RPS School Board Work Session - January 5, 2026

001I now call to order the meeting of the school board of the city of Richmond for Monday, January 5th, 2026. Madame clerk, welcome. >> Mr. Pival >> here, >> Mr. Card >> here, >> Mr. Farooq >> here, >> Mr. Hedgepath >> here, >> Miss Rizzy, >> Mr. Burke, >> present, Mr. Jafari >> here. >> Mr. Fernandez >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Mr. Defar, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? pledges allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will now have the translation services announcement. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the language justice team, we welcome you. If you need interpretation from English to Spanish, please come see

002me. 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 want to remind everyone to please speak at a normal pace and keep your face no more than a couple of inches away from the microphones so that our interpreters can hear you clearly. I will now make the same announcement in Spanish. Thank you. >> Thank you. We now turn to item 1.04, election of officers, chair and vice chair, and I will open the floor for nominations for chair. Mr. Pival. >> Thank you, Superintendent. In the spirit of continuity and to keep the RPS train moving in the right direction and to even greater destinations, I would like to nominate Chabanda

003Fernandez of District 9 as chair. >> Second. >> It has been moved by Mr. Persalt to have Mrs. Fernandez as chair. And it has been seconded by Mr. Hedgepath. Cler >> Mr. Pival. >> Yes. >> Mr. Card. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farooq. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgep. >> Yes. >> Miss Rizzy. >> Miss Burke. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jafar. >> Yes. >> Miss. Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Congratulations, Madam Chair. >> I now turn the meeting over to you. Good evening everyone. Before we move forward with um the election of vice chair, just want to thank my colleagues for the opportunity to serve another year. Um it truly has been a team effort and one that I am honored to be a part of and I just look forward to um so much

004more great things that we'll do in 2026. Thank you all very much. And with that, I will open the floor for Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair, and congratulations. I nominate due to consistency and the the carry through as already stated, Matt Persville as vice chair. >> It's been moved by Miss Burke and seconded by Mr. Mr. Jafari, Madame Clerk, >> Mr. Persal, >> yes. >> Miss Ricard, >> yes. >> Mr. Farooq, >> yes. >> Mr. Hedgep, >> yes. >> Miss Rizzy, >> yes. >> Miss Burke, >> yes. >> Mr. Jafari, >> yes. >> Mr. Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Congratulations. Just bear with us just a moment so we can play a little bit more of Musical Chairs. ready. Okay. All right, we're all settled. Wonderful. >> All right, we're moving right

005along to 1.05, adoption of the agenda, >> Mr. Pipal. Thank you, Madame Chair. I move to adopt the agenda as posted. >> It's been moved by Mr. PCAL and seconded by Miss Burke. Madame Clerk, >> Mr. Peral, >> yes. >> Mr. Ricard, >> yes. >> Mr. Perug, >> yes. >> Mr. Hedgep, >> yes. >> Miss Rizzy. Mr. Burke, >> yes. >> Mr. Jabari, >> yes. >> Mr. Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Moving right along to 1.06. 06. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent, appoint the clerk, deputy clerk, agent, and deputy agent, and approve the agent and deputy agent to act and sign in the superintendent's absence. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I hereby recommend Miss Shireena Chang as my agent, Miss Reisha Parks as my deputy agent and request that they

006be able to act and sign in my absence. In addition, I hereby recommend Richardson as clerk and Miss Mary Zas as deputy. >> Is there a motion? >> Widow motion. Motion to approve the superintendent's recommendations. >> Mr. Hitchpath. >> Miss Richardson, just shook your head. Yes. Yeah. >> It's been moved by Mr. Hedgep and seconded by Mr. Jafari. Madam clerk. >> Mr. Pival. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ricard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farooq. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgep. >> Yes. >> Miss Rzzy. >> Yes. >> Miss Burke. Yes, >> Mr. Jafari. >> Yes, >> Miss Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Oh, we did it all. >> Did the superintendent include the permission to sign? Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Moving right along to 1.07. Uh, set 2026 meeting dates

007and locations. Is there a motion or do we need to approve that? We just >> Mr. Pible. >> Madam Chair, I move to adopt the committee meeting the board and committee meeting schedule for 2026. >> Second. It's been moved by Mr. PLAL and seconded by U. Miss Ricard. Before we go to a vote, are there any is there any matter of debate for this topic? I just want to call to note that for Oh, no. It's already been updated. Never mind. Okay, we're good to go. Madam Clerk, >> Mr. Perl, >> yes. >> Mr. Cart, >> yes. >> Mr. Farooq, >> yes. >> Mr. Hedgepan, >> yes. >> Mr. Rizzy, >> Miss Burke, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Jafar, >> yes. >> Miss Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Moving right

008along to Dreams for RPS update. We have 2.01. Receive an update on Dreams for RPS goal one, new school accountability system. Good evening and happy new year. I was going to say the exact same thing. [laughter] Good evening and happy new year to each one of you. It's CL. I'm glad to see each and every one of you and to be back. Um I am pleased to finally be able to present the um 2425 accountability results. As you remember, this is the first year of this accountability model. So, it took the state a little bit more time to release results. So, we are excited to um to be able to now discuss our results. I want to first say thank you to um our students and parents because they make all of this possible and

009they do all of the work and so we want to thank our parents um for all the support they provide for us and the students for all their hard work. I want to thank our principles, assistant principles, our teachers who are instructional leaders, instructional staff, support staff would include which includes coaches and interventionists. um our academic team, our directors, managers and specialists, um our counselors, family liaison. I'm naming so many people because it takes a village to do the work we do. All of the academic offices, talent, wellness, um all of the people who make it possible, our bus drivers, don't forget our bus drivers, our cafeteria workers, all of them really help us to do all the work we do. And so I just want to call them out and so everyone knows how

010appreciative we are for the work they do. Um, okay. As we settle into this new accountability system um with a student by student focus to make sure all of our students are successful. we remain focused on target and intentional um ways into increase our results. Our key takeaways are that our high schools are soaring. If you look at our results, our high schools are doing a great job because of the intentional work in graduation and because of the 3E model which we did a lot of work to make sure that we had the results we have for the accountability system. Our middle schools are making great progress. We have five middle schools that with great results this year will be able to come out of federal identification which would be huge for our division. And

011so we are looking forward the Virginia Department of Education called us together to talk to us about these schools are right there and all we need is another strong year and because they are CSI schools, comprehensive school improvement, they have to be in for three years. So this is the year. So we're excited about the progress they're making. And also we when we look at our elementary schools, we have we went from nine to four who um needed intensive support. And we also have four potential schools coming out of comprehensive school improvement. So we have a lot to celebrate um about our results. And as we learn more about this accreditation model, it is helping us to look at all of the things that we need to do um as a school division and next

012steps we need to take. And so I'm excited to show you our results. John is going to come forward and just give you a little bit more about the accreditation model because now that we can match it with the results, um we want to just bring a little bit of that um back to you. Then I'm going to come back with key takeaways based on our results. John is going to come back to talk to you um about accreditation and then I'm going to take questions. So um we're excited. So um please let us know, stop us any time um that you might have a question, but we will be taking questions at the end, too. Good evening, school board members. I'm here to present our accountability. So, the state released, I like to think

013of it, four data points. Uh, the framework, score, performance category, federal identification, and accreditation. All of this to me is like our accountability model. With that being said, I'm going to break it down just a little bit here so you all have a general idea of what these mean. The first one is that framework score. And on this slide here, you can see our different levels, elementary, middle, and high school. So, for example, this framework score is a composite of all of these indicators. So, if you look in elementary school, you can see reading and math growth 12.5%. That's the weight. You see the mastery indexes for reading, math, science, and then also progress in English language proficiency, which is measured through WEDA. And then lastly is readiness which is chronic absenteeism is 10%. All

014of these data points essentially composite to that overall framework score. The next one here and this gets a little complicated here so I wanted to provide a simplistic um definition is around federal identification. The first one is comprehensive school and improvement. This is for a whole school that is identified for improvement. Um, typically it is the lowest uh performing 5% of all schools in the state and I'll talk about that here more in a second. The next one is targeted school support and improvement. These are for subgroups, student groups. And lastly is additional targeted support and improvement. These are schools that have been identified as targeted support and improvement for three consecutive years. They're then labeled ATSI. With that being said, it's important to understand how they determine CSI and TSI identification. Again, CSI identification

015is the school performed the lowest 5% of all Title One schools in the state. And with that being said, you can see the data points on the right. One data point that I want to just point out is that overall framework score that is the best performing of the bottom 5%. and they use this data point as a cut score for TSI. And then for TSI, what they're doing for all for all the schools is they're looking at each student group and every student group. Make sure I say this right. Each reporting group of that school must succeed in at least one of the schools that cut scores cut score excuse me uh overall framework score reading mastery index math or science and if they exceed at least one of those data points they are

016not identified as TSM. Next is the performance category. This is where you can see distinguish on track offtrack and needs intensive support. They use that overall framework score to determine this. So for example, if a school is has scored 81 points, they are identified as on track. Now one very important note is at the very bottom it says that if a school is federally identified as TSI or ATSI, they will have their category lowered by one. And if a school is identified as CSI, they cannot be distinguished. This has a huge impact on our school performance level. So for example, that same school that scored 81, if they were identified as a subgroup for TSI, they would have their category go from on track to off track. All right. And I'm going to talk about

017what schools were impacted here later on. >> Yes, >> Mr. PL. >> Sorry to interrupt, but Dr. Wiggins said we could ask questions in between. And and I'm maybe missing something, but every time I read this in the red, I get confused >> because CSI by definition means you're in the lowest 5%. How could you possibly be in a distinguished category if you were in the lowest 5% of the state? >> So, some schools were identified as CSI based off the old model. And we actually have a school in RPS that scored I believe it was 97% Thomas Jefferson High School. >> Familiar? >> Yes, they should have been uh they were CSI identified. Forget what year off the top of my head, but they were CSI identified years back and that's carried over from

018that previous um the previous model and they're still CSI now. They can exit now this year, but because they're CSI, they could not be distinct. Uh Thank you. And you're also locked into CSI for three years, >> Mr. Cameras. >> I was just gonna say that. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> All right. All right. The next one here is accreditation. Accreditation is not what it used to be. Accreditation is now a set of compliance questions designed to ensure that we meet VOE standards. An example of a question is or one of the examples were are students who achieve a passing score on the end of a course so awarded a verified unit of credit in that course and the answer is obviously yes for for our schools and so that's what accreditation is and there are

019two questions or areas where we got dinged on and I'll explain that later on. All right so yes >> Miss Rizzy does this mean that um schools are no longer based on >> we'll get in. Yeah. So we'll come back to that. >> Okay, >> Mr. Cameron. >> Yes, that is mostly true. And I think the best way to think about this is accreditation is now meeting state uh standards for compliance of various rules and regulations. less about performance though it bleeds into performance. It's easiest just to think about this like did you check all the boxes to meet all the things that the state says you're supposed to. The uh accountability system is the you know zero to 100 actually you can go above 100 and then that translates over to those four categories.

020So just quick check for understanding. So 90 to 100 or above is called. All right. 81 or 80 to 89 on track. 65. 65 to 79 off track. >> And then below 65 is of sport. And what can get you bumped down one of those categories? any federal identification. Yeah. CSI, TSI or ATSI. And this was the state's effort to bring coherence to the state and the federal systems. It's a work in progress. And so, as John noted, there are several schools that were federally identified under the old model that are carrying that identification through their three years into the new model and they may or may not um continue that that identification. But we have almost I think it's 10 schools or so that could possibly come out of identification this year which would

021have an enormously positive benefit because all of those schools are being bumped down. Any questions? Just dial up. >> Yes, Raising. >> So, does this mean then that for example a T1 title one >> title one? T1. Yes. Where do you see T1? >> I'm just asking. >> Yes. >> Would that like So, is that one does it include title one schools in terms of like the CSI >> one? Can you can you show me where or where you're referencing that from? >> I don't [laughter] What I'm asking is though like these schools that are noted as CSI is that related to them being titled? >> Yes, you have to be title one. Correct. >> So this also means that in order for our schools to out of that they can no longer receive title

022one funding. Is that correct? >> No. So you you can be >> come out of title one. >> Correct. Okay. >> Correct. So if you for example um uh TJ will likely come out of their CSI status being distinguished, right? And so um with that being said, they would still be a title one school but just not be federally identified as CSI. >> Okay. So you can be title one, >> correct? >> That's what I was >> It's title one and you're the lowest five person. >> Okay. Thank you. And if you're not title one, >> can you be DCSI? >> TSI, I believe. Yes. >> So that that's also important for folks to understand. The CSI is because it's linked to the federal funding system of title one. Um I believe I'm correct in

023saying you can't be CSI if you're not title one. So obviously we have a lot of title one schools. invariably uh if you put the whole basket of title one schools in Virginia together we have a good chunk of them that doesn't excuse poor performance I just want to bring that into to understand >> Miss Burke thank you madam chair and thank you for this report as stated every time I it's a lot and I'm thinking about our constituency because we were talking about TSI. So would you be so kind? I know it's before us. Would you be so break down in comprehensive support and targeted support and we're talking so CSI I'm going to come back to this uh slide here. CSI stands for comprehensive stu uh support and improvement. Schools are identified every

024three years. Uh four as the lowest performing of the 5% of title one schools. So they take all the title one schools for example in elementary schools and they see the lowest 5% and actually this data point they use is the framework score. So that framework score they take the lowest 5% and they identify those schools as CSI. And I like to think of it as the whole school is identified for needing support. The next one is targeted support and improvement. I like to think of this as your reporting group or student group. So it's identifying a specific student group that is struggling um as it relates to the state's cut scores. And so they're identifying subgroups that need to improve. This happens yearly. So it happens every year. So, a lot of these schools

025that are TSI, you better believe that we're now pouring into, okay, we've got to figure out what we need to do to improve those student groups. >> All right. So, a school, let's for instance, we have over what 30 40 schools that are title one schools. Correct. So, you mentioned T or whatever. That means a school if you have title one because of the not the man score on assessments but because of the income of our students of our family. My question is are you stating that a school can have CSI and TSI and have to be one or the other? I miss Dr. Wingers I got you. I see her head is just I see you. I see. But I just want to make sure that we're clear because I know we're going to

026have questions. >> So either you're one or the other based upon the school. But that's interesting. That's very what I'm really getting at is at the end of the day >> with the federal piece of the title one schools, majority of our school, we still have the support for tutorial services and other items um areas of support for our students. So yes, we would Yes, we would still have support because title one and federal identification two separate things. We will probably still have the majority of our schools for a long time in receiving title one funding, but the federal identification is totally different. So our schools receive title one funding um based upon their school improvement plan. Okay, that's separate from the bottom 5% that are either CSI or TSI or ATSI who receive school

027improvement grant funding. So that's another layer of funding they receive on top of title one to help remove them from the comprehensive school improvement status or ATSI or TSI which has been helpful. >> So that has not changed. >> It has not changed. And we don't think the amount is going to change. So we don't know. That's what I'm really getting at. >> Well, >> no. We actually anticipate that pot of money being less next year from the public. >> Yes. Because there are more schools. And this is something that we have been notified of in my last check-in with the state is that because there are more schools, the funding may not be as much as it was before. It does speak volume. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for going to Okay.

028So, if we look at um our next slide, slide 10, you will start to see the results based on last year's results. Even though we were in a different model, we still did we tracked of where our scores were in that old model and where they would be with this new model. So we still um had five distinguished schools and as you see those five are Franklin Military Academy, John Marshall High, Open High, Richmond Community High, Mary Munford. They are our five distinguished schools and we are very happy to have them um as distinguished. Then we have we continue to have nine schools on track and then we had 17 off track. Um and then 23 this year are are off track. But that's actually that increase is not bad. It's good because there are

029less schools that need intensive support. We decreased from 11 to 5. So we are moving in the right direction. RPS is on the rise and please um give a shout out to your schools who um are making um great gains. Our ontrack schools, I want to make sure I call their name as well. Armstrong High, Hugenot High, Albert Hill Middle, Shimberazzo Elementary, JB Fiser Elementary, Lynwood Holton Elementary, Lois Harrison Jones Elementary, and Patrick Henry School of Arts and Thomas Jefferson High. [laughter] And that's the exciting part. I know that that is very hard um because Thomas Jefferson should be a school that is distinguished and so that's why the state called us together to say that we have nine schools who are just right there and Armstrong and um Thomas Jefferson were our two high

030schools that they said strong performance this year and I've called every principal so they know this strong performance this year they're going to move out we had five middle schools there and two elementary and then we have two more elementary who can come out as well. So we could decrease our number of CSI schools in half um if we can get all of them out this year. So we're working hard. Miss Rzzy, >> thank you. Um, so I'm I'm just kind of making a conjecture here, but it sounds like the meeting with the state went really well and they were having >> Yes. Yes. >> Amazing. Thank you. I just wanted to get what the general tone of that meeting. >> Absolutely. It was a great meeting. Um, our superintendent was there. Um, John was

031there. Um, our, um, manager of testing was in the meeting as well. and we didn't know what the meeting was going to be about, but it was a great meeting um to be called together to say we see the progress being made and that you have nine schools right there. Just tell them press they can come out this year because you know three years is a long time to be in there and so when we have the opportunity we want to get out. Um and so we're very very excited about that. So the tone of the meeting was very positive, very complimentary. Um and you know Thomas Jefferson it was a hard hit and they understood that. Um so we are very excited. It was a great meeting. Um so the next slide we talk

032about second Mr. Cameron. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Um just a couple of notes. One, I wanted to make sure everyone was aware that JARK, the general assembly's research arm, just came out with a report right before the holidays basically making recommendations about this entire new accountability system. One of the recommendations was to change the term off track because it does not in many cases clearly articulate what's going on in those schools. They could be very much on track. In fact, making huge gains. I'll give you an example. Fairfield Court Elementary, which had a gain of 23 points in reading last year, I would argue is very much on track and yet they're labeled off track. And so, that's one thing which I think is important as a messaging matter for folks. I do also

033want to note and again with great respect and admiration for our colleagues uh in the counties, but if you look at us relative to the counties, we had the fewest needs intensive supports. Um and so again, I do think that speaks to our efforts to really focus on those that did need the most support. That being said, as Dr. Wiggins alluded to earlier. Uh there are a lot more schools around Virginia that are now identified as quote needs intensive support. Needs intensive support sounds like you need some more support, which typically means investment in funding. Um as the pie doesn't increase, but you have many more schools labeled that the amount that's available for each of those schools diminishes. And so that's something that we really want to work with the department and with the

034incoming administration to ensure um that schools like ours and those across the Commonwealth that do need that support actually in fact receive that. >> Mine. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I think just in response to all of this, I want to ask where the headlines are. Thank you. Thank you. Nice. So, some of our key takeaways from our overall framework. And I'm going to take time to call these schools because I want everyone whether they're in a car and can't read, you know, can't read the um PowerPoint, I want them to be able to hear their um school's name. But for our overall framework, and this is the state released a comparison data by region. So in our region, which is region one, they compared the schools in that region and RPS was all over

035it. So I want to talk to you about um some of the accolades we had. So Richmond Community High School was the first overall in region one at 109 index points. That is huge. That's every high school in region one. They were number one. Open high school had the fourth highest among high schools. and Mary Munford Elementary School was the fourth highest among elementary schools. In reading and math growth, JL Francis was the fifth highest reading among elementary schools. Albert Hill Middle School was third highest reading and fourth highest math among middle schools in region one. Martin Luther King Jr. was fourth highest reading among middle schools. And Thomas H. Henderson Middle School is the fifth highest reading among middle schools. This is the growth that is happening and this is reading and math growth.

036This shows that they're moving in the right direction. High school specific reading Richmond Community High School is the first in reading mastery, third in three readiness, and first in four-year graduation rate. Open High School is second in reading mastery, first in science mastery, second in math mastery, and fourth in 3E readiness. John Marshall High School is third in four-year graduation rate. And Thomas Jefferson High School is first in English learner progress. Last category, student engagement and attendance. Richmond Community High School is first in chronic absenteeism performance among high schools. Open High School is second in chronic absenteeism performance among high schools and Mary Munford Elementary School is second in chronic absenteeism performance among elementary schools. That is a lot to celebrate in our region and it shows the progress that is being made and that's

037why I said thank you to all of the people I did at the beginning because all of them made this possible. Before you move forward, I wanted to I was going to wait till the end, but I'll I'll just share >> a thought now, not to derail the success that we've achieved with the new standards. I think it's amazing that we've been able to um still find wins. I think that's extremely important. But what I'd like to understand is what is what is the tone of our schools? What are the what is the tone of our principles? We have a lot of um schools that were accredited um based upon the previous standards and now find themselves off track needs intensive support and that could truly be um discouraging right for those that you know

038I know firsthand going into the schools in the ninth district they're working extremely hard in most cases they're going student by student to ensure that they have what they're needing. I just want to understand for those that aren't being called out, what are we doing to support them and what is the tone of those schools? So, um they are um especially like schools like Thomas Jefferson um a couple of other schools as you see their index was there but because of the new accountability system you can see on slide 14 it kind of outlines that like Wig and Fox is off track. Uh but they're 89.5 um Francis 81.8. So all of these schools would have been there if they were not labeled TSI which is a federal identification because of the category of students

039with disabilities. So it is very hard because our schools work extremely hard, our school leaders, our teachers, our parents are supportive, our kids work really hard and that is just a negative part of this framework. Um that the identification affects their performance even though their performance overall should get them in that category. So that's difficult but we always knew that there would be an adjustment based on this framework and we don't speak in negativity we speak in look at the positive this is what we have to do what are our next step and what are the adjustments being made and that's where John myself the the group the team in the academic office we look at every school we talk to every school we help them see what their next steps are and so we

040get them energized in the work because that's all we can do is move forward. We this is what we have in front of us. This is what the framework is and so we just move forward. So yes, there is that twinge of h but we always knew it was coming and so we just march forward and we partnership. I tell the principles all the time, you're not alone in this. We're in this together not just from the academic department but with each other we work together. And so yes, we are working together going student by student. now looking at the framework and having a year to kind of figure everything out because before we were just it was kind of like walking blind. Um and so um if you remember last year um we didn't

041get all the materials from the state and all of the things in place that we needed um on at that time. And so we had to just move forward and do what we needed to do and our team did a great job. But this year we are in a better place and we can um help our schools to be successful. But yeah, there's that little twinge, but we're RPS. We walk strong. So, we're walking forward. I agree. But I will just add that the reality is when we think about retention rates, right? We can have pep talks all day long, but we still need to stay close to the tone of what's taking place in the schools because it is the elephant in the room. and the reality of what can impact us if we're

042not careful. And so, just want to make sure I call that out. I think it would be irresponsible not to. >> Absolutely. But we most of our schools have gangs in certain areas or another. So, even though they might not be in the presentation, we do talk about those areas that they are seeing success. Okay. And so, um, just want to do a little bit more celebration. >> So, sorry, Mr. Jafari. And it's already been spoken as to the underperformers if you will and I look at this and particularly across my district sitting you wait for the names to be called couple of issues come to mind first of all what we do to pinpoint what areas actually stand in need of attention is it academic issue is quote unquote hire the staff situation. What

043are we doing to go in there and and and put our shoulder to the will and get them out of that status that also has to attri attribute or contribute to the morale factor. So, I just want to make sure that and I know we're not doing I know we are going into those schools and we're going to focus on all of those just as we do other schools, but I just want to make certain that um and and ask what specific plans and what specific actions are we taking to make sure we go into these schools and get those statuses raised. We would love to be able to come and show you kind what we do during our technical assistance meetings and how we are supporting schools because I think that would kind of

044give you the ability to show in real time the steps that we're taking. For example, we go into those meetings and it's not just the academic team. So, it's not just, you know, curriculum and instruction and exceptional ed. All of the areas of academics are in that meeting, but wellness is there. We also have um talent representation there. We pull in all of the teams and they are there to provide support for the schools to make sure they get what they need because you're right, it's more than academics. It also has to be the other areas. If kids are coming to school and and they're hungry, engagement is there as well and they are hungry that is a issue. If they are homeless, if all of the things that go on with our children impact

045them. So we bring that team together so we can talk about all of those issues. It is it is definitely a whole team effort. But then we talk about the children. We talk about the teachers. We talk about what the support is needed in the schools so that we can then come forward. And for these schools that are most impacted, our CSI schools, we see them monthly. So because we want to come in and we want to make sure that they know they're not alone. We can't just tell people they're not alone. We have to go in and p provide that support we need. And in the meantime, we have takeaways that we make sure are happening over the course of that month. Whether it's wellness, whether it's engagement, whether it's curriculum and instruction um

046needs to do training, it's just whatever group is needed, we make it happen. >> Sure. And then um Miss Burke. Yeah. >> Yes. Um, and of course I know we're going in and all of those schools, even though they're at that status, they're performing at different levels within the status, I presume. Then I'm looking at morale and I'm I'm looking at giving them something not not false hope, but what what do we do in terms of projections? In other words, if we're looking at them underperforming and we're looking at the rates at which they're improving um how we are projecting where they may be able to land and come out of that, you know what I'm saying? Giving them something that they can strive for and so that they can see the actual accomplishments of

047what they're doing. So that where is where our formative assessments come in into so our summitative assessment but our formative assessments are our weekly exit tickets. They're our checkpoints that happen every few weeks. It is those assessments that gauge our progress and how we are doing. So we you you can't wait until the end until a summitative even if it's two or three weeks that's too long because by the time because I tell them all the time schools don't children don't fall behind two three weeks at a time they fall behind day by day and so that's where those formative assessments those exit tickets are key to knowing as the teacher taught that lesson that day in fractions how did our students do on their fractions that day for what they were supposed to learn

048and if they didn't they need to be pulled into a small group so that by the time they get to the next day of fractions they have been pulled and they are those misconceptions are being um assisted with or being helped with our kids. So it is the dayto-day grind of it all of we have to make sure we know where every single student in a classroom is and we are making those adjustments along the way. So those are the things we're doing and we can go into much greater detail. That's one way formative assessments, but there are other pieces that we look at. So they have to have data meetings, planning, like it's all of the pieces that come together to make a strong school that's looking out for every student. >> Thank you,

049Miss Burke. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. If I if I may tell this what I saw just before winter break, I um visited one of our schools in the east in the seventh district for another reason. One minute. Okay, let me say this quickly. It was for a gift. However, I was told the principal and assistant principal were in an intense meeting and I couldn't go in. So, thank you, Dr. Wiggins, to allow me to see what you're speaking of. It was meant for me to be there. There were over 20 some odd persons from central administration. They weren't down here sitting in ivy towers. They were in an environment in the media center. And I would love for every school board member to see what I saw and I've been through that. So I'm

050glad to see but this was even at another level because you had wellness there, you had HR there and it wasn't um it was an atmosphere of support time. >> Perfect. Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you colleagues. I would before you finish with the presentation and it's we could spend another hour on this topic, right? And so, um, I don't want to cut you off, but colleagues, if there's any really pressing issues, this is a lot to digest. I would recommend us reaching out to the administration and setting up some one-on-one time. I know I've already done that for myself this week. Um, but obviously, you can still, your time is what it is, and so I I would yield a for the, you know, for you to ask your questions, but just keep that in

051mind that we still have the rest of the agenda that we have to move through. >> And and that's great. the last part of the presentation. Um, actually John was going to do but superintendent cameras will probably discuss that part um when it comes to um the program of studies because he can explain just like John um that piece about why we needed to bring program of studies back. Is that okay or >> Yeah, I can do this uh actually pretty succinctly. John will correct me if I do anything wrong. If we go to slide 15, uh, if that's possible. So, we're moving off of the accountability system and moving to the accreditation system. Our high schools all got dinged and were recorded as not accredited or additionally accredited because uh technically we don't offer

052what's called a certificate of program which is a certificate which said congratulations you finished high school but you didn't graduate. We don't do that because we want kids to graduate. That's what we're shooting for. In the code, you're required to provide said completion. And in fact, we have an illusion to it. But we are later this evening going to ask you all to update our program of studies officially so that we can tell the state through our appeal which we have submitted that we cover this and therefore all those schools should be considered fully accredited. There is a larger question which we'll deal with with our colleagues around the state as to why this is necessary. It seems to be counter to the goals that everyone is shooting for. But that was the primary. >>

053Thank you. Thank you all. >> All right. Um moving right along to 3.01. receive an update on feasibility study regarding new career technical center at Mory Street. >> Good evening. I am excited to share an update on the Mari Street feasibility study this evening. Um before we get into what the feasibility study, which is in the final phases of the drafting process, are telling us, want to take a quick moment just to norm around what is a feasibility study. Um it's something that we as a team have been certainly learning a lot about. Um the best way to put it is it's a first step in our design and construction process for this new building. It's going to tell us a lot of foundational information about future phases of the work align to what programming

054needs we'll want to put into that building. um telling us about the space requirements, the functionality and the user experience that we can achieve within the space that we have um and then how much uh that might cost, how much time it might take and what um regulatory constraints we might need to consider. All of this is um going to create a foundation for the design process that um we will actually start. So I want to just be clear with um all the members of the board here this evening that what I'm going to share is not the results of a design process. You can think of it as a phase zero of our design process and kind of the building blocks so that we can have a well-informed design process in the coming months.

055So our VE feasibility study uh was seeking to answer the question of can the Mory Street facility the former Altria manufacturing site on Mory Street which is a warehouse of historic historic significance. It's on the National Historic Register of Places. Can that be transformed into a worldclass innovation campus hosting career and technical education classrooms and serving as a hub for high school learning as a part of our passion for learning initiative? We'll hold the answer to that question. We'll put a little suspense on that. So, um, over the summer, um, and fall now into winter, um, KI architects, who I actually have a couple of our fabulous partners at KEI with us this evening in case there are technical questions later. Um they along with uh firms that they subcontracted with who have expertise in

056their field uh civil instructional engineers for example um worked with RPS to uh put together this feasibility study and assess um can we create a school within the Mari Street site? How much might it cost? How long might it take and what might that entail? Um one question we want to make sure is clear is why Mari Street? We do have the Richmond Technical Center um previously this school year. I did speak to that in an update about dreams for RPS. Um we have the Mari Street site within our portfolio and believe that for our students to be prepared for whatever they choose after high school um they need a worldclass facility um for those learning experiences and that Mari Street is an incredible opportunity for the city um to host that space. So our

057plans for Mari Street is that it will be accessible to all high school students. It will be a hub for passion for learning and it will serve traditional career and technical education courses as well. There's a lot of planning that is going to be done that has not yet been done as far as the design and what that student experience will look like, but want to make sure that we touched on the why Mari Street um before we get into the results of the feasibility study. So to understand this kind of end question, can we make a school here? How long might it take? what resources might we need to do that? Um, we had to get into some specifics around design. Um, so one thing that it was um difficult or I had to

058personally adjust to is we're doing these specific things, but this isn't what it's going to be. So I just want to reiterate that this is not the design of the Mory Street campus. This is an academic exercise to help us answer this question. So you can see here um these are um mockups of one of the design plans that KI and their team helped us put together. They're actually three um schematics that um will be available once we get to through the drafting process of the study. Um and this one shows you can see we've laid out different options for how we might put instructional spaces, lab spaces, and leverage the unique architecture of the Mari Street property um to create a functional high school campus. So the question uh that we are seeking to

059answer, can Mari Street be a school? Is it feasible? In short, yes. The building is structurally sound to renovate into a modern innovation campus. I am not a technical expert on construction um or architecture. So I won't get into the um points here about space, square footage, existing infrastructure, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Um but suffice to say that um the team has looked into the existing infrastructure, the concrete slab, uh the windows, the shell of the building, HVAC systems, interior, exterior lighting and so on. Um and factored those either replacements, renovations, etc. into cost estimates. Those things uh have been assessed now. There's also some things that we're still assessing and so that's kind of why this work is still ongoing and we're in this final drafting phase. So we're um actually in the process

060of um conducting an environmental study and conducting core drills for the space uh so that we can do a lead paint and asbestous assessment, drill into the slab to determine thickness to confirm whether hazardous materials are present um and also look at underground utility locations. this mockup here just to um as an aside, this is a rendering of what the space could look like. If anyone has spent time in the Mari Street building, it's super exciting to see uh what this could potentially transform into. There's other things that we haven't yet started. As I shared on this slide, we are in the process of undergoing this environmental study and core drill work. We have not yet started a traffic study. We're going to do that once we get into the formal design process. We don't

061want to have to duplicate that effort and do it again. So, we'll want to know more about an actual design and then based on the entry, exits, parking lots, etc., how how we might need to think about mitigating any traffic problems that come up with the design we land on. Um, there's other considerations we'll need to think about with regards to warehouse space, existing office staff um that are in the current Mari Street site. Um, and then things related to RTC as well. For example, the data center which lives in the RTC North facility. and we'll need to think about that as a part of the broad portfolio of um you know relocation of of spaces from RTC to street. So again this was a draft process um but want to share that um when

062we've um scoped this out one of the things that um we're getting to um with the feasibility study is a phased approach. what might it cost for a phase one shell renovation and building out the first third of the square footage of the building? It's um a 290,000 square foot building, which is quite large. Um so you can see here we've broken this down by construction costs, variable costs, which include contingencies for increased fees, um overages in terms of uh the uh time of construction, and then design fees as well as furniture, fixture, and equipment, move in and post occupancy costs. And then you can see we have a phase two cost for fleshing out the remaining twothirds of the square footage. And then uh the final column in this table is the what the

063estimated total cost would be. Again, this is contingent on the design drafts in this feasibility study. Want to caveat that this is highly subject to change based on the formal design process. But the dis this does give us a sense of uh the scope of the project at this early point. Before I close for questions, um just want to share where we are right now. Um we're in the process of finalizing this feasibility study which will allow us to move into design. Once we move into design sometime this year, uh we'll be able to start abatement and demolition should we proceed and then that will lead us into construction with um all things uh going according to plan. Uh an anticipated movein date of summer 2028. Again, a lot of caveats here, a lot of

064contingencies, but we wanted to make sure at this point in time that folks had a sense of um our timeline. Uh at this point, I would love to turn it over to any questions you all have. >> Miss Rizzy, Miss B. >> Thank you, Mr. Highsteader, for this report. Um I had just a couple of questions. Number one, once the original I mean, well, once the report is complete, the feasibility study, will we have access to it? >> Yes. actual report. Okay. >> Um, also I know in early talks about renovating that building, um, historic tax credits came up which would require a whole process of creating an LLC, putting the property in an LLC, selling the property, you know, renov, you know, having that property renovated and then reselling, right? Or having the other

065Have you all talked about that? Is that going to be a part of the discussion because it is a historical building? >> That is something we are actively talking about. Um admittedly at this point in time I don't have an update on where that stands but we are trying to explore how do we leverage the tax credits and what might that mean for uh what we can or cannot do within construction. >> Mr. Cameron >> just real quick we got practice doing that with Fox. So we now kind of know how it works and um so I do think it's a little bit less scary for us anyway. Um but uh not but and it uh has yielded us a couple million dollars. So that's certainly something that we >> miss Rizzie not to create

066any cross talk Mr. cameras, but we also have a case where it went kind of wrong, right? And we had tax situation that we had to work out because of the LLC and how so I think that our attorney will need to be very engaged and involved once that process starts. >> Miss Burke, >> thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm glad M. asked about tax credit and also reminding us of our past experience that was on our mind as well. So I appreciate that. Thank you for this detailed report. I have a couple of questions. First of all, thank you for everything. We're not talking warehouse. We don't know or we're waiting until the study's done. >> I think do you mean Miss Burke, do you mean long term or I think that's part of

067the broader facilities master plan process that we'll do and consider um you know within this plan we thought about and we scoped out two phases of the approach where ultimately the entire building would be instructional space and leveraging it as much as possible for that. But I think that's still very much an open question as far as um where does the warehouse space sit within the RPS portfolio. So I imagine that will be um discussed heavily as we ramp up the engagement process for that work. >> Well, I'm very happy to see that forward on this because travel to other systems our students our scholars deserve a better level higher level of what's happening. My question is in the meime in the old site are we thinking about closing that soon to sell it to

068move forward to have funds for this or are we going to continue as we are? >> Mr. Cameras. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the question, Mrs. Burke. Uh the vision right now is we would maintain the program until we were able to move into the new facility, but we would hope to structure some sort of deal ultimately with the city where we would say, look, if you can invest additional funds in the construction of the new site, then we'll transfer the old site to the city for development. So obviously there's hundred conversations that have to happen before anything like that would occur, but that's that's the thinking. We don't want to vacate it and then not have anywhere for the kids to do CTE work. Um so that's that's the >> I

069think that's an excellent idea to transfer. Just want to make sure that we get our work. Just want to make sure that we are at the table to get not a dollar but to get our work. Mr. Jafari, >> Mr. High, great to see you and thanks for this detail update. I was going to have to circle back to you, superintendent. I just got another offer from a developer for that. So I'll be able to now lay that and give them some detailed information. >> Can show them these beautiful renderings here without full color sl >> not just wobbling with them. >> That's right. >> But again uh thanks and uh once again our constituents in the eth district and I am really looking forward to this. I think this should be a boon not

070just for the eth district for the entire division. Thanks again, >> Mr. P. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Hello, Mr. Hoster. Um, slide eight has uh I I appreciate these are very soft focused numbers, so I'm not looking for hard numbers here, but um I assume with the variable construction costs, we're not talking about possible results from the core analysis. So do we have a sense just trying to get scope-wise worst case scenario if we were to run into asbestous and lead and the slab is too shallow and whatever are we would we looking at doubling the construction costs in phase one or just a very rough scale do we know >> personally I do not but I think that would be a great question if either of y'all have a sense I'm looking at

071colleague you want to actually come up um >> which introducing them to us please architects. >> Good evening. Um, so yeah, to answer your question, this cost estimate includes um about $2 million of a payment. So there's a contingency for that, but no, it would not double cost of construction if it were discovered. That's >> okay. Great. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Hitchb. >> Thank you. Thank you, [clears throat] Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Hotsteader, for the the presentation. This is really helpful to visualize the the process and the timeline. U I'm I'm wondering the if I remember correctly, the the next large chunk of capital funds that were due uh from the cities in 2029, um I'm looking at, you know, if we're hoping to open in 2028. Um, I'm I'm really worried

072and wondering about where that money might come from. Uh, I I appreciate the the comment conversation about the property transfer and to Miss Burke's point too that we need to make sure that we get what we're what we're our our facilities and our buildings are worth. Uh, so our past conversations uh with Mr. Cooper about about sponsorships. Uh I think that that's another opportunity most definitely to to fill the gap, but I I I I hear uh superintendent say that uh the conversations there are many of them and they need to happen. I'm kind of curious as to when they're going to happen. Uh since we now have a timeline that is ahead of when we're expecting that that next big chunk of capital funds. >> Mr. Cameron. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank

073you, Mr. Hedgeworth, for the question. So we really are looking at this in a phased approach which is why we ask KI to price it out accordingly right now between the current trunch of new school construction. So that's the tunch that is funding our HSA. Um if you take the remainder of that tunch plus 20 million that we got from the state for this project specifically, we're already at about 60ish million. If you factor in then whatever we can negotiate with the city for the old RTC site and potentially some philanthropy and business investment. Um we do feel the phase one is very doable. Um phase two obviously is going to take much more investment but I think that's where that next trunch of funding can come into place. Maybe some of it gets advanced.

074Um we can uh take that as it comes but this phase one it feels very realistic uh to us at this point. Um as for the conversations uh they'll start soon uh in earnest. We wanted to get this so that we're able to sit down with the city and have something concrete. We've been talking kind of in more vague terms, but now that we have something concrete like this, we're able to sit down with them and talk more about what could a deal look like to make sure that we can close this gap. I will say um from the few conversations I've had with the mayor about this project, he's very excited about it, very committed to it. See sees it as a key part of the workforce development strategy for the city. Uh and

075so, you know, look, if there's going to be a lot more construction going on in the diamond district, in city center on the south side, uh helping young people become trained in skilled trades, that's that is a real career pathway for a lot of young people amongst many other uh pathways. Uh and so I I feel like we are very much in striking distance on phase one. Um, and we'll begin those conversations very soon. >> Mr. Hitchb. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Cameress. U I I I just want to say I appreciate that. U I I think this is a a really great example for collaboration uh between our governing bodies. if any indication from our last month's meeting regarding communication between the city and the school board when it came to

076the development in the sixth district. Uh I think that's this is really really important for us to get this right. So if we can we can get that conversation going uh as soon as possible and let us know how we can help to make that happen. Um because again I think this is a really important opportunity for us to work together. Thank you. >> I just have a few thoughts. I'm super excited about this. I mean, P pathways is is I mean, I think the key to success and to for us to build a facility that's state-of-the-art I think is going to bring a lot of positive energy to Richmond. Um, but I'll just call out the elephant in the room, right? $196 million is a lot of money when we still have infrastructure issues

077with the entire division. We need new schools, particularly where there's overpopulation on the south side of Richmond. This question is probably more suited for Mr. Cameras than you. Um, where can we trim the fat on this? Um, have we looked at all grants available? are we up to speed on um ways that we can build public private partnerships? Um I just want to hear more about other ways that we're looking for money because although we do have some things that are left in that trunch, there's so much more that's needed divisionwide. I just want to make sure that we are calling that out ahead of time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Uh we have a a business advisory group. Uh we've been working very closely with Mr. Cooper and the ED fund to develop those

078partnerships, those uh investments, whether it's from philanthropy or from the business community or other grants. So, we are tapping all of those things. In addition, as we've talked about about at this table, uh there's a very good chance that the 1% sales tax for school construction passes and is signed into law this session. Um I believe that referendum would be successful here in Richmond and that would create a new funding source for all of those projects uh that you're talking about, Madam Chair. So, I think it's really about uh tapping all of those sources, business, philanthropy, the 1%, the city, the state, the federal government um and getting every last grant that we can. I think we've demonstrated some of that with this school uh construction assistance program, the Scout program where we got that

07920 million. And we're hoping in this funding round the state replenishes that fund and we can continue to tap that uh if not for this project for a new reed or a new Woodville or a new whatever. Um because the needs are great all across the state. >> Thank you. And that's that's truly what I was looking to hear is is you know when we call out these these numbers there's an implication behind it where there's going to be perhaps a deficit or something has to um make up the difference. And so I just want to make sure that we are being very transparent in that conversation as we think through this amazing project. My other question is around um so and just I'm I'm not a builder so this might be something everybody knows

080except me. So phase one 79 million does that make us operational and then we can move in and start start a work towards phase two? Is that okay? Great. >> Thank you. >> I think we're good. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Next up, receive uh list of school board committees and memberships for 2026. Um colleagues, I won't belabor the point here uh for the committees that we already have set up in memberships. But I would just like to publicly thank um all of you, all of us for the hard work that we've done in 2025. the committees were a major part of that work and so I just look forward to us continuing down that path in 2026. For all of the committee leaders, thank you so much for just taking the ball and

081truly running with it. We've made a lot of um headway and accomplishments. Um, I just would like to also remind everyone that with all of our committees active, we have scheduled about give or take 94 or so meetings for the year. So, what that means is, yeah, I mean, we're we're getting we're going to get a lot of work done, but we do want to be cognizant of our partners, of the clerks that um assist us in this process and the times that we've committed to. If we can stick as closely as we possibly can to those times and dates, that'll make it very helpful and efficient for all those who want to be a part of the session. so that they can kind of work around it. And so, please, I'm going to ask

082you to really be cognizant of that and stick to the time unless obviously there's an emergency or things do come up and happen. But, um, with all the work that's being done, just please keep that in mind, Miss Rizzy. Uh, and I don't really I don't mean to add more work to this and I this is totally on me because I know you sent this around multiple times for our comments. Um, but we did vote to add a communications committee and you know I kind of didn't bring that up and so we we do we need a comm communications committee. So let's do this. Um, thank you for calling that out. Um, let me think through this. Let's start the conversation. Um, putting some pen to paper and um, I think that the public is

083is something that they should be aware of as well. So maybe we can come back by our next meeting in February with some solidified feedback. Is that okay? We start the conversation now. Thank you for bringing that up. Um because as we move forward and all the things that we're doing and plus the community engagement that we plan to have this year, that's going to be super important. We get good there. Any other thoughts or feedback, Miss Burke? If I may, thank you for recognizing our clerk and deputy clerk because it is a lot and It's it's something I hope that we can think through moving forward on in terms of after being here all day and then to be here all night and that's a lot. So, but I know we have to get

084it is our assignment to get this business done. But if it's some way we can rethink or reimagine the support and taking notes or minutes or to share that I hope that or either u attempt something to that extent knowing our clerk she probably doesn't want anyone else to do that but her to make sure it's done well. But uh but I I also think being mindful of the hours because we're talking about what three and four times during one week. So if you're after you here from 8 to whatever and then you're from 8 in the morning to 8 at night back to back to back to back that's that's that's that's a lot. So I do hope that we can um put this on our radar moving forward to consider what else there's

085some creative things I'm thinking but I'd rather hear from from her team um first but um just to try to lessen that load. I appreciate you sharing that and I I agree a ton. A lot of people don't realize the amount of work that's put behind the scenes by our clerk's office. Um and we certainly would not be a welloiled machine without them. And so um we welcome your feedback you um and Mary Emma as we think through how we can move forward. I know one of the things that was mentioned previously um was the thought of virtual meetings and there were some feedback that perhaps there may be a way well what I've been told is that um it's it was challenged previously because there are some other divisions that are utilizing it and

086so there was supposed to the um our legal team I believe it was it might have been with you pack I can't remember if it if it was you or Stacy that was supposed to look into um policy that um because that could be something that we could explore. Do you recall um pack if right but it does give you a little bit well if we were to go to that then we do have tools like AI meeting that could capture that information for us. So that's why just trying to think through I don't want to put you on the spot and if you're not prepared to answer tonight that's fine but that's one of the things we could potentially look at to see if there's a policy that supports it. Um but we'll continue

087the conversation. Right. Any other thoughts or feedback? Mr. Hitchpathus. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Uh a couple things. One just uh for the policy committee. I uh want to thank Mr. Jafari for his service this past year. Uh but I believe according to an email, he is no longer going to be serving on that committee. So is that correct? So the so we'll only be down to two committee members. So we'll need a third committee member for the policy. Um the other thought just to throw out since our governance committee is uh you know as needed and since our legislative committee is as needed I'm wondering if there's some combining there. U also since Mr. Stanley uh works with legislative and with policy maybe that's a place that we could could could uh marry them

088together again since legislative is only as needed. Um, so I I I think that that's a possibility and then maybe the governance team could collaborate with the communications or something like that. So just some ideas, but most definitely need a third member for policy. >> When is a policy committee? What day is that? >> Every third Monday at 6 p.m. Thank you for calling that out. Okay. Don't want to put anybody on the spot, do but are there any takers? Okay. Look at your calendars. That's fine. Fair enough. Okay. We'll move right along. Uh, thank you for the open discussion. Really excited about um the work that we'll be doing this year and beyond. Um 3.03 receive a first read title one equitable services application. Good evening. Push testing. Oh, it's like church. Okay. All

089right. So, good evening. I'm Dr. Shannon McCall. I'm the director of the Office of Grants Monitoring and Compliance. So, um this evening, the conversations have been quite interesting. I've heard a lot about uh my grants, but that is not why I'm here today. Um I'm going to share with you a little bit about the Title One equitable services application. um the Virginia Department of Education reached out to us, I believe it was December 10th and shared with us that there was funding that was not spent in 2425 by our private schools. So when you see equitable services, it's basically pertaining to private schools where we have to make sure that um our students who attend private schools are receiving an equitable education to that of those in Richmond City public schools. Um the interesting part

090about this is that it is 200 I think in $61,000. um they will have probably until about May or June to expend these funds. And if they do not spend them all, we get to take them um and use them for whatever we need to use them for with regards to Title One and those compliance matters. So, it's good, but it's not guaranteed because if they expend their funds um that have been allocated to them, then that's it. Um we only have one school that decided that they were not going to participate in receiving these funds. We've had um conversations about intent to participate with 18 private schools. One has declined. Two we have not heard from. And so the application that's before you is based on all of those persons participating with the exception

091of one. So this is due to VDOE January 23rd and I understand that you have procedures and protocols. So this is the first read and I am guessing that your next board meeting is in February tomorrow night. So we could conceivably do second read tomorrow. Wonderful. I will defer to Superintendent Cameras. Any comments or chair Hernandez is >> is that on the agenda for tomorrowing consent? I thought it is. Yes. >> Thank you. So, excellent. Um, we would like to get the schools started as soon as possible. Um, we're already working with them through our regular title one application. So, these funds would probably extend the services that they are already utilizing. So, the sooner we can get started, the better. So, I thank you for your attention to this matter. Are there any questions?

092Miss Rizzy and then Miss Burke. >> This is question. We're going to skip the second probably >> M. Thank you. Good seeing you. >> Very nice to see you as well. >> My question is regarding I'm surprised I understand why children are receiving those benefits of being in privacy for our decision their needs. My question is do we have a pretty much ballpark figure or is that in this report not >> a ballpark figure for >> in terms of stated that if we don't spend all the funds we should have an idea for sale >> based on the number of students that we have in private services private schools um based upon that and the money that's here. >> Yes. >> This is based upon what we've done previously or this is done upon based

093upon what's in place this year. Well, let me see if I can answer that. Uh, first of all, we have already done um the assessments with the schools with regards to the number of students who require academic support who attend these um private schools. These are children that would normally be RPS kids and they are at the private schools. So, that money follows the child. So, those numbers have already been um determined. Okay. in the title one application for 2526 which is currently being implemented or executed. So, this $216,000 that you see right there, um, in the application on page three under the narrative tab, you will see each school and their allocation that they will be receiving and they will have until approximately, I think it's May is the timeline that we've set to

094expend those funds or to encumber them. Do you see those numbers? is a chart and it has it's the 19 schools in the narrative tab on page three. It's in the Excel document, right? And there's a listing. So, you have each school. It's It's on board docs, but I have a copy if you want to see this, Miss Burke. Tada. No worries. And you'll see the number of children at each school with regards um to the low socioeconomic status. And then you'll see in column D the number of those children where they've done a needs assessment that need academic support and then those funds will be allocated accordingly based on the number of children. So this money is used for targeted support for those children specifically. So in column D is the number of participating

095children in academic need. >> Couple questions. No, you're >> I have a paper copy if you'd like. >> I tell you I I say it all the time. If one person asks the question, there's multiple that really want to ask it. So, >> it's okay. >> Yeah. I'm just curious. So, this amount is allotted for um students that attend private school that are in Richmond City. Correct. In the city. >> Well, they are not all in Richmond City with title one. >> Okay. It's how do I say it's a we have to follow the child. Right. >> Understood. >> So we have private schools in title one that are not all in Richmond City. >> Okay. >> But the children who attend there who need academic support are are Richmondzoned children. >> Got it. >>

096And so therefore we have to manage that that money for our children. So at that site, you could have children there from Chesterfield >> and their money would have to target those children. >> Understood. So what if they don't utilize the funding? >> We get it back. >> Okay, that's why. Thank you. >> Yes. [laughter] >> So when will we know how much we'll get back? >> So basically um we've set the timeline for the end of May. So this is interesting. Okay. they get to spend it. Um the first round is the end of May and then if they don't spend it, whatever's left goes into a pot and then we have to see if they want to utilize the funds again and is reallocated and then we give them 30 more days and

097then at the end of June what has not been spent comes back to RPS. >> Do you know the numbers for our last fiscal year? How much return to RPS? >> Last year we did not control private schools. >> Okay. >> The federal government did. This year they have VDOE has given that. >> So crazy. >> And so they have given it back to um >> it's what they call bypass, right? They bypassed us and they handled um the support for the private schools. And this year, last year we spent the year planning and organizing to have this piece brought into RPS. So for 2526, we are actually executing this and monitoring this for our private schools. >> And when you say executing, >> we mean >> you are like, >> oh, let me >>

098sending them a letter. >> Oh, no. We're doing a whole bunch of stuff. Okay. So one um when we get the allocation for private schools we have to do a letter of intent to participate. >> Okay. >> Um and we have to do that multiple times multiple ways or modalities so that we can say that we've done all that we can in our power to get them to utilize these funds. After we do that we meet with them again to come up with the service plan. And the service plan outlines how they're going to utilize these funds. And then we monitor the expenditure of the funds. All of the resources that come in are technically Richmond City public schools. So we have to inventory them, track them, keep them, and get them to um the

099private schools. Um fortunately for us most of the services that they are utilizing is like tutoring um contracted services and it's not a lot of um buying computers now and paper things that have to come into um my office and then we get it disseminated um to the private schools but when I say manage it we literally manage it even um staff that they may have is really RPS staff and they have to be interviewed by us go through our intake process get paid by our office, but they work at the private school and we also have to coordinate observations and all of that fun stuff because they are our employees. They're just supporting the students at the private schools. >> Thank you. >> No worries, >> Miss Burke. >> Thank you for explaining this.

100And no, I didn't do my homework because I see a lot and I am really surprised to see this. I had no idea. Thank you for explaining this was federal and now it's on us, >> right? >> So the children who are the students who are attending these schools, they know they can get the support or the schools they they they go to tell them they're going to get support. I mean, how does this work? >> That's correct. The um schools have already they know who the children are. They've done the needs assessments. That's how we come up with the numbers. Um, and then we have to actually we've worked with Luke's department as well to determine what zone to ensure that these children are Richmond City children and not in Reicho or Chesterfields. Um,

101so we cross check the information that they send us. So that's how we know how many students. >> I had no idea. So number two, I understand something better now because I really thought the funds I'm looking at the numbers in my in my district >> for one school in particular and a couple of others of which I'm not going to say the names but anybody I can go online and see them. But um now I understand I just assume I assumed >> that those private schools had special funding to be able to cover the cost of students attending but instead we are covering a portion of that based upon special needs. Again, this is supplemental, right? So, they already have their money to run their program. >> 55,000. No, no, that's >> No, it's

10255,000. You are correct. >> Yes, they have that money based on the number of children and their per pupil allocation. Um, but again, title one is farreaching. Title two and those other applications that serve um private schools or equitable services are for the schools right here in the Richmond City zone. But title one is different. It's farreaching. It can go outside the boundaries of Richmond City. It's where our children go. Are there any additional questions, Mr. Pible? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, yeah, a lot of comments and questions. So >> uh doing some research on this you've covered a lot of this the money follows the child and the money cannot go directly to the private schools. >> Correct. >> It cannot even be reimbursed to the private school. >> We do not make

103any reimbursements to the private school. All reimbursements come through RPS. It's one way this way. >> Right. So kind of my comment on this for context is when we use the term the money follows the child. Yes, title one money follow follows the child. However, what we don't see is the money that evaporates into thin air when the child moves and the way that the state funds us is through the LCI model, which is tied heavily to average daily membership. So, per your spreadsheet, that's 655 RPS students that have elected to go to a private school. Those Title One funds in the amount of $216,000 may follow them, but based on our state funding, we've lost out on over $4 million. >> That's right. >> So, there are 22,000 students that are missing out on

104$4 million of educational opportunity. I am all for support. I'm a huge advocate for support following students when they have other opportunities. But what I get tired of is King Solomon telling us to split the baby every time we run into an issue. And that's what I see here is that we've got a lot of money that evaporates into thin air that nobody is has access to uh based on the the students moving out of the system. But uh what I also understand in doing some research is that this is also prrated money. So this is not additional money. And it sounds like this is additional money, but the way title one comes down, if 10% of our students go to private school, then 10% of the Title One money gets prrated or allocated for

105that purpose. So, it's kind of zero sum. Is that a true statement? I'm not sure if it's a zero sum, but what I can say is that the money that was taken off of the top of our title one federal allocation to support private schools in 202425 was not completely expended by those private schools. Hence why we're getting it back. Um, and I would say in the past they're doing things a little different with the federal government, but in the past we have had the opportunity initially to expend the funds in RPS that they did not use. This year they're giving it to the private schools, giving it back to the private schools from last year's allocation, not from the 2526 allocation so that they can have a second chance to spend it down. So

106that is kind of um how that works. So hopefully we'll have some additional funding from that, but we don't know and won't know until June. >> Thank you so much. This was very informative. >> Yes, very informative indeed. Appreciate you. >> Is there anything else you like? I'm wondering if you all were going to I think Miss Rizzy made a comment about needing to motion or vote if you were going to change. So, you're going to do that tomorrow. She has stepped out. Okay. Well, then I'm done if you're done. >> Yeah, we're we're good to go. Thank you. >> All right. Well, happy new year. >> Happy new year to you. Okay. Receive an update on Richmond High School of the Arts. Good evening. Good evening, Madame Chair and board members. Mr. Cameras, uh,

107I want to provide a quick update on Richmond High School for the Arts. We'll start with just a quick overview of some of the work that is completed and ongoing. Uh, but this represents a very smallest fraction of the huge amount of work that our construction partners and our team are working on at Richmond High School for the Arts. That's the boring part. Let's show you some of the pictures to actually make it real. If you haven't been by the facility, it is really exciting to continue to see it take shape. As you can imagine, the team worked very hard to get a full roof on the second floor before it got cold so that they could continue interior work despite the cold temperatures that we're seeing. Uh when you look inside of the building,

108it gets even more exciting. This actually looks like a gym. Obviously, not a fitted gym, but as you can see, there's already a um scoreboard up on the wall. So, we're really excited about that progress. You can see on the outside curbs going in so you can see what the traffic patterns are beginning to look like. You can also see inside of the buildings some of the ways that the space will be able to used be used creatively over time. And in the cafeteria you can even see primer and paint going up. So you can see even though we are still uh less than a year out from officially opening the building, it is really starting to become very real. In that theme of primer and paint and some of the finishes, I wanted to

109make sure you all had a chance to see some of the visuals and graphics that are going into the building. These are being finalized now, but one of the things that we've worked very hard to do is make sure that these photos represent multiple decades across the school's history and represent a broad collection of students who represent the school. You'll even see in one of these um K Savage who is the first African-American graduate of uh the school when it was called WI with George W high school is represented in one of those pictures as long as as well as former leaders. The uh the one thing in addition to all of those kind of exciting visuals that I wanted to put in front of this group and to be clear I am not asking

110for any action tonight. I wanted to put a highlevel question in front of you and solicit your feedback on what information would be helpful as this group will eventually need to make a decision on this issue. We have started to get a lot of community feedback around a turf field versus a grass field. This is of course a phase two question. So this is not something that we need an instant answer tonight. But as we are starting to get this feedback, we wanted to provide a highle update on the cost implications for this. As you likely know, uh originally the cost was uh was focused on grass. And so what you have in front of you are the additional costs or the comparative costs over the course of 12 years of what initial installation, ongoing

111maintenance, and then other costs would be for a grass field compared to a turf field. Again, this is very much based on community feedback and a push for us to consider a turf field. uh we have had the chance to look into these high level numbers and so you can see the differences here. We've also had a chance uh there are prior discussions about concerns about turf fields because of their higher incidence of injuries. So we've had a a chance to look into that and uh and have found that that really represents an older generation of turf and this price uh is quoted based on a newer generation of turf that those injuries are not uh prevalent or have not been shown to be an issue. So we have had a chance to look into

112that. So I wanted to put these numbers, these high level numbers in front of you and then humbly ask the question, what additional information would be helpful for this group as you consider making this change, which obviously has some real cost implications and would need to come out of the capital dollars that we have that were referenced earlier in the meeting. Questions, but I'll we'll start with Miss Burke, Mr. Jafari, Miss Ricard, Miss Rizzie, >> you know, I have been involved in this just a little bit um because I am a nature lover and I love grass and I just assume that it would be grass. So, um you know, I this is definitely not a hill I want to die on at all. Okay. So this will be the decision I think of the

113community and that's what I would like to see more of is some kind of indication of how you've engaged people and um once you you know share this information what they have to say. >> Thank you Mr. Miss Burke. >> Thank you so much Mr. Rizay. I'm in full agreement of what you just stated and I'm glad you stated, sir, that um a lot of the data was based on older data because we can also find data that supports having the turf for children youngsters during this era. My question also is um done I've done a little research and I don't know there are other systems near us that the costs would be cheaper to have a turf over years as opposed to grass field. All right. So I don't know where this data how

114many other systems or what other companies. So I I'm in agreement with what Miss Rizzy stated and because we did have a community committee at one time. I don't know what happened with them, but um it is a big deal. It is a big deal. And also thinking in terms of the long range, we're having a hard time with keeping the grass cut. I know that Dr. Rzzy, Dr. Rizzy, excuse me, Dr. Ramsey, her department or whatever has bought lawnmowers and I know the school in my district, they pay someone to cut the grass because it has to have a certain dimensions and this and that. I've learned a lot with that. Yes, ma'am. >> So, I do hope and we do have time that we bring the committee back just not for the field

115but anything else that may be of concern with them. I know there were questions also about the board the scoreboard whether it was going to be the same scoreboard that um Hugenot has or a better scoreboard. So um we want the best. So I'm in full agreement as well. I I hope superintendent cameras that's something that we can look at bringing the community back and our stu to include our students as well. those who will be playing on that field when the field is done. So, turf or grass, at the end of the day, let's do what's best on behalf of every child that attends. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafari. >> Thanks, Madam Chair. I was looking at this update uh earlier and uh searching the table of contents if you will and it wasn't

116until I got all the way to the rear of the publication that I found this inserted in there. Now I kind now the decision to actually make the school actually precedes my tenure. Okay, having said that and I too have heard the conversation if you will about uh turf p grass frankly I played on both of them but it's kind of like an old school kind of thing and I know that athletes have changed there more Michael Vic era and and they like the speed but there is a a high instance of injuries feel and and and the survey and study is ongoing and I get that but what I would like to see curious about the sources of the feedback right now it's not transparent u much the same way I look at the

117figures that now we're projecting if we want to go with that turf field and I have a baw over there that needs a a gym floor and we we just told Armstrong Kennedy they can't implement something for a couple of years. So, you know, so I just want to make sure that we're being equitable across the board with this. If it's a matter that the school board pre-approved initially, then I think it needs to come back to them and obviously before us so that we can take a look at at at this. And certainly we want to hear what the community has to say. uh as my colleague has said, these are the athletes that are that are going to have to play on it and these families most of which many of which come

118from our district and they go out of district to go both Yuganat and uh the Richmond school. >> One minute. >> So, uh I do want to see this come back. We want them satisfied. We want the community to get what they want in this. But quite frankly, I would like to see them stand on their own and not try to like mimic maybe Hugan. There's some great things to be said for Tur Fields, but definitely willing to listen to what the community wants and what those athletes, those youngsters who risk themselves want to actually play on. >> Thank you. >> But uh again, thanks for the presentation though. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Miss Ricard. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, and I don't know, I know this predates you, but I guess my question

119is why if Hugenot had a turf field, why was there ever I guess why wasn't Richmond High School for the Arts also just automatically given a turf field just for consistency between the schools? >> I I do not know the answer, but I'm happy to look into that for you, >> Mr. Cameras. Miss Rizzy, >> I would defer to >> Miss Rizzy. >> You know, I'm just doing a cursory injury. I mean I just don't >> absolutely >> Mr. Cameras. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Um [clears throat] Mr. Rzzy, one note I wanted to just make about the relative safety. Uh much of the determination comes down to how wellmaintained a grass field is. Uh when it's not wellmaintained, you get lumps and holes and that is very dangerous to student athletes. So it's that

120that's one of the core questions to the point that Mrs. Burke made earlier. Given our limited resources, sometimes we're not able to maintain our grass fields the way we'd like. And so that's where it becomes a little bit complicated. As for Mr. Ricard's question, I believe though I can't say this for certain, it was a cost savings measure when the initial RFP was done. Um as there is a significant cost. >> Thank you, Miss Rizzy. Okay. Can you Mr. Farooq? Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that this is a phase two question, but I was just joking. It's a phase one anxiety problem. So, my questions that I would like more information are one, what exactly are the costs and benefits of the turf versus the grass field? Um, I think, you know, I grew

121up playing soccer and it was always on a grass field and I I totally remember some games that like you would kick the ball and it would hit a weird catch and it just go in an opposite direction or you trip really hard. So, I get that. That being said, I don't know that there really is a strong financial case. I mean, this the the cost is so the difference is so large that I don't know this is a good decision to make based on cost. So my my question again would be like what exactly are the families, the students, the administrators, what really are they looking for? Is it that we sync money up front so that it's less of a headache in the long term or is it something else? The other thing

122I'd want to ask about is, you know, what exactly are we talking about in terms of a turf field? I mean, there are significant environmental impacts of turf and given the increased storms and like we had a pretty warm Christmas, so These environmental concerns aren't things we can ignore anymore and those are just as important if not more important than the long-term use of the field is the fact whether or not the planet's actually livable for our kids. >> Thank you, Miss Wizy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, and to go along with that, I mean, I care about that, but I get labeled as a tree hugger when I start talking about those things. So, I have stopped. Um, but I will tell you that um, you know, they're also building that nature trail

123right right behind and around that school. And so we do have to think about these environmental impacts. And then um, I would like some information too on what's happening now with um, our football teams, you know, in terms of injury. Um, you know, I mean, I think our data would matter. And so if I could get or we could get I'm sorry. If we could get um some information about like what players experience now on these grass fields, that'd be helpful. >> Miss Burke, >> you so very much. My thinking is along with what >> one minute. >> Thank you. What Miss Vizard just stated, um I'd like to know how many injuries we've had at Hugenat and is is Hugenot the only that we have in the city that has turf and also being

124mindful that when our students play games away, most of those schools, newer schools have turfs. All right, so that's I' I'd like to get more information on that also. And also being mindful at Armstrong High School, we're known for our holes. We've patched, we've done better. Even the mayor spoke of that. Remember when Mayor Vul spoke with his son playing soccer on the football field and they know where they knew just where the hole was. So that that's at the end of the day um I'd like to have a turf at Armstrong and new Armstrong to go with it with the facilities to be included. But right now let's do what's in the best interest of our children and our community. And I would like to see data because I've also and I'll share that

125with you data regarding it being cheaper to have turf versus grass. But at the end of the day my main concern 11th district >> track at Armstrong. >> Thank you. Thank you for uh your presentation. I just have a couple of um thoughts, questions. Um I have two I have a son that's an athlete and just about I feel like everybody that I know including husband um he does coaching and he tries to play although his knees give out sometimes. TMI. Um the question though is I know and he's watching right now too, but the reality is um one I have heard that turf can be very unpleasant um long term for students. So again, I'd like to get specific statistics that reflect um you know, grass versus turf. Um, also I'd like to get

126a better understanding of where the the 12-year cost came from. I know typically when we have these types of contracts, there's a bidding process. I don't know if there's different companies that would want to perhaps uh bid on it, which might bring the cost lower. Not sure. Um, but just a comparison of more than one. um get a better understanding of where this quote came from and align that with what the industry standard is. And then another thought that I have and this is just random and I could be way off but I was driving by VCU couple months ago and they had just replaced their turf and all of the other turf I mean it looked really good. I mean, it was just in a pile behind the building. So, are there ways that

127we could perhaps repurpose turf from someone who's maybe just updated their turf fields would be open to donating. I mean, just kind of thinking outside the box. I do agree with the Oh, okay. It's a party. I do agree with the community engagement piece, but I do think we need to balance that with cost implications because at the end of the day, we're going to be responsible for the bottom line. And so, as we think through that, maybe there's a way for us to still accomplish what's being requested without the full amount that's being listed. So, those are my thoughts. >> Very helpful. And chair for Mendez, if I may add, the reason we chose 12 years was that the typical lifespan of a turf field is 12 years. And so we wanted to make

128sure that the longer term estimate included the replacement every 12 years. And so if we we would have shown, for example, a 10-year estimate, we wouldn't have shown you that two years from then we would have another $500,000. That's the context there. But >> well, no, and I I get that, but my point is like where did that come from? Was that from a company? Did you do research? Like where do we come up with the 3.26 million? >> So that's where perhaps we can do a cost comparison of companies that are offering the same thing that may want to it's business for them, right? So maybe it's a bidding war. I don't know. But just something to think about. >> Absolutely. >> Mr. Pipal. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh quick question. So you

129you said this was phase two, so we're set to open next year. When do we need to make a decision on this football field? Is it by next year, the following year? >> No. Unfortunately, we would really need to make a decision in the next several months so that we can start phasing out how the uh demolition of the school would work and what uh the like resurfacing and uh irrigation would need to look like. >> Okay. And then the followup to that is you mentioned that this would come out of the capital budget. This is not coming out of construction costs. This is coming out of the capital RCIP, >> right? So this would yes this would be a construction cost but those construction costs are paid for through the CIP dollars. I'm sorry

130the the the fiveyear 200,000 tranch of dollars not the annual CIP. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Is that what you mean when you say CIP? Are you referring to the annual >> I'm talking about our annual because that is our annual CIP right there. >> Yes. No, this would come out of the roughly 200 million every 5year trunch of capital. >> Right. And I and I so my comment all leading up to my comment is just for context for all of us. And I know there's going to be a football team that uh Richmond High School for the Arts is going to probably hate me for saying this, but I have another high school that would appreciate me saying this in that they don't have lights on their field to play a home game. They have

131to get on a bus and go to Virginia Union University to play a home game. So that's Thomas Jefferson. We do not have lights. No, we do not have We don't even have lights. What's that? Oh, Virginia Union. I do not know, is there? But they don't get to play at home. So anyway, from a priority standpoint, I think we do have to for all of us to keep in mind that we have high schools and I know the point's been made that we do have other priorities as well, but if you're going to have a new football field, yeah, uh some people don't have full full sports facilities, but thanks for this. >> Thank you. Moving right along to 3.05. Receive for first read the amended um school year 2026 2027 program of studies.

132Hi. Okay, it's on. Good evening everyone. I'm Courtney Ward. I'm the director of secondary success pathways. Um, I'm pleased to bring before you a quick amendment that's already been discussed this evening to the high school program of studies to include the um, certificate of program completion. This information is already in schoolboard policy. We just need to basically check a box to ensure it's in our program of studies. So it has been updated on the current program of studies for this school year and that is actually on page 24 in that document as well as the approved program of studies for the 2627 school year which you all approved uh in December. It's been updated on page 17 correct this slide here. Oh my bad. All right. Well, I've already gone over the details of what

133you all needed to um look into. I believe tonight is for a first read, tomorrow night is for approval, but I am available for any questions regarding the certificate of program completion. >> Yes, >> Miss Rizzie chair. Um so this would we would approve this with the idea that later this is going to be We have actually already submitted the appeal and one of the uh grounds for our appeal was that we were going to do this and I do feel confident if we do this the state will ultimately uh change their classification. >> Thank you. All right. Um 3.06. I don't believe we have any contracts, so we'll move right along to 4.01. Under administrative updates, receive an update on care and safety. >> Good evening, Madame Chair. Turn the cameras for members. Can

134you Okay, I'm sorry. Good evening. Happy new year. Welcome back. Welcome to a great school year. Health Services has had a fantastic year and we're going to continue to strive for more things. This is our second school year starting off fully staffed. Uh we continue to strive in all things student centered and school health while we still support our staff as well but we still strive to support our students. We are in we have an increase in our one-to-one nursing services and we are able to provide that through contracted services. You you guys recently approved a contract for over $100,000. So we contract those services for our students receiving additional supports through IEPs and 504s for our students with disabilities. So we are able to provide them not only with a one-to-one nurse, personal care

135aid or instructional assistance. We have been collaborating with other community uh partners, VCU, uh Children's Hospital of Richmond, our uh VC school of nursing, and a couple other partners to be able to provide intensive health services for our students in the lines of school health physicals. That seems to be a barrier for some of our students. We have received a significant influx in students coming from outside of the state of Virginia, outside of the United States of America and we are here to provide those continuous wraparound services by providing those students with physicals to get into school on time. And since we have started this program, we have provided 88 school-based clinics over the course of four years. immunizations that we provide in the school level. In the past four years, we've been able to

136immunize over 2552 students, which prevents them from not staying at home because we're not currently excluding. But we are providing those services in school, allowing them to receive minimal um time outside of class, get those immunizations, and remain in school. Um, also we have we are now in year one full year of teleaalth at our three piloted schools. Carver Elementary, Cardinal Elementary, and Fairfield Elementary. I'm not sure if you've seen our video if you had an opportunity to see that. Uh also we are doing Medicaid billing which in course I know we there are talks of budget and monies and health services is here to provide you all with additional support through Medicaid billing. So we have actively our nurses are digitally digitally working to provide those services. So we are able to bill Medicaid

137for services provided in our clinics whether it be for a cut a scrape although all the checks and balances have to be in place. Our nurses see hundreds of students on a dayto-day basis and it's only going to be a plus that we are able to generate re revenue through Medicaid billing which can then in turn bring money back to RPS that can be used for other options. some additional community partners that we are working with this year to also enhance what we're providing to our students. Um we are partnering with Centa Community Care to provide additional resources. While we enjoy providing resources of immunizations, we only provide immunizations for our middle and high school students. Partnering with other community partners allows us to provide those immunizations for our elementary school students as well. So

138those beginning those key immunizations that are required to be in need them in school, we're able to outsource them out to multiple community partners. This year we also partner with Kroger Health to provide our staff with flu clinics. Flu is up and raging. So I hope if you haven't already gotten your flu shot, we were able to do that this year to um help support our staff in getting flu shots. We also partnered with a bonsa core mercy health which is our um to provide not only immunizations as a um support to our students that are uninsured but also have Medicaid. We were also able to provide flu shots to our transportation and food and nutrition services staff and we will continue to provide those services as we move forward. Um some quick legislation updates

139for you guys that school health services and Richmond public schools has already been ahead of the game on. Um epinephrine is something that we've already been providing since n since 2012. Each of our schools and our some of our off-site RPS locations are fully equipped with EpiPens for known and unknown allergies. We also currently provide um all studentf facing staff receive training at the beginning of each school year on seizure management and how to respond in emergency procedure first aid. We are currently in the process of implementing the cardiac emergency response teams throughout our school system. Some of our nurses have already conducted their drills prior to us going out on uh Christmas break or winter break. We are currently actively performing those drills as we have um as we are um tasked to have

140them performed yearly from one within one year of school starting. So those are due to be complete prior to us going out for spring break. Bleeding control sit kits is something that we have already kind of set the bar on. That's something that we've had since at least 2019. Each school is equipped with eight or more bleeding control kits in our wonderful red emergency bags that you may see throughout the clinics. And you've also seen me at graduation porting around one of those wonderful red emergency bags. So, we have already set the bar as far as that legislation is concerned. In the lock zone, we have already succeeded. The minimum is two doses in a building. Currently we have six doses in our high schools and four doses in our elementary and preschools. So we

141exceed what is required by law. And then as regards to the diabetes management, this is something that is optional. We're keeping it on our radar to determine is this something that we need to implement in Richmond City Public Schools. That concludes my presentation. Please let me know if you have any questions. >> Miss Bird, Mr. HPA, >> thank you so very much for your report. And I must say, no matter what school I go in, the nurses are very kind and they're also a part of the team. You know, they could be separate >> and I'm really thinking about the nurse at Fairfield. She's all over the place in a good manner of supporting our students. So, I really appreciate that. My question is regarding Medicaid. Thank you so very much for encouraging that. that's

142that has really been a challenge. So, I'm glad to hear that uh our nurses and whomever else are filling having the parents or whomever to fill in that paperwork so that we can get the funding from that. My question is and I guess the superintendent would answer this, the funding comes back to the nursing department or it comes back to health services. What what happens when we get the reimbursements from Medicaid? It goes to the general fund from my understanding and how it was explained to me, but I'll let Chief Parks. >> Thank you so much. >> Good evening, school board members. Yes, ma'am. So, we not only a bill for our health services, we also bill for our counseling services first time this year. So, we're hoping to see um some return on that.

143And historically, we've always built for special education, transportation, um occupational therapy, as well as speech therapy. and nursing services for our students who receive one-to-one health services. >> That's excellent. I didn't know it extended. Thank you for sharing that with the transportation and all. So, do we have a pretty much ballpark figure in our minds and in terms of how much money we made? >> Um the rate is variable. Um this year, last year towards the second semester was our first time doing health services billing. We've added counseling this year, but historically for exceptional ed, it's been right around $2 million um give or take, and it comes back to the division um on a quarterly basis. >> Thank you. Thank you for sharing it. Great job. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. HP. >>

144Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Nurse Warren, for your for your uh hard work on this. Really important. I'm I'm curious on the teleaalth part. Uh the last bullet talks about the improved attendance outcomes. I wonder if and maybe this is a superintendent question, but the do we have the actual numbers of data for attendance for these schools? That's something that we're working on and we are looking to expand teleaalth as well. We meet with VCU hospital chore doctors to determine how we can expand and offer this in other schools as well. So, we're we're looking we're capturing that. So, I hope on my next presentation I'll have that information for you. >> Thank you. >> If I can also add um Mr. Hedgep, we've only had 22 visits thus far. Um Cardinal Elementary School

145has been rocking and rolling with getting Yes. with getting consent from families. Nurse Rosa has over 200 consent from families. We're still working with our East End schools. there's a little bit resistance um and just trying to knock down those barriers and letting parents understand that if they do use the service at school, it does not impact their existing benefits at all. Um it really is a help to keep them in school because the doctor can actually send over a prescription right there from directly to their pharmacy. And we also have to give a shout out to the ed fund who uh is supporting our families who are uninsured who would like to participate. >> Thank you, Miss Parks. Madam, Madam Chair, followup u uh nurse born. The other thing um you were talking about

146in one of our policy committees la uh meeting last year about mental health for teleaalth um as a dream maybe for something or some that other divisions are offering. Is there any change on that? We're in talks of that, Mr. Hedgepath. But there is a lot of mucky water in regards to mental health when we get to our secondary students, but we are talking about it and we are also collaborating to see what other districts are doing, especially our surrounding districts as well to see. But we are pro we are working with other mental health partners to provide those services outside of teleaalth. >> Thank you. So uh thank you for the presentation. Really excited. Um I have to agree with my colleagues like um the team the nurses team is very much engaged and

147pleasant every time um I see them. Um shout out to the nurse at Cardinal who really has embraced tellaalth on another level and really understands the dynamics of what it can implicate for families. Um I really would just like to see the numbers increase though for the participation in tella health and I saw the commercial post um which I think is great but if there's a way we can do more of that just like amplifying the message because it's such a value ad and um I just would hate to see it we lose the opportunity because people aren't utilizing it. So, just kind of thinking through ways of how we can get more engaged. Is it a part of a welcome packet when they come into the schools? Like, what can we think about to

148maybe um partner with the parents and getting them more engaged in in the opportunity? So, we're partnering with our communications team, Tama Massie, and to see where and how we can do that at every opportunity to just let our parents know. And as I said, we're trying to expand. So, we're hoping expanding into other schools will also give us that opportunity to increase those numbers and we're trying to be strategic in those selections of those schools to see how and where we can place tellaalth so that it can be more greatly utilized. did want to add that um in our meeting that we had in December um Dr. Romesh was saying you the fancy equipment is nice but all you need is cell phones. So if we wanted to expand to additional elementary schools we

149could. And so we're in the process now of looking at those clinics that have high clinic visit rates because that is most likely a school that we would want to expand to. And so we're trying to by the end of the year add two more schools so that we can have five, make sure that we get the data in a good place so that we can select some other schools. If all we need is a cell phone, I think we can handle that. >> And all of our nurses have iPads, so we have the technology to be able and the capability to be able to do it. We just need to educate our families. And I greatly appreciate anything that you pass out and any suggestions you have as to where you may see a

150need. >> Yeah, I think that's great. And so things like testimonials, I think when we first launched this, there was a testimonial that was shared on a larger level that was very powerful. Um I think it was something they looked at them and and was able to diagnose uh some I don't want to um misspeak but um just maybe putting those in rotation maybe sharing that video on um RPS connect or what have you. Um also um once kids are enrolled in school sometimes they have like spirit night or what have you. just being more intentional about, hey, you know, let me show you this demonstration before we get started with whatever, right? The movie or the giveaway or just more ways that we can engage and just like I said, amplify the sound, I

151think would be amazing. You guys are doing a phenomenal job and just want to make sure that we're utilizing you for all that you all are um committed to to doing with our families. Thank you. Okay, next up we have receive update on secondary pathways. Good evening again. I'm joined here by my colleagues, Dr. Rhonda Turner, associate director of career and technical education, and Candace Feny Chaplan, our manager for college and career pathways. And we're pleased this evening to offer an update on our post-secondary initi initiatives in the division. Um we've put our slogan here for what's your e our life preparation for life preparation. Um the theme around 3E and our division, we rolled this out to schools in summer of 2024 and it has stuck. Um one of the things we talk about

152all the time within ourselves and within our school teams is that all of our students are career bound at some point. whether they're going to go into their career immediately following high school graduation or if it will be after they've gotten some type of post-secary education, whether it's a two-year or four-year college or university or a trade school. Ultimately, we want to make sure students have the tools that they need to be successful in whatever avenue they go into. Here are the details of the 3E activities that we have in RPS. Under enrollment, we have dual enrollment, ECA, KIPP, which is the College Board testing system, AP and IB. Under enlistment, that is measured through the ASVAB test. And then through employment, we have our CTE completer sequences and industry credentials as well as the

153CTE completer sequences paired with the high quality workbased learning experiences which have all been updated by BDOE to these specific six experiences which is different than in years past. Right. Good evening. All right. So as you can see our cohort 24 3E rate um we have shown an increase in cohort 25 um of a difference of 29% across the division. You can see what the individual schools have rated and you can see growth across the division in this category for 3e. All right. So this breaks down the categories um specifically for high quality work-based learning credentials and AP qualifying scores. Um as you can see again across the division we continue to show growth um across all three categories. um along with in most of all of our schools. Um you can see that under

154credential earners uh VOE has teased out the high demand credentials which they've identified as specific credentials tied to high demand care for your fields. And so that's what you find in the parenthesis there. All right. So in terms of the students journey um towards enrollment uh in terms of that 3e we really look at it as an opportunity for students to take a path to explore which starts as early as elementary school with the academic and career plan portfolio that elementary counselors work with students on via Virginia wizard preparing where they are looking at building their readiness taking coursework that is of interest to them and aligned with what they want to to developing an academic and career plan, getting credentials and planning for the future, applying for uh the next step. So, submitting their

155applications, completing the FAFSA, um other things that they need to do to prepare to go to the next step in the next path that they have. and then enrolling. So that transition from high school to college and actually getting enrolled um and having that enrollment verified to support our students. We have a number of partnerships uh to help our students to get to where they need to go. There are lots of different partnerships because students can get to them and are successful in different ways. um many of them provide some sort of funding for students. A lot of them are available at all schools, but some have very specific schools where they're available at those partnerships offer different very specific things like KR scholars for examples is focused on HBCU. Partnership for the Future is

156looking at uh supporting all students of course and then TRIO um specific to Armstrong John Marshall Richmond High School for the Art. What I'm going to tell you a little bit about that. So go to that next slide please. Um, so RVA, uh, Infinite Scholars, Enrichment Community Foundation are also listed as our partners, but RT RTP is not listed on that. So I will share a little bit of information about it. They uh, the RTP or Richmond Talent Pathways at VCU is a program that really is focused on the acceptance and support of students from our comprehensive schools interested in going to VCU. Um they have things like a summer scholars program that prepares students for going to the university um and helps them to be successful when they are there. And for students who

157are PEL grant eligible they receive a scholarship they receive some scholarship support from the Richmond talent pathway. Currently we have seven students from Armstrong um seven students who graduated from Armstrong. 17 from Hugenot, four from John Marshall, 14 from Richmond High School for the Arts, and 12 from Thomas Jefferson High School that participate with the Richmond Talent Pathway. All right. Okay. So, talking about employment. So explore is where students are exposed to career options and on the next slide I'll talk about passport to careers and career investigations. It's really for elementary, fifth grade and middle school students. Um prepare is where students are completing CTE course worker sequences. They're earning industry credentials. Um participating in workbased learning experiences and learning about employability skills which are workplace readiness skills. also participating in um what's under apply

158which so we're supporting with completing job applications resumeé workshops um we have partnerships with like Brian Stratton who will host students and do resume writing workshops uh uh we host mock job interviews at schools and um just all of the things that we can do to prepare them for employment in the first step in employment and then the last is where they transition into the workforce Um, of course, many of our students also go into um the college pathway as well. All right. So, speaking a little more about passport to careers. So, passport to careers is a program we started about two years ago. Um, they we currently have it at Fairfield JL Francis and Oak Bel. Um it is a fifth grade initiative where we bring um information and exposure to the 17 career

159clusters through presentations from partners. So like Virginia Credit Union, we've even had RTC students come over and talk about the programs there um and things of that nature. So a lot of our advisory board members participate and um we also lean on junior achievement for speakers. Um, career investigations is a required course that must be completed by all middle school students before they transition to high school. Again, it's an exploration of the 17 career clusters, just exposing them to what those jobs are, just so they can kind of start to get an idea and think about maybe a pathway that they want to choose for high school. Um, the academic career plan portfolio um is completed in high school and middle school. Do you want to speak about that? Okay. And so the ACP actually

160starts in elementary school, but students flush it out in middle and high school. And it really is an inventory of their interest. It starts with what they're interested in and what problems they want to solve. And through the years, it gets students to tease down their interests and their skills to what career field they would like to go into. Our school counselors and our future center navigators will use the information from the ACP to help students choose their courses or to choose their pathways at the tech center. also with their post-secary goals. So overall, it's through Virginia Wizard. You may have also heard about like major clarity or nviance, but it really is our um data system for tracking where do students want to go after they graduate and it starts in elementary school. Um

161job shadowing day is initiative that we have. It is aligned to a national initiative. And so this year it's actually on February 6th. We have 150 students slated to participate um across all middle schools. Um we focus on um the CTE students that are um in our our programs um courses. Uh Mission Tomorrow is also a eighth grade initiative that is led by the chamber VA um and students participate in that yearly as well. um the chamber puts on the event and we provide the students and we also have students from RTC and teachers who host um tables and share about their program areas. Um JBG jobs for Virginia graduates. It's another really special initiative. It's a grant-f funded initiative. This year it's at Thomas Jefferson High School. In the past it's been at RSA

162as well as RTC, but it is a part of the jobs for American graduates framework where students do the same thing that they were doing with us in classes with the ACP. They find their area of interest and then they build out a plan for that. um with their job tutor. There's a lot of the same activities we're doing during the day with mock job interviews, resume writing workshops, and exposure activities. Um the unique thing about JBG is that any student in the cohort is followed for a year after graduation to see what they ultimately ended up doing. Did they go to a job and how much money are they making? Are they attending and going to work or if they're enrolled in school? And so there is a year um a one-year followup after

163JBG. And our last two are CTE summer initiatives. And so the first one is CTE summer odyssey. That is for 11th and 12th grade students to do a six week paid summer internship experience. Um we partner with different companies around such as MCB, VU, um Timmans Group, um and then within our PS as well. So, we have students placed at schools and different departments within the division. Um, it hosts several students each year and they're able to assist with setting up computers and labs and doing updates and things like that. Um, like I said, it's a paid experience. So, we do ask for our partners to pay um the students over the summer, but we also have are able to use our grant funding to pay for students um to participate in this as well.

164Um, and then we have our CTE summer exploration. It's a two to four-week summer program for ninth and tth graders just to give them exposure to opportunities, course opportunities that we have at the Zach Center that they get to preview cosmetology, welding, art, automotive, things like that and then just make it fun and interesting so they can kind of get a sneak peek of what they would be doing if they participated in those. >> Mr. cameras. >> There is so much great information in this presentation, but I'm going to ask you guys to just touch on the highlights. It really is wonderful, and thank you so much for laying it all out. Just the highlights. Thank you. Uh, Miss Ward already spoke about what counselors do with the ACP and so you have some images

165there of a particular counselor at Armstrong High School engaged with students um with that. The other thing to consider is that they connect that ACP that academic and career plan with courses that students can take and they make sure that the kids have what they need and that their transcript is right. The navigators themselves are the ones who help the high school students to navigate Virginia Wizard to help develop their ACP and update them over time. Um, and they manage career planning for students who choose to enter the workforce as well as helping them to get with the partners who come into the building um that we listed earlier on in the presentation. >> Okay. And I'll wrap us up with um our partnerships have been key. We do want to double down on this.

166There's no more powerful classroom than the workforce itself, especially for our students who are immediately going into employment. We have two major events this school year. Um well, three major events this school year. The CTE business partner summit led by Dr. Turner and her team where we had over 80 businesses recommit to the school division to support our students. Then we also work closely with um youth engagement services through the youth works program through the city. Um we have here our career exploration fair and hiring fair. Two key events. Um they're structured in a way to make students as successful as possible. Students explore careers and then those same businesses come out again to hire students. What was different this year than what we did last year was the folks who are participating actually have

167entry level positions available and they've stated that they have those and so we're looking forward to having more students get hired on the spot in the spring at the hiring fair. Um our partnerships range from Virginia Commonwealth University and then some others. Here are three key areas for VCU. I will highlight for the board that we do plan to get you the detailed information on the VCU pathways to healthcare. We just want to make sure we have the right figure for that. Um, on our scope right now is data and how we're collecting it. We have a wonderful post-secondary tracker which is developed by Dr. Kate Robbins on the data science and analytics team. That information is self-reported by students. So, we've made a concerted effort to get actual data through the National Student Clearing

168House, the Employment Commission, and all of that is wrapped up with the Virginia Longitudinal Data Study, which I did include a link here on how BDOE and other agencies use that information. And then big picture for us is we are working with um some stakeholders on building out our own employment dashboard where we can kind of hold kids' hands as they go through the application process. it would require that students opt into something like that because again they are entitled to their privacy after they graduate from RPS. But we do want to see where um if there are any gaps where they are so we can help students whether it's on the application front, the interview portion of it, even if it's just getting a driver's license and making sure they have the right documentation.

169We're happy to take any questions. Miss Burke, Miss Rzzy, Mr. Hedgepath. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for this detailed report. I really appreciate it and I knew what I was looking at when I saw all the places we would go because I also know what school has that. All right. But my question is, um, thank you so much. I'm glad to hear that our students have the opportunity to get paid and I like the idea also of Richmond Public Schools embracing that. My question is moving forward is there are we keeping data in terms of the number of students that are are um receiving the support of the programs in the city and the reason I'm asking that is um hopefully I won't see this this year but if last year I

170know in talking to some of the seniors talking to some of the seniors and asking what are you going to do I don't know they don't have a clue well have you thought about I don't know I like to draw so my question is is this just for particular students or all students particularly at the high school level do they all get a chance to junior achievement forever for instance that's not a a all year program that's a one or two day program so my my question is number one are we keeping data in terms of um how many students are participating in the program what the turnover is I just would like to see some data to support this is a lot of work, a lot of information, but at the end of the

171day, is it working completely for every child? So, if you're already doing it, great. If not, I would I look forward and also knowing how we can better support that because we want those who are scholars to have the same opportunities as those who may be struggling academically. Because I'm getting information data that many of our high school students when they finish high school, if they don't go on to higher learning, they go to McDonald's, Hardies. Nothing's wrong with that. Minimum wage is supposed to be going up. But at the end of the day, other alternatives. I'd love to hear more about VCU's program as well. >> Thank you, >> Miss Rizzie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I only reference RTP because they are actually in our schools. I think they start with juniors. Um,

172so they are in our schools. Um, I my concern, well, not a concern, but just, you know, my comment has to do um related to what Miss Burke is asking about impact, right? How do we know students participate in each of these initiatives. Um, you know, I know it's difficult to track students after graduation, but maybe there's some attempt that could be made or a study that could be done to just kind of do some research on how effective and impactful we are. Um, and then I want to plug uh for the district even um that film that we saw at the BSBA conference, multiple choice, because it actually deals with a lot of this and um with work, you know, workforce readiness in general, and I just think it would be a great experience.

173Uh I don't know how much it costs, Mr. Cameras, but um yeah, I mean it would it's just a powerful film about a district that did this and and had much success. Thank you, Mr. Hedgep. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for the presentation. This is really great work. 80 businesses, more than 80 businesses have affirmed their their commitment. That is awesome uh to partner with us. I wonder u if other businesses were interested in partnering with us, where do we send them? How do we how do we connect them? Because I know there's more than 80 businesses in the city and the surrounding area that would want to work with our kids. >> Yep. You can send them directly to me and I will write them to the right person on the

174team. We have a high quality workbased learning specialist on Dr. Turner's team as well as our cure career outreach facilitator. We can find the right spot for all of those businesses to plug in with our students. >> Thank you, Mr. Farooq. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Following up on page 17, you talk about the 80 businesses. Do we know roughly how many of our students get either hired or placed an internship from those 80 businesses roughly year-over-year? >> No. And so one of the reasons why we had folks reaffirm this year is because in the past it's really been like exposure and exploration. This year we asked please don't come unless you actually have positions for students to be hired into. And so we're hopeful to have um a firm and robust number of students

175that are hired on the spot in our hiring fair in March. For our workbased learning experiences, we do track that because that information is submitted to BDOE. So we could provide those numbers, but it is also outlined in the slide with the data. You'll see the numbers of students that participate in workbased learning experience. I can tell you what number page. I think it was was it four? Okay, slide five actually. So there's a category for workbased learning experiences that you can see there, but that consists of the six experiences, not just internships. >> Mr. Pip, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Uh quick question on slide four. You have the breakdown of percentages of the three E. Can you explain just briefly how you get above 100%. >> John Grove from our data science and

176analytics team. >> Bring on the data. All right. So there are three buckets, right? Employment, enlistment, and Roman. Thank you. Um so you can maximize each bucket towards a certain amount. So for example with ASVAP the most you can get I believe is one point correct. Yes. Correct. And then I know for enrollment you can you can even exceed a whole point in that bucket. So there are three buckets. So if you get one point for each bucket that's three total points. That's a lot. So that's where schools are maximizing this and students are exceeding one point. Thus some schools are reaching 122%. >> Mr. Cameron. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I do want to note this work in the system was called out in the JARK report and it is unlikely to continue.

177If you look at how elementary, middle, and high schools across the Commonwealth did on the new rating system, high schools did much better than every other level in part because of this. And so I would anticipate some changes which fortunately will depress some of the high scores. Um, that being said, we're going to play by the rules of whatever game we are given. And so, we maximized uh the rules as they currently are, and we will respond accordingly if any changes are made. So, my follow-up question to that is if somebody is scoring more than one point, does does this number reflect every student? And I think this sort of echoes my colleagues questions over here is are we capturing each student's participation in this? So is there a similar number that is focused on

178student as opposed to the 3E outcome? Right? So my gross example is if you have two students and one student scores 200% or two points that would reflect on the schools being 100% yet 50% of the students didn't participate at all. So is that somewhat accurate in what we're looking at in the numbers? >> So partially yes. The good thing is that in order for any student to get a diploma in the state of Virginia, they have to be a CTE um completer. And so the CTE sequential electives, those two and the industry certification, that will give every student some 3E points. Any student who doesn't get the CTE sequential elective and industry certification would have met that graduation requirement through another avenue, whether it's AP or IB or dual enrollment. So in any event,

179I can't necessarily say that we can aggregate this to show that every student's worth has has earned one full point, but we know that every student has earned some of the points towards their school's 3E because it's embedded in their graduation requirements. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, Miss Ricardo, I'll come back to you. Thank you for this presentation. I just wanted to say I love the idea of the employment dashboard on the last page. Um, my university had a very small version of this and it was just really powerful to be able to search yourself for your jobs and that's super exciting that our high school students could do it. thinking like how could we market it to businesses of like locally grown and you know just really encourage Richmond that these are our

180youth, they know our community, they live in our community and you should hire them. Um and I think whatever support we can do to make this a reality would just let us know because I just think this would be so powerful for our students in finding jobs. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Farooq. >> Yes, following up on my question. So, start on page five, when we look at the columns that talk about high quality work-based learning experiences, we see dramatic increase. So, cohort 2025, we see 100 plus kids or rather of those. How many of those is does that include things like Richmond talent pathways or is that just the corporations? >> So, this is specifically through CTE. So a student has to be enrolled in CTE to participate in a high quality workbased learn

181and that is counted in this number for VDOE. And so this consists of the six that were listed before. So students participating in clinicals, internships, registered apprenticeships, um entrepreneurship, uh schoolbased enterprise and supervised agriculture exper experiences. And so that's the specific six that that's a combination of is what you're seeing represented there. Not just coming. >> No. So they're actually completing an a full experience. Um but the parameters that video he has outlined. >> I think it would be helpful for us to distinguish between where's the work and the information resources that we as a system help them get them out versus the other I think those numbers are mixed together. It's hard to tell like where the gap is. I don't know if that was my question. Like I mean it's not right away

182but continuing to like keep those numbers out like >> um first off I want to thank you all. you know, I'm a huge proponent of the work that you all do and um really appreciate the passion. I've um seen you all firsthand. I've had, you know, conversations about individual students. We've traveled and and look at, you know, pathways together and CT programs um across the country and um but I do have to agree with the consistent messaging across the board here. Data, data, data. We have so much opportunity and what's reflected here, right? We have um partnerships, nonprofit organizations, we have um you know goals for VDOE, we have all of these things that are happening, but nothing really truly truly shows from end to end how where we're successful, right? So like for example

183um page eight partnerships for the future it's provided to all high schools we had 150 170 RPS students in high school and college but how many students do we have in high school? What is the disconnect and why we have this really great partner and not everyone is taking full advantage of it? Why is it only off certain things are only offered in certain schools and not other schools? How do you form that criteria? So, I just want to see if we could tell a a clear story um with that regard. >> Certainly, and I think some of our partners um we have stronger data from some partners than others. And so, it will be our mission to close the loop on those things to make sure that we have a a clear data story

184going forward. >> I appreciate that. And like for another example is you know you mentioned the VA wizard, Virginia wizard. Is everyone using it? How are they using it? Um there is a disconnect somewhere in the sense of we have all of this opportunity. Why are our students not utilizing all of what's available? why are they going to, you know, fast food as opposed to these other pathways available to we've got to kind of wrap our arms around that. Um, I I don't really know the answer, but I you specifically asked for this presentation just so that we could talk through that. And I I see kind of what the disconnect might be is because there's so much opportunity. And if there's data, there's has to be a way to tell that story so that

185we can learn from it, grow from it, and capitalize on it. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Farooq. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one quick comment that I'd like to make and I know we've talked about this a lot and this comes up often when we talk about success for our students long term. And I just want to make the comment that there are many jobs that don't pay well in America, but that doesn't mean that they're bad jobs. And I'll just call out food service. Like I've worked in food service. I've worked in retail. And like it's awful that our kids go into those jobs and don't get paid well, but that doesn't mean that those are not great jobs. like feeding people is like such a human thing and it requires real skill

186and collaboration and artistry and like craft, but the reality is they are exploited in those jobs and they're not paid well. And that's that's on us. That's on us who are in power to like demand that they get paid better. So to people listening, including young people, if you hear us talk about working in food service and retail, it's not that they're bad jobs. It's that we have unjust systems. So I just want to make that clear for people watching. Thank you. Uh Mr. Farooq, I agree there are no such thing as bad jobs. I think anytime that we can put food on the table for our families, it's important, but our responsibility is also as a division is to give every opportunity to our students to excel and have whatever desire they have available

187to them and give them the access to achieve it. and so not by default versus this is what I'm choosing to do. And I think there's a huge difference there. And I would just also say as we think through like filling out FASA, who is doing career readiness, how many applications are being submitted, is everybody getting opportunity to interview, those types of things, etc. I could go on and on, but obviously I'm passionate about this. I appreciate all of your hard work. Thank you. >> Thank you. Moving right along to 4.03. Receive an update on subgroup academic performance. Good evening. As an extension of our accountability presentation that we did a few minutes ago, um we we would like to provide a short review of our subgroup performance. A hallmark of how successful a school

188is or a school division is how we are ensuring that every student is getting what they need. and that is whether they are um monitored in Virginia as white students, black students, Hispanic students, English language learners, and economically dev disadvantaged students and students with disabilities in Virginia. Those are the categories of subgroups that um um that VDOE determines as every student. Oh, [laughter] okay. I have the clicker. Okay. I'm sorry. I hadn't even gotten that far yet. Yeah. Backwards. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. So um so over the past three years RPS has measurable strides has made measurable strides in reducing student achievement gaps over federally and state identified groups. Um gains have been in in grades 3 through 12 and with improvements tracked in every core academic area. You know we've celebrated those over and over

189again. the drivers of success. We've talked about a little bit before where we talked about how we are looking at collaborative planning, data meetings, very intentional um strategies around formative assessments, all of those pieces. Um that's one of our drivers for success. However, our current gaps are our largest gap is students with disabilities and our achievement gaps also persist among students of color. um and that is between white and black students and that is where we continue to need to make improvements and gains. As you know the contributing factors um research indicates that achievement gaps that exist across the nation are magnified when poverty is a significant factor and that is part of what we have in our division as a urban school division. Um, as we know in RPS, um, we are still addressing

190achievement gaps, um, between white students and students of color, um, and students with disabilities. And these disparities have a long history, um, here in our division. Um, we also know, and we've talked about several time about budget realities. Um, we talked about that tonight. And, um, for example, this year our title um, title one funds are decreasing. And so it is um getting harder to continue to make gains and provide the resources our students need. Three takeaways we have is um continue to improve our ta data dri datadriven practices. Um one of the things that we've been implementing over the past year is t is tactical meetings. We've talked about those um a little bit and we would love um of course you're welcome to join us but we would love to be able to

191come to the board and be able to walk through exactly what happens at those meetings. That is the same meeting that Miss Burke talked about and exactly what we do um in those meetings is very important to us taking the next steps. um researchbased practices. This is something that um VDOE requires. Um when it comes to our title one funding applications, when it comes to our school improvement grants, it all has to be um based on researchbased practices. It can't just be what you want to do. Um and so the cohesion is ensuring alignment between the academic office and school support services and programs. And that is across the division. You don't hear me just talk about academics because my colleagues next to me are a big part of making sure that our students are

192successful. Um, two essential actions. We are continuing to look at every program, material, service that we utilize to ensure that it is the best resource in order to go to the next level with our students. Um, and that's for every subgroup of students. We also are conti continuing to look at research and um planning around some of the culturally responsive teachings to make sure that the strategies that we are utilizing are the best strategies moving forward. And those are just a few of the things I am sure that you have lots and lots of questions. We added in the data school by school for every school in the division. So, it is quite a bit of information and I'm sure you um went through to your schools to look at the gaps and you saw

193some of the same things that we see. Um, and so John has a couple of notes about >> So, one school board member pointed out a an issue with the data. Um, I dug into it because the end sizes are looking off. It's actually doubled. Um, and I do want to say that I extracted this um directly from VideoE and the issue was with their extracts. I emailed them right away and I did identify that it's doubled. So what you can see if you want to I can redo this report. So it's divided in half. Um but then some of the end sizes are a little bit wonky at the lower numbers where honestly they should not have been reported. Okay. >> Thank you. >> We definitely want accurate data. So if you could resubmit

194that, we'd appreciate it. Miss Rizzie, Miss Ricard, >> thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I primarily became interested in this once I started looking at this data and I understand historically um these conditions have persisted. I, you know, I I particularly am interested in and I I don't know that I asked for this, but for example, um 10 years ago, my son went to Harrison Jones when it was a very different uh population and I don't remember that school the the black students there having the same data right and so I think my question is how can we more deeply interrogate what these disparities are about and and you know certainly poverty plays a role but not every poor kid does poorly in school. And so I just want to look into, you know, do

195we have climate issues? You know, our parents being engaged the same across the board. Um I just want to make sure that our kids are fully engaged and feel a part of every single school that we every RPS school, every school in general. But um I just wanted to look at these because I think the numbers are stark and and although there is progress yeartoyear the gap remains and um it it is concerning. >> It is very concerning um Mrs. RZY and it's something that we talk about in the academic office and we look toward improving continuing to improve and I'm with you. I want to make sure that the gaps are closing um quicker than what they are. And so that's why we're looking into a lot of different things. It's one of the

196reasons why um we decided um as a division to look in um and and look at student belonging this year because that is one of the factors. It is about culture and climate. It's about a student's experience because that has to do with chronic absenteeism and whether students want to come to school. What kind of environment is happening? Um how are students um engaged when they're in the classroom and helping our teachers and our IAS our cafeteria I will go our um bus drivers all of our groups that touch kids every day to make sure that they're engaging kids in a positive way. And so that is one of the factors we look at besides academics because you got to get their heart before you get their mind. And if they don't feel like they

197matter, it's very hard to make sure that they are achieving at a high level. So all of those factors we're looking at and as a team um to make sure our kids are getting what they need. So those concerns are there and we continue to work on that process along with all the academic things that we do to make sure they're in an environment where they feel loved and accepted and that they can achieve anything they want to achieve. >> Thank you Miss Ricard. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for this report. Um I was I loved seeing um the point about academic directors engaging in the book study of I used her work uh years ago when I was in the school with my teachers school. I just think her practices are very

198powerful. Um and I think if possible as a future followup, I would love to hear about the takeaways from that book study and then what strategies are they taking back to the principles and then to the schools about how how we can have courageous conversations as educators about implicit bias and how that then impacts how we teach our children and perceive every student in our classroom. Um, because I think those all have impacts on on our students and their learning environments and very well could help turn the tide on on some of these um data points. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Last but certainly not least, receive an update on chronic absenteeism tracking processes. Good evening. Good evening, board chair, uh, Superintendent Camas, and members of the board. Thank you for having me. Thought you

199had a choice, but happy to be here. I am Dr. Danielle Greenbell, chief engagement officer, and I would love to share with you all some of the practices that we are employing across our division. um particularly as it relates to chronic absenteeism, specifically our attendance taking practices um from across the division. So I will be brief. I just had some policies that are governing attendance uh both in the state as well across RPS just to ground you and how uh we are what what guidances we're ruled by or we abide by. Um, I did want to zoom in a little bit on policy and just kind of explaining excused absences and what qualifies as an excused absence in the division. Jumping ahead to a couple of Oops. Just want to say stay sorry stay right

200here for a second. Excused absences do count towards chronic absenteeism. Um, and so that is something that I'll touch on later, but it's not whether an truency is just whether an absence is unexcused. And so I just wanted to highlight that um as as it relates to our policy. Um, you know, why we monitor attendance, but just wanted to highlight for any of those at our public that is at home why we do so. It's everything from a culture builder to state accountability measures, funding, fiscal compliance. Um, and also most importantly, it's just the safety of our students. Knowing where our students are. Um, having those conversations if a student has been absent for a series of days um or just a day can lead to us really knowing a whole lot of more about

201their story and what their needs may be. I just wanted to highlight really quickly some definitions. I already spoke about it really briefly where it relates to truency. Um, in RPS we're really concerned about chronic absenteeism. Um, you've heard me say it many times. If a a student is chronically absent if they have missed more than 10% of 10% or more of the school division. I want to be clear because oftent times people say that that's you know 18 days 180 days. If a student does not come for first two weeks of school then the number the percentage means the number of absences that it requires for them to be chronically absent will also reduce. So it's not just a solid number it is a percentage. Um and then also I just provided a definition

202for average daily attendance because that is how our um fiscal our pure pupil expenditures are determined. So, I just wanted to make sure that that was clear. Um, here are key players. Just so you know, there's a lot, you know, it takes a village. It's everything from our teachers and our principles to our liaison. Um, we have an external system or support through everyday pro um data specialists, our directors and associate directors. So, it it sometimes seems very simple, but as we know in RPS things are very very layered. So, I just wanted to lay out for you all of the different individuals um who are involved in our attendance reporting and monitoring. Um I do want to note that I did miss some of our Oh, no. Yes, no, our Aspen um specialists who

203work with us very diligently to make sure that all of our OAS have have training how to take attendance. Our attendance system is run through Aspen as you all know. um it is our primary tool for attendance reporting. Um that will shift to power school during the 2026 27 school year. Um and so this allows us to have in both instances real time synchronization. Um high accessibility. I when I was in school, you know, you had the little attendance cards that you had to write and then someone hopefully you got to go to the office and turn it in. So you got five sweet minutes out of class. Um, but this just allows us to integrate that attendance also in one place with grades, conduct, health records, etc. Um, and so I'll talk a little

204bit about some future modifications that are exciting through Power School that we're also exploring. We do a lot of data tracking and progress monitoring. So using Aspen allows us to work with our data team to really understand where we are in terms of our chronic absenteeism um and how our students are taking attendance, which teachers are taking attendance, which teachers are not taking attendance or, you know, forgetting. They have a lot of things on their plate. Um if you've ever been a teacher, it is very some it's very easy to forget to to turn it to press that submit button. Um and so it really allows us to kind of really dig deep and have a comprehensive understanding of how our schools are doing on a daily basis. Um everyday pro as I mentioned is

205another system that we use and this is what I want really want to get to the meat of it is our daily workflow. Um this is what I was asked about. It is different based on whether or not you are in an elementary or a secondary room. Elementary does home room based tracking. Um teachers take attendance once at the beginning of the day. All children are accounted for. It is sent to the front office. Um and then the um attendance worker go moves into the workflow that you see on the secondary level. It it's a little bit more complex. Um we have both daily and period by period tracking where attendance is taken in class every single like throughout the day. um in every single period. Um in RPS, our secondary schools do mark their

206daily attendance during second period. What does that mean? That means that are you here for the day? We check to see were you here in second block. Um and then that indicates whether or not you were here for the day. Now there are you may come in in third block or fourth block. Um we have systems that we've worked with um our Aspen integrators on where it will kind of if if you weren't here for the first half of the day which came in in third and fourth it will man it will change your daily attendance to target. So it won't say that you were present in second block but it will say that you were present for the day that so you don't get um marked as absent if you missed second block. Um,

207then you have period by period tracking where every teacher has to remember to submit their attendance each class period. So that lets us know, you know, you might be here every day, but maybe third block isn't your favorite. And so what can we do when we look into the data to see how can we get you, our dear friend, into third block. Um, so this really allows us to have a comprehensive understanding of where our students are every day, every minute of the day. Um, the workflow, uh, classroom teachers mark the students as present or absent. Um, and then once that goes in, now step two is only done by elementary school once. For our SISOP office associates, they conduct postverification reports after every single block for every single teacher. Um and they are responsible

208for then emailing or calling teachers who have not yet posted attendance. Um then they develop a list of all absent students from a period and use that list to cross reference class attendance for remaining periods throughout the day. It is as I'll discuss it's very labor intensive work. Um and then they some attend at times they may manually make corrections to Aspen throughout the day to update tardies um to alter and correct attendance which is why they're running those post verification reports. If you have been present first block, second block, you were marked um absent third block, but then you were marked present third block. They might call the teacher to say, "Hey, was that perhaps a mistake? Was the student actually there?" We all make mistakes. just trying to make sure that the students

209are where they are and we don't want anyone to um be missing it. Um and then from there the attendance team which is consistent of all of the folks that I t I showed you before they take action. We make phone calls. We start doing home visits if transportation is needed. Um some of our team members hop in vans um and pick up students, bring them to school um and so forth. We have regular meetings about attendance which uh we usually talk about when we give you the report on what our actual numbers for chronic absenteeism are but this is the daily workflow as it pertains to attendance. So here are some challenges and some proposed solutions that we're really thinking about. As I said it can be a pretty laborious workflow um on the

210secondary level especially the larger the school the larger the labor. Um so um really if you have 200 plus tardy students in a day um which we have seen um at a high school um we reviewing maintaining records on a period by period basis maintaining and making sure all of our students are where they're supposed to be correcting inaccuracies. Um it is it is quite a quite a lift. And so we are seeking to leverage some parent square notifications to send alert reminders to our teachers to remind them to submit attendance so they get a little nudge um in case in the case that they didn't do it. So that would help um remove that phone call or email that a lot of our attendance workers are taking off of their plate. And it would

211also hopefully encourage our teachers to always submit attendance. Um, most of them do, some of them don't. Um, and then we're also exploring some plug-in systems to streamline some attendance taking processes. Um, what would it look like if students scanned into class? Um, to, you know, or scanned into school, not sure. just trying to explore the options to see how we can make this less labor intensive, more streamlined and make really good use of our CISO ops um and our office associates. Uh we are actively combating miscommunications around excused absences. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have had conversations with parent um who has said it's excused. I I don't know what why are you calling me? Well, that's still chronically absent. Well, we're we're worried about the seat time. How

212much time do they actually have in the classroom? And so, we've been really working about um in our own language to really not use excused because it sometimes communicates it's gone. It doesn't matter. It's off of their record. Why is this you? And and and it still counts towards chronic absenteeism with the VDOE. PDOE is not concerned whether or not you went to Disney World or if you were skipping. They want to know were you in class. Um and so we've been really thinking about how do we communicate to families what is the reason why your student isn't here. We're just checking in not necessarily excusing the absence. And so but it is excused absence is the language of our policy. Um, so we're just trying to think about how we can really communicate with

213parents that um, regardless of the reason, we really want to see your kiddo back in class. Um, there's also some variance. Uh, if you saw in the policy, there was uh, there is some variance for discretion based on school leaders. Um, and so ex eight extenduating circumstances as approved by the school administration. Last thing that I will I promise I'll wrap this up. Um, discretion on the basis of our school leaders is incredibly important. However, we don't have consistency about what is excused, what is unexcused. I have seen family vacations um excused. I have seen non RPS affiliated athletic tournaments um you know the local tennis team just to you know visiting family members outside of the country. there is discretion, but it does send confusing messages, especially if it's not excused in elementary school,

214it isn't excused at high school, it's not excused in in high school. And so, just trying to really streamline that. Um, and so maybe we need to revisit this in our policy. And then lastly, we just have some decentralized processes. We want to make sure that our schools have discretion. Um, but we have different cultures and expectations and school sizes around the division. And so we really do have opportunities for continued improvement of standardization processes is why we're exploring um what it would look like to improve our processes. Um one of the things that we are going to continue to do is participate in office associate training annually. Our office associates do report to our building principles. Um and so making sure that we are upfront and center addressing issues, understanding what their needs are.

215Um and to revamp that professional development to make sure that we have streamlined processes that are that are consistent regardless of culture, regardless of school size, regardless of building leaders is something that we are actively in the process of. >> Thank you. I know we're looking at the time. >> Sorry. >> I do want to say thank you so much for this presentation. I will just um what I appreciate about is your level of transparency. I think sometimes presentations while great, they don't always give us a full snapshot of what is really happen. And I think you did an amazing job of really talking about the successes, the successes as well as the challenges. um that gives us, you know, some homework policy committee to think about how we can kind of talk through um

216some of the language um to help support your efforts. Um and I will say that probably as I'm in my community, this is one of my top five like it it's brought up every time. And so really looking for that level of consistency from the top down and um and then thinking about ways that we can leverage I know they're going to throw egg on my face but like AI for example with you know taking away some of this man the manual efforts of this because like for your example 200 plus absentes or >> tardies and having to navigate that. I just can only imagine a school like River City that is already strained. It's just it's a lot. Um so just thank you for your continued efforts. Thank you for your transparency and I

217look forward to hearing the success um from what you've implemented here and what we can come together with on policy committee to kind of think through some of the challenges because the biggest thing is consistency, consistency, consistency, consistency. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Rizzy. >> I move that the school board of the city of Richmond convene in closed session to consider and discuss the hiring of two central office employees and the candidates for appointment to the vacant school board position as authorized by Virginia Code 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 and two to consult with legal counsel regarding the process for filing the vacant school board seat as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A88. >> It's been moved by Miss Rizzy and seconded by Miss Burke. Madame clerk >> Mr. Pible. >> Yes. >> Miss Ricard. >> Yes.

218>> Mr. Farooq. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Rizy, >> Miss Berg, >> yes. >> Mr. Jafari, >> yes. >> Miss Fernandez, >> yes. >> Motion passes. We are now in close. >> Let's move full steam ahead.