RPS School Board Work Session - November 10, 2025

001good evening everyone. Good evening. Uh tonight is uh November 10th, 2025. I would like to call the school board meeting for work in session in to order. Madame clerk, >> Mr. Pival >> here. >> Mr. Ricard >> here. >> Mr. Farooq >> here, >> Mr. Hedgepath >> here, >> Miss Rizzy, Dr. Harris, Muhammed, Miss Burke, Mr. Jafari, Miss Fernandez here. We have a quorum. Thank you. At this time, we will do the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence and be led by Miss Ricard. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, liberty And now we will have our translation services announcement. Good evening. On behalf of the language justice team, we welcome you. If you need interpretation from

002English to Spanish this evening, please come see me. I will be in the back with the interpreters. We have interpretation headsets for anyone that needs one. Interpretation in Spanish is also available for those watching this meeting through Zoom. I will now make the same announcement in Spanish. interpret. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now for the adoption of the agenda. Madam chair, I move we adopt the agenda. >> It's been moved by Mr. Percal and seconded by Mr. Jabari. Madam clerk, >> Mr. Perol, >> yes. >> Mr. Ricard, >> yes. Mr. Farooq, >> yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath, >> yes. >> Miss Rzzy, >> yes. >> Dr. Harris Muhammed. Miss Burke, Mr. Jafari, Miss Fernandez, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving right along to Dreams for RPS uh 2.01 receive update on Dreams for RPS goal

003one new state accountability system. >> Good evening madam chair, vice chair, school board members, and superintendent cameras. Um it was our hope to actually share with you our accountability data. We still have not received that. Um, but we also have it on the agenda for December and our hope we've been in constant communication with VOE and it's our hope that we will have it for our December meeting, but we felt that this would be the opportune time. I know we kind of did a uh initial kind of introduction into how the system works. We kind of wanted to do a refresher and kind of um take it somewhat deeper um but also share some examples with you from the lens of elementary, middle, and high since they all look somewhat different. And so, Valenta Wade,

004our manager of testing and accountability, is here with us tonight. Um, so she'll take about 15 minutes um to uh share the new accountability system and how it works and take any questions you may have. Valent. >> Good evening, school board members, superintendent cameras. I am Valencia Wade, manager of testing, and tonight I'm going to share the new state accountability system. As Solomon mentioned, we are eagerly anticipating the release of our data from the state department. They are currently working with a third party vendor to do some final validations of the data to make sure that the data is correct and that it aligns to the business rules and calculations that's set forth in the framework. Once they are finished with their validations, they will then send it back to our division for us to

005have one final review before it is sent to the public. So tonight, as Solomon said, we're not going to share any data, but we are going to go over the framework so that you can have a clear understanding of how the data is calculated. So when it arrives, you will know how we got the data. So in the next few weeks, our schools will be categorized as either distinguished, on track, offtrack, or needs intensive support. It is a point-based system, which is new because in the past, we always had percentages. So this is a pointbased system. There is a small catch. Once a school is given their performance category, the state will look at federal identification and identify which schools are federally identified. Um, if a school is federally identified, they may have their performance

006category lowered by one. So, if a school earns 80 points for a very small time, they'll be on track. But once the state looks at federal identification, if the school is identified, they could go down by one and then they'll be off track. So let's jump into the identifications for I'm sorry clarifying question. When you say drop by one, do you mean one step or one point? What do you mean? >> So it would drop. So the performance category would go by down by one. So if the school has 80 points and they are on track and they're also identified federally, they go completely from on track to off track. Their points don't change. They're just their performance category would change. And just clarify the same would be true if they were at 85 not

007just chair also noted and we should correct the on track category is >> improving. >> I whispered it to him. I didn't say it out loud. That's okay. >> Missible. Oh yes. Sorry to interrupt but it it was right on the heels of that. Is it limited to a single category drop or can it drop two categories? >> Only one. >> So it is limited. >> Yes. >> All right. So there's and thank you and please if you have any question this is a learning opportunity. So if you have any questions please stop and ask a question so I can answer it. U so there's three federal identifications that we can have as a district for individual schools. The first one is comprehensive support school and that looks at the overall school performance. How are

008all students doing in math, reading and science. The other two are additional targeted support and targeted support and they are specifically for student groups. And when I say student groups, I'm talking about our black students, our white students, our Asians, our Lat English learners. So the last those last two bullets are specifically for our student groups whereas the first comprehensive is overall the overall school. Let's go a little deeper into each one of these. So for a comprehensive support there's three ways in how a school can be identified. The first way is any school that is in the bottom 5% of the state for for perform for performance will be identified as a CSI school. Let me explain that a different way. The way the state will do it, they have elementary, they have middle

009and they have high school. They will look at each grade band separately. They will rank the schools across the state from highest to lowest. And the schools that are in the very bottom 5% will be identified as a CSI school. That's for elementary, that's for middle, and that's for high school. So that is the first way a school can be identified as a CSI school. The second way is if a school has a graduation rate less than 67% that school will also be identified as a CSI school. Then the third way is if a school has a student group that is not making progress over several several years then that school will also be identified as a CSI school. There are three ways a school can be identified as a CSI school. And once they're

010identified as a CSI school, they stay identified for three consecutive years. And the way that they get out of CSI school is to no longer be in the bottom 5% of the state. Any questions? Yes. And correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying that they can't come out of that status irrespective of whether they leave or come up or do anything. >> They have to stay there for three years. have to stay there irrespective of performance improvement of performance. >> Correct. And you said something else that kind of piggy backed at the end that they could move from one place to another >> so they can get out of comprehensive support by in the three the next three years after the third year not being the bottom 5% of the state. Just want to be

011clear. They got the three years. >> Be irrespective. >> Okay. So, targeted support and improvement is um specifically about student groups. And so, every talking about the CSI schools, right? There's going to be a highest performing CSI school for elementary, for middle, and high school. They are still in the bottom 5% of the state, but there's going to be a highest performing school that's the highest performing CSI school. And that highest performing CSI school will set the cut score for how the federal will will look at student groups for each school. So the highest CSI school is going to be the threshold, the cut score that's going to determine if every other school in the state is going to be identified for targeted support. So we have an example. The very top is the highest

012CSI school for elementary. So that top chart is the highest CSI school for elementary. The bottom chart is a school and we're going to use the data from the top to see if that school is identified federally for targeted support school. To be identified federally for a target as targeted support schools, you have to be below every the framework, the reading, the math, and the science. You have to be below the highest performing CSI school. So the highest performing CSI school, their overall framework is a 70. That's the first thing we're going to look at, a 70.4. The highest CSI school reading performance is at a 19.01. their math is at a 15.96 and their science is at a 7.5. The school must have a SC a score higher than all those indicators on the

013top. So you look at it, look at the frame score, the framework score, our students with disabilities, our economically disadvantaged students, our English learners are all below the 70.4. So, we're going to look at those three specifically to see if they were going to be ident if they're going to be identified federally. So, to be identified federally, those three those three student groups must be bel or below in math, reading, and science. So, you look at students with disabilities, you can see that the reading is at 15.88. But the reading performance for the higher CSI school is a 19.01. So that school is below the highest CSI school. That's one. I look at the special the students with special the students with disabilities math performance. They're at a 13.96 where the highest CSI schools at

014a 15.96. So they're not they're they're below for math. That's two. The last one is the science and they're at 8.03. They are above. But because they did not have a below in every single math, science and reading, that school does not identify for special students with students with disabilities. So then we go look at the next one. The next one is economically disadvantaged. And you can see that they are below the highest CSI school in all those four indicators. The framework score is below, the reading is below, the math is below, the science is below. So that school is identified as a targeted support school in the area or the student group for economically disadvantaged students. Right? Question. >> Miss Rizzy and then Mr. Pival I think had a question. >> So the science

015looks like it's equivalent, right? Does that still count as below? >> Yes, it has to be if it has to be at or below. So if it's if it's at or below, >> then the student is it's going to be It's not good. So it have to be above the cut score, the highest CSI score. >> So to your point, the last two examples that 7.5 is at the cut score, but it has to be above the cut score. And the last category, the English learners, they would not be identified because they are not below in the area of um of the math performance. So they would not be ident that subgroup would not be identified for. So this school it will only be identified as targeted support school for our economically disadvantaged students. I

016want to pause. That's a lot to say again. >> The highest CSI a lot. >> Um so going to the top scores you said the highest performing CSI school. Are all of those numbers coming from the same school? >> Yes. So we're not So there could actually be a higher reading score in a CSI school that they're not the top performing school. >> So if they're below the overall framework, but they have a 20 for reading, the number is still 19. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, >> Miss Rizzie. So could you explain again why the English learners would not be >> because their math performance is above the highest CSI math performance. The highest CSI math performance on that chart above is 15.96 and the school's math performance is at a 16.5

017which is higher than the 15.96. So Yes, Madam Chair. Um, two ways of saying the same thing. They either have to be below every indicator on the top performing CS or one that's above. In this case they have the math at 16.5 is above the 15.96. So they have one which is actually better than the top. So that and just to make matters more confusing this isn't even the state system. This is the federal system which then gets overlaid on the states. >> Okay. Any other questions about target support? >> Keep going. This is by far um a very complex system um compared to the past. So if you have any other questions, just feel free to ask. But this one is pretty easy. Additional targeted support is only applied after a school has been

018identified for targeted support and they don't and they don't show any improvement. So if you don't show improvement over certain several years, three years, you will become an ATSI school. Um so that's pretty straightforward compared to the targeted support school. So target additional targeted support schools when a school has a student group that's not showing improvement over consecutive years. Okay. So, so I I left this off. So, CSI schools are every three. They stay in that status for three years. A targeted support school, they can get out of that every year as long as they're performing higher than the highest CSI school. So targeted support school can be they can exit out that every year. >> Yes. So a targeted support school can exit out every year as long as they are performing higher than

019the highest CSI school. You're welcome. Um so this is just a chart to summarize um what we just discussed. Um there is aou. So a school division that has 40% of their schools identified as CSI or and targeted support will be in anou or if the school has more than the school district has more than 10 schools identified as CSI they will be identified or underou madam chair. >> Yes. So this replaces the current mechanism forus which is quite frankly uh lacking in any consistent application across the state. So this will be a numeric driven process. We'll see how we shake out but there may be new school systems that have mus based on this data. So we'll automate >> it is >> yeah it is not yet clear if there will be a standardized

020substance to theus. which would replace our existing one which is different from other school division. Each of them were crafted individually. Um what we do know is that mechanism to get an MLOU will be standardized. I think it is an open question as to then is there a standard set of interventions that are required that I don't. So before I go to the framework um are there any other questions about the federal identification. So our framework we um shared these slides before um and I will do a disclaimer that this is the framework as of tonight. Things could change slightly and if they do change we'll let you all know. Elementary and middle school are very similar. They have three big buckets. Uh mastery, growth, and readiness. We currently do not know if the readiness

021could with the five C's performance task would be included moving forward. Last year it was not included in the data. Um the school board the state school board is meeting this week to talk about the five C's and so it could be eliminated or it could be defined but right now we don't have any additional information about the five C's performance for elementary. You look at high school. High school is a little bit different because they don't have growth. growth is uh limited to grades four through eight. For high school, they have the mastery at 50, the readiness at 35, and as we all know, the biggest part for readiness for high school is the three E, enrollment, employment, and enlistment. Then graduation is the 15% which the state will be using the FGI. There's

022a mastery index included in our accountability system. Um, every student who takes the test will be accounted for or will have points will earn points. Um, in elementary grades three through eight, if a student takes the test, they will at least count as 0.25 if they fail below basic. But if they pass advanced, they will they will count as 1.25. For high school and for science, there's only three levels. There's basic, there's proficient, and they are and there's advanced. So, if a student takes a science test and fail, they will count 75 of a point. Here's a sample of what that looks like. Um, if we're looking at the last year's model, last year's accountability system, those first two columns, the advanced level and the proficient level, the 20 kids in the advanced level and

023the 30 kids in proficient proficient level were only counted for in the old system, which means you would only have had you would have only had 50 points. But with this system and with this index, we now can include the students who are below basic and uh basic level. And so that 50 is now 82.5 points. So under the old system, we would only have 50 points, but under this system, we could have 82.5 because we can include students that fail below basic and fail basic. There's also a um growth, sorry. Okay, Rzzy, >> I see 25 >> because the old system was binary. It was either either you pass, you count as a one, or you failed it was zero. And so on the old system, it wasn't a 1.25. So those students would

024just be 20 times 1, which would have been just 20. And then the 30* 1, which would be 30. So you'll have 50 points. I didn't explain that well. So thanks for asking that that question. So the old system you would have 50 points. The new system we have 82.5 points because of the index. Then there's a growth. Growth again is for grades four through eight in math and reading. Um I will tell you um the data that's coming out soon um includes a different measure for growth. It will be the that will be in the future. In the future, we're going to have a different system for measuring growth. And once the state identifies how growth will be calculated in the future, we'll let you all know. But it will not be the same

025growth measure that we currently have when the data comes out in the next few weeks. All right. So, here's an example of a report. It's a lot of data, so I'm going to start as easy as I can. Um, let's just focus on the first column and the last column. Okay. The first column gives you an overall an overall summary of how much how many points they got in each of those three buckets. The top one, the 93.56 is how many points the school got overall. So a 93.56 is pretty good. That school is going to be distinguished. The mastery index they earned 64.24. For growth they earned 20.44 and for readiness they earned 8.88 points. Now you look at the very last column, it breaks it down and tells you how many points they

026got for each individual indicator. So reading, reading is 23.10, math is 23.32, science is 10.32, and then L progress is 7.5. If you add all those light blue columns up at the last, the very last column, it's going to equal to 64.24. That's how they got the numbers. You look at the growth again, we did the last column, the 10 for um the 10.03 for reading and the 10.41 for math. You add those together, you get the 20.44. And then the readiness is there just for the kind of absenteeism. So going into the second column, it just gives you a um this is how many points they can earn. The weight of the reading, the math, and the science. That's the second column. It's like a it's like a key. And then the points earned

027is the index. Remember we had the 82.25. That's the index. How many points the students receive overall for reading. And then of course the number of students who were tested. Then to get the possible um the percent of possible points, you take the points earned column and divide it by the student column and you'll get the percent of possible points. You would notice it's over a 100. You might like how do you get over 100? And you're going to see a lot of schools that have over 100 because we have a index for mastery. It doesn't go it goes above to the 1.2. That's why you will see that some schools will have a percent of possible points above the 100 um the mark. Okay. Any questions on this chart? Absolutely. Um the students column

028you said that's the students taking the test at the elementary school level. Why is there a difference between reading and math number of students? I mean this may be an example but is this a real world? Would there be a difference? >> Yeah. No, this is a real world example. It could be that a student was absent, they didn't take the test or for reading, we do have students that can be exempt. So our L students can be exempt from the reading test. And so this is a school that has a heavy a heavy population of English learners. They do have that opportunity to be to be exempt. >> Okay. >> Micard. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm >> Thank you. Are parents still allowed to opt their children out of the exams at the elementary

029level? and how would that potentially impact our scores? So parents always have the right to refuse testing. If a parent refused testing, that student would count as a nonparticipant and they would it would count as a zero. I just want to repeat that it doesn't come out of the denominator. It counts as a zero. The lowest it would count if you took the test and got below basic is a 0.25. So every family that opts out significantly negatively impacts >> and it's at the elementary and middle school as well can opt out and because I know for high school it's graduation requirements or >> parents can refuse testing at any grade level but we always advise the parents that one we will impact that then two if a student is in high school and you

030and you have a parent refusal, the student may not graduate on time. Okay, the next chart is uh middle school. Very similar. Again, the first column is the summary. The last column tells you how many points they were awarded for each individual indicator. And then you have the high school chart. Very similar. Tells you how many um points they earned total. first column. The last column is how many points they earn per indicator. This page gives you an overview of the progress that the state has made from the beginning of implementing this new framework to where they are now. These are just resources that you can have if you needed to go deeper into the new framework. And as a reminder, the state is currently doing their final validation with our data. And as soon

031as they are finished, we will get it back and we have our final review. Um, we know we're anxious to get our data, but we rather have delayed data that is correct than rush data that is wrong. The last conversation on this slide is the proficiency cut scores. Uh we know that the board is going to vote on this week on whether or not um the cut scores could um this could be a zero year where it would go in which means the cut scores will go into effect back next fall. So looking at the state's page, their state uh agenda, their board agenda, they do have a vote on this week on whether or not the new proposed proficiency scores can start next fall and have this year as a preparation year. So we

032have to watch closely and see how the board the state boards vote on that this week. Any questions? I just have one. Um I know that we have um this might be more for um superintendent and cameras than you. Um, I know that we have vocalized our concerns with the new um, uh, standards, but have has there been some type of strategic conversation um, across the different divisions and how we could perhaps mobilize and provide feedback? Like have you ever thought that far into perhaps giving additional feedback, not push back, but just um feedback regarding some some of the concerns corporately. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I will say the Virginia Association of School Superintendent, which represents all 134 school superintendents in Virginia, has collectively put forth uh their feedback and their recommendations, which to

033the board's credit, they are seriously considering. So, as Valenta noted, they are likely to approve this year as a zero year so to speak. So SOS would still be on the 400 point threshold for proficiency this spring and then next year they would introduce a category called approaching which would sit between uh proficient and basic. it would count as passing. And what they would do is over the next four years gradually increase the level at which a student would be considered approaching such that in the fourth year the category would disappear and we would be at the new higher speed. That's something that BAS advocated for very strongly and it looks like the board will likely adopt. Um so so that is I think one clear manner which that feedback has been taken into account.

034Of course, with a new uh governor coming in and likely new members of the board of education, of course, things could be fluid and change, but but I would say that is the the strongest reflection of well done. I know that that was certainly a lot to digest just as an individual would to stand in front of us to explain it to us. I know you've done a lot of homework. So, thank you so much for your presentation. >> All right, moving on to 2.02. to receive an update on action profile 5.1. Facilities master plan process. Good evening. Uh, wow, that was loud. Good evening, board members. Mr. cameras. Uh we're going to talk very briefly about uh what we hope to outline for a plan to come up with a 10-year facilities plan. Um

035starting with the slide that you have in front of you. I know you've seen this before, so I won't belver the point, but this focuses on action 5.1, which is really narrowing in on our facilities and our facilities footprint. The main thing that I want to say is the goal of this 10-year plan is to come up with as comprehensive of a plan as possible. We do not just want it to be what are the marginal im uh updates we make to capital in our existing buildings. We don't just want it to be about new builds. We don't just want it to be about responding to demographic shifts that we're seeing in the city. We want it to do all of those things. And we want to make sure that the community is involved in

036multiple different points along the way as we keep the board uh involved as well. And so that's really the focus of this presentation. Um I'm going to need to grab Oh, thank you, sir. Um and so that is our objective. We want a very comprehensive 10-year facilities plan and we want to phase that out into a couple different sections. So starting out with capital improvement, then going into enrollment trends that we're seeing and how we respond to that, talking about the state of our facilities, and then finally coming up with a comprehensive recommendation for a facilities plan. So to talk a little bit more about the phases um what we have seen in other uh school systems across the country is these sorts of community involved processes are most successful when you start by helping

037the community understand the sandbox that we have to play. So if instead you go to the community and you say, "What should we do?" Every community rightly is going to say, "I want a beautiful brand new building in my neighborhood." And they'd be correct and I would agree with them. But what that ignores are the very significant funding constraints that we have uh for our facilities footprint. And so what we've seen in other cities where this has been done successfully is you start by building that community understanding of the context so that by the time you get to the stage where you are engaging around solutions the community members who have been involved understand the constraints and aren't just saying in this pie and sky world but they're saying in the world that we live

038in here are the best use of these funds. And so that's why we're recommending we start with the first phase, which would be focused on helping people understand how the capital improvement plan process works. Breaking down the roughly every 10 years, the roughly $200 million in capital uh dollars that we receive for larger projects plus the annual allocation that we get from the city for capital projects that is much more variable. And we know that uh the city has said that that we should likely expect about $2.5 million per year for the next four years. So starting by helping people understand that phase two would be digging into the city and our enrollment trends. Where do we see schools that continue to grow over time? Where do we as a school division need to think

039about where we need to be more nimble and provide more space and more access because we're seeing more families end up there. If we go on to phase three, that would be talking about and really building on the strengths of the facilities condition assessment. But for this phase, it's really focused on helping folks understand two things. What should we as a city have a bar for the kind of school that every one of our students deserve? And given the uh underinvestment that we have received for our facilities, where do we stand and what is the best way for us to catch up to that bar to the degree that we are able to do that so that by the time we get to phase four, we are using those three key inputs to develop a

040comprehensive plan that communities have been able to engage with what those constraints are and have uh really well-informed feedback to help us make that as strong as possible. So those would be the four phases. As you'll notice, for each one of those phases, we would build in and structure opportunities to hear feedback from the facilities and vacant property committee, the board, the community at large, and in particular for the piece about the state of our facilities, thinking about collecting a group of expert folks in facilities who can validate our thinking about where our facilities are and what the most efficient way it is to get them to a higher standard. So that kind of top to bottom is what we're recommending between now and essentially next summer, start of next school year so that we

041can have to you all a strategic and thoughtful tenure facilities plan. Uh I know there's more in the slide, but I'll leave it there for any questions that you all have for me. >> Rizzy, thank you for this. As far as the bullet under stakeholders, >> so I I think mo more broadly we would like to make this as open to the community as possible. And so I think for the opportunities for the community get to get involved. We envision doing that across the entire division in multiple locations at multiple times because we do not want to limit who gets to provide feedback on this just to a small selection of experts. To your point, we do have in phase three where we really want an external entity or a collection of people who have

042specific facilities expertise to be able to weigh in on that. We previously under the prior COO put forward a request for folks who wanted to join a committee. that committee was never actually formed. Um, and so we would like to go back to that idea, especially for this phase three, but we'd like to reopen that up to make sure that we are collecting a diverse and representative group of folks who represent the Richmond area and who have specific expertise in facilities and facility strategy. So yes, for that uh phase three, but for the rest of them where we have lots of opportunities, we want that to be across the division and as open as possible. Mr. P. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'll also pick up uh on phase two. So, phase two looks

043a little bit different from the other phases uh in that the bullets that we have here, and I know it's very early in the process, but the bullets we have here seem somewhat passive. So, we're going to see what enrollment looks like. Are we going to tie in? And we thought about tying in with other areas of RPS, other departments with perhaps increasing the enrollment or influencing the enrollment trends as opposed to just monitoring because there are students that that are not enrolled in RPS that live in the city. So >> yes, so we definitely want to think about this in terms of where we can pick up more market share, where we can increase our enrollment. But I do think as a grounding point what we what when you look at other cities who

044have done this the most reliable predictor of the future is past data and data trends. So I I think as a starting point we want to make sure that the historic data and trends if there is a school that is significantly increasing enrollment over time in its history or doing the opposite. We want to start with that as the assumption and because that is the most predictive future and we want need to make sure that we are prepared for that. I think there are opportunities to layer on top of that areas where we can grow and we can get more aggressive and we can be more thoughtful about how we bring more people into RPS. But that's where you start getting into the speculative type of work and I think this needs to be primarily

045grounded in the most reliable data that we have. >> Mr. Thanks Madam Chair. Mr. As we look at district wondering attendance, how that would say you have a a rising need in one district that can be perhaps controlled better in the something like that. >> Yeah, I I know the idea of attendance zones is very sensitive. Um I I think we want this to be as comprehensive of a process as possible where going into it we do not assume what the outcomes are. And so I think something like thinking about combining zones or being willing to talk about that is definitely on the table. I don't want to preassume that we either will or will not change zones boundaries, but I think you're right to say that it should be part of the discussion, especially

046as we are thinking about the changes in where people live across the city. >> Um, thank you for the uh presentation and I I look forward to um when this um starts to go underway. Obviously, you know, uh, in the ninth district, we have a severe area of overpopulation. Um, and I know that that's something that would be considered as you look at enrollment. Um, but what I will say is that sometimes the challenge is when you engage with stakeholders that there is not always the same amount of participation based upon the district. And I just want to ensure that there's consideration to the need um regardless of the feedback that you perhaps may be receiving from um certain districts um to ensure that um even if there's not a level of advocacy there that

047you're identifying the need based upon the data and responding accordingly. AB: >> Absolutely. Yes. I completely agree. Thank you. Next up, we have received an update for facilities and vacant property committee, Miss Rizzy. Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, please. For the past several months, the vacant property committee um has been meeting to discuss um vacant properties that are that continue to be in our portfolio. We have met with Mr. Hathaway, um our director of construction before he left who was great um and now Mr. Carol and we have um both listen to their expertise and discussed um what we felt were um important um considerations before making these recommendations. Um so if it is or seems reasonable what I'll do is just go through each property and um highlight what our recommendations are

048and then if you have questions certainly I can respond or any member of our committee which would be Mr. Pible um um Ali Farooq Mr. Farooq I'm sorry it's been a long day Mr. Farooq Mr. Jafari. All right. So, um, we have updates. First, um, Arthur Ash advised property was transferred to the city in January and was vacated on May 1st. So, Arthur Ash is no longer in our portfolio belongs to the city. um the more street school which is at Carver. Um right now the transfer continues to be in process but we now have a clear path to how and when that will be completed and um we are waiting to have a final quick claim deed which will be presented to us in December and we will be able to vote on it

049and finally um move more street along. All right. Recommendations. Noral Annex. We recommend transferring this property to the city via surplus and quick claim it. uh largely because the property is not large enough to build a school and um it's it's actually probably going to be more beneficial for us to quit claim it and then receive whatever funding the city receives from it to go back into our budget. And to just reiterate um how that process works, um RPS does not officially own property, but we do have control of these properties. Once we quit claim them to the city, our agreement is that the city will actually upon sale of that property give us the funds that they make and they return to our budget. And so with Noral, we recommend that that's what we

050do. The 13 acres, you may be aware, there is a structure on that property that is in horrible condition. It's it has been deemed unsafe. Mr. Hathaway has described instances where they have had to deal with uh critters that get in there and once a fox got caught up in a fence and had to be extracted and you know it's it's kind of a dangerous situation. The community has some and Mr. Ali, Mr. Farooq, you could probably help me with explaining this, but the committee the community seems to have some attachment to this structure. Um but it has been sitting there for years and no one has acted upon anything. And at one time they said they wanted to move it but that they have not move forward with that. And so our recommendation is

051to give the community a term of one year to you know perhaps move the structure if they are able to. And um if that does not happen we need to go ahead and move forward and demolish the building. um and retain that green space for our our students. Okay, any questions so far? >> Mr. Hedgeback. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. [clears throat] Thank you, Miss Rizzie. For 13 acres, I know that um there's been a lot of concern that I have heard about not just particularly this building, but tearing down old buildings um and And um and then we see modern structures that have, you know, arguably no character or lack less character than than old structures. Um and maybe this is the history teacher in me that's that's that's also talking. But I I

052appreciate the the term of one year. I just wonder how much how aggressively we've worked and pursued uh working with Historic Richmond um and other entities that can can really turn properties around um with with some community support. And um I I just don't know if if that's been explored at this point or if that if the year that we're hoping um to to give will you be for that. >> Thank you. It is my understanding that this has been a discussion that has taken place for many years and no one has done anything and including work with um you know historical preservation groups. Um the biggest problem with this one is that this building is literally like in the worst shape you could imagine. Like it is about to fall down. I don't know

053that it's even salvageable. And so I don't I mean what we're going to do is allow the community one more year to decide what to do with it, but it is a hazard and can't stay there much longer. Go ahead, M. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just quickly for 13 acres specifically give some context, which is if you're to look up this property on the map, it is literally on it. the the tract is literally on the same property line as Holton Elementary School, which is a large elementary school in North Side. And so my children don't attend Holton, but we often go to the playground, play soccer, and it's like a haunted house just sitting there like it's right next to the soccer field and the playground. And so

054that's another danger where children are always fascinated by this building. They want to know who lives there, what's going on in there. Um, so keeping children safe from this decaying structure is important and it's also the reason why no one's come along and bought it up. I mean, no one can really live there, right? Like even if you had a ton of money, you would rather sink it into a property that's in a neighborhood with neighbors, not on a school where you'd have to, you know, constantly be wor it's an awkward place to have a house is basically. So to preserve this building, you would either have to spend the money to move this house somewhere else or something like that. So I think our options are just limited in terms of what can actually

055be done if one were interested in preserving the house. And and I've said this many times, if we had the money, I would love for us RPS to preserve this house and use it for some, you know, educational purpose. Perhaps we'll do specialized instruction. Maybe it's office space, maybe it's like a retreat center or what meeting space, whatever. But like we don't have infinite money where we can do that. And so you know I personally I think there are people in North Side that that are dedicated to preserving the history and it's surrounded by beautiful historic neighborhoods. Our superintendent lives not far from there. And so, yes, there are people in the community that are very interested in preserving the history and and the beautiful architecture of this house, but I don't see it really

056being all that practical. And so, at the risk of gathering their of becoming the target of their eyeire, I would rather see that this structure be demolished and that land be used to supplement the play space that is actively used. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you, Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair. 13 acres years ago before it set there as a a building now to be considered for demolition. I thought it was one of the prettiest places with Richmond public schools. It is a house and then later Rich public schools acquired the house and it was used for special education officers. That's where we would go for our meetings citywide. So driving that long driveway in north side the the city of Richmond. I I thought it was a beautiful space. So, it was

057truly a let down that um it was allowed just to go into decay as it is. Uh my question is that that makes us makes me also think in terms of as we get new as Holton was built, it was already decaying before that. I I wonder why that property wasn't cared for. But my question is, Miss Rizzy, you mentioned that Uh maybe one I want to make sure I'm clear. The point of negotiating or collaborating with the community and how that would be set up. I love the idea of a green space. I think that corner is the ideal spot as Mr. Farooq stated connected to the uh playground and beyond. That's that's awesome. So are we saying that are you suggesting that our school would maintain that green spot if that h happens

058or our school system I should say or that we would give it to the city and then they would decide that what what's the plan of action I like the idea that may be a good point of negotiating per se you know our our recommendation is that we keep it um on our ro on our books um so that you know we we can decide what we want to do in the future with that property. Um it's very nice property. It's huge green space um and has lots of potential and so the recommendation would be to keep it with RPS. >> I think that's a great idea. I'm thinking about the new apartment complex. It's been there four or five years now where soccer was played and tennis was played. But when the new apartments

059were built, as they are popping up throughout the city of Richland, >> that green space acres, we lost that. So, I don't know where the children play soccer or whatever now. But, um, I like the idea and I hope that is considered area the opportunity to have shaded trees and and opportunities for our soft areas for our students to people in the city period to be able to enjoy. Thank you for this report. Thank you. Just have a question. Yes. Who would be on the hook uh for the demolition cost? Um and how would that be assessed? >> That's a good question. I believe we we would be have we assessed what that might cost? >> We have not at this point. >> Okay. Something to consider as we move into next year. Well, not

060this up and coming year's budget, but if we're only giving the community a year to consider, um, that's just something that we might want. >> Yeah. >> And, you know, that that is primarily driven by the fact that that site is so unsafe. All right. Next, we've got Ruff and Road. Oh, I'm sorry, Skip Thompson. Can't do that. Um we recommend exploring um solicitation of a third party to conduct a feasibility study for renovations. Um and the recommendation from our admin team has been to hold it as a swing space. There's also a potential um that it could be uh become another school. Um, what we do know is that that school has excellent bones. At one time, there was a consideration to demolish it, but from what we hear from Mr. Hatheraway, that school

061has very strong um strong uh infrastructure. It is it has great bones. There are materials in that school that would cost a ton of money if we had to buy them from scratch that are in good condition. And so our recommendation would be to hold on to Thompson and explore renovation. >> Mr. Hedge. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Rizzy. [clears throat] The uh in addition to what you said, I wanted to share also that uh Principal Massa of Hugenat High School has said that the green space around uh Thompson is being used uh regularly by our our our Falcons. So, I wanted the community to know that that space is really important to to to HHS in addition to uh to uh what you mentioned before. Um as certainly, and I know

062that my other Southside colleagues can can uh attest that we are growing and we need we're going to need another school u in in Southside, probably multiple. And so, I think that it's a smart idea. the the neighborhood, the community would really like to see action in that building again. Um, and so I think that having it as a swing space, as a starting point to then maybe have, you know, having a new school there, whether that's a middle or elementary school, um, or something else. Uh, I think that's really great. So, thank you for this recommendation, >> Mr. Pipel. >> And, and just to add a little accent because the question was asked. So, as we're looking at spending dollars, um, and to Mr. Hedgepath's point, and we need space, very rough back of

063the envelope kind of math, um, it would not be free obviously to renovate the school, but we're looking at a cost of about 2third roughly of a new school build. Now, we have Ruffen Road. What we recommend here is retaining this property and soliciting a third party to conduct a feasibility study for building a school. It is a small property. Um but we do we are at the moment um in a state where we are our city is updating zoning laws and it may be least less restrictive now in terms of what we can build on a smaller parcel of land. Um also we could explore building up Um and um you know there there may very well be an opportunity to build a school on this property even though it is a fairly small

064building. Um and so that is the recommendation we'd make is to retain it and conduct a feasibility study on the property. And then what you have is the slideshow basically that follows um or the slides that follow um just highlight um details about each one of the properties um including any um utility costs that we are currently paying. Um so please review that and let us know if you have any questions. But that is pretty much all that we have and these are our recommendations. Miss Ricard Thompson and Ren, what do you have a a proposed timeline for the feasibility studies? Thinking about 13 acres was unfortunately left to just decline. Don't want this to happen with these schools and feasibility studies cost money. So, >> I didn't know if there's any discussion on that

065yet. >> I mean, I I think not yet, but I think that if you all accept these recommendations, that needs to be a topic of discussion fairly soon. >> This is your >> Thanks, Madam Chair. My colleague, if I could just follow up. We've entertained a number of different recommendations for the property and there are a number of factors that have impacted the decision that we chief amongst them is the fact that we really do not feel that we could get a return on anything if we just quickly asked to go into the city. Equally as important is the fact that that area, that school was put there for a reason. And it was put there 15 years ago or so, too. It was closed 15 years ago, but the school was built to serve

066that area. And so, right now, that area is not being served. Uh, as a result, many of the preschoolers and the elementary schoolers are being sent out of district, out of zone. And that's another reason that we've decided to to to hold on to it. uh at least in the interim and we constantly we revisit it each time somebody comes in and maybe have us has a suggestion. Uh we've also entertained a suggestion that we could basically pass it back on to the city for use along with uh TV Smith as a parking area or what have you. As it as has been our practice here on the board, we try to come up with solutions and not just stonewall, you know, what others may be trying to do that's positive for the community. And

067in that particular instance, my alternate suggestion uh would be to use the old TB Smith building since they have a new one and that's that would provide the new space for parking. But in the interim, I just think that current and future demands and and the type of uh explosion of the family and the growth in that area demands that in the interim we just hold on to the property. >> Mr. Ricard, sorry. I just want to be clear that I wasn't advocating for releasing them. I was more just asking I think this these are great decisions and I just want to know for feasibility. Yeah. How can we forward on that? Agree with everything the committee. >> Yes. I think we could move forward pretty quickly with um you know we'd have to look

068into whether we need to do RFPs for the feasibility studies but um we can get those going pretty quickly once we you know, move to accept these recommendations if that that's what you choose to do. And then of course, we'll have to talk about cost. >> Mr. P. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And again, just a little bit of context as an example for Ruffen Road. The facilities committee, we kind of came into Roughen Road with a an assumption that it was probably too small to build a school on. That was sort of how we led into that. but it's four acres and after doing a little bit of analysis realized that as an example Fox Elementary is on 3.6 acres. So we we know we can fit a school on there. Just a little

069bit of context. >> Great work um uh committee. This is really um great information for us to easily digest. I just have one question. Noral annex that's not currently occupied correct or is it >> go ahead? >> No it is not and it's important for the public to know there are two buildings named Noral. One is Noral Elementary which is a large building that is used at capacity not as a school but as offices for our academic team. There is a separate much smaller building called Noral Annex which is about a block away is in major disrepair and would cost several million dollars to renovate it. That is the property that the committee is recommending surplus to the city for potential residential development um given the need for more housing all across the city but

070but certainly in that area. And if I could just add about the rough and road site, we've had many conversations at this table and in other venues about the need for more early childhood seats and we need them the most on the south side. And so that would potentially be an ideal location for RPS preschool as well. But um that is certainly one idea that I think would certainly benefit the community. Of course, cost is always an issue, but we wholeheartedly support the mission. >> Thank you. Moving right along. Good evening again. Um, we are going to talk about Woodville and we're also going to talk about CTE. Um, and so I wanted to give you all an update on where things stand with each one of those projects. So, as you'll see on the

071slide in front of you right now, Woodville is the furthest along. We have uh completed the design phase. We have construction costs. We have design estimates. And so we know all in what that would take to complete the project. The challenge that we face right now is with the current capital dollars that we have, we do not have enough money to be able to complete that project in full. And so we're at a bit of a holding pattern, not having sufficient money to move forward. So this project, as you'll see, as you can see, has a lot more development in terms of the design, the proposal. We have mockups, but we don't have complete funding. The second project uh that I wanted to give you all an update on is the Mory Street CTE Center.

072Sometimes people refer to it as the Altria site. Uh it was the facility that's currently being used for our warehouse, for our procurement team, and a couple other teams. Um but it was always designed to eventually become a CTE center. So we've uh worked with KI to do a feasibility study. Um and they've been making really good progress on what that site could look like. What you see here is one of four alternatives that the CTE team and the academic team has had a lot of opportunities to weigh in on for what they would want essentially a relocated RTC at this new site to look like. Um, and then if you go to the next slide, you can see some of the high level costs. Not surprisingly, high schools are significantly more expensive than elementary

073schools. So that's why the cost picture is significantly higher. Um and you'll see that uh we have a lot of these numbers are very tentative uh because we are not as far along with this project. Uh but KI and others have been really helpful with us in developing what we would want this site to look like. One thing to note though is that because part of the assumption for the CTE center would be relocating our district's data facility from the current RTC site to this new site. That would mean that we could, if we wanted to, we could explore disposal of that as an asset, which is a very local property. And so, if we considered that as an option, that could give us sufficient funding in a essentially a swap or some sort of

074money-making opportunity with the RTC site to be able to begin phase one. So that's why phase one of this is actually more expensive than woodville but would actually be able to be done if we were to do the approach of the land swap with where RTC is currently. The other thing that I wanted to make sure this board was aware of if we go to the next slide is that based on the directions that we have received from the prior board uh and I know this is a different composition than is on the board right now but a prior board gave us direct instruction that the uh the recommendation that they passed was uh first was the Richmond High School of the Arts, second was the uh RTC center relocating to the Mory Street facility

075and then third in that order would be Woodville. And so based on that, that's why we are moving ahead uh most speedily with the CT site, the the Mory Street site. That's all I wanted to share with you, but I'm happy to take any questions. Miss B. >> Thank you, madam. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for this report this evening. My question is uh regarding Woodville. This is probably regarding the uh financial piece because we know the longer that we wait and with tariffs and tariffs and everything else going on the amount would change. So I know we haven't discussed it as a board but where are we per se or will we address uh the opportunity to revisit a timeline or because this is going to change what's currently in place. So,

076is there a plan or are we working on a plan or will we work on a plan per se to address the deficits or um I know our PTA president from Woodville sent a request regarding grant still wouldn't be enough to cover. So, right now where are we financially knowing that the CTE building is above us? What's what's the plan of action? So yes, we we are about $40 million short at this point. Unfortunately, some of the federal grants that we had applied for have since either been cancelled orended. Fortunately, I don't think we have already received 12 million from the state, which means it's unlikely that we receive additional funding from the state fund other projects before they come back. Um which means we really need to identify the funding from our next batch

077of funding for capital construction from the city that's connect available until that being said, we continue to have ongoing conversations about what our priorities are and I think continuing to talk with them about for example properties that we I would like us to be in a position rather than waiting to see what the city is able to do with a property. I'd rather us take the approach whereby we actually enter into a written agreement on the front end and say look we'll surplus this do whatever you think you want to do with it but right now we want to have a written agreement that receive which is in essence what we did with our we are supposed to get a minimum of5 million property is developed as part of I think we could have a

078conversation with the city to say well it's probably going to be worth more than 5 million when the city gets around to that phase so cut us a check now we can put that couple of things like that I also think and I know this was a subject of great debate, but I think we would have more success with the city making those kinds of if we reconsider a potential there's a lot of strong feelings about that in the reality if we were to build site field noted. And so I think we're also able to demonstrate openness to that potential efficiency that might unlock. Again, I don't think there's one source of funding that's going to close the gap. I think it's aboution >> Mr. Jafari. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Pearl and again

079is probably equally critical to the superintendent. question is uh at what stage of completion are we on the will be project? >> You mean in the planning process >> uh for that it hasn't hadn't been any broken ground or anything? >> No no no we've not broken ground. We we have quite a few steps in the planning process including the design process done. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. We have not even yet done an RFP for construction which we we can't do until we have the funding to actually execute. Thank you. All right. Next up we have Speaking of funding, um received an update on work of funding formula working group. We first had this conversation as a um just recently at our um um budget committee committee, sorry. Um couple weeks ago. Um so

080this has been underway uh as some of you may know that um the city adopt a resolution um a resolution requesting that um the CAO convene a joint working group um that represented uh RPS uh city council and the city administration to develop a formulized school funding formula. Um and so um myself and vice chair uh Persal were a part of uh that committee along with um Superintendent Cameras and and uh folks from um both the city side uh as well as city council. And ultimately the conversation is around um revisiting how we determine um the budget that we receive year over year. As you know, in most cases, um, as it is currently structured, we typically don't know until like May of that year, uh, after it's kind of gone through a lot of

081iterations um, from different parties what we would end up with in terms of a budget as it relates to the city. And so what they're trying to accomplish is to really take some of the guesswork out of it so that we already walk into the next budget cycle knowing what type of funding would be allotted to us. And so we started this conversation. And it was a course of three different meetings um where we just tried to come up with a a tentative formula that would assess some of the needs um as it relates to RPS. understanding that from a city perspective, they have other obviously responsibilities in terms of um you know RPD, they have um you know other other opportunities or obstacles um that they face in terms of how they give what

082to who. And so this would also help them to determine um from their standpoint. But um but ideally they would be able to provide. And so we talked about a couple of different things in our last meeting. Some of us talked about perhaps leaning away from percentages. Some questioned if that would be uh appropriate, but we did land on I believe it was eight topics. If you go to maybe Yeah. Um, and so what we came up with as a group, I will tell you that what I do appreciate about the conversation that we've had, everyone is committed to um the work in trying to do what's best for the children in the city of Richmond. We we had very collaborative conversations with um all parties and so it really was positive conversations all around.

083And so, um, the funding fun the funding formula consists of eight, um, different topics. Um, and you can see them there. I'm not going to read them all out loud. I'm not going to call them all out, but essentially what they would do is from year to year assess based upon these different topics, um, or line items how we would determine what the budget will be. And so, we would have a baseline. Let's just say for example 55,000 I mean $55 million. I'm just throwing that out there. And so from year to year we would say okay we would have a baseline of $55 million um for the said RPS uh school cycle. Um but also considering other differentials like if there's a bill that year, if there's um a one-off opportunity that might need

084some um additional um focus. And so this is kind of what we've laid out. We talked about it the last discussion. And so our this time around was more so to ensure that the public had an I opportunity to digest it, read it, um, and receive feedback from the community obviously, but also from board members to really get a pulse check on where we stood. So before I open it up, I'd like to stop to see if there's anything that Superintendent came or um, Vice Chair Pible would like to add and then we can start the conversation. I think that was a great summary. >> Mr. Per, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Equally, I think you you covered quite a bit of of what we did. The the only accent I'll put on here is

085that uh people may remember the big public kickoff that we had that we all attended and then we had the three follow-up meetings with that. And where we got with that with this data is um all that hard work to get to a starting point and the starting point is this will be the framework. So the framework still needs to be constructed but these will be the ingredients for the recipe to to get that framework done. Um and so we we did have some inputs into this. Some of this was brought to us. Some of it uh we gave some feedback to especially uh especially at the end there the investments in the infrastructure and the student need profiling. These are some of the things that really stand out to us working in the schools

086every day. Uh whereas coming at it from a city standpoint it's easy to look at fiscal capacities and and budget line items and so forth. But uh you know we're looking at some of the uh some of the from when within the schools looking out the windows kind of uh framework type thing. So that's kind of where we are uh is is we'll see what comes next out of the framework and and we'll work from there and massage a little bit more as well. >> Question Rizzie. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Was there any mention of a reference to the children's funding project that they conducted last year? Um any idea whether they used the results of that or was there any mention of it at all? There was no mention of it that I

087recall. >> Thank you. >> No, I would only add to that that they were coming at it more from a who else is doing this? Norfolk for example. Let's take a look at how Norfolk took their budget line items and you know x% of this line item added to x% of this line item. That was sort of the approach. >> One data point that I think it is important for the board to have and the public. I do appreciate the city sharing uh the funds that are available for use on things like schools and roads and such and funds that are not available for those things because they're required by statute for other. So the city on paper has a roughly $3 billion budget that includes all capital expenditures, but it also includes statutory requirements,

088things that they collect fees on and then those fees go right back to pay for services. The operating budget for the city is really about 1.1 billion. Uh what we've seen um over the last several years is of that 1.1 billion and actually it's a little bit less than that because there are some things they have to back out with that as well but bottom line is about 32% of the funds that are generally available have been going that has been relatively constant. Uh so while the city to their credit grateful for has been increasing pretty significantly the amount of money that RPS receives the percentage of that total pie has been relatively constant at around 32% and and that should make sense because the city's coffers have gotten larger as property taxes have and

089to the city's credit we've shared in that expansion that the city's coffers around 32%. So, it's just a helpful just benchmarking data point. There's a spreadsheet attached to this uh letter that lays all that out that you can take a look at. The city shows it, I think, for the last 10 or so years. So, I would encourage the board and the public just to take a look at that. It's it's a very helpful way just to kind of wrap your head around the city's investments over the last several years. I would also like to add um that this in no way um stops us from continuing to advocate for the things that we need um as a school division. Uh this just gives us a better opportunity uh and line of sight going into

090the next budget cycle uh at least what the we know what that that bare minimum will be. And so it does kind of help because I know that sometimes um around the May uh time frame where we're having to make decisions after we've finally gotten a clear picture and we're already about to start into that next school year. Um and so this does help us get a better line of sight, but it does not not stop us from the advocacy work that we will continue to do. um to um you know echo the the needs of our our students and um enrichment public schools. Mr. Park, >> I know you mentioned that Norfolk Public Schools uses this. Are there other school districts in Virginia that are using >> There are and we we did ask

091for some other school districts because uh one of the points that was made during these meetings is that going to the Eastern Shore with the federal footprint down there. Um they're getting a lot of budget passed through from the federal government. So using the same line items and the same percentages may not be an applesto apples comparison. So, we did ask for some other data from other districts >> and um if it was possible to share that with the full board. I know you have been. It's just this is new and I would be very interesting to see how it actually plays out with real numbers and situations um just so we can prepare for it. >> Absolutely. And we've um we've requested it have not received it yet. I was sharing with um the

092board uh during the um finance committee meeting that um I engaged a another school board that uh went through a funding formula cycle. And so they're going to give us everything including the kitchen sink. And so once I receive that information, I'll be sure to forward it so that we can all assess it together. Certainly um if it makes sense to bring them here or to have them share what their experience was, I think that would be helpful for us in making our decision. Miss Rizzy, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Is there any indication that districts who have moved to a funding formula process are happy with it? the the the person that I engaged. Um, yes, it actually was a very positive experience for them. Um,

093I mean, they went as far as to say that they have more money than they know what to do with. I don't know if if that will be our situation. Uh but again it's all about um you know realistically as my you know uh vice chair persal said comparing apples to apples because you know where we might be aligned in some areas there might be some um other outliers like federal funding etc etc etc that may not be as close in proximity to us. So we'll we'll explore that. Um, but yes, they they did have a positive experience. >> Mr. Pible. >> Uh, and I'll just add on to that, also adding on to superintendent's comments before, um, to the city's credit, which was which was great, is that if you're constantly funding at a

094percentage level, that's great. 32% of an operating budget is great, except when you live in times like we live in right now where optimism is hard to come by. And fiscally, we're looking at probably some difficult years, uh, at least the next year or two. Um, percentages can also work against you. And so, to the city's credit, um, they indicated that they were really trying to make sure that we weren't going to backslide on funding. So if we can at least maintain in in lean years like we're expecting to at least maintain the levels that we are um sometimes zero is a hero as they say in financial >> I would just also like to add that you know obviously there's there are pros and cons to this um you know as we think about

095um obviously the commitment of the city um not to to go backward for um we know that the cost of living living rises year-over-year. We know that um you know um insurance premiums increase year-over-year. There's um a lot to be said of that. So even if we were to go into, for example, this next budget cycle with the bare minimum, we we already know we're we're walking in into a deficit. And so, um, there's still opportunity to really look at and and we we already have been talking to everyone we know possibly that we can talk to that influences budget one way, state or form from city level to state level. Um, but as we continue to move forward, that's something that we're still going to have to consider as we look into next year,

096understanding that these are going to be some lean years coming forward. We also need to be thinking about how we're going to make up the difference of of what we may not be able to see. Right. Very much moving right along. Receive uh for first collective bargaining resolution update. Mr. Camp. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I am [clears throat] thrilled to bring forward to you a revised set of updates to our collective bargaining resolution. The document before you reflects the agreements that the administration and our union partners struck last week. I want to recognize publicly our union partners for the hard work and diligence that they dedicated to this process. As I have shared, neither uh the unions nor the administration I think achieved everything that they had hoped, but that is the essence of

097compromise. And I do believe the draft that is before you will both serve our employees well, protect the school system financially and upholds uh both the spirit and the letter of collective bargaining here. A few notes. Uh some of the areas that were the most significant sticking points were actually solved by recommendations uh from our union partners. And I'll just highlight two of those for the board and for the public. One was the question of what should be the breadth of topics that are discussed during negotiations. Um and we had been discussing various categories um elements of categories and such. Uh one of our union partners recommended that we shift away from the notion of topics which can be quite expansive and um include a whole host of different items and and instead refocus our

098thinking around the notion of discrete proposals. Uh so for example, a topic could be wages and benefits which could have many different uh possible discussion items as distinct from a proposal which for example could be a 2% raise. Uh and so we settled on each side bringing forth 10 discrete specific proposals for consideration which would be exchanged 30 days in advance of negotiation which would give each side an opportunity to review those proposals and be prepared to discuss them. On our side it would enable us to do some cost modeling and therefore be able to start the negotiations. uh basically with a head start which helps us do things more efficiently which is one of our goals. So I'm grateful uh to our union partners for suggesting that I think it's one that strikes the

099right balance. Uh the second was how to resolve disputes uh when there are grievances and um they can't be settled after multiple steps. We had discussions about a third party panel mediation and so on. And again, one of our union partners recommended practice that they have found to be quite helpful. And that is a committee of four individuals. Two members uh from the union, two members from the administration who work to try to resolve the issue. If a majority can resolve it, it's resolved. And then if they can't, it goes to the board for final determination. um in our partners estimation about 90 plus percent of issues ended up getting solved that way which certainly something that we kind of aspire to and so again I think that was a very reasonable recommendation that serves

100all of our interests well and so we adopted it. Um, I know there has been some um change of heart since uh we reached that agreement and um uh that is unfortunate. But I I continue to respect and appreciate all of our union partners and invite them all to uphold the agreements that was struck last week and intend to bring this forth to you tomorrow night for a final. Thank you and I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you. Mr. F. >> Thank you. Mr. Camera, do you mind just briefly summarizing the number of meetings you had and roughly who was at the meeting just so people have a clear idea who was involved in negotiation. Thank you. Uh yes, um I have a document that outlines that and if you'll give me just

101a minute, I will I'll pull that up and share that. Word of the public. Um, I think we can safely There have been um uh roughly a dozen meetings uh over the course of the last couple of months um of various sorts. Um the unions had requested um for this most recent round that we met with them jointly which we were happy to do. Um all of our union partners except uh Luna chose to participate and so at nearly every conversation the teamsters and rea units and typically both were represented >> any other Miss Rizzy. >> Madam Chair, Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. this record. I know the question of access changed a lot and so I'm reading through the language now, but I didn't know if it was possible for you to briefly summarize where

102we've landed with that. >> Yep. where the current language is that no formal meetings uh would occur during school hours, but informal conversations um even if a uh union partner wanted to make themselves available in a lunchroom to answer questions and such. All fine and acceptable, but no formal meetings during >> and no permission is needed on behalf of the building administrator or >> they they we are advanced notice but not permission. >> They would follow the same rules as any other visitor. >> Mr. rehearsal. >> Um I would just like to add on there because I know there was some push back from the unions that is also the policy that we as board members follow. So it's not just a visitor's policy that we provide notice both to the superintendent and to the

103principal at the school before arriving at a school. >> Thank you so much. And you know, I know this has been um a very arduous process. Uh but I do appreciate the effort by both the administration, the unions. Um you know, when we made the decision to extend the time, uh we heard loud and clear um that uh some of the unions felt rushed. they needed to um digest the information and certainly wanted to give them the opportunity to reconvene and um discuss um what was outlined. Um I was very excited on was it Wednesday or Thursday? Um Wednesday to hear that um the most important uh thing that I was excited about was to hear that a lot of the new updates were inspired by the unions themselves. Um, and that was important to

104me to ensure that their voices were heard and that this document um really reflected um some of the things that they were extremely um passionate about. And so I really do appreciate everyone who has worked towards um the resolution. We know that um this document is not um as you said, you know, no one walks away uh feeling as though um they've gotten everything that they've wanted. Um but true collaboration is when um both sides can come together and really come to some type of consensus. And so, um, the biggest thing to take away from this is that collective bargaining process is protected and, um, we will continue to ensure that every worker has the opportunity to voice their concerns and be heard. Thank you. >> All right, moving right along to Sure. >> Thank

105you, Madam Chair. uh on page 16 and 17 of this document going to numbers five and six and then number two under C I know that this was some people were concerned that this would restrict freedom of speech so there was some additional language added Mr. cameras. Do you mind just summarizing again what what why is this language in here? What is it that we're trying to prevent that isn't already covered by, you know, existing policy? >> Yes, it's intended uh to prevent the types of organizing activities and other activities that if they were to occur during the regular day could be disruptive. And um have seen in one particular instance where that has occurred with one of our partners. Um fortunately I wish would not have to create rails for one case but that's

106the nature of these buckets. We added the language to be absolutely crystal clear. This is in absolutely no way on any of that. >> So just to clarify this new language and I'm speaking on about page 16 for the members of the public on page 16 numbers five and six and then page 17 number two. This is not really guidelines meant to police individuals, but to police collective action. So if one person is maybe complaining about something happening at work or having an animated discussion with a co-orker about workplace conditions, that's not what this language is meant for. Police. >> No. In fact, um uh we welcome folks sharing their feedback about the good, the bad, and the ugly as they always And this was not in any way. >> I'm actually glad you brought

107that up. I did have one clarifying question that was brought to me um prior um 16 number five interfere in the dayto-day operations of RPS or engage in behavior that negatively impacts the working conditions or environment of an RPS employee. um which shall in no way be construed as a restriction on an individual's constitutionally protected freedom of expression. Um I did receive uh some feedback that the wording uh for five was a was a little bit vague in terms of and there concern was raised as it relates to um uh concerns of retaliation. um when it says negatively impact work working working conditions um they felt that it was a little bit too broad. Can you kind of share some insight to the rationale behind that? >> Yeah and I also do want to note

108uh E5 on 16 is not about individual employee. It is about the exclusive representative. So it's not about an individual who is expressing their concern. It is about the exclusive representative as an entity causing a disruption that so I think that is the distinction. I'll give an example of where there was a situation with one of our partners where partner spent significant amounts of time um essentially organizing around uh certain grievances that they were having which then spilled over into the tour of duty which impacted the ability of those members to fully conduct that is what we're not in any way shape form talking about expressing concerns and again this is only about exclusive representative as this is not about >> thank you okay next up we have 3.05 5 receive for first read program

109of study. >> Good evening madam chair, vice chair, school board members and superintendent cameras. Uh I am here um as we normally do every year. We're going to do the first read of our program of studies which we need in order to start our process of doing master schedule for the upcoming school year. And so uh this will be the first read. We would hope for your approval in December so we can get started on this very important work. Candace Vinnie Chaplan, our manager of college and career pathways is here to do the presentation tonight. >> Good evening madam chair cameras board members uh thank you for having me here today. Thank you uh to present the program of studies. The program of studies uh is a document. It's actually two documents that outline all

110of the courses and programs within the secondary realm of Richmond public schools. The purpose of the program of studies is to put together all of the sole uh all of the approved courses as the sole sort of source of truth in terms of what those courses are for Richmond public schools. We use the program of study to develop master schedules across all schools. And all of those courses are created to have a pathway for every student to graduate from high school. There are a number of new courses that have been uh proposed and the administration is now proposing that we add these courses to the program of studies. Those courses include two secondyear international balorat courses. One is psychology and the other is environmental systems and societies. For these two courses, they already have their

111first year component and so this brings them to the second year in the diploma program. The next set of courses are in the mathematics area, algebra 1 part one and algebra 1 part two. The purpose of having a part one and part two is to provide a runway for students who may need additional time um deeper learning opportunities, remediation um and time to really understand math in its sequence um to be successful with algebra. This does not negate the fact that some students may choose to just simply take algebra 1. that course will still remain in the program of studies and that is an option for students as well. Algebra 1 foundations to support our students who need uh help and time with retesting for the algebra so then we have the geometry series part

112one and part two similar to the algebra one part one and part two again students do have the option of doing geometry as a standalone course as well additionally we have some courses in the CTE realm medication aid, principles of technology 1 and two, patient care technician. Um, there is also a proposal for the Latin American and Caribbean ethnic studies course to be reflective of our very uh diverse students and make sure that there is uh isn't a gap in representation for students of seeing uh the world from their point of view. Those were all of the courses that would be added. The course that would be removed is intensified algebra. That course really uh falls along the same lines as that algebra 1 part one part two sequence. What we have found is that

113the course itself um has had consistently low participation um and the it has not been implemented with fidelity or consistency. Some other things of note, uh we have three courses that the VDOE has updated course codes for. Those courses still exist uh but their course code will change from what we have had previously. Those courses are AP seminar, AP research and IB environmental systems. Uh and the DOE has put together nurse aid one and nurse aid 2 to simply be a nurse aid class. So those are some additional differences that are um in that program of studies. And then our final slide has our list of locally developed courses. Um it's structured in terms of our general courses, ESL courses, and applied studies courses. These are courses that the board has previously approved in the

1142019 2020 year and 2020 2021 year and we ask that you readt the locally developed courses. Questions? Miss Rizzie, >> thank you Miss Vinnie Chaplain for this. Um, I have just one specific question about the Latin American course. Um, who is developing that curriculum? >> Uh, so curriculum is developed under our curriculum and instruction department. Uh, the course was first proposed by a group from Hugenot High School. Um and did you want to add anything about that other than it it will come from curriculum and instruction? >> Right. And and they follow and they of course will be consulting um appropriate resources and perhaps courses that exist elsewhere as a model >> and I can tell you Dr. him is very very excited about it and we also will be one of the first districts

115not the first but one of the first actually adopt it. Um and so there are some um resources that VDOE already provides. Um and so as she stated we will have some curriculum architects as long as well as our curriculum specialists to work on the curriculum. Yes. So it'll be sound. >> Thank you >> Mr. HP. >> Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for for continuing to make our curriculum represent our scholars so they can see themselves in their learning. And my other comment is that u because we have the 4x4 in in high school and of course we know we have um you know a whole semester we've talked about this before where where the students might not be taking a math. I think it's really uh smart to to break this up for

116our scholars who need a bit more scaffolding and support who need to be exposed to uh math on a regular basis all year long and not just one semester each year. So I just wanted to say thank you for for this thoughtful work. So appreciate it. Can I also add that we will still have the same amount of rigor and we actually work with VDOE to come up with the guard rails in terms of like what are the qualifications for someone who should take algebra one part one and part two because again we want to make sure that scholars are successful on put them on algebra one and they not pass and so we work with VDOE and we have some clear guard rails for that. So, we're going to continue to move forward and

117it'll probably be a very small percentage of our our scholars that fall into that category. >> Miss record. >> Um, the prior high school I was at did an algebra one two and a geometry one too and it was really helpful for that group of students passing their so I'm glad we are also moving ahead with that. Thank you, Mr. reversible. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for all this. Just a quick question on the intensified algebra. I understand we had low enrollment in that. Do we have any context uh within the Commonwealth? Are other districts doing intensified algebra? Are they getting higher enrollment or where do we where do we fit into that? >> Um I don't have any data that's available for that right this moment, but we can certainly bring that

118to curriculum and instruction to provide additional information. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have receive an update on legislative priorities. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, the camera, schoolboard members. I'm Matthew Stanley, the director of advocacy and outreach, here to do a review of our plan 2026 legislative priorities. I just saw a typo. Um, so, uh, over the past several of months, uh, you all have been, um, very vocal, quite candidly, about what you believe are some of our state legislative priorities priorities going into the next legislative session. Um it's been incredibly helpful to make sure that we're preparing a list of legislative priorities that reflect uh not just the uh things that you believe the school division needs, but the things that we're also hearing from

119our students, our families, our staff members. Uh so tonight, we are very happy to present to you uh some large legislative priorities and get into the nitty-gritty about what some of those policy proposals will be that we will be asking the 2026 General Assembly to consider. Um first up, we're going to start with school construction and modernization. Um we've had many discussions in recent months about school facilities and the resource needs that we have as a division. Um so this is going to be front and center on our legislative priorities for the coming year. Uh first and foremost we are hoping the general assembly will renew the Virginia Commission on School Construction and Modernization. Um if you recall that commission was uh created in 2020 based on legislation that we asked Senator then Senator Mlelen

120to introduce for us. Um, and it is through that commission that the school division has received tens of millions of dollars in state support through the school construction assistance program, which was created out of one of their recommendations. Uh, we're hoping that that commission has further life in it for the next five years, and that they will be continue continually able to recommend uh further policies to the general assembly, further uh funding uh further cost savings opportunities. says, uh, you know, we talked about tonight, I've heard it referenced, there's 134 school divisions in Virginia who are doing school construction maybe 134 different ways. So, are there further cost savings the general assembly can help us with with creating better economies of scale? Looking at our public procurement laws, seeing if there is any streamlining to

121be had that could save a few more dollars and help us build a few more schools. Um, next we have uh let voters fund modern facilities. Um, over the last couple of years, there has been legislation to allow localities to uh propose a referendum to their locality to authorize a 1% additional sales tax that would go specifically towards school construction. Uh, over the last couple of sessions, that legislation has unfortunately been vetoed by the governor. Um, this year, we are very hopeful that we will be able to see that legislation pass. Um, and then that would be up to our city council to uh to put that up for a referendum to our voters. Um and then finally, one of the really uh really impactful strategies that the school construction commission recommended was in 20122

122they provided about $500 million in per pupil grants to school divisions across the state. So every single school division benefited from that immediate financial assistance from the state to especially support with deferred maintenance um any specific like priorities that were needed at that point in time. So uh we know that we're going into potentially another tough budget year for the general assembly. Um we know that there is going to be a very uh significant increase in the state Medicaid forecast. Um we're doing rebenchmarking for K12 public schools. We're starting to see some of those numbers come out. There going to be a lot of recurring expenses. That is a one-time expense that we are hopeful that the general assembly would favorably consider knowing that it might be a leaner budget year. Um, priority two gets

123into our K12 funding formula and the very first item there is implementing the rest of the JARK recommendations. Um, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which is the state's bipartisan research entity. In 2023, uh, their study found that Virginia was underfunding K12 education by over $3 billion annually. Um, over the last couple of years, they have started to put, uh, in place some of the recommendations that JARK had provided to the state. Um, we saw the support staff cap removed this year. We have seen uh proficiency based ratios go into place for multilingual students. Um, there's no new special education student add-on. Um, some wonderful things that they have done, but the very biggest thing that they have not done is they have not provided the full infusion of resources into our system to

124bring us up to where the rest of our kind of border and similar states are in regards to education funding. There's still um a bit that they need to do. And one of the ways they can do that is by moving to a student-based funding formula. Um, I'm very happy to share that I was just reviewing the state board of education's uh meeting materials for this week and noted that uh in their materials they are also asking the general assembly to implement the studentbased funding formula. Uh every two years the state board of education is required by the constitution of Virginia to prescribe the standards of quality um which can then either be modified by the general assembly um but it is what the board of education says is what is supposed to be in

125place. What often happens the general assembly may not fund the new standards of quality that the board sets. So uh whether they actually are in place or not is debatable. Uh but to see our state board of education also continuing to advocate for that student-based funding formula um I think continues to show that uh we are moving in the right direction. There is a great consensus around advocacy for that student-based funding formula um and seeing that as one of the most impactful levers that the board of education also believes can help support Virginia schools. Um next we have reforming the local composite index. That was one of the recommendations from JARK is to look at that formula and look at how we can uh hopefully prevent any wild swings and how much funding we do

126receive from the state every year. Um in the last two biania when the LCI numbers came out realized oh don't know we're going to be starting about $10 million less than what we thought and that's that was a ballpark. Um, so one of the recommendations was to instead of uh that LCI being driven based off of whatever the most recent single year of data was, it would make it an average of the last three years of data, which would smooth any increases that we receive and would also most importantly smooth any declines that we would see in our state funding. So instead of a potential $10 million $10 million less in funding, it might only be four or$5 million less in funding. I know nobody wants to talk about that many millions of dollars and

127less funding. Uh but that could really potentially be a um a big safety net for us in the case that our LCI continues to go up. Um there are other things that they that they can look at with the LCI including other uh formulas to look at uh fiscal health of a locality like the fiscal stress index. We actively encourage the general assembly to be continuing to uh investigate those other indexes as well and see if there is perhaps an even better formula than the LCI. And then finally um increasing the payment in lie of taxes. Um as you all know many of the Virginia or we do not receive uh tax revenue for any of the stateowned properties in the city limits. Um and of course we have the seat of state government here

128which does make Richmond quite unique when it comes to localities in Virginia. Um as I I believe it was Mr. Percal you shared at a recent meeting uh we currently receive only a few million dollars a year in a pilot payment as compared to the total value of all of that taxes and property if we were to receive tax revenue for that would be over hund00 million a year. So we do believe that there is room for negotiation with the general assembly and looking at whether we believe that pilot is fair. We don't and seeing if there might be room for some compromise. Um, and then our third big priority is strengthening our student mental health supports. Um, we continue to hear from our students and our families that our kids are struggling and we

129want to make sure that we're doing the best job that we can by supporting them with their mental health needs uh while they're here with us. Uh, there are a few ways that we can do that. Um, there are the inschool supports that we have. Um, we think of our specialized support staff, our psychologists, our behavior analysts, our school nurses. Um, they are really a front line at supporting our kids. Um, and right now we receive uh, I believe three of those positions for every 1,000 students we have. Um, this was a ratio that Senator Mlen, then Senator Mlelen, um, got put into state code and the state budget and we've, uh, been able to expand the number of those positions in our schools. Uh, we would love to continue to invest in those uh,

130those staff and so we're hoping the general assembly will consider continuing to increase that ratio. uh continuing to look at our teleaalth expansion, Medicaid alignment. Um making sure that we are able to build Medicaid for uh services and be able to receive some of that reimbursement. Um and looking at the teleaalth services that we have started to put in place. I know our wellness team has been working on those this last year and we're looking forward to continued expansion of those. So we welcome any additional state support and resources. And then finally, uh continuing to really leverage the community based providers that we have in our city. Um we have wonderful partnerships with RBHA and child savers and we would love to be able to continue to expand those partnerships to serve more schools and

131more students. Um but we do know do know that those can be quite costly. So we are looking at the state to consider whether there could be any other competitive grants to help us scale up programs such as those. And then we do have a couple additional legislative priorities. Um these are ongoing items that are really of significant importance to the division. Um, first is supporting our economically disadvantaged students. Um, right now we receive a a pool of funding called the atrisisk add-on program. Uh, we have had great success over the last seven or eight years uh making that uh at risk add-on program uh a much greater add-on. Um, we know from research that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds need approximately 40 to 50% more funding per student to have similar outcomes as kids

132in a uh in a uh uh a more affluent uh locality. Um, right now we're at I believe 39% is what the maximum state add-on is. We increased that from around 16% uh back when I started. So, I believe that we've got a little more room to go with continuing to make sure that the average add-on program is equitably funded. Um, and then uh moving on, increasing teacher and staff compensation to the national average. Um, I know that that uh we continue to have some salary increases here in Virginia, but as we move up, the rest of the country is moving up and we're still lagging behind that national average teacher salary. So we continue to encourage general assembly to increase teacher and support staff salaries as well as providing maximum flexibility to school divisions

133to implement those. Um so there's often requirements for matching funds. Um those can be waved. That's always nice. That releases a little bit of a burden on us. Um as well as with the timing of those sometimes general assembly will put specific timing in place for when things are supposed to happen by and giving us more flexibility of that timing can also be very helpful. uh out of schooltime partners. We very much continue to uh support funding for out of schooltime partner organizations. Um some of them do receive direct appropriations in the state budget to support their work. Um so we of course support that. And then finally increasing access to early childhood education. Uh we spoke a little bit briefly about uh the need for more early childhood education especially in Southside. So looking

134at uh continuing to fully fund the Virginia Pre preschool initiative for the general assembly to will continue fully funding the childcare subsidy program. Um these are all things that continue to provide uh greater access and greater affordability for our families. Um so those are the legislative priorities that we plan to take to the legislature this year and then just a little bit of a preview of the months ahead. Um right now we are in November and we are trying to uh get a few of our legislators into our school. It is take your legislator to school month. Um, I know it is a very busy time for them, but we have been talking to their offices and trying to get some visits set up. They might happen in December, but we're going to have the

135spirit of that take your legislator to school month. We're going to make it take your legislator to school all year round. Um, and then [laughter] and then later this month, uh, the new local composite index data will be released. So, we will know what our starting point is for the budget next year. Um, so I know you all be waiting for that. Very excited. Um hopefully good news. Uh December is uh the first legislative drafting deadline. Um that is when uh legislators have to put in their requests for any legislation that they want to introduce during the session. Uh they have a little bit of buffer on that. They can continue to have things drafted later, but there is a really important deadline at the very beginning of December. Um so if there are any

136other pieces of legislative legislative ideas that are out there, um it is really important to get those to your legislators right now. Um, we're going to be facilitating a regional town hall with the League of Women Voters as our moderator. Uh, we did this last year and myself and the legislative directors for Henriiko County Public Schools and Trustville County Schools, we all hopped on a Zoom and had the League of Women Voters moderate us to talk about uh, areas where all of our school divisions feel very strongly about advocacy priorities. So, we talked about mental health. We talked about the JARK recommendations. Um, and we're really excited to do that again and just leaning into that regional collaboration. Um, we will also see the bienial budget released by Governor Yncan. This will be, of course,

137his last budget. Um, it is a full two-year budget that he will be introducing. Um, knowing that we have a Democratic General Assembly that will be uh in place in January, we do expect them to do a lot of uh work on that budget. Um, so I don't know that what we see the governor introduce in December will uh bear a lot on what the final outcome of the session will be. Um, but nonetheless, that will be a really important marker because that will allow us to draft budget amendments in collaboration with our legislators um that will maybe do some of those budget related things that we've talked about. Um, in January the session begins and we are planning a lot of wonderful advocacy opportunities. Um, really excited for wonderful collaboration with the Richmond Education

138Association. Say hi, Emma. Emma is with the REA and has been meeting with me to plan out some wonderful uh collaborative advocacy activities. Um I'm not going to spill all the secrets right now, but we've got some fun stuff planned. Um including training specifically for our teachers um making sure that those are at a time which will be accessible for them. Um and then in February, we on February 2nd, we have we'll have our RPS lobby day, our advocacy day. We have room for about a hundred folks mainly from our advisory councils. um to be able to go down to the leg to the general assembly uh visit with legislators in small groups, be introduced on the floor of the general assembly. Um we take that opportunity to bring along a lot of our students

139and make sure they have great opportunities to talk to our legislators about these issues of great importance and their perspective on them. Um and then on President's Day, the VA will have their annual lobby day, their advocacy day. Um it's a really important day for everybody to come out. There will be a big rally on Capitol Square and when the legislators are inside their chambers and they hear all that yelling and all that screaming out on the lawn, they love it. Um, it's it's it's a really important day to come out and show our force in great numbers. Um, and then shortly after that, the House and the Senate budget proposals will be released and we will know a little bit more about what direction the General Assembly is heading with what will be in

140their final conference budget that they will adopt at the very end of session. This is a longear session so it will go until about mid-Marchch. Um and then there will be a reconvene session um in April about 45 days after that. Um so we will be sharing a number of other updates with you all over the coming month. Uh details on the town halls that we're scheduling, the trainings that we're planning with the REA, some of those other fun events that are are in in the kitchen right now getting cooked up. Um so I'm really excited for this year ahead. I think we have a wonderful opportunity to continue to make some real difference in policy and funding for for Richmond but also for school divisions around the state. Um so welcome any questions that

141before we do any questions. Thank you for your presentation. We did just um reenact the legislative committee. So, I just wanted to yield the floor to Miss Ricard if she wanted to give an update on our the meeting um or add anything to what has already been shared. >> Thank you. Uh I just want to say Mr. Stanley, you did a great job and I think one thing we really talked about is how we through town halls can really educate our community on how to advocate, make it really simple for them, walk them through it. Um and also just continuing to work with council and all our legislative partners to make sure that they know our message and that we're all together. Um, but you do such a wonderful job. I also want to thank

142Mr. Stanley. He emailed us language um to um allow us to volunteer ourselves and reach out if the governor, incoming governor, needs any of any school board members on her transition teams or education teams. I just really appreciate you jumping right on that. Um there are a few that have expressed interest and I'm excited for that. Um so hopefully we can get someone from RPS in there. >> Thank you. Any questions? Mr. Buu sorry Mr. Jafari. >> Thanks Madam Chair. Just want to echo sentiments. really appreciate the insight and the informed way that you handle all of the information and you break it down and get it to us and the way you stepped through that document like that bit by bit, but I know you you you gave it to us like that, but

143I know that it didn't come to you like that. You had to actually sit there and absorb it. So again, I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Jafar. Yeah, these are big policy topics and um I know it doesn't all make sense at first uh but we are trying to break it down and make it super easy for everyone to understand. Um so any tips that you all have for us to continue to share this information um and a helpful and easy way to digest, I I welcome that feedback. >> Thank you, Miss Rizzie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And as always, thank you so much, Mr. Stanley for this um really great report um that involves some or you know includes some really important um advocacy points. Um my question

144is you know the LCI has been pretty like controversial topic for many years. Um, and you know, Richmond is unique in the fact that even though our coffers may look like they're growing, we have a disproportionately disproportionate number of students who live in poverty. Um and so we have a unique situation that it seems the state doesn't want to like necessarily uh talk about or like look at us as a individual kind of case study of like what can happen when this LCI um is applied across the board without consideration for the circumstances of each district. Um my question is um do we have city support with that advocacy? Are are city partners willing to go to bat for that um recommendation and discussion? And then the same with the taxexempt properties, right? We have

145a lot of highv value tax exempt properties in this city. um one of my my employer is probably the main [laughter] you know but you know we won't talk about that necessarily as specifically but um I mean there's some really really high value um taxfree properties in this city and that is another thing that we don't talk a lot about and it's kind of controversial when you bring it up but I'm also curious about what our city partners think of that. >> Yes ma'am. Um yeah, thank you for the comments, Miss Rizzie. Uh first of all, the local capacit index does not take poverty into account formula. Um and I think that that is something that time and a time again we point that out and say that maybe this isn't the right formula. Um

146we know that Richmond has very unique stressors on its budget that other localities don't have. One locality that shares a LCI that is remarkably close to ours is the county of Lden, which some may know that is one of the most affluent counties in the entire country. So to say that we have a similar ability to pay for education as compared to Lowden County, that doesn't sit right. Um so there there is that aspect of the LCI not taking into account concentrated poverty. We do have the city support with alternatives very very much so. At a minimum, we are hoping for moving to that three-year average to buffer any losses that we might see from continually increasing LCI. There is also the fiscal stress index. When we look at that index, we see that Richmond

147is very fiscally stressed. So moving perhaps to a hybrid formula or or a formula that maybe leans more on the fiscal stress index is something that would probably benefit Richmond substantially because it would actually take into account all of the stresses that are on our local government revenues. We're at our tax ceiling right now. We can't tax our residents more. Um so we're just in a very different place than a county like LA. >> And was there the taxes and properties? Um I included we included an item on our legislative priorities this time regarding there we go. Uh the third item increase the payment in lie of taxes. Um this would help address that topic specifically. Um it is on the city's legislative agenda as well. Um however we are we do try to be

148realist and make sure that we understand what we think is going to be possible or not. We are hoping that this is the start of that conversation. We are not necessarily expecting that there is going to be a major change to the pilot this year, but we are aligned with the city and saying that look, this is something else that we do need to address. Can we at least start having that conversation? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Stanley. This is a really great report. Um, I u I want to echo in what you said. I appreciate it very much that that the tax burden that our citizens of the city are are bearing is significant uh and more a lot more than our our neighbors and a lot more than a lot

149of people can actually afford to pay. Um the the the rate but plus also all of the assessments continue to go up is pricing people out. Um, renters are having trouble too because they're having to make up the landlords are making up that difference and the tax bills and the rent that they're charging which affects all of our families. And so I think this is the best bang for our buck, right? This is the city. We've discussed that we're we are tapped, right? We we are the city is very great very very gracious and very generous and I appreciate that and we'll always say thank you for that. And um but but I but the state really is where we can get more more funding and and if the if if our I appreciate you

150mentioning the partners re regional partners getting together and talking about uh the shared priorities. If we can continue to elevate that conversation that that the state all state public schools will benefit from revisiting the funding formula, right? Like that is not just something that's specific to Richmond. And so I just applaud this work very much and want to help as much as I can. Thanks. >> Thank you. Um I'd also like to add, you know, when we uh were meeting with the city of Richmond for um the budget formula, we talked in great length about JARK. We talked in great length about the LCI. Um, as we are talking to delegates, as we are talking to other partners, we are having those same conversations. Um, there's this level of consistency that we've been able to

151draw this conversation um to more ears than what we may have had before. um you know starting out with the co the the the meeting that we had um at Mayount with the city um and then having the delegation meeting um with the delegation in the Senate then you know us coming together and I'd like to give an honorable um mention to Dr. Harris Muhammad who co-chairs the legislative committee with Miss Ricard um and a lot of the conversation is about having the same language and um talking about the same things and so I think we have definitely hit the ground running um if this is the opport this is the opportunity to do it this is the time to do it and I'm really excited about the work that's already been underway um I

152echo my sentiments of my um colleagues Matthew Mr. Stanley. I mean, he is a I'm like when we were talking in the meeting and he's just going going going. I don't think he even took a breath. Um just the passion you can just it exudes from every time you do a presentation. So, thank you so much for the continued work. I think we've all established that while the city is um uh very much wanting to continue to support the efforts for RPS um we've established that we have to go outside of those um those walls and you know it it definitely will one minute >> be um approach where we have to go to the state as well as other localities that was established a while ago. And so I just appreciate all the work

153that has been done done up until this point and I cannot wait to see what comes of it because I do believe that we will group we will reap the benefits of all the work that we put into this process. So thank you >> and uh I've almost forgot. I have one final thing that's super super important that is a really big shout out and thank you to Mr. Hatchpath for the wonderful oped that he had published in the Richmond Times Dispatch this last week. Thank you for your advocacy Mr. Hatchpath. That was well done. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> All right. We don't have any updated policy committee recommendations. However, we will be voting tomorrow on quite a few. And so if you have not had a chance since last month to

154take a look at the recommendations, please make sure that you uh give any feedback or insight prior to tomorrow's meeting because we will be voting on quite a few very important policies. Moving right along to 3.08, receive for first read contracts over a 100,000. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We have one for kitchen equipment repair and maintenance. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. >> Thank you. Last but certainly not least, we have received an update on literacy plan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uploaded to board docs is our bianual division literacy plan which has been approved by the Virginia Department of Education. Uh it is just like our plan from last year with the exception that we have added more at the middle school level per the requirements

155of the Virginia Literacy Act and some additional requirements at the upper grades in elementary as well. Um we are thrilled with the progress that we're making on this front and are excited to continue forth as laid out in the plan and happy to take any questions. Any questions about the literacy plan? All right. Who has closed? I move that the school board of the city of Richmond convene in close session. to discuss and consider a part two grievance appeal of personnel matter number 2025-05 involving the performance and possible discipline of employees and to discuss with legal counsel regarding the same matter as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711 -3711 A1 and A8. Number two, to discuss the performance of central office employees and officers and appointees related to federal grant and to discuss with legal counsel

156regarding the operation related to federal grant as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3 2 -3 711 A1 and A88 3 to discuss the hiring of a central office employee is authorized by Virginia code 2.2-371181 and that concludes it's been moved by Miss Burke and seconded by Mr. Jafari. Madame clerk >> Mr. PL >> yes >> Miss Ricard >> yes >> Mr. Farooq. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hedgepath. >> Yes. >> Miss Rizzy, Dr. Harris, Muhammad, Miss Berg, Mr. Jabari, Miss Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. We are now in close. If colleagues, if we can transition to conference room.