline is that this is an all-time high for us in Richmond public schools with 65.8% of our students not in high risk. And even better, um last year we switched from PALS to vows, which is a much more rigorous assessment. it's more aligned

101to the science of reading and what we know um about the skills needed for proficient reading. So, we're really excited um that we're making such progress even with a more rigorous assessment in place. Uh you can see our early literacy data. Um from winter 25 to winter of 26, we have gains overall for our students across every grade level and across every subgroup. So positive gains in all of those areas. Next slide. You can see the percentage each of our schools increased from fall to midyear. Um we're really excited that several of our 200 day schools had uh the greatest increase in students moving into the not high-risisk category. Um schools with high populations of multilingual learners such as Cardinal who had a 22% increase and not high risk. Um, a lot of our schools

102that are high economic disadvantage, have high economic disadvantaged populations are also at the top of that list. And then schools like Marsh um with Principal Smith and Woodville with Dr. Alan Miller who are really digging in with their um administrators or their other administrators and literacy teams in their buildings to move those students out of high risk. Um we uh like to shout out our teachers at our monthly meetings that we have um observed during our literacy walkthroughs who we know have really strong instruction and we also see that in their data. So you can see here are some of our kindergarten teachers. Uh Miss Hoy is one of our um teachers who is really dedicated to helping us with our UFly initiative and implementation. Um, we've got a long-term sub in kindergarten who had

10315 points worth of growth. Um, and you can see this is across all of our schools. Same thing in first grade and we have new teachers who are rocking it. We've got veteran teachers and we have teachers who may have switched grade levels and come down to K2 um to teach you. And then same thing in second grade. So really exciting progress um across our grade levels and across our schools and a lot of this comes through our work with what we are calling our difference makers. So these are what we these are based on first year of implementation what we saw in classrooms as we did observations and what we saw working and what we know is really needed for our student success. Um, so we align on these at all of our monthly

104meetings where we bring principles and coaches and APS and reading interventionists together and we align on these together and then our literacy coaches take some turnkey materials back and align with teachers in their building. Um, and using these really allows us to all be on the same page, speak the same language, look for the same things in our walkthroughs, um, and really focus on what we know works with our students. I I did not make that for the record. Was Principal Petri at Southampton. So you can blame her. >> Sure. >> Put it at >> when will the t-shirts be forthcoming? >> It was a t-shirt design contest, but it will not be. >> Um and then finally, we're really excited um to be recognized um from others outside the district who are validating the

105work that we're doing um in a KTO2. This is um a brief that came out of the center for public research and leadership out of uh Columbia University and they've done a few bright spots this year and we were one of those bright spots where they highlight what we have done in literacy to get to this point and where we our trend in data. Um, and I believe you all have a copy in front of you, so you can read that in all of your free time. But it is a really exciting brief um, and really digs into the work that we've done in early literacy. >> Oh, I just it was scrolling, so I didn't >> I think >> Okay, we're good. >> It still has the brief on it. Y >> wonderful. Thank

106you for your presentation, Miss Rizzie. >> Madam Chair, uh, so yes, this data is great. I say it every time. I'm sure we know. I I would like to see us accelerate um eliminating disparities among our subgroups. So, is that what we call them? >> Subgroups. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um, and then I happen to read this and um I love Mr. Cameras. he's mentioned like a hundred times in here. But I remember very clearly that the school board also was a part of like figuring out how like we would be either we'd be completely married to the curriculum or we give teachers some freedom to like actually, you know, um do their own thing or interpret the curriculum the way they want to. And I didn't see any of that mentioned and

107having been on the board during that time. Okay, >> that was the only It's not It's not very specific. It's not very specific at all, but anyway, I just wanted to shout that out. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Hedgehog. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to shout out Miss Gingrich. Um I had the pleasure of uh attending a learning walk with Miss Gingrich and Superintendent Cameress at Amelia Street. Um, and we uh saw some amazing things happening there. And so like this data is is great and um seeing it in person in person, I'm not surprised actually by by how well we're doing. So I just want to uh uh congratulate the great work that you're doing and great work that our K2 teachers are doing uh and our kiddos. So

108thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ricard. Just briefly, I want to thank um that you do those individual shoutouts at your monthly meetings. I think that's important. I think as leaders, we forget to do that sometimes and it really goes a long way in making our teachers feel seen and appreciated. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Holton. >> I'll just join in uh first of all the thanks and just wow. I mean, the outcomes are amazing, but also just I have not see the blue fly in action, but looking at what you're asking of your teachers and expecting of your teachers, it's a lot. Um, I mean, you're really asking them to be high energy and have their kids be high energy and be on message and on program for every minute

109of that instructional time. And I'm I'm just so impressed uh at the outcomes you're getting, but also what you're asking your teachers to do and that they're rising uh to the occasion. Thank you. Thank you. My my question would be uh uh you have any suggestions for what we as the board can do to help as you push the envelope forward to 100%. >> Um I think coming to see us in action definitely see what we're doing. Um encourage reading any attend the literacy nights our schools are having. Um I know just found out Southampton is having one coming up very soon. Um just as much as we can get kids reading um encourage volunteers to come in and be book buddies. I know Dr. Greenbell's been read um working with volunteer book buddies to

110get them to come in. Um anytime a student has an opportunity to read with another person um work on that oral reading fluency and discuss text is um a great opportunity. >> Miss Burke, >> thank you so very much. Excellent presentation. Um my question to you is what can we do to support you? I mean the program and all the rest because you're shouting everybody else out. You're taking care everybody else. Your your cup is getting empty and emptier and emptier and and you're pouring into others. So what do we need to do to help you? And you don't have to answer it now, >> but if you want to find because I think you do. You get good people such as yourself that's doing what's expected, you're modeling it, you're supporting, and then the

111nurturing, the shout outs. Doesn't get any better than that. >> So, um, tell us later because it may be something out of not out of our budget, but it may be else. >> Thank you. >> But seriously, think about that. Think about that because we want to continue to soar. We don't want to go backwards. >> That's ex Seeing the growth is is so >> I want to support you. Been there, done that. Your cup is probably >> I appreciate it. >> I've had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand. Um and was absolutely blown away and I still know the technique. Um we also had the pleasure of sharing some of the successes with um some folks that came from St. Lewis um several months ago and one of the things that when I was asked

112what would I like to see from my role on the board and one of my responses was being the industry standard and so I'll have to truly thank the the board that came before me that's that started the support and allowing the autonomy for you all to share and superintendent cameras um certainly for allowing those voices to be heard. when folks came and said, "Hey, this is really working. Please listen." Um, that takes courage, especially when the numbers weren't really reflective. And so, um, to see where we are now, the gains that we have is amazing. So, congratulations to everyone. Um, but you know, in these types of things, we want to move the needle higher, higher, higher, higher. So, um I echo u Miss Burke's question and saying what it what is it that

113you you need um to to ensure that you have the support to continue to rise to the occasion. But well done. Thank you so much. >> Thank you >> and congratulations on your first presentation. >> Thank you. >> It went on without a hitch. You did great. All right. We are on budget items 3.01. Receive an update on the mayor's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget and the status of the state budget. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be brief. The city council is holding a meeting as we speak uh to hear public testimony about the budget and some of the budget amendments that have been proposed. They next have a meeting Monday, April 20th from 1 to 3. They have a budget work session on the those amendments. Then Wednesday, April 22nd, 1 to 3,

114that's their final consensus session when they'll try to decide which amendments to move forward. Then Monday, April 27th at 6 PM, they have a formal meeting and that is when council will vote to amend the budget with any changes that they have consensus on. And then finally, Monday, May 11th at 6 PM again formal meeting is when they will vote to adopt city's budget. That is, of course, if there are no wrinkles, but that is generally the timeline. Uh so by May 11th uh we should have clarity around what the city's budget will be for RPS going into next year and quite frankly by April 27th we'll know what amendments they've approved and that really will determine if there's any additional funding coming our way. On the state side the general assembly is coming back

115for a special session on April 23rd. Some individuals believe they will have a budget then and will announce it. Others do not believe they will have a budget then. Uh so we will see. I think to be honest there only three people in the Commonwealth who know what's going to happen and those are Senator Lucas, Delegate Torian and Governor Spanberger. And so uh we eagerly await any news about state budget. I'm sure Mr. Stanley can share more about that in his legislative update. Uh but that is where things stand now and I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you for the update. >> We are now in board business 4.01 receive for first read the Head Start grants application. Mr. Cameras. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I will do my best. Sharina Chang tonight.

116Uh I believe she's watching. So if she is, hi. uh she is um out of town uh today. Um the Head Start grant before you has been approved by the policy council. So uh kudos to Miss Chang, but also to chair Fernandez, Vice Chair Perl for their uh collaboration and assistance on that front. Um, as you may recall, this uh uh this grant has a $1 million reduction. Uh, but we've maintained the number of seats. We're able to make the reduction through some personnel reductions um and a few other uh changes as well. And uh it is before you for approval. I believe you are going to vote uh tomorrow night. So, there are any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Thank you. I'd also like to give a shout out to

117policy council for um their efforts and feedback in drafting this. Um and so please if you do have any question um we welcome them at this time because we do have to vote tomorrow. We are on a very tight schedule in terms of approvals and so please let us know if there's any feedback, questions, concerns. All right, having none, we'll move right along to 4.02. to see for first read the CTE Perkins grant. Well, hello. Right. Pleased to present to you this evening the first read of the CTE Perkins grant. Next slide. As a reminder, the Perkins grant is the strengthening career and technical education for the 21st century act Perkins 5 grant. It focuses on highskll, high wage and high demand occupations. um rigorous and challenging academic work and supports the partnership between secondary,

118post-secondary, local workforce boards, business and industry programs. Basically, it's how we fund our CTE programs in public schools. I did want to outline here that we have a CT advisory board that's very active. We meet four times a year with the advisory board. It's comprised of local business members, RPS staff, parents, and students. In regards to the high-skll, highwage, high demand occupations, those um occupations are determined by two organizations, the Virginia Board of Workforce Development and the Virginia Office of Education Economics. The list of jobs that qualify for this is um determined every two years based on criteria that would include projected growth in those job areas, the volume of openings, generally 100 or more, the education level and wages. In our locality, high wage, high demand occupations would include healthcare, tech like cyber security

119and AI, skilled trades like manufacturing, carpentry, and education. Next slide. Here's the trend of Perkins allocation over the past three years. Um, notably, you will see that it has decreased since 2023. Um, Perkins is determined, the amount of funding is determined by a formula that comes from the state of Virginia. Basically, these are federal for federal funds that are allocated to the states and the states allocate them to school divisions. The uh criteria for allocation is based off of the number of students in K12 systems that are age 5 to 17 as well as the number of students in school divisions that are considered living in poverty in the between the ages of five and 17. And because uh the enrollment in RPS has declined somewhat over the past three years, the allocation for Perkins

120has declined over the past three years. Next slide. This slide gives an overview of the grant categories in the proposed expenditures in the areas where the funding will be used. It's similar to the structure from last school year. Next slide. And for some additional information, we just wanted to highlight that we do have professional development for our CT teachers, administrators, and counselors. Notably, um, students that fulfill special populations are focused on to ensure they're participating in CTESOs, the career and technical education student organizations. they're able to attend their conferences and competitions and there are expenses associated with those items. Also, um resources like ebooks, virtual learning, online curriculums and um a major expenditure is equipment. It costs money to buy the tools and technology that we need at the Richmond Technical Center and in our

121schools for students to uh practice the skills they're learning in the CTE classes. Lastly, um, new courses that are on the docket for us for next school year are medication aid, patient care technician, and principles of technology one and two. And then we've outlined here the lab improvements and new equipment that we would like to purchase. Um, with a note to keep in mind that as we continue to plan for our new technical center at Moy Street, anything that we buy with Perkins funding, we seek to buy things that can move and, you know, they won't have to be harnessed to the floor or to the ceiling, all of it would be mobile and can be installed in the new technical center when it's built. Happy to take any questions. Miss Rizzie, Mr. Hedgeh. >>

122Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, this is something I've never asked. Um, do most school districts receive Perkins grants? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. I just didn't know. Thank you, >> Mr. Hback. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, M. Ward. I appreciate this very much. And I'm sorry if I missed the answer to this, but uh why has our our number uh gone down over the past few years? Why is the trend of the uh Perkins allocation number trended downward? >> Certainly. Um so Perkins funding is federal and it's allocated to the states. Um and then the states allocate it to the school divisions. Uh the formula for how the funding is broken down is basically 30% of it. it's based on the number of students aged 5 to 17 and then 70% is based

123on the number of students living in poverty that are aged 5 to 17. And so I when I looked into this a little bit more um the differential between the allocation um for RPS for 2526 allocation for RPS and one of our neighboring school divisions is about $300,000. Although that school division is um more than twice as large as our school division, it's because we have more students that live in poverty in our locality. The reason why the allocation has decreased is because we have less students age 5 to 17 that this would apply towards. So while that school division has more students uh than we do, they have less students that live in poverty. And so it it does balance itself out. Is it also safe to say that it might be because of

124uh some students are transitioning outside of the Richmond division and moving to other schools outside of our division? As far as the um declining enrollment in RPS, >> I would say that would be safe to say, but I would lean on our director of enrollment and planning to answer that as he's done. Luke's done wonderful job with researching how the transit enrollment have looked. Um but yes, >> thank you, >> Mr. Cameras. >> I I just want to know that our enrollment is actually up this year as compared to last year. Um, but it's not just the uh total enrollment. Remember, it's 5 to 17. That does not include preschool. So, we see fluctuation in preschool. That's one. Two. As we know, the city of Richmond is changing. And so, our percentage of economic disadvantage,

125while still very high, much higher than our neighbors, slightly less than it was three years ago. On top of that, as our uh recent immigrant population grows with intense understandable anxiety about interacting with the federal government, some of our uh poverty data is probably not as accurate as it should be. And so all of that gets faced. >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you. Moving right along to 4.03. Receive the legislative update. Mr. Stanley, >> good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, Superintendent Cameas, members of the school board. Matthew Stanley, the director of Epicine Outreach. I'm here to provide you a very, very brief legislative update tonight. Our legislative committee chair, Miss Ricard, uh, convened a legislative committee meeting about a week and a half ago and we did a very

126robust deep dive into the presentation that I've shared with you tonight. Um, as Superintendent Cameron shared, we are still waiting for the general assembly to come back into town for um, not only their reconvene session, but also for their special session on state budget. um when I last presented to you. Uh this is the budget proposal comparison that we did between the House and the Senate versions of the budget. Uh tonight I have in my hands a signed copy of a letter to all budget conferees uh signed by superintendent cameras uh board chair Fernandez as well as Mayor Abula and President Nubil of Richmond City Council. We will be dropping that in the inboxes of all of the budget conferees tomorrow morning. Um so we are continuing to advocate during this interim period. Um, and

127while we are absolutely advocating for the best budget scenario possible, one of the very important things that is tied up in the budget negotiations is the 1% sales tax local option for school construction. Um, so while we're often talking about the budget and how it's going to directly impact us in FY26, we actually are dealing with a very, very big policy proposal in the budget negotiations. And so, uh, tomorrow morning, I will also be getting out an advocacy action alert, um, to everybody on our list. I'm actually going to go just right to the very last slide, um, of our presentation tonight because this has the QR code to sign up for those advocacy updates. If you would like to play your part in advocating for that 1% sales tax for school construction, we're going

128to need you to email those budget compares to ask them to please include that in their budget compromise. Um, we can certainly advocate for the best overall budget possible, but I think calling attention to that very specific policy proposal, um, is going to be something very critical to our school division for years to come. Um, as you recently saw from the reporting from the Richmonder, uh, and as you all know, the front loading of our CIP, uh, with the with the promise of that 1% sales tax passing, we really do need that to pass um, so that we're able to continue with our school construction and facilities modernization in future years. Um, so I will leave it there tonight. Uh, the governor has been doing today's her deadline for vetoing, amending, approving legislation. And while,

129uh, we have seen action on most of the education bills we've been following, there are still a couple out there that I have not seen her act on yet. Um, so we're expecting those this evening. If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer those for you tonight. >> No questions for you. Thank you. >> Thank you all so much. And I'd also like to acknowledge the the hard work that Miss Ricard has done in chairing the legislative committee. It has required a lot of hours and a lot of extra time and um thank you so much for your leadership. She also had a birthday just happy birthday Friday, same day as my niece's birthday. I just knew. I know because we're Facebook friends. All right. Next up, we have um 4.04 discuss

130reorganization of the ad hoc uh governance committee under the policy committee. This is more of a formality, but it's also open for discussion. And this is something that we talked about several um months ago as we thought about ways to really um reimagine how we have structured our committee meetings. One of the things that was raised was the proposal to have the ad hoc governance committee underneath policy committee because they do overlap um in a lot of different ways and also governance and policy go hand in hand. Um, and so we just wanted to make sure we voice that to the public, but also if there are any questions, concerns, or feedback from um, us as a board, we'll welcome those at this time. Miss Rizzie, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just curious, when

131was the last time that the ad hoc governance committee was convened? >> Very good question, Mr. Perl. >> Uh, anyone on the committee can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we at once or twice early last year. That was it. We we did produce the uh the list of norms that uh may magically appear in policy documents later on in the agenda. Any concerns? All right. Easy enough. Moving right along to um since we've already discussed 4.05, 4.06, 06 received the annual comprehensive financial report presentation. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Um good evening, Madame Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, school board members, superintendent cameras. Um this evening I'm here to provide you a report on our um annual comprehensive financial report. I'll keep going. I'm not seeing what I thought I was going

132to see. Um, so this evening, um, I'm happy to report that the school division received an unmodified opinion for our FY25 audit. Um, an unmodified opinion means that we have a clean audit. One thing that I do want to note is that we were cited with a finding in late December. the auditor asked us to make an entry to our acred liabilities um and we chose to pass on making that entry because it was so late it would have delayed our um finishing our audit and also getting our numbers to the city. I do want you to note that I think it's slide nine um that skipping making this particular entry did not have a material impact on our financial statement. Um the entry that was requested by the auditor for 25 we are going

133to make during the current year so that this will not be a finding um moving forward. May I answer any questions? >> Mr. Persal. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Is what we're looking at with the uncorrected misstatements. Is that what the finding was? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Because I see one, two, three, four. >> Yes. >> Okay. Five. The $5 amounts that all constitute a a single finding. >> Yes, sir. >> And what was the reason that it was not prepared at the time? We the um the auditor requested this entry to be made at the end of December and if we had chosen not chosen to make the entry on our general ledger um we wouldn't have finished before the end of the year and then and also the city was depending on

134us depending on us to get our numbers to them because we're a component unit of the city of Richmond. So since it wasn't material to the financial statements, we thought it was best to go ahead and pass on making the entry in the 25 year so we could get the um audit wrapped up and to the city and we'll be making it in the current fiscal year. >> So I understand your rationale as to why you decided um not to. My question is why was it not prepared in the first place? So in other words, why was this information not readily available at the request? Was is it that you had to pull from different places? I'm just trying to understand if there's a a further root cause to >> why we are where we

135are. >> Um some of the things that occurred with regard to why we were maybe a little late in the process, um we had new Gazsby pronouncements that we had to deal with. Gazsby 101, um deals with compensated abs absences for our employees. Um, we went live with our new ERP system in for payroll purposes in March of 2005. So now we're dealing with information like in our legacy computer system and um information in our new ERP system. So learning curve, it took us a while to get the data together, but we should be in a really good place for 26. >> Great. So if this were to happen this time next year, you have some type of functional system or format or Excel document that's capturing this information that would be readily available. >>

136Yes, we have our our all of our reports in place now that help us identify these. >> Great. That's what I was wanting to hear. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Pible and Miss Ricard. Miss Rizzy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh just to clarify for for the public's benefit as we look at this, you said that these these uh statements don't materially impact the auditor or the statements. Um when I look at the last line here, we overrecorded liabilities to the tune of $9 million that just for the public's benefit, we're not going to reclaim $9 million in a budget. >> No, sir. The um the liability still exists. They the auditors are requesting that it be moved from the fund statement to the governmentwide statement. The the liability still exists for Richmond

137public schools. >> So it it's just a it's a wash. It's just two different accounts. >> Thank you, Miss Ricard. >> Thank you. It's in line with what Mr. Pible just asked. Um, and I guess I just is it possible to get an example of like what you mean by an overrecorded liability? >> Um, so we have liabilities we record for health insurance for example for claims that we've incurred but didn't clear by June 30. So those sorts of things and that would be probably the largest one because of the amount of money that we spend annually for healthcare. >> Thank you Miss Rizzy. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Miss Bra, I just want to thank you for all of your hard work. I know how hard and how long and long hours you

138keep and like I want just to show you that appreciation. You kind of sometimes are a onewoman show. >> Oh, thank you. And big shout out to Wanda P. Wanda. >> Wanda, I'm sorry. Yes, Wanda, too. She is really, really great. And thank you for all um this is totally unrelated, but where's that awesome little ACFR guy that normally comes in and gives this report? >> Oh, I get used to Yeah, Mr. Church. >> So, and and we have a new >> look forward to seeing you. >> Yeah, we have a new primary right now. Mr. Churchman is um suffering from some some illness. So, um we have a we have a new primary lead on our on our audits. Thank you. Sorry to hear that. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafari. >> Good evening. I'm

139going to come back to page norrected misstatements. I'm looking at all of these figures. I want I need you to help give me some context here. Seem like very large sums of money coming out, but unrecorded intergovernmental revenue, that's 379,000. And then we're talking others immediately below it to the tune of half million. And we are talking others that some of them one to two million. Can you give me some context for why they would have been unrecorded and how that applied? Um so I mean the largest one that we just talked about the 9 million um at the at the end of the audit which we were wrapping up um the auditors requested that we um make the entry we move it from the general fund statements to the governmentwide statements. So that was

140something the auditors asked us to do, but because of the late hour, we just didn't have the the time to do it and still be able to provide the information that we needed to the city in a timely manner. Um the other entries here, um again, it's a timing issue, but we are going to make those in the FY26 year so that these will not be um on this will not be an uncorrected misstatement going forward. We are planning to do those in this current fiscal year. It's a timing issue. >> Thank you. And uh I echo Miss Rizz's sentiments. Thank you so much for your amazing work you and team for all that you do. I know that it's you've been doing this for a very long time and it has to be because

141you love to. So we appreciate your passion and commitment to this. >> Thank you. All right. receive for um for first read policy committee recommendations. Mr. Hedgeback. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh these are first read policy recommendations from the policy committee um including uh the affformentioned uh uh standards or norms that the ad hoc governance committee um uh formulated. uh we on the policy committee work to integrate those into our uh our schoolboard procedures and standards of conduct uh that we address at the beginning of each year. Uh we also are bringing back the uh AI policy that uh Mr. Stanley did a lot of work on um uh with Miss Gunter and the um the AI task force. Um, Mr. Stanley, did you want to I know that you shared a number of

142strikethroughs. Uh, this is a new policy, but since it's gone through a number of iterations already, uh, perhaps you wanted to share why we're bringing it back for a another first read. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Hatchpath. Madam Chair, super cameras board members. uh the biggest uh addition to the AI policy has been a uh new section regarding uh the use of AI generated graphics and visual media in any division publication. So that cartoon of superintendent cameras uh would have been against the policy. Um so that was something requested by our communications team and we agreed it was a very good idea. Uh I would also note that the state passed a bill regarding artificial intelligence and another big change to our policy is that we synced up the uh terminology and definitions between the

143state's new law and our policy. So instead of just referring to artificial intelligence, we are now referring to artificial intelligence systems. We're referring referring to I believe a division managed environment. A couple key specific terms that we've uh just wanted to ensure that consistency. Thank you. >> Thank you. And that's our report. Thank you, Mr. Stanley. >> I would have to share um give a shout out to Mr. Hedgepath as well for his leadership. I mean, he has hit the ground running to embrace artificial intelligence as one of the first policies uh to be enacted. Um was not a small feat. It was a lot of great conversation, collaboration with m Mr. Stanley along with um our advisory council that share phenomenal feedback along with those um um folks a part of the administration that

144help. But thank you so much for your leadership with that regard. This was an interesting one and we appreciate you um taking on the challenge. Any questions, feedback, thoughts for first read, Miss Ann Holton? >> Thank you. I I certainly would echo uh uh your thanks to Mr. Hedgepets for his great leadership on this and uh uh Mr. Mr. Stanley's help has also been terrific and the task force. Uh I I just want to reiterate how important I think it is that we do I I think we were right to uh take have this again before us on first read because it is so important. We want to make sure we understand what we're doing. But I also want to reiterate, I think it's really important to move forward and adopt a policy, whether or

145not perfect. It's going to evolve and we're going to need to review it on a regular basis. But right now, we are, I think, potentially vulnerable having nothing in place. And also, we, you know, we just can't really ask the uh administration to start implementing a policy until we have one. And uh so both in terms of opening up possibilities but also putting in place protections. I think it's uh I went you and I I know Chair Fernandez were both at the um VS SBA presentation recently on AI policies and I came away with that with we need to get this done. So that would be my the gist of my remarks is let's hopefully be if you have concerns or thoughts or edits or suggestions now is the time so that we can pass

146this thing in May. Thank you. And typically our structure is to have the first read the first month um which gives everyone uh on the board an opportunity to digest what has been shared. While we've been working very diligently as a policy committee, this is going to be the first time that some of us have have seen it for the first time. So, this will I'm sure you'll come with some great feedback, suggestions, and questions as we move further within this uh month. But to uh Miss Holton's point, we certainly want to have something in place. Uh the goal is by by May. Um this is a train that is moving whether we are on board or not and so it's going to be extremely important that we start the process. I feel the steam

147coming from the right of me as um me and me and Mr. Perl have had some very um you know interesting conversation as it relates to AI. Uh however my perspective is this is a great opportunity for areas of efficiency and also um encourages the opportunity for advanced technology for our students coupled with a responsibility to ensure that we maintain integrity in this process and think through how we can safeguard against certain concerns that could be raised with the exposure of certain levels uh to our children. And so that is something that is our responsibility as a board to think through and we certainly welcome those hard questions feedback from the community and such because we do have to balance both. Mr. Edgepath, Mr. Farooq, he winked at me. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh

148I just wanted to mention that in uh our uh our AI task force has not been sunsetted that that task force will continue to do its work. Um and so this is one of the tools that allows them to do their work um in the next steps. Also uh this is an iterative process. So we will continue to revisit this policy because naturally it's already imperfect. Uh but uh I agree with the sentiments of Miss Holton and Miss Fernandez. So uh thank you all very much and um I'm you know of course welcome more feedback on it as we move through the process. >> Mr. Farooq and I'm sure Mr. Pible. >> Thank you Madam Chair. I am a huge fan of technology. I I consider myself an early adopter. I was one of only

149four kids in my high school that took C++ programming as a junior. And so the the thing though with technology is it's about what how do you use it? What is it being used for? What are the guidelines around it? And in public education, we have seen that the way our society uses technology is not always good for our kids. And so we see that with the cell phones that we've struggled with. We see that with screen time. And just in the last two weeks, um actually myself and Mr. card were pressed by parents at a town hall that we held to really reexamine and think about how are we using screens in our public education. I know that I have to take away my son's Chromebook from him as soon as he gets home

150or else he just stays on it and finds ways to play games while pretending to do homework. So, I say all that to say that um I appreciate all the hard work that's gone into the AI policy. Um I really like where it's at, but I still have to reiterate my warning. that AI is not actually artificial intelligence. And there's a billion articles I could send and I've sent my colleagues many articles, but I'll just read out one article recently where the New York Times interviewed several psychologists who studied the use of AI. And this is a quote. Even a single interaction with a psychopantic chatbot made participants less willing to take responsibility for their behavior. a finding that alarm psychologists who view social feedback as an essential part of learning how to make moral

151decisions and maintain relationships. This is a technology that I think you'll all have noticed has been pushed into every aspect of our lives. I can't even open a PDF without this awful AI bar that I can't get rid of. Every single chat now has AI in it. None of us asked for this, but this is what the corporations want because they want to use it to collect our data. they're not going to use it to make our lives easier. And I think that's why this policy has really moved to a place where we're teaching people about the dangers of AI. We're teaching people what the technology actually does. And I love those things. But I really want us all to pause and not imagine that suddenly AI is going to transform public education because cell

152phones didn't do that, computers didn't do that, TVs didn't do that. So I I think what's most important is our staff, the interaction and the relationships with our staff. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you so much for your feedback, Mr. Pible. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh always start with agreement. I think you and I definitely agree the train is coming. The difference is I'm not standing on the platform when it comes. I'll be in the station. Uh but in all seriousness, I've said before, I I greatly appreciate this policy. Definitely something that we need and it is not easy. This is these are shifting sands, moving landscape. Pick your metaphor. This is very difficult to to try policy around. Um but the serious aspect just to to come behind Mr. Farooq and and

153and push the ball a little bit further, I was reading an article just today as a matter of fact and it seems the last pillar to fall are our teachers. And the article that I was reading a college professor and she was saying you know teaching I don't have to tell anybody here long hours not enough pay u the reward is really the students it's the learning it's the growth and she finds herself being more of a police officer than a teacher now and so I would just con I would caution all of us that we need to keep in mind that while this may be a great opportunity for learning and efficiencies and so forth or that it may be yet another yoke that we place around our teachers. Um, and we do have

154to we have to maintain their well-being as well as the students. >> Thank you, Mr. Persal. Miss Rizzie, >> thank thank you, Madam Chair. Um, to go to Mr.'s point, yes, there have been actual federal hearings on chat bots and their impact on youth. Um, but you know, one thing I do want to say as someone who's worked in a higher ed environment for many years is that if we don't teach kids how to use this responsibly when they leave us, they may be vulnerable to doing all kinds of things that cross lines ethically and then are just completely unhealthy. And so I think it is important to teach students how to use AI because they will be required in some majors even to use AI in college if that's where they well probably in

155other industries too. So you know we want to have a healthy balance here. >> Thank you Mr. Farooq. Sorry. One last thing I'll say is to any corporations that really want to like revolutionize public education, just pay more in taxes. Thank you. What I appreciate about us as a board is that we do have some very hearted conversations, but it's always respectful. And so I I thank you for the diversity and opinion with this because I think that's going to stretch us and expand this to a really really thoughtful uh policy. And so please keep the feedback coming. If there's articles that you like to share or seminars that you've attended, please continue to share that feedback with us as we think through what um the final first iteration will be. As Mr. as pass

156have shared this is going to definitely be a working document. All right. Um moving right along to 4.08 receive for first rate contracts over 100K. Mr. Cameras. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a a couple of contracts for your consideration. But I do want to highlight one uh for scoot education which is in essence a um teacher recruitment and and support uh program that we are working with. We are asking to wave the second read and vote tomorrow night given that we are uh in the midst or about to be in the midst of the heart of the hiring season. So I did want to note that and um If there are any questions, happy to take those now or this evening or tomorrow. Thank you. >> Before uh we go into questions, just

157want to ask if you could share just a little bit more about scoot education and the sense of urgency um that Mr. Cameron just shared. Good evening. looking up. Um, uh, Teach Start is with Scoot Education. It's a US-based earn and learn education program. It's for aspiring educators with, um, offering them a salary, benefits, and, um, professional training while they work as long-term subs. So RPS is partnering with Teach Start and they will be providing us with 15 vetted long-term subs that will be placed and assigned to an existing teacher vacancy and that is for the full 26 27 school year. Um beyond classroom placement, Teach Start will be will be providing these subs with intensive coaching in classroom management and instructional practice. um they'll receive also uh professional development throughout the school year and

158that's to ensure um instructional quality remains high all while these subs are preparing for lensure. So this partnership um presents a strategic investment because it's going to be preparing our participants for lenture and ensuring they are ready for hire as teachers for RPS for the subsequent 2728 school year. So we see this initiative directly strengthening our pipeline for permanent qualified educators which will move us closer to our goal of zero. Thank you. That'll open for questions. Miss Rizzy, Mr. Farooq. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I guess I have a question about like what evidence you used um to determine that this program actually works. Um, this is we're going to be piloting this. This is the first year. That's why we're only using 15 and this just for this year. It's an augment of our

159seed program. So, we're casting a wider net to see what we can get back. >> Right. And so, how about school education? Have you do you have data on that? >> We have not used food education in the past. This is a first. >> Yeah, but I mean I'm sure other people have. >> Yes, it is a US US-based education program. They've used them in larger districts throughout the US um in Chicago. So we have >> and you have verification of success in those places. >> Yes. >> Um and then um I guess my next question is this couldn't be done in house. Yes, it can be done in house, but again, we're using this to augment our seed program. It'll be open to our current long-term subs and any other long-term subs. The value

160in this is it allows a little bit of relief off of our substitute specialists. They have a full team of folks that can cast a wider net and bring in these folks and they're it's their employee. They work for Teach Start. All of the um training and development will be through teach start and then when they are finished through the program that one year then they come to us as eligible for license and move into our teacher leader pathways group. >> Thank you Mr. Farooq and then Miss Burke. >> Thank you madam chair. So, we are going to pay Scoot a little over $100,000 to give us 15 subs. >> It is costneutral because they will be going into existing teacher vacancies. >> So, then why where's this where's the $100,000 going contract? So through

161through teach start we are paying them to do all of the training all of the um they're offering them salaries they're offering them benefits professional training this is all preparing them for lenture they're also um connecting with them through what we've already given them as to use UVA wise as well as Virginia Westian to assist with the courses that they need to take while they're preparing for lensure. >> So they would be they're b getting paid as a sub through RPS. >> No, they're getting paid through a sub through teach start. >> Okay. >> So we pay teach start and then teach start pays the sub to work at RPS while they're also doing their >> um >> license preparation. Correct. >> And in your opinion this and I'm guessing these folks aren't norm local.

162I just looked it up. It looks like their Eastern District offices in DC. >> Do you think they'll be better at recruiting people from this area to be subs and RPS than we are? >> Well, they're going to be fully vetting the subs that they recruit for us. They were also going to be running their list up against our current list. They may be our current subs working for us now or former employees. So, it's just casting a wider net. >> Mr. Cameress. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I would I would ask the board to think of this as truly an addition to not a replacement of. So we still have our seed program. We still have our sub recruitment but the fact of the matter is that we still every day do not have

163a sufficient number of high quality substitutes and we still have vacancies. So if we were at zero, I would not bring this forward. But we're not uh it's revenue neutral because yes, we are paying, but then we are not paying subs. So the money that would go to the subs is now they are taken care of. So yes, we have to have a contract and pay that money up front, but in the back end, we're not paying any of those salaries. So that's that's how it's revenue. Thank you, Miss Burke, and Miss Ricard. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for this report. I'm glad the superintendent did what he just did because uh I know that seed the seed program is effective. But um how many students do they have, excuse me, how

164many long-term subs does seed program have? They don't just have long-term subs. They have associate teachers and um pair of professionals that they are working through the program. So it's not just subs that they work with. They work with um so do you know that number? Have an idea? I don't have the exact number but I know it's over 100 that they're working with. So maybe moving forward. Um, I'm just I'm just concerned with I don't know about teachers, new to me and bringing in a group for I'm concerned about the PAR professionals we already have in place. I know of substitutes that are degree but are trying to pass practices and get a job. Yeah. So, I just don't want to leave those persons out of the process who have been with us for

165years, two, three, four, five years, some more than that. So I'm just trying to figure out the validity of teach first and it stated the persons that are listed are not really from this area. They will be from this area. So what am I understanding earlier about the DC list or something else? That's something else. Um that is where the company is headquartered. I I need to read up on this some more because I just just I just would like to know the validity. So, we're paying them and they're going to pay to teach these students, their students. >> And those students would be actively engaged in a school. Yes. There will be a long-term sub placed in an existing vacancy for the entire school. >> Okay. Will their pay be equivalent to our current

166substitutes or will it be more or less? I'm not sure. I'd like to know that because if we're paying them, okay, we're paying them and I'm just thinking in my mind, I Okay, I have a concern regarding bringing in this group knowing the expertise that we have in this area. And when you come to Richmond public schools, we just finished telling our history. It's not just about AI and and teaching, but it's also about the heart. And we have persons who are already dedicated and working in schools and would like to be um fully certified or whatever. So, I don't know what the time frame is. Maybe it's in your report, need to go back through it, but I'd like to hear some more information moving forward for a future uh meeting regarding teach first

167and seed program. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I'm just want to know number one, the difference in the fee. Number two, is it something that we can do in house? As you stated, we don't want to continue to stretch the persons that we have. Then if we can pay teach first, then we can hire somebody else. I I don't I don't I don't I don't get the logic. So, >> one minute. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Mr. Cameress. and then Miss Ricard. >> First, thank you for all the questions. Um, we'll make sure to gather up answers for all of those and provide more context on uh teach start uh for you all tomorrow. Um, I do want to emphasize that again, if we were able to fill every vacancy and every

168need for a sub ourselves, uh, we certainly would not be entertaining this, but we're trying to uh, approach the challenge from every possible angle. So I think the most beneficial lever that we have is the seed program which is developing our own folks. Um but even that has not been able to fully meet the need and so this is an additional piece of the puzzle. That said um we certainly need to get you more information and we will bring that all to you. So if there are any other questions, please don't hesitate to >> Oh, there's now or >> we we have plenty. >> Thank you, Miss Cameras, Miss Ricard, and then we have Miss Rizzy, and then we have Mr. Hedgepad. >> Thank you. Um my question is, what is their success rate in

169getting teachers totally across the um board with passing their practice and getting credential? Our goal would be once they have completed that year, they will be then eligible for a provisional license. The provisional license will give them time to pass the practice. >> Miss Recall, will Scoot continue to support them in that or do they only support them that first year? just the first year and then they would transition over to our teachers. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Great question, Miss Miss Rizzie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'm not sure, Miss Ricard, if you were like referring to this, but I in whatever information you provide us, um I'd really like to see um their work at other districts and their success rate there. Um, Miss Hedgepath, then Miss B. Oh, sorry, Mr. Jafari

170and then Miss B. >> Thank you, Miss Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Haskins. Um, I think I heard you say earlier, you referred to Virginia Wesley and uh, but um, are what are the um, the the partners that they rely on for the coursework? Are they all accredited uh universities and colleges? You said Wesleyan, but are there others involved in that training as well? >> Well, they asked us for our recommendations and we recommended UVA Wise and Virginia Wesleyan because those are the schools that we work heavily with now through the C program. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafari. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm listening and some of my concerns echo those colleagues. I'm here hearing that it will alter what we currently do. So does the $100,000 give us a certain

171a lotment? Are they going to be pulling from the same that we always already pull from in this region? >> It's possible. So, they're going to be recruiting in this area for for subs for us and they will vet them. They will provide that information to my team where we will cross reference that. Are these our current subs that we currently employ? Are they previous employees? And we'll see what that looks like when they provide us with pay. >> Okay. Does the $100,000 is that a certain number that they are contracted to provide or how does that break down? >> They'll be contracted to provide us with 15 longterm. >> So >> for the the school year. >> So is it foreseeable that we already have substitutes who have been non-term substitutes? Yes. >> Who

172would now go and work for school instead of of working for RBS or aren't we using the same features? >> We are dipping in the same pool. It's possible that they can cast a wider net than our current current workload can handle. So then uh I guess the catch there is that or the hope if you will is that it can reach beyond current the current netting and pull in others. >> Yes. >> So so what's being what how can you give me some context to how that's going to work? Uh >> well >> they're going to offer them something different than RPS offers them salary opportunity for lensure pathway that kind of thing. Well, with RPS, not all of our long-term subs are looking to become teachers. Some are. These these 15 will all

173be aspiring educators. That their end goal is to become a teacher. >> That'll that's a commitment that they make to school that they will adhere to the program, >> stay in. >> Yes. >> Thank you. We have Miss Burke, Miss Holton. Thank Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you so much for your patience this evening. So, I have three questions. Um, once the persons in Teach First complete the program, is there an agreement as to how many years they will stay with Richen Public Schools? >> Yes, they will have a commitment agreement with RPF. >> For how many years? >> I think it's going to be one to three years. So you mean after I educate you and pay for you to be educated after one year you can leave? >> Correct. >> They will

174teach for us full-time. >> But that takes how many years? Two years. One year. >> The first year there'll be a long-term sub. Okay. And then the subsequent year there will be a contracted full-time licensed eligible teacher for us. >> Hopefully. >> Yes. >> So we don't know whether that's going to work out or not. >> No. So, and then they can leave after we've invested in them. So, my second question is just just trying to get straight on this. Um I continuously hit $100,000, but that per per um teacher substitute teacher I mean contract >> 30 seconds >> over,000 more than what is currently I'm not following the financial piece. >> Mr. Cameras. >> Yes. Thank you. So, the contract is to recruit, train, and place 15 long-term subs um and pay them for

175the year. Um to offset that cost, we aren't paying them, which is why it's essentially revenue neutral. So, it's not $100,000 for a sub. That would be great if I do a sub. Um, it's for 15. That's what we covering. Yes. Okay. I understand now. So, the $100,000 is for professional development to support. That's off. Okay. I guess I'll just listen and learn. He start providing all of the professional development. for for everything. They're paying the salary benefits, the training, and they're going to be a teach employee. So, they won't be on our payroll benefits. Let's let's do this. We were not prepared for tonight. I'm just going to call it like it is. So, we are gonna do a better job, bring you more detailed and clear information tomorrow and then we'll see how

176people feel about it and we'll go from there. How about that? >> I think it would be very important for us to continue with the questions so that you all would be better prepared to answer them tomorrow. So, if we can I'd like to for those that have not spoken yet. So, that's um Miss Holton, myself and Mr. reversible and then we'll come back to you Miss Rizzy, Miss Miss Halton. >> And again, this isn't to be answered tonight. This is for Yes. Thank you. So, I'd like to understand what is the estimated total expenditure on the contract, which I don't think is 100,000. 100,000 is just the threshold that brings us here and how that compares to what we would otherwise spending on these subs. I believe I understand that we're going to be

177paying they are going to be paying by we are going to be paying them $270 per sub. So I would like to know what do we pay for a sub per day and obviously what we're paying them may be more because there's additional services it's not just self pay training etc but I would love I would appreciate understanding that different >> thank you Mr. Per. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. My question is also a contractual one. Um, looking at the short form contract. It looks like we're riding on Denver Public Schools. And the wording is the term of this contract shall be from the date of execution through June 30, 2026. This agreement may be renewed if exercised or extended by Denver Public Schools. Is our contract somehow tied to Denver public schools? And

178has acrobied this? And do we have because that language seems out of place. >> No, not um here are my questions. I think the for me the importance is is not just about the how it's the why. So first I really want to understand why we've decided that school education is will be more effective than our current structure. Um, for that I would like to request a chart comparison of what what we currently have, what Scoot Education is providing, and the pros and cons for both because I I don't see that outlined in this. And I think that'll give us a better understanding of of the value that I think you all have seen or have identified, but that sometime it's not tracking right in this moment. I also want to understand is it just

179limited to a year contract to Miss Burke's point we don't want to just train folks license them and then they just have the opportunity to go elsewhere could we extend the contract for say one to two or excuse me two to three years um my other question is around what is our current structure for professional devel- velopment. Um, one of the things I did notice is that we're approving for under over $100,000, but we don't have an idea of what the cost will be. And I would really like to understand if if it's a hund,000 per sub like give some type of estimation of what that cost will be overall. Also after that first year we have 15 subs does that now go into our budget after the year? Does that mean we need to

180solve for an additional amount of funding for said 15 substitutes? Um and then last but certainly not least is liability. How if if they're essentially this they're being hired by a third party, what does that look like in terms of how we manage them? How we supervise them? Like how does that work if they are truly being contracted under school education and not RPS from a liability perspective? Where does that leave us? So those are my questions. Miss Rizzie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. One thing that may answer some of these questions, um, who provides these, um, uh, students, for lack of a better word, um, contracts. Where do those contracts come from? Is it scoot education or will it be RPS? >> Okay. So, is there a way to obtain a contract and um,

181share that with us? Mr. Pival. >> Thank you, Measure. Mr. Stanley, would you pull up the contract in the ports? >> I mean, >> I just want to make sure I'm not crazy. It says Denver Public Schools. per uh Virginia procurement law, we can ride off of agreements. So that's that's what this is, but we'll get you the citation. Yes. And then Miss B. >> I just want to be clear that I mean the individual teacher contracts, not the contract with the court. >> Yes, >> Miss Berg. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So, um, approximately how many openings do we anticipate whereas we need moving into the 26 27 school year? How many openings that we will have that we think we will not be able to get qualified teachers? Our goal is to have

182less than 50 classroom teacher vacancies. >> So what what do we currently have? >> We're currently at 93 teacher vac. >> So now >> classroom teacher >> 93 >> but we're going to have 15 and 15. >> Well, okay. I'm just 15 from teach start. >> Teach first teach start. But then we also have a seed program, right? >> Yes. >> But they're not currently they're pair professionals as you stated. Hi. >> Thank you. I will I I mean I appreciate the work that has been put into this and I'm I'm sure that there is a lot of excitement um from the administration's perspective. Um, I would have to just reiterate this is why we we try to stay away from first read and approvals the next day because this does not give us enough

183opportunity to digest the information. And something like this, it's it's extremely important for us to be able to take the time to ask questions, get feedback from the community. And I don't feel like we've met that mark here. And so I want to call out that this is something that we really would like in the future to to stay away from simply because it does not give us enough opportunity to really digest the impact that this provides. And I don't even know if if we would be prepared tomorrow to move forward with any type of vote. I think there's just so much so too so too so too so too so too so too so too so too so too so too so too many questions that go unanswered. So, I just want to call

184that out to to level set to give realistic expectations of where at least I stand right now. But I do appreciate the work that you've put into this and um thank you for answering our questions and I appreciate you being prepared to share more tomorrow. I really appreciate the fact that you've written the questions down to ensure that you've captured everything. Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Right. We are now at administrative updates 5.01. Receive an update on care and safety. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Fernandez, Vice Chair Perl, schoolboard members, and superintendent cameras. Welcome back, Mrs. Burke. I miss your perspective and all of our colorful conversations about our families in the East. Tonight's care and safety presentation um is just basically an overview of our policy 8-3.2 which is our acceptable technology and

185cell phone use policy. Um, as all of you are aware, our governor signed tons of health and safety pieces of legislation um on last week. And as a result, that means we have to go back and do some fine-tuning and see what are those things that we're doing well and the musthaves as a result of this new legislation. So, for example, one of the things that we have to have is threat assessments and working with law enforcement. RPS already meets that mark. Um, as it pertains to the cell phone band, uh, I think everyone remembers executive order 33 from our former governor. Uh, they had some wonderful recommendations uh, that we followed to the tea and added some additional things. And so we do meet um what's required for the legislation. However, we always we've

186been in this for a while. So we went back and we asked our constituent groups, our shareholder groups, what's working, what's not working, what can we do better. And so you will see some of that dialogue um within the presentation. We just gave you the raw data, but um participation rates with surveys, we're still working. It's an area of growth for us. We're not where we would like to be as far as participation goes, but from the 1,700 student caregivers and teachers who participated in the survey as well as the 25 administrators that participated in the survey, we were able to develop some themes. And one of the things that we uh have realized as an administrative team is that we're going to have to put some non-negotiables. Autonomy is great. Um but it's not

187working for some of our buildings. And so we want to make sure that we're unformed in our practices. And so over the next few weeks, we will bring you some updates about all of the things that we're required to do and how RPS is aligned with the things that's required by the governor. Um, but since we've been in the cell phone uh policy world for a while, we wanted to start with that and I'll take any questions that you may have. >> Miss Burke, this just always well done. Thank you so much. I'm interested at some point of hearing more regarding what the governor on the screen and I see the secretary of education there with her. So I'm wondering I don't know approve >> we'll research that and let you know later to this

188evening >> and I'll ask if we could ask and I guess that would be family as well maybe together to get a better handle on all that that's out there. I know she sounds a lot of bills that would favor our our families educationally, homewise, the whole so maybe that will come later from from >> Absolutely. Matthew and I had an opportunity to touch base this afternoon and we're actually meeting next week on Tuesday to dig into it a little bit further so that we can make sure we capture everything for the board. >> Mr. Hitchpath. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Parks. I really appreciate the presentation. Um, I was looking at some of the of the survey questions, some of them about like students not being able to communicate with their

189parents during the day or parents not being able to communicate with students in in a case of emergency and some of those things are you know that they feel that um these things are not improving I suppose with the policy. I I wonder what is our practice and recommendation for schools uh to allow students to call their parents in the office and to remind our parents that like that's the proper avenue in which to to reach their students not I'll say this as a teacher as well right that you know instead of oh I I just need to text or call my parent at this moment or they called me or they they texted me in the middle of class and so I just need to respond to that like what what How do we

190handle that type of situation where where we reinforce better behavior? >> Understood. I don't think that that's something that's happening globally. I do think that we have communication channels for in events where there are emergencies or say for instance a student goes to the nurs's office and just making sure um that our nurses reach out to our families and if there's an emergency where a student feels like they need to contact their parent. It doesn't necessarily have to be the front office staff. It could be one of our student support specialists or student counselor. It just really does does depend on the situation. But um one of the things that we've noticed as a result of the bill, it's not a whole lot of things that we have to do differently, but it mandates additional

191communication. So that's one of the things that we will be capturing for the board. How are we letting families know on a consistent basis expectations for communications? Um because that's one of the things that we're pointing out. >> Thank you, Miss Ricard. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Miss Parks, I appreciate that point about consistency. Um, I think that's the hardest part as a building leader. Um, making sure that your expectations are consistent. Um, it's not only cell phones, it's dress code, it's everything. And I think what you just said, it's not just once that we communicate this, we communicate it all year long. And I know when I was an administrator, we would do a um school assembly on behavior expectations in January. Like we're back to remind you what we're still not doing,

192you know. Um and that takes time. Know our building it's hard when you have a million other things. But I think as much as we can be consistent and support our building leaders and teachers in that consistency so that they know when they are enforcing it, we've got their backs, that's just going to help everything. >> Mr. PL, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm going to use the word consistency again. The majority of the feedback I get from teachers, students, parents, um, is the consistency of enforcement. So, and I see that's the first bullet in the recommendations for the next steps. Are we going to codify that? Do we have plans to codify that somehow so that we >> Yes, sir. We're going to codify it. We're going to have many focus group because

193I do want to make sure that we're having feedback from all stakeholder groups. um and not just from our students who are considered our you know uh students who excel academically but also some of the students from our non-traditional programs to see what work best and then certainly we'll be working with the secondary principal directors specifically on how are we supporting principles and principles how are we supporting our teachers and so it will be a process we'll have some growing pains readily readily so um but we will continue to support our team to make things just right but making sure that um the nice suggestions are great, but now we have some things that we have to mandate and it's going to be better overall for our schools. >> Thank you. That was uh one

194of the questions that I had. So, thank you for sharing that. Great. Right. Um my other question was is I'm just interested in seeing were there any aha moments for you when you read the survey? Like anything that stood out for you? >> There were a couple of aha moments. I think some of our students in particular rushed through the um multiple choice questions, but they were given their honest opinion when they were able just to freestyle. So, some of the things that we read um and if the board is interested in all of it, we do have all of the raw data. We just try to syn synthesize it for and put it in buckets for the purposes of this presentation. But if you're interested in it, we have all of it for you.

195But yes, some of our students, it was really interesting to hear their commentary. >> Really? >> Yes. >> And I love the fact that they took the time to to share it. That that says a lot about >> Well, we were hoping for more. Um, one of the approaches that we tried to use was teachers take the last five minutes of one of your class periods and let all at the secondary level and let them do it. Um, but we know some students probably was on a computer, but were they working on the survey? um we had about 19 overall. We did have a cut off date because of course our presentations are due by a certain time and so when we went back and looked it was a little bit over 1900 versus the

1961700 that we reported on. But yeah, those were the aha moments. Like the students were very vocal. And so once you look at the data, you will see all of the multiple choice things are sounding good. And then when they had an opportunity to just kind of freestyle on their comments, you're like, whoa, this is where we need to lean in a little bit more and making sure that we're supporting our teachers. >> Oh, that's great to hear. Um, and then there was one more question just escaped me. Oh, I would be very interested to hear um feedback from once you get the the study group or what have you together. Um just kind of what the varying opinions are. Um, as we all know, consistency is the biggest challenge. And how do we remain

197sensitive to the feedback that we receive while also ensuring that we're executing this consistently from school to school. So, I'll be I don't envy you for this, but I know you'll do well because you always do. It's your usual. Um, I'll be curious to hear how we can capture that and really create something that really fits every school in the division. And that's why school leader feedback is going to be important as a part of the process because we know that every school has their own culture. >> However, >> these are the mandates. So, you have to make them work within your school culture. >> So, if you guys are watching, please give your feedback. We need to hear it so that we can make something um create something that really fits across the board.

198>> Love to have it. And we can reshare the survey if you're interested in taking it now. This is for the community. >> Appreciate that. Yeah, I would suggest that you do that just just to see if there's anything different that that comes up from it. Thank you so much. Last, but certainly not least, receive an update on summer school 5.02. Good evening, superintendent cameras. Uh, madame chair and school board members, um, I'm Sydney Gunter, director of academic programs and supports, and I would like to give you a brief update on our summer school progress. Thank you for considering, uh, summer school and placing it back in our budget talks. Um, the team is working on Overdrive now to plan a great summer school experience for our kids. Um, before I start, I just want

199to quickly shout out my colleague who I invited today, but she's at a conference, so she can't come. Rebecca Fox is sort of a hidden gem. She really works to plan the high school summer school um portion of the program every single year and she knocks it out the park. Um but she wasn't able to make it today. Um so just a summary, summer school will be uh June 8th through July 9th this year for prek through 8. High school of course goes a week longer and so that will be through July 16th and summer school graduation will be July 16th this year which is a Thursday. um with the holidays of course June 18th and then July 2nd will be the observation for the 4th of July. Okay. The times will be the same

200as last year 8 to 2:30 for elementary 9 to 3:30 for middle school and then high school operates in two sessions the 8:15 to 11:45 and 12:15 to 3:45 which gives the high school students an opportunity to take two courses in the summer. Um you'll see our summer sites. Um we operate on a hub model again. Um so we will be at JB Fischer, Broadock, Blackwell, Shimberazzo, William Fox, and Holen this summer. Um and the surrounding schools will all feed into those elementary sites. Um Bushaw and Henderson will support our middle school sites and high school again will be at RTC and Hugenat this year. Uh we will still operate on a summer bridge model for our fifth graders and so we are inviting the fifth graders to attend the middle school summer school sites

201this year. Um and so uh Bushaw will serve the southside theater schools. Henderson will of course serve the north side theater schools. And then we're also inviting the middle schoolers from our RPS 200 schools to come. While they the under I'm calling them underassmen, the K through fourth graders don't come to summer school because of the 200 day calendar. We know the fifth graders are coming to middle school next year. So we're inviting them to come to summer school to get that transition. Next slide please. Um we also have some other programs happening. Um some 21st century community learning center programs happening. So these three schools actually have a separate 21st century grant that serves the schools during the school year. And the grant also allows them to um plan summer um support for the

202kids. So there'll be 21st century programs at John Marshall and Richmond High School for the heart arts. These will happen after summer school is over to provide additional remediation um and enrichment for students. they really want to target the rising ninth graders to those programs, but they'll be open to all students at those schools. And then um JB Fischer also has a 21st century grant and so after summer school, there'll be a 21st century program there for students who feed into that school. Um, we will again partner with the mayor's youth academy to bring our Richmond students into summer school sites to work um at the middle and high school programs. Um, I'm sorry, middle and elementary school programs. Um, our all-in tutors. This is the last uh year, last few months for that funding

203actually. Um, but they'll still be able to support with providing additional one-to-one tutoring during summer school and literacy and math. Um, and we are happy to expand our partnership with Richmond Parks and Recreation. And so we will bus students who are already registered for those programs to um Broadrock which is summer schools at Broadrock. Blackwell has a facility. Westover Hills, Hotchusfield, Battery Park, Powan, Humphrey Calder, Luxfield, and Randolph Community Centers. If students are already registered for those programs, we will take them from the summer school site to that program afterwards, which will give them a longer day. And then those programs are also open on Fridays. And then in terms of timelines, um, we actually sent summer school letters home today via parent square. That is new for us. It's our first year using Parent

204Square. I'm already getting emails from parents asking questions. So that indicates to me that they got the letters. Um, but we also are going to give schools a tracker that have the letters as well too. So if a parent says, "I didn't get my letter," then the school can just send the letter to the family as well too. Um, so we want to just make sure we have multiple ways to communicate that to families. And that's for pre-K through 8. High school registration is also live on the summer school website right now. So, um, high school students work in conjunction with their school counselor to make sure they're registering for the right course. Um, and they go online and click the links to register for the right course. So, that is up now. Um, the

205summer school staff interest form is open. We actually um are hiring through Power School this year. that is also new for us. Power School is our HR hiring system. Um so we have moved applications into that system and working with staff to understand how to log into that and apply that way. That will help the talent team on the back end with the hiring piece. Um and hiring letters can be sent through powers school just like we do the normal hiring process. We used a Google form previously and it was just a more manual process. Um and then um by the end of the week we hope to have hired our summer school principles. Then we can start with our summer school teacher hiring. Um, I think that's it. Um, summer school training will be

206June 4th, 1st through the 4th. Um, and then of course the summer session will start on June 8th. We plan to, um, staff very conservatively this year. Um, we know with our budget limitations, we just want to make sure we are being good stewards of the funding. Um, so we're going to start with one teacher for each grade level at each school and as we see numbers rise, we will add a teacher as necessary. Um and then we also heard the question about summer school data. And so while we usually collect summer school data with the individual programs like the literacy program and the math program, we will um bring that together and just present an overview after summer school. So you can see a comparison of these are the kids who went to summer

207school versus the kids who did not attend summer school. >> Thank you. And to take a step further, are you able to follow them to see if what was imparted in them in summer school has caused them to be more successful or or not um in the up and cominging academic year? Like is there a way for us to con to start tracking that um from summer school to regular school? >> Yeah, we definitely can. We just use their student ID number to track the fact that they attended summer school and then we can compare that against like Val's data or um VGA data um for the kids who did and did not attend summer school. So I know our data team can pull that together because I've seen them do it before. >> Great.

208Thank you >> Miss Holton, Mr. Jafari. >> Thank you for that great presentation for all the good planning. Following up on the data questions, can we think about what data we can collect on whether we're getting the students who most need summer school into programming? Um, and maybe even what methods work best to help get them there. So, I appreciate that you're working parent this year. I hope trust you are also working with the student teachers to reinforce that message. Yes. Um we have a a tracker that each school has and it has the list of students, their teacher and their summer school letter. So a lot of schools actually will uh print those letters and give them to the teachers to give to the students to take home in addition to um the parent

209square this year just to make sure it's going home multiple ways. The kids we've invited are kids who are identified based on their academic data. They are high risk on vows or they >> are ask inviting is children you think need >> it. Thank you >> Mr. Jafari. >> Thank you. >> I've gotten a couple of inquiries parents trying to be heard or whatever that that would be openings hiring >> for um teachers. No, not teacher power students perhaps coming home school, college, whatever. >> Um, not for our summer school program. So, we we hire staff internally. So, our summer school teachers have to be um like fully contracted RPS teachers already. So, we don't hire anyone who's not already an RPS employee. I think that's right. >> Summer program, >> summer job program. internship.

210>> Oh, I see what you're asking. No, not currently. We we used to have like a tutoring program a long time ago where we hired college students to be summer tutors. We do not do that anymore. Um the only sort of avenue we have is the Mayor's Youth Academy, which has the um like high school kids who are working this summer in our summer school sites, but we don't hire any external employees for summer school. >> I get that. But that may be something that we may want to do because while we going out those kinds of things. We may be able to plant the seeds them to come back to our not simply letting them come in work over the summer and do some internships. >> And summer school is a great opportunity for

211um for example some teachers in our C program who may be um like fully contracted and provisionally licensed to teach summer school to get some more experience in ours as well too. Um, but that's a great suggestion. >> I think it's also important to note that some families utilize summer school for different reasons. Not everyone is because they're academically challenged. Some just would like to have additional support. Some want to graduate early while others do it simply because it's a safer environment for them for their children during the summertime. So not everything is quantifiable. Some you know some things um are not as clear to the eye as it in terms of rationale of why one might choose summer school. So I just wanted to call that out. >> Mr. Hitchbath. >> Thank you, Madam

212Chair. Thank you, Mr. Gunter. I appreciate the update here. And I appreciate also that uh RPS is is partnering with parks to uh to transport our kiddos to uh programs after school. Um I know that, you know, just speaking from the WTover Hills uh location, I know that the spots are limited and um and oftentimes they're they're challenging uh to to get. So I I wonder are those is registration for do you know is registration already open for parks and recck summer camp? And if it is uh are we communicating with these families that are we're sending uh summer school notices to so that way they know and and can hopefully take full advantage of it before it fills up. Yes, summer school registr I'm sorry parks and wreck registration is open. I believe they've

213been open since about February. Um we had hoped to open our registration sort of in tandem with them so families could register for both at the same time. Um unfortunately that didn't happen this year. Hopefully next year we'll be able to do that. Um but we've talked to parks and rec so they are letting families of kids who have registered for their programs know if your student has registered for RPS summer school once they get that invitation they can come to both programs. So we we are going to hit it on our end and they're also going to do the same thing. >> Thank you Miss Ricard. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Mr. Hedgepath, you and I are thinking the same thing. I was just about to say that last week, Parks and Wreck

214posted that they still have openings at Blackwell, Luxfield, Powatan, and TB Smith for summer camp. So, things are filling up, but there still are openings there for our families. >> Shout out to Parks and Rev for the amazing partnership. Thank you. Yeah, for your flexibility and that. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, who has closed? Miss Halton. I move that the school board of the city of Richmond convene in close session number one to discuss and consider for hire a prospective candidate for a central office position as authorized by Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 and two to consult with legal counsel and receive briefing by staff members related to litigation against social media companies comma as authorized by Virginia code section 2.2-3711 A7. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Holton and

215seconded by Mr. Hedgepath. Madam clerk, >> Mr. Perl, >> yes. >> Miss Ricard, >> yes. >> Mr. Farooq, >> yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath, >> yes. Miss Rizzy, >> Miss Holton, >> yes. >> Miss Burke, >> yes. >> Mr. Jafari, >> yes. >> Miss Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> We are now in close. We could transition to the back, please. As soon as possible. >> Hold on to that. Okay, gotcha.